Upgrading some Ender 3 Pro hardware

For Part 3 of my latest round of upgrades to kick off 2024, I also made some hardware changes to my Ender 3 Pro 3D printer for the first time since getting it back in 2021: installed a new mainboard installed the CR Touch automatic bed levelling sensor installed a new metal extruder assembly replaced …

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Upgrading to Bullseye on the Raspberry Pi 4

My two Raspberry Pi 4 Bs (in my HomeTroller Pi and OctoPi) were both running Debian 10 (Buster). I like to be current (as evidenced by my bi-annual Ubuntu upgrades) and realized I’d been lax on the RasPis, both of which were two releases behind. Debian 12 (Bookworm) seemed a little too new, so based on some …

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Upgrading the HomeSeer/HomeTroller hardware

My 1st gen HomeSeer HomeTroller Pi was built on a Raspberry Pi 3 B with 1gb of RAM. While this was fine back when I bought it and was just starting my home security and automation re-design and foray into using HS4, recently I’d been having issues with performance and out-of-memory conditions. In 2021 when …

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Manipulating the Mantic Minotaur

Overnight temps here in Florida are dipping into the upper 60s which must mean it’s late October and fall is here! 🙂 Let’s check in with my bi-annual sports and Linux updates! After starting out the 2023 season red hot with a 13-game win streak (tying the record in the modern era), the Rays’ October …

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Landing on the Lunar Lobster

Gazing up at the late-April night sky … look, it’s the Lunar Lobster! That’s right, it’s time for the annual spring sports update and Ubuntu upgrade! the Rays started off red-hot, tying the 1987 Milwaukee Brewers and 1982 Atlanta Braves for the longest win streak to start a season with 13; they’ve also set records …

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Goodbye LastPass, hello Vault(Bit)warden

Unless you’re not interested in tech news or have been under a rock for the past two weeks, you’ve probably heard about the latest LastPass breach debacle. Two days before Christmas, every LastPass customer like myself received an e-mail informing us that, in a nutshell, back in August 2022 an unauthorized third-party had acquired LastPass …

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Keeping the Kinetic Kudu

The calendar shows October which means it’s about that time for my fall sports update and an Ubuntu upgrade! In their first season (after a late start due to the lockout) as the Guardians, my Cleveland baseball team (the youngest in the league) ended up winning 92 games and the Central Division. They then knocked out my …

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Node-Red (with Ring and HomeSeer)

“Even with my tendency to tinker, adding yet another system on top of Homebridge seemed like too much to me.” – me, two months ago Yeah, I said that back in late May (in reference to Scrypted) after getting Homebridge set up and integrated with my HomeSeer home automation system. But here I am, two …

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Homebridge (and HomeSeer)

A few weeks ago while browsing the Homeseer forums (which have been inundated with Insteon users lately, after the sudden shutdown of the service), I came across a thread about integrating Homeseer with Apple’s HomeKit using Homebridge. Everything in my home automation setup has been working fine, but I’m always looking for new ways to …

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Jamming with the Jammy Jellyfish

Tomorrow It’s “gonna be May” which means it’s time for my annual spring sports update and Ubuntu upgrade! wrapping up their season, the Cavs exited the play-in tournament (losing to both the Nets and Hawks (who in turn were both eliminated in the next round)) the newly renamed Guardians have started their “inaugural” season 9-12 …

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