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Ring Battery Doorbell

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Ring DoorbellIt’s funny that I’ve been using Ring products since 2021 when I put in the alarm system (and then moved to all Ring cameras in 2025) but still did not have Ring’s original product: the doorbell.

I guess timing is everything … during Amazon’s Prime Days event last month I noticed our everyday normal doorbell was coming out of the wall (bad grip into some crumbling cement for the lower screw) and the light had burned out. It still worked but since Amazon had their 2nd generation Ring Battery Doorbell on sale for $50, well …

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Ring camera conversion, completed!

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side yard (left) - nightI started my switchover from Google Nest cameras to Ring back in May 2023, replacing my indoor Dropcams with battery-powered Ring Stick-Up Cams. At the time, I kept my Nest Outdoor cameras because Ring did not have a constant recording option, but fast forward to 2025 and Ring has finally added 24/7 recording to certain plugged-in and hardwired cameras as part of their new Ring Premium plan (for $200/year). I was losing my grandfathered $10/month Ring Protect plan in March and last year Google raised the annual price of Nest Aware Plus to $150, so it was time to upgrade some hardware and consolidate. I didn’t end up saving money (professional monitoring is now an additional $10/month on top of Premium this is now included as of January 2026), but I did gain some convenience of finally being able to ditch Nest and manage all of my cameras in a single place (plus additional automation capabilities, but more on that later).

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Upgrading some Ender 3 Pro hardware

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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:

Yeah, just a few things. 🙂 I completed these changes around the same time as the upgrades to my HomeTroller and Debian Bullseye, but wanted to wait a bit before posting so I had more time to play around with the results and I’m pretty pleased!

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iPhone 15 Plus

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iPhone 15 Plus

I wasn’t really having any problems with my iPhone 12 Pro Max, but when checking the pre-order price for a Apple’s newest phone from AT&T it turned out that I could get an iPhone 15 Plus for just $100 after trading in my current device. I have never really been happy with the camera in my current Pro Max so I decided it wasn’t worth the additional $300 to get a Pro Max this time. It was a last-minute decision on my part but even though it wasn’t until around 11am when I logged in I had no issue placing a pre-order for a black 128gb device. A week later on September 22, my new device arrived.

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Leaving the (Google) Nest

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I bought my first Dropcams back in 2014, right around the time Nest (which had acquired Dropcam) was acquired by Google. Then I added the Nest Thermostat in 2016 (which was later replaced in 2021 with a Z-Wave one during an HVAC system upgrade), the Nest Protect smoke/CO detectors in 2018, and finally a bunch of Nest Outdoor cameras in 2019 for a pretty complete ecosystem all managed very nicely from the Nest website and mobile app. I guess I should be happy I got almost 9 years (has it been that long!?) out of the Dropcams before Google announced they are no longer supporting them and they will cease to function on April 8, 2024.

Google is offering Dropcam customers free Nest Indoor cameras as replacements, which is surprisingly generous, but only up to two (and I still have three perfectly functional Dropcams). I went ahead and ordered the free cameras, but after a few days of using them, I’ve decided it’s time for me to leave the (Google) Nest.

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FITCAMX Dash Cam (EV6)

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I’ve been really happy with the FITCAMX dash cam in my RAV4. When my wife got her EV6 last year there wasn’t a similar model available so I ended up getting her the Garmin Mini 2 (which apparently I never wrote about here), wired into her rearview mirror housing with a Dongar USB power adapter. Since I didn’t want to use the adhesive mount on her windshield, I used a suction cup mount which meant the camera was mounted a little lower on the glass (below the mirror housing) and thus more in the line-of-sight of the driver. This setup was fine, it just didn’t have that “factory installed” look and occasionally the suction cup would become unstuck in the Florida heat so she’d come back to the car to find the dash cam dangling from its power cable, and putting up a sunshield was also a little problematic.

Well, recently over on the EV6 Forums I saw that the FITCAMX was now available for the EV6 so I immediately ordered one (direct, so it came from China).

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FITCAMX Dash Cam (RAV4)

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Hanging out in the RAV4 Prime forums over on RAV4World is dangerous: people are always posting the cool accessories and customizations they’ve made to their vehicles. Based on some threads there (and in the Facebook group), I decided to try installing a dash cam!

The recommended model was the Fitcamx Dash Cam but according to their web site (and the item page on Amazon) the current model wasn’t compatible with the 2022 RAV4. The photo they had showing the incompatible camera housing didn’t match mine though (it had vents, mine has no vents) so I sent them some photos asking if it would indeed work. They said it would, so I ordered one.

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OctoPrint and the OctoPi

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Now that I’m semi-comfortable with the 3D printing process for my Ender 3 Pro (download/create model, slice STL in Cura, save GCode to micro SD card, put micro SD card in printer, print model), I wanted to eliminate the “sneakernet” step of manually shuffling the SD card between my PC and the printer and enable some more monitoring options (eliminating another sneakernet connection: walking back into the office every now and then to check on the printer!).

Enter OctoPrint: “the snappy web interface for your 3D printer that allows you to control and monitor all aspects of your printer and print jobs, right from within any browser on your network. It runs basically everywhere, from a Raspberry Pi to your gaming rig, can be easily extended thanks to a powerful plugin system, and is Free and Open Source Software.” Specifically, I’m using the Raspberry Pi-enabled version, OctoPi.

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Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max

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iPhone 12 Pro MaxIt’d been almost four years since I got a new phone, still rockin’ my trusty Apple iPhone 7 Plus. But recently I’d been having charging issues due to a loose Lightning connector port, and with Apple’s advances in processor and camera technology for the latest generation of iPhones, I decided it was finally time to upgrade.

After researching and comparing the four new iPhone 12 models, I had a few decisions to make. First: size. The 12 and 12 Pro are just slightly smaller than my 7 Plus, so that eliminated the Mini. Next, the camera. I’ve always preferred my point-and-shoot cameras to my phone’s camera, especially when it comes to low light and zoom situations. If I was ready to pay a little more for a better phone camera (going with “the best camera is the one you have with you” mantra) than that meant the 12 Pro. Once I had decided that, though, it was an easy jump to just go all the way and get the top-of-the-line 12 Pro Max.

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Working from home tech

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Like a lot of other people in the world right now, I just finished my first week of working from home due to COVID-19. I’m a little luckier than most in that I’ve already had a lot of experience working from home, and my job as a systems administrator lends itself to working remotely easily. I also already had a home office area and relatively robust home network. Still, working from home every now and then is a lot different than doing it for (at least) three weeks straight during this time of “social distancing” and “sheltering in place.” I’m not supposed to return to the office until April 6, so what technology am I using to stay connected and keep doing my job?

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