When Technology Hits Muscles

[Originally written on 2020-04-29]

We have recently built out our home gym to include a NordicTrack S22i studio cycle and a NordicTrack X22i treadmill.  Both of them have large screens (~ 22") that are running an old version of Android to run the interface, including the iFit Cardio app that was preloaded onto them.

So far, here are our issues with the S22i:
- 2020-04-26: When connecting the HDMI cable, a (non-bike) workout will stop showing the video after about 4 minutes.  You'll still hear the sound, but the video goes away.  If you run a workout like this without the HDMI cable, it will continue without interruption.
- 2020-04-29: My wife was 58 minutes into a cycling workout and the app just shut down.  After returning to the app, it had lost its place and she couldn't return to her workout successfully.

[Addendum]

Ultimately, I decided to skip the S22i or the treadmill for feeding video into the TV.  After first trying a Google Chromecast, I have settled on an Amazon Fire Stick.  The Chromecast required a device (my wife's iPad) to connect to BeachBody first and then connect to the Chromecast.  She experienced frequent buffering issues and other problems.  I just installed the Fire Stick, but it works well with Beachbody and Plex (for dancing DVDs, though Esther has to verify that the chapter markers were put at useful places).

My next challenge is to side load iFit, so Esther can do non-machine based workouts on the TV and not rely on the smaller screens of the bike or the treadmill.  I'm guessing she won't do that terribly frequently because she's been loving the BeachBody options, but I'd like to have it there in any event.

[Addendum #2, 2020-11-25]

Our gym is pretty much complete, we even have encouraging messages (via vinyl decals) on the walls.  A few notes on how the technology has developed in the gym:

• I noticed (likely after a spin workout on the S22i) that there was a cable and ethernet jack in the gym alongside the bike.  I decided to find that cable in the network room and was fortunate that I could.  I did have to terminate the cable on the network side, but it wasn't hard.  After that, I hooked up a PoE injector and plugged it into my 24 port switch.  In the gym, I plugged in an ethernet cable, ran it along the outside of the room and installed what had been my outdoor WiFi access point (Ubiquiti).  It is only 2.4 GHz, but from what I could tell, so were the bike and the treadmill (I'm pretty sure the Firestick, as well).
• The NordicTrack devices are working much much better.  We now almost never have any unexplained shutdowns or workout restarts.  
• Running Beachbody on the Firestick has worked really well.  While there is some initial buffering, there is almost never a lag in the workout itself.
• iFit does not have a native FireStick app, as noted above, and sideloading was not successful.  I got it on there, but in the end, I couldn't get it past the screen requiring you to accept the health risks of the device.  Frustrating, but not unexpected due to the apparent crappy software skills of this company.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with how our setup has turned out.  A couple of pics:

Sunset to Sunrise Lighting

In Outdoor Lighting Quest, I described my 2012 decision to make all of the lights on the outside of my house to be LED.  Lighting is the first line of defense for home safety.  My calculations showed that after three years, I would have saved ~$375, which would have been through 2015.  I ultimately sold that house in May of 2019, and my calculations showed that I actually saved about $1,400 or $200/year.  Not bad and that was with much more expensive LEDs.

One of the first things I wanted to get sorted out at my new house was getting lighting at all of the entrances of the house to be on from dusk until dawn.  At my last house, I did this Z-wave light switches and initially with a MiCasa Verde and eventually with a Samsung SmartThings hub.  It worked for the most part, but some of the lights would somehow routinely get "forgotten" by the system and I would have to reset them and re-add them.  It was a mild hassle and less reliable than I really would have liked.

When we moved into our current house, the lights on the front of the house (garage and front door) were on timers.  It worked reasonably well, but you have to strike a balance between the lights turning on too late during the winter and too early in the summer.  I looked around for a better way.

Simple Zwave switches are about $20 now.  I could have replaced the timers with Z-wave switches, but the "forgetfulness" of the system concerned me.  After a bit of research, I decided to go with relatively simple Honeywell FBA 36045 switches.  They were about $30 each (meaning that I spent $150 to avoid having to turn on and off the outside lights everyday).  They are timer-based, but you put in your latitude and longitude and it will adjust your on and off times to match the calendar.  It seemed like a pretty useful solution if it worked.

I started on switches that currently did not have timers on them - the basement entrance light and the door to the Sun Room.  The installations went fine; both had easily accessible neutral wires, which would be the killer if you didn't have.  In addition, it wasn't too hard to figure out which of the black wires was load versus hot.  It took a little bit of reading, but it turns out programming them isn't hard at all.  The latitude and longitude can only be put in as a whole number (which is admittedly probably fine), but it felt like the nearest 10th might have been better.  The switches have been working well since they were installed around March 22nd. 

