A hypothesis to investigate isn’t a bad idea, that’s the scientific method. Staying married to it at all costs is a major problem.

I just read Framed by John Grisham and Jim McCloskey…and it’s insane how far the police and prosecution will go to “save face”.

There’s one story in that book where the actual murderer came in to the police station AND CONFESSED with details that only he could have known, because he felt guilty about the wrong person being tried for the murder…and prosecution continued on the innocent person, while the actual murderer was ignored.

It’s an enraging read. I actually had to put it down a few times, because I was so frustrated.

And, of course, as bad as it is that these innocent people are being prosecuted (and some even executed), another problem is that the actual murderer is still roaming free…and many of these crimes are now unsolved, because the police were so focused on the innocent person that they ignored everything else.

I laughed the first time I heard a MAGAt talking about how bad Biden was at speaking. I seriously thought they were joking, because Trump’s word salad is far worse than any stutter Biden ever uttered.

…they were not joking. They seriously believe Trump is some great orator.

Same here. I put two in the lights on our porch, and they’ve worked great for at least 2 years now. And we get high and low temperatures here.

I mean, that seems empathic to me - you are relating to her (potential) feelings.

I don’t see why what he’s trying to do would be a server change. Seems like a client only change to be able to log into two servers and see the libraries together. Am I missing something?

I can see the issues you’re describing if you were trying to replicate one server to another, though.

Good luck!

Well how did it go?

Nah, it has to be money. No way something like that would ruin Trump at this point.

It should come out of Trump, Musk, and Vought’s money.

Remember being told not to believe everything you read? Remember being told to be skeptical of what you read in the media?

I definitely was. The people that told me that almost certainly voted Trump though. (They’re not nut job supporters, but lifelong R’s.)

I have two thoughts on the pellet level - both measuring from the top. I have a few OpenGarage devices and a SaltSentry. Both essentially do the same thing, measure the distance between the sensor and the next object it encounters, but they are different methods - the SaltSentry uses a time of flight sensor, and from what I can tell from the pictures, it’s just that small little thing at the point of the device. The OpenGarage uses a larger ultrasonic sensor.

Look how small and cheap those time of flight sensors are on a small breadboard (I literally just found those). Mount that on the underside of the top of the hopper, run some wires to an esp32 or similar, config it, and boom, I think.

Our detached garage has a propane furnace (one of those that hangs in the corner of the room). I just recently put a Shelly 1 into the thermostat circuit to control it, then I tried to attach a temperature sensor to it, so it can act as a thermostat…then I found that you need the Shelly Add-on to actually attach a sensor to it… So I got the Shelly Plus Add-On…but that’s for a later generation of Shelly 1 than I currently have…so my next purchase will be a newer generation Shelly 1 to replace the Shelly 1 I already…yeah, this has been a frustrating experience. And I’m not a huge fan of Shelly after they took an order and my money and never delivered the product in 2023. So, if I buy Shelly, it’s only via Amazon now.

We should start a “home automation pellet stove” community, now that there are at least two of us.

Mine has all electronic controls. I use a power monitoring plug to detect if it’s running and turn on a nearby ceiling fan if so. It also counts how long it has been running to let me know when to clean it (~150 hours of run time). I have a Shelly 1 connected to the thermostat wires, and a temperature sensor elsewhere the room tied together in HA to make a thermostat to control the stove. I have a fairly complex script that sets the pellet stove’s temperature based on various factors like time of day, outdoor temperature, etc. If the thermostat doesn’t call for heat for half an hour, the pellet stove automatically shuts down and will restart if heat is called for (this functionality is built into the stove).

I’d like to monitor the level of pellets, and I’d like to have control of the level - it can run on levels 1-5, controlled by a push button. I normally keep it on 2, but on a really cold morning, jacking it up to 4 or 5 would be helpful - and make it even more critical I monitor the level of pellets.

I won’t take glee in it, but I will take a stance of, “This is what this country voted for.”

I say, bring on the tariffs, too. Yep, it’s going to suck for a lot of people. But that’s apparently the only way anyone is going to learn. Not Trump fans; I don’t expect them to learn a damn thing, as a group. But the rest of the country will hopefully learn why voting for Trump was a bad idea and maaaaaybe give a bit more thought to the next election, assuming there is one.

Hmmm that is really odd. Since I addressed the interference issue, the only major issue I’ve had with any Aqara device (including door sensors, temperature sensors, one vibration sensor, one water presence sensor, and a few wall switches) is the vibration sensor, which I damaged the battery cover, so it doesn’t close properly and keep the battery in place correctly. So that one is my fault. I have had a door sensor and water presence sensor drop off the network occasionally, but that’s rare.

Heck I even have a second network set up in my RV (sensors only) and it seems to be reliable as well. But the metal shell keeps much of the signal contained, I’m sure.

I wonder if there’s something else in your area that’s interfering with it.

What am I supposed to do?

Yeah it sucks for everyone affected, but I voted against the idiot that wanted to do it. However, quite a few others voted for him - against their own interests - and won’t listen to reason. Medicaid is usually considered part of that “third rail” of politics - touch it and you get electrocuted politically, but here we are.

I would like to hear what you think we should do.

I just ordered one of those MHCOZY relays, hoping to use it in my RV to control the furnace (via the thermostat connection). Glad to hear they are reliable!

Either that, or you have wifi interference.

I had all kinds of issues with my zigbee network until I switched my wifi to use channels 1 and 6, and Zigbee to use 24 or something like that. Since then, it has been rock solid.

I can confirm their light switches and door/window sensors work as well.

The fan just turns on low when the pellet stove is running, nothing so fancy as changing the speeds based on the stove setting. But that could be accomplished indirectly by just looking at the temperature in the area - if it’s a few degrees higher than, say, the living room, turn up the fan speed.

In an ideal world I’d be able to control the setting on the stove remotely - there’s a button to change the setting, which a switchbot could theoretically do. Of course to do that reliably, HA should know what the current setting is. I haven’t really looked into this much.

But, yeah, I do wish I had a way to track the pellet level to alert me when it’s getting low. I have a Salt Sentry to monitor the salt in the water softener, with a gauge in HA, and it warns me when it’s getting low. Which is great (when it works, sometimes it stops responding). I’m not sure if it would work as well for the pellets - the pellets would be right up against the sensor when it’s full. Another option might be a weight sensor under a leg - I have no idea if this is even feasible, but if is, it should be able to detect the 40 lbs change (noting that there’s some ash left in the stove, so the 40 lbs doesn’t completely disappear).

I use the power monitoring plug for a lamp in the living room that is dumb, but it has a 433 mhz remote. The power monitoring detects whether it is on or not. I have one of those Sonoff 433 mhz transmitters, so with the power monitoring plug I can control the light. This also means it can be part of my “vacation” mode where it perhaps turns on at some point in the evening, then turns back off. Also, it turns on when first connected to power, so I can do an automation that sends the “off” command at night if the house is in Vacation mode and the light is on.

I don’t really have it set up yet, but in theory the power monitoring plugs could warn me if the freezer stops working (or is running constantly), the sump pump stops working, etc. I have the power monitoring in place, but not the automations to detect issues.