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Spot the four leaf clover

Our composer is infested with that otherwise beautifully looking green metallic beetle’s larvae. I need to use the compost now. Are the larvae pest (kill) or harmless (move elsewhere)? Never mind, our daughter came to see what the fuss is about, and “kill” is no longer an option. She is supervising the moving now, but…

Chopping tree pruning into wood chips to be used as mulch in the garden, much greener than burning.

Thermostat GUI update (https://harizanov.com/2020/01/meet-the-ps-thermo) #LVGL #esp32 #iot

Had to move a wireless outdoor temperature sensor I designed ages ago, noticed a memo inside I left for the future self with last battery change date. Still sending readings every minute since May 2018, thats 4 years and 9 months on couple AAs and still going strong. #IoT #rfm69

Passed the 1 MWh solar production milestone for 2023 today. Not bad. My setup is described in this blog post: https://harizanov.com/2023/01/rooftop-pv-installation/

Preparing to unleash the dark side as Darth Vader in “Attack of the pollens: Season 48”. The epic battle against the rebel alliance of allergens will rage on in our backyard this spring. #MayTheForceBeWithMe

Interesting paper on "Degradation of Commercial Lithium-Ion Cells as a Function of Chemistry and Cycling Conditions" here: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1149/1945-7111/abae37/pdf; Three degradation factors are explored: 1) Temperature, 2) DoD and 3) Discharge rate. (1/2) I specifically care about LiFePo4 (LFP) chemistry, because our solar system's BYD battery is such. Strange to see that a 100% DoD doesn't…

Our solar system’s battery app (BYD HVS 7.7kWh) says its BMU needs an update. No release notes or details on what’s being fixed. Feeling brave and proceeding with the update anyway, WCGW

Upgraded our caffeination hardware to better enhance our cognitive functioning on early mornings. Latte art skills remain at near non-existent level with no tendency of improvement.

The VW ID3 facelift was just announced, but it still doesn’t add backlight illumination to the hardware climate control buttons.. what are they thinking?? I refuse to consider buying a 45K+ EUR car that has me guessing what am I pressing in the dark.

Bing’s AI says our Tic Tac Toe game is a tie, I am confused?

Can’t believe I just installed Microsoft’s Bing. Planning on using its AI chat/search. Is the search engines war reset?

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16°C outside temperature right now

Does anyone know where can one buy a battery like this in the EU? It is a 3.7V Li-ion 14650 1100-1500mAh with welding pads.

Wife is complaining that the washing machine is performing an over the air firmware update, and cannot be used the next few minutes. She is not impressed. We live in interesting times.. #IoT

A fire-starter, extracted from a UPS

#Solar production at winter solstice exceeds my expectations, a whopping 19.5kWh given it was hazy 10-11am. This is out of a 6.4kWp PV installation in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Test drove the new all electric Renault Megane e-tech today. I like it better than the VW ID3. Overall an impressive EV, but needs some “getting used to”.

This guy showed up, and solar production dropped to zero last couple days. My panels aren’t easily accessible (rooftop) so that I could remove the snow. Enjoying the winter anyway, forecast is that snow will melt in a day or two.

The solar cell is effectively a diode, running current through it causes it to heat. Wondering why isn't this effect used by inverters to de-snow panels in the winter? #solar

Node-Red dashboard to control the BYD PV storage battery behavior over Modbus TCP. Storm is coming and power failure is likely? No problem, force-charge the battery, including from grid, and put it on hold for emergency power backup purposes. Neat 🙂

I didn’t realize location tracking and precise location were enabled by default in Twitter app, turning both off and feeling bad about this privacy invasion going on unnoticed for so long by me

Now that the BYD battery is here, I finished the automatic switchover box. It physically disconnects the house from the grid and instructs the inverter to start in island mode. Upon grid availability again, the inverter monitors its stability and switches back to grid-tie mode. First time building such a distribution box, I realize the…

Impressive PV production today considering it is November. Managed to squeeze out 25kWh or 86% of our consumption today is self-generated.

@MZapryanov Made this Excel calculation around the guaranteed 23.1 MWh throughput vs different DoDs, it seems the golden spot is between 60-80% for the desired longevity, without exceeding reasonable lifetime expectations. I hold no hope the battery will last 16 years 🙂 (2/2) @MZapryanov A good takeaway from the diagram you posted is that the…