Two days ago, it was crazy windy and the power flickered here a bit.  One of the time switches appeared to have died (and was just leaving the lights on).  It didn't bother me too much, given that I had already replaced all of the outside lights with LEDs, but it is still wasteful.  The two Honeywell switches that I had recently installed weathered the flickering without problems - they purport to have a battery that will keep the time for up to four hours.

I decided today to add one to the side door and replace the timers on the front and garage lights.  I was successful, but it did take some time.  After some careful rewiring, they all seem to be set up properly, but we'll find out for sure this evening and tomorrow morning.

These new switches will not be saving me money, ultimately costing me more, given that I will have three fixtures on from dusk until dawn.  But, now all of my house's entrances are lit at night.  And it should only cost me ~ 12 hours x 365 days / year x 12 light bulbs x 3.3 W x $0.12/kWh = $20.80/year.  Almost a steal.

The light switch in the dining room was absolutely packed with wires!

Not to be outdone, the one in the hallway was loaded up with two dimmer switches and a timer switch.  Only one of the four was a normal skinny switch and that one was a three-way (so not super skinny).

All done with the hallway (garage door) light switch.  Waiting on a new faceplate for the one to the side of the house.

I'm approaching an all-LED home.  I made progress on two difficult lights today when I had a burst of energy.  The first (smaller) one was not that hard, it just required another trip downstairs to get a large board to place the light on its side to do the exchange.  The larger light proved much more troubling, though with a ladder, a thick book and long arms, I was able to get it done.  I hope to never have to replace any of these lights through the remainder of my ownership in this house.

Undergoing light bulb replacement surgery on the back staircase light

It is bright and all bulbs are functioning

The thick book has already been removed, but this was the proof shot that all of the bulbs were replaced and they are pretty bright (eight of them)

I have a few areas still left to conquer:

• Six lights in the kitchen are still incandescent due to the LED bulbs of the same number are too long and won't fit.  I would like to use this light fixture much more than we do and if we had LEDs, I would be inclined to do so.
• Bookselves don't have LEDs - I couldn't find the right size when I looked for them.  They are also almost never used.
• Some random bathroom lights upstairs.  I should just get these done.
• Small lights in the ceiling of the bar downstairs.
• Lights in the movie theater.  I could have replaced more, but the dimmers won't work with them and they are almost never on.
• Landscape lighting.  I will undergo this crusade once the weather is reasonably warm and I can be out there identifying both the lights and suitable LED replacements

Phone to Gigabit Ethernet Conversion

I've been using the desk in the sunroom of our house as my workstation during the Great Hunkering of 2020 (for COVID-19).  It is arguably the nicest and most convenient work area for me.  Unfortunately, my Mac Mini frequently drops the wifi signal, despite my Macbook Pro keeping it without issues.  Perhaps it is the bottom mounting of the Mac Mini that is causing the problems.  Whatever it is, I was in search of a solution.

Today I decided to do something about it.  My initial thought (prior to today) was that I was going to have to drill a hole in the outside wall and run a cable.  I'm sure it would have worked.  However, this morning I decided that I should look to see if there was anything already behind the big wall desk / bookshelf unit that we have.

My workstation during the global pandemic

I did some craning of the neck and smooshing of my head against the wall to see what was up.  Ultimately, I also pulled out my boroscope, but that didn't help my view so much.  What I concluded was that I had both a power outlet and most likely a cable outlet, but that it was behind the rightmost section of the unit.  My expectation was that I would have to buy a pair of Mocha boxes to get the location on the network, but after I did, I would have high-speed connectivity.  After some examination, it looked reasonably simple (six bolts) to remove the unit from the middle piece.  I thought it would be worth doing, so I brought it up with Esther.

Esther was skeptical.  Mostly, I think, she was worried that I would mess up the bookshelf unit and cause unintentional problems.  I assured her that I would go slowly and carefully.  Then I got to work.

The first five bolts came out easily.  I verified that they could be re-inserted easily, too.  The last bolt, of course, was not easy.  Somebody had mostly stripped the hex insert when installing it in the first place.  One size larger Torx head, and I was able to carefully remove it.  Some careful sliding and I was able to see what was up.  It turned out to be a phone outlet.

Bookshelf unit detached and moved enough for me to sneak behind it.  If you look closely, you can see the phone line faceplate removed.

A mess of wires going into the general direction of my desk.  I'm not going to figure out which one is the right one just by noting where they are routed.

My first thought was: bummer, but perhaps I could use the four wires of the phone line to get 100 Mbps ethernet.  So I headed down to the telephone patch panel.  Here's where my luck got good: when the house was built in 2007, they used Cat 5e cables for all of the phone lines.  If my luck held, I should be able to get gigabit ethernet at my desk, not just 100 Mbps.  But, there were a few more steps between point A and point B.

Patch panel in the basement.  Those blue wires are all Cat 5e.  The one headed down to the right (with the grey strain relief cap) is the one heading to my desk.

It took some doing, but after I disconnect all of the phone lines from the patch panel and used my network cable tester (after fully separating the wires), I was able to with pretty high confidence find which wire went to the desk.  Excellent!  I terminated the correct wire and luckily found a straight-through ethernet connector.  I put a short ethernet cable from there and made it to the 1 Gbps switch a few feet away.  Then it was back upstairs to finish the job.

I went through all of my old Lcom gear to find appropriate parts.  I didn't have quite what I thought I needed, but I made it work.  I had a two keyhole faceplace and a blank.  Given the lack of clearance on the wall (due to the bookshelf fitting snuggly against it), I couldn't feed a cable out how one normally would.  So my plan was to get as much of the cable out and then connect.  Sadly, I didn't have another straight-through ethernet connector.  So I rummaged through my bag and found the next best thing.

Eight little connectors added and wall plate secured.

Eight little connectors later, and some mild amount of frustration, I had my connection made.  I then terminated the other end of the ethernet cable and gave it a go in my Mac Mini.  No go.  Sad.  Time to get the cable tester again.  It didn't take too long to figure out that I had poorly terminated the end of the cable that was to go into my Mac Mini.  Frustrating, but I re-terminated the cable and the second time was a charm.  I had System Preferences | Network already open, so I could see the ethernet go from red to green.  I had liftoff.

The final step was to see whether it was just 100 Mbps or 1 Gbps.  For this, I cheated and used Fast.com and got ~ 860 Mbps.  This is clearly a limitation of my FiOS connection, not my desktop link.

Then, everything when back together slowly and carefully: I must have partially screwed in the bolts about 50 times to make sure that no section was overly stressed.  I reshelved the unit and placed all the books back on. 

Cox - for the Gigablast loss!!

Wow - Cox just doesn't apparently know how to run a network.  Or customer service.

I've just moved from my old house with Gigabit Fios.  I decided, despite the paltry upload speeds, to get gigabit at my new place.  I was disappointed when I found out that the neighborhood I was moving into, despite it being denser, did not have FiOS.

Several calls to customer service later, multiple resets, and it just starts working.  The only information that I can find about it is that there are issues with MAC address binding.  But of course, not information provided by Cox, just a forum on Reddit.  Super frustrating.  But glad that we have rain in what was our Internet desert.

Dinosaurs!

Not my typical post, just a reminder to my future self that I've recently read the powerful New Yorker article about the day the dinosaurs died.  It is definitely worth a read if you haven't done so already.  The conclusions drawn about the globally catastrophic event are incredible but seemingly well-founded.  Amazing stuff.

Ubiquiti Second Thoughts

Second thoughts not in the way that one normally thinks about that term, but just thinking about the process of having installed a small Ubiquiti configuration in my house and how it's worked out.  As I look through the blog posting history, I don't see any indication that I wrote about the Ubiquiti system in the first place.  So, I guess I should.

What drove my deployment of Ubiquiti was upgrading my FiOS connection to GB at the behest of my boys, who were living with me at the time.  The Verizon-provided router that I was currently using was not going to be capable of 1 GB.  This was after Verizon had lowered GB Internet to reasonable prices (< $100/month) and about March of 2017, right about two years ago.

Our first attempt was to use a new Verizon-provided router for the service.  It could not have been worse.  It kept needing to be reset and otherwise was not terribly reliable.  I researched my available options and ultimately decided that despite the expense, a Ubiquiti-based system would provide a lot of flexibility and provide outstanding coverage across my (not terribly large, but somewhat spread out) house and back yard.  The goal of the system was to have a reliable, but easy-to-manage system that would just work.

I purchased the following:

• Unifi Security Gateway (USG) to be the router
• 2 x Unifi AC AP LR
• Unifi AP Outdoor
• Unifi CloudKey
• 2 x 5 Port EdgeRouter PoE
• Unifi Video Camera G3

After I had made a separate decision to build a simple Linux server which could host the Ubiquiti configuration software, I decided that I could return the CloudKey.  I was also annoyed that the CloudKey was not powerable via PoE provided by the EdgeRouter.  The other thought was that I could use the server to run Ubiquiti's software to run security cameras.  I did get the software working and tested my one camera, but I never ended up deploying the six or so security cameras that I had been planning on doing.

The Unifi AC AP LR (as in 802.11 ac, access point, long range) had to be wired and could be mounted to the ceiling.  I did install one near the router cabinet in the living room as below:

All blue!  Providing super-fast wifi close to most of the usage (in the living room and kitchen)

USG not mounted yet, but you can see the cloud key on the floor.  Server to come soon to replace the box on the left.

Previous outdoor setup relied on a large antenna and some Amplifi gear, but it never lived up to its promise

Here is the new Unifi AP Outdoor all hooked up - but no cable management has been completed

I loved a few things about the network:

• Web-accessible dashboard (both internal and external to our network)
• Single SSID; a seemless transition between access points as you moved across the house
• Overall, quite speedy

Our GB FiOS connection never lived up to the hype, but we do get upwards of 870 Mbps, which is something.  All of the backbone network in the house is also now going through GB ethernet switches, so there is just good speed to be had all around.

I have done very little in terms of network maintenance or fiddling over the last couple of years.  Mostly just updating the firmware on the devices and rebooting them.  I do that probably not more than once per six months.  One of the times that I decided to do that, I found that the outdoor access point and one of the indoor ones were not listed as active.  What was up?

I did not go on a tear to find out.  I was reasonably lazy and took my time.  I still seemed to have wifi where and when I needed it, so there wasn't too much of a need to do something quickly.  Ultimately, I have figured two things out:

• The outdoor AP not working was a result of some animal deciding to chew through the ethernet cable that goes out of the house at the study and back to the device.  Annoying, but also somewhat relieving that it was not anything to do with the device.  I haven't fixed the cable and I'm not sure that I will before I sell the house (which will hopefully happen in the next couple of months).
• The indoor AP was a bit of a surprise.  I thought that it was the AP located in the study that had stopped working and that was likely driven somewhere in the cable routing upstream (of which there was quite a bit).  It turned out not to be true - the AP in the study was the only one that was working.  The AP pictured above in the living room, despite having it's blue ring on, was not working.  I'm still not quite sure why.  I pulled it off the ceiling and connected it into the EdgeRouter with a shorter ethernet cord (into a PoE'd port) and it has been functioning fine since.  I should note that the cable that runs from the EdgeRouter to the ceiling-mounted AP is one that I put the ends on.  So I might not have done a great job.  This is something that I may have to deal with in the future, but also don't want to do much before I sell the house.  Whatever setup I have, will be good enough.

So despite these two quirks, I'm still really happy with the network and am hopeful that I get another three or four years out of the gear.  If I do, I will declare myself satisfied with the purchase and will look into buying another round of Ubiquiti gear.

More Love for the 935

I still love my Garmin ForeRunner 935.  You can read here about my initial love affair, but I'm now 16 months into ownership and I feel the same way.  It continues to be an awesome watch.

Here is what I continue to like:

1. Battery life: always good.  It's never died on me.  Fantastic.
2. Heart Rate Accuracy: seems spot on when wearing my heart rate strap.
3. Ecosystem: It's fairly well developed.  A lot to like about the software that will integrate (like MyFitnessPal, which I just signed up for).  Appears to be able to integrate new items like the Humon Hex (if I get around to buying it) easily.
4. Customizability of Watch Face: I've gotten stuck on the one I like, but it's great to know that I can choose whatever I want and many (most) for free.

Here are new things I like:

1. QuickFit: I just upgraded to the QuickFit band.  Though I am finding myself most typically just wearing the black band in the package of three that I bought on Amazon for $25, I like having the option.  I also have a black metal band for situations where I need to be a bit fancier.  It was not expensive, nor were the non-Garmin plastic bands.  Happy to have the option to pay full price for the Garmin-branded bands or not.
2. OK, maybe it's just one thing.  But I like it a lot.

Here is what I would change about it:

1. HRM Tri: Mine died and never gave me notice that the battery was low.  Took me a while to figure out (arguably I was being stupid).  There should be better messaging here.  Even eventually an email saying, "Hey, we've missed your HRM Tri recently from your workouts.  Is everything OK?"
2. Default Elliptical Activity: It doesn't capture enough information.  Seems obvious that it should have cadence given that you are given credit for the "steps" taken during the workout.  I can buy a better one, but feel like I shouldn't have to.  This is too obvious.
3. Cheaper Power Meters: But, alas, this is not a Garmin issue, just generally an issue.
4. Easier Integration with Treadmills: Yes, many of us don't love the dreadmill, I get it.  That said, why can't Garmin Connect when running on my phone connect via Bluetooth to the treadmill (or to the Life Fitness app) and get my treadmill milage instead of assuming it from my cadence?
5. Better Reporting: There are some genuinely useful reports provided on the Garmin Connect site about yourself.  Having now over a year worth of data,  I can see trends in the data.  But most of that is confirming what I already knew (last summer was a slow, slow time for me from a physical activity standpoint).  My activity counts and calories along with my VO2max all reflect this.  What other reports could be provided that are useful.  Encouragement along the way?  Learn "normal" behavior and encourage user to keep at it?
6. Easier Spin Bike Pairing: I've gotten into a rut when I do spinning at my gym now.  If it is in a class, I'm on bike #23.  If it is on my own, I'm on the bike on the left.  This ensures I don't have to fiddle with pairing issues.  Which are still not dealt with super well, IMHO.  There must be an easier way, especially to avoid unintended pairings when in a class full of bikes with power meters.

This has largely been a data dump of my current thinking.  I am interested to see how it evolves over time!

What Tech I Want, I Think (Early 2019)

It has been a while since I've written about a list of current tech items that have caught my eye.  I thought that it might make sense to given that CES 2019 just ended.

What I Want:

1. Humon Hex: it tracks oxygen availability in your muscles (specifically your thigh).  It provides more direct feedback on how hard you are working (which I'd always wanted to know).  Maybe I'm being lazy or just feel tired when my body is capable of doing more - this gives you a much better sense of how true that is.  Cost: ~$300.  Availability: Immediate.
2. Garmin Vector 3 Power Meter: I have gotten used to having legit power meter information from the Stages spin bikes at the Equinox at which I am a member.  Going for outdoor rides now are not as information rich.  I much prefer the outdoor ride (in the right weather), and already have speed and cadence sensors, so this is the next step.  It's a lot of money, though.  Cost: ~ $900.  Availability: Immediate.
3. K'Watch Glucose: A continuous glucose monitoring watch.  It requires a consumable which needs to be replaced every 7 days, but it looks super cool.  I'd love to wear for a couple of months to see how my activities, eating, drinking, working out and all affect my blood sugar levels.  I feel like I'd learn a lot over the first month or two of wearing it.  Maybe not too much after that.  Cost: ~ $150 for the watch, $100/month for the consumable. Availability: Unknown, but hopefully in 2019.
4. LIDAR Lite v3HP: A small 40m range LIDAR from Garmin.  I would love to work this into a Raspberry Pi 3 project to build a small device that would measure speeds on the road in front of me and then post the fastest on a website along with vehicle pictures (with ALPR, ideally) and a graph of the distribution of the speed of cars on the road.  Maybe someday I'll get to this project.  Cost: $150.  Availability: Immediate.
5. Naked Labs Body Scanner: I know I drink too much beer to keep my gut in check, but I think it would be super cool to get a long term view of where fat is being added and removed as you move through time.  So you should have a much better view of the aggregate body fat, and also the view of where it's coming and going from.  Also, you get your weight.  Cost: $1495.  Availability: Q219, I believe.
6. Air Quality Monitor: I'm not sure that Awair is the one, but I would like something that tracked indoor air quality that was inexpensive enough that I could have several of them in my house.
7. A compact point and shoot camera: a successor to my Canon S100.  Not sure what's best out there now, nor what the right amount of money is.  Sometimes, the camera on my phone just doesn't capture the magic.

What I Don't Want

1. MagicLeap AR Eyeglasses: Not until somebody shows me software that matters.  Cost: $2295.
2. 8K TV: Not until most content is 8k.  I bought my current 65" Sharp LCD 1080p TV in 2008.  It's still pretty great.  When it fails, I will buy a 4k TV of similar size (we'll see about OLED).  In fact, I'm rather hopeful that the Samsung modular micro-LED approach gathers some steam and we get some cool options there.
3. Bike head's-up glasses: Way too much money.  Way too early in the product maturation cycle.  Same for a motorcycle helmet head's up display.
4. USB turn-table: Maybe a cool mix of old and new, but I'm not a vinyl guy.  Spotify for me, right now.
5. Glowing alarm clock: My Garmin Forerunner 935 vibrating works just fine.  I wake up at a different time than my wife, so I think that lighting the whole room up would be disruptive.
6. Any voice-activated appliance: I have an Echo Show and I like it.  I just don't feel the need for a microwave that has this built in.
7. Any robot: call me when they are actually useful for more than vacuuming.
8. HTC Vive Pro Eye: but only because I don't have the space to devote to it right now.  Also, having bought the original Vive, I feel like there isn't enough software for it.

If I think of anything more, I'll add to the list.

Another Dead LED: Time for a Disection!

One of my first generation (for me) Feit "PAR" 30 LEDs just stopped working in my kitchen.  Which isn't a very good way of describing the problem.  It turned on, at super low brightness.  Not like L80 failure.  It all of the sudden went from a very bright bulb, to flickering occasionally, to flickering almost every time it was turned on, to not glowing brightly.  The bulb in question is about seven years old, but still disappointing that it is going.  Many other of these bulbs in my house are still going strong.

I'm not knowledgable enough to know what likely failed, but I thought that I would take advantage of the failure to see what was on the inside.  I did a destructive disassembly of everything but the circuit board.  I can say definitely that I did not expect the circuit board to be so complicated.  I'm half inclined to open one of my newer, much lighter LED bulbs to see how they've been simplified over time.

In any event, here are the pictures of the disassembly, step by step, with my amateur descriptions of what is there.  Further conclusions (if any) will be at the end.

This bulb is dominated by the aluminum heat sink that surrounds it.

Looking at the business end of the bulb - 7 actual LEDs

After removing the three screws you saw in the first picture, I was able to wiggle the top of the bulb, but couldn't remove it further.  Time to try the other end of the bulb.

The plastic lens popped off without too much effort.  It revealed four screws - three of which were required to remove the plastic insert plate.

Plastic plate removed, exposing the metal plate that has the actual LEDs sitting on it.  Some identification markings from Feit: ALPCB0589 Rev1 which doesn't mean anything to me, or the internet.  The positive and negative wires bringing the (presumably) DC power required to make the LED's go bright are exposed.  I had to cut them to keep going.

Now I was able to remove the aluminum heat sink from the bulb.  Here was my first surprise: the aluminum heat sink is only about half the weight of the bulb.  I had assumed it was the heavy part.  The core turns out to be pretty heavy too. 

To keep going, I had to start breaking the center core.  It was a hard, but reasonably brittle plastic that allowed me to dig down a ways.  I'd eventually get stuck just using my Nest screwdriver and had to bring in more destructive tools.

Just some perspective of the working part of the bulb - it is tiny, a super thin plate.

Maybe the plate is not metal: it looks like there is a super simple (in series) circuit on the surface?  Why would they choose to do it that way instead of in parallel?  Seems odd.

I've broken all of the inner core that I could with the screwdriver.  Inside there is silicon or some such substance around everything.  The circuit board is already way more complicated than I had expected it to be.

The other side.

Using some vice grips, I pulled off the E26 connector.

The vice grips were also useful to crack off the remaining plastic.  After that it was just clearing out the silicon.

Given the simplicity of the back of the circuit board, it came off in one easy piece.

Here is the top of the circuit board as much as I cleaned it off -- took way too much time even though you can see a ton of silicon still on it.  The right is the 120VAC input, the right is the DC (IDK what voltage) output.  I would guess that the exposed copper coils are a transformer bringing the AC voltage down.  I recognize some resistors and some capacitors elsewhere, but not sure what may of the other pieces are (like the three big brown things on the top and top right of the board).  I'm also not sure what the yellow covered device is (though presumably, it is an inductor).  In the end, this is almost certainly a constant current power supply shoved into the bulb.  It's just so complicated.

Why a constant current power supply needs multiple chips on the back is a mystery to me.

Here are my conclusions:

1. First-gen LED's were heavy due to both excessively large heat sinks and the silicon goop on the interior.
2. It's easy to remove the aluminum heat sink from Feit bulbs - do it and recycle.
3. New bulbs are not readily accessed like this one.  Likely they avoid both the big heat sink and the silicon goop.  When they start breaking, I'll dig in and see how they are different.
4. LEDs are pretty awesome.  Based on the marking here, I likely bought this bulb in the early part of 2009.  It's the early part of 2019.  I'll take a 10 year replacement cycle.  That being said, I'd gladly take longer.

LEDs for Life?

I have spent some time thinking about lightbulbs.  Probably at least partially due to the fact that I'm pretty cheap and loved the idea of the cost savings from LEDs.  A few years after moving into my house, I decided to make all of the outdoor bulbs LEDs (recorded in this post).   Part of my motivation was that I didn't want to change light bulbs anymore and I saw LEDs as a lifetime solution.   I would joke to folks that I didn't get paid to change light bulbs.

Well, some of my outdoor LEDs have started to fail and I'll have to admit that I'm kinda bummed.  Not because they weren't the right answer for my lighting needs, they definitely were.  If my math was even remotely correct, I saved a boatload of money (on the order of $860) despite buying the bulbs for $36 each (and that was a good price - Costco - in 2013).  The reason that I'm bummed is that I have to replace the lightbulbs at all.

When I installed the bulbs, I noted that I expected them to last for 7 years.  That sounds like a very long time in the future, potentially approaching the perspective of "forever from now".  And bulb lifetime, as estimated at that point in time, was going to be based on the light output degrading to only half of what it had originally been.  Some of the bulbs, however, have not lasted 7 years.  I just replaced two: one was flickering (spending more time off than on) and the other was just out all of the way.  That wasn't the way it was supposed to be.  They were supposed to last forever!

I've replaced the bulbs with new Feit bulbs that cost 1/12th the cost of the original LEDs, but I'm just a little bit sad that the LEDs are not lifetime bulbs.

Receiver Received!

Yay!  New Yamaha receiver was just received.  Let's hope it's awesome.

3D Mapping

There are a few pretty cool upcoming devices coming that are going to help bridge the physical world with the world of 3D printing and a new generation of "makers".

The first, one most intreaguing to me is the Structure IO

The second is the Spike project, from the folks at ike gps.  This looks to draw from their heritage of

Not So Smart Meters

Undoubtedly Dominion Virginia Power spent a lot of money to install smart meters across it's system.  Mine was installed a couple of years ago, well after the 2010 installations in more dense parts of Northern Virginia.  I'm questioning how valuable that investment was based on my interactions with the data to date.

The smart meter at my house is shown below.  If you look at the meter for a while, you will see it show two different numbers.  I'm guessing it provides: maximum power consumption over the last 24 hours and cumulative kWh consumed.

Max kWh?

Cumulative kWh burned since the meter has been installed?

I only became aware of the availability of daily and 30 minute data last year when I was poking around the Dominion website.  I was intrigued that the smart meter that I already had could potentially give me most of the insights that my (now broken) TED would have been doing.  So far, though, I have failed to find anything super helpful from my smart meter data.

More Love for my Garmin ForeRunner 935

I've had my 935 for about a month now and have put it through it's paces in a number of areas and wanted to post some more feedback on it.  Here it goes.

First, with the good:

1. The battery life continues to be fantastic.  I've been working out consistently over the last couple of weeks and I'm getting about a full week between charge cycles.  And that was charging it back up when it was at ~30%.  Getting back to 100% takes some time, but I'm loving the long battery life.
2. I continue to enjoy the aesthetics of the Garmin much more than the Fitbit Surge.  I haven't yet bought a black leather band with quick disconnect fittings, but the day will come.
3. I'm not bothered by wearing a chest HRM while working out and I love that it works so well with the watch.  I have the HRM Tri and it's great!
4. I've started swimming with the watch at HRM.  It's not perfect, but it's very useful.  It tends to over count lengths in the pool, but I assume that it will get better as I get to be a better swimmer (pretty much suck right now) and more consistent with my turns.  The heart rate record is quite good (and complete).
5. Garmin Connect (GC) has so much more usefulness than the fitbit website.  Being able to compare like workouts is awesome, even if still somewhat rudimentary.  Seeing my average heartrate go up each of my five swim workouts is great - showing some improvement where otherwise I'm not feeling great about where I've gotten to.
6. I can integrate information from my gym's Schwinn spin bikes with the spin workout I record on my watch to get a better overall view of my workout.  See my GitHub project for more details.  The only downside is the loss of temperature data - which for spinning isn't too exciting.
7. The alerts are useful and the alarm still wakes me up in the morning like my Surge.
8. I like the "move" alerts that my Surge was oddly lacking.

Now, with the "could be improved" items:

1. Watch configuration is not easy.  I inadvertently set the default pool length to 25 meters when my gym has a 25 yard pool.  Its fine, I can quickly google how to change it, but that isn't going to work when I'm out on a bike ride and need to make a configuration change.  Put all of it in the GC app!  That said, I'm getting more used to the standard operations of the buttons.
2. GC should allow you to make edits to your workout after the fact that go beyond just notes about it.  When it says I did 1125 yards and I only really did 1000, I should be able to change it without downloading TCX and editing or using some other highly technical method.
3. Strength workout rep tracking is quite poor.  Probably a hard problem overall, but give me the ability to add accelerometers to other places to do a good job tracking.  I think if we could add hand (not watch hand) and foot or ankle we'd be pretty good.  Better GC editing would help here too.  I'd really like to see this get better.  I had some thoughts on this in 2008 and I don't see much progress since then.
4. Add a UV exposure meter to the watch.  L'Oreal showed a little device at CES 2018.  Garmin should just put it in their watch and track the data.  This isn't a deficiency of the current watch, just something that would be awesome to add.
5. I've only done the HRV test two days so far (yesterday and today), but I can say it wasn't super obvious how to get it done.  Oddly, when you choose HRV Stress on the watch, it will not tell you when it's detected the HRM.  Other activities give you an audible indicator that you're all set.  Also, the first time I did it, it wasn't obvious how to get it to start.  There are several screens to scroll through that I found unintuitive.  I did get it done and plan on doing this every morning at the same time.  Too early to tell if the HRV is at all useful, but we'll see.
6. Coaching or prompting could be improved.  I ran on the treadmill yesterday.  It was not my best day; I struggled to get a 5k in.  I did it, but was seriously exhausted at the end.  When reviewing my activity after the fact, I was able to see that I favored my left foot for much of the activity.  My left hip hurt a bit after the run.  I'm thinking that the two are related.  I would have liked the watch to give me an audible prompt after a minute or two of being outside of "close to centered".  I could add a cadence prompt, but not this one.  Maybe they will add?
7. I don't like that the charging port on the back of the watch is open.  I've bought a dust cover to put on it (super cheap on Amazon), but it doesn't seal enough to keep all water out of it and I'm concerned about corrosion if I leave it in after swimming.  Also concerned that the port will get messed up if I don't keep it covered.
8. I have a scratch on the watch face.  It's small, but still.  Not super happy about it.  Hopefully, scratches don't build up over the next three or four years.
9. GC should keep you logged in.  It sorta does, but a day after interacting with it, you have to do a page refresh to get anything to show up.  Otherwise, you just get a "You don't have permission to view that" message.

Overall, I'm super pleased with this watch after a month in.  Yes, it was expensive.  But it is very good.

In the future (when it isn't so crazy cold here in DC), I will be testing a couple of Christmas presents from my in-laws: Garmin speed sensor and the Garmin cadence sensor for my road bike.  I can't wait to put them on my road bike and get some more useful data on long rides.  Another thing that I would not be able to do with my Surge.

Also, I have not been able to get outside for a run since I've owned the watch.  As a result, I don't have any sense of VO2 max.  I'm looking forward to this.

So Long Fitbit

I have finally decided that I will no longer be a Fitbit customer.  It has taken a long time to convince myself that this was a good idea, but I finally made the leap.  It was on from a good (but not perfect) fitness tracking watch to something better.  I was a very religious Fitbit user from 2013-01-18 to 2017-12-15.  I started with the Fitbit One (which I still occasionally used when I wanted to wear a nice watch) and transitioned to the Fitbit Surge in early 2015.  Almost made it a full five years in the Fitbit ecosystem.  I had made it 13,086,461 steps, 29,855 floors, 6,314.46 miles and burned 4,494,072 calories before I called it quits.  Sad to be leaving a place where all my data resides, but their new tools just don't seem as good as the competition.  (Note: I plan to still use my Aria scale, but replace it with a Garmin smartscale when the Aria dies.  So, I guess I'm not totally leaving.)

I really enjoyed certain aspects of my Surge:

1. Continuous heartrate tracking
2. Reasonable battery life (days), though this was declining to only slightly more than one day if I worked out that day.
3. Vibration alerts from my phone
4. Silent alarms.  My Surge reliably woke me up for a couple of years.
5. Easy to kick off activities
6. Automatic tracking of long walks

Things that I didn't like about my Surge:

1. Rubbery band: stuck on clothing (especially my shirts with French cuffs).
2. Rubbery band: bubbled and eventually had to be replaced without Fitbit providing a name-brand replacement.
3. Black and white screen.
4. No option to pair with a chest heart rate monitor.
5. No replaceable bands.  If something happened to the band, it would have to be replaced.  No option for a nice band or a work-out band.
6. Charging port had gotten less reliable over time.  In fact, this was the proximate cause of me deciding that I needed to do something (i.e., get a new fitness tracker).

I looked at replacement options and decided six months ago that it was likely going to be the Garmin Forerunner 935.  But I also decided that I should hold off and see what else comes down the pike to determine if I would prefer somthing else.  I believe that the legitimate options were:

1. Forerunner 935
2. Apple Watch Series 3
3. Fitbit Ionic
4. Other Garmin watch (Fenix, etc.)

I ruled out the Apple Watch because I didn't really care about the smart watch functionality and didn't like losing sleep tracking.  The Fitbit Ionic has gotten some good reviews, but I feel like it would be more of the same as my current Surge.  I had an old Forerunner GPS watch for running and never once had a problem with it, so my brand view of Garmin was quite strong.

I decided that the "something better" was going to be a Garmin Forerunner 935 along with the Garmin HRM-Tri Heart Rate Monitor (and maybe some more gear down the road).  Some of the most interesting parts that I'm hoping to take advantage of are the following:

1. Other fitness measurements (e.g., VO2 Max)
2. Variable Heartrate (VHR) monitoring for recovery time estimation
3. Easy pairing with a chest heartrate strap
4. Running dynamics feedback with the HRM-Tri HRM.  As I get older, I'm most interested in staying healthy so I can continue to maintain my modest fitness level.  I'm hoping that this can help me correct or keep my running form reasonably solid.
5. Waterproof!  I can take it to the pool or swim and have no concerns.
6. Pairing with some biking measurement gear for long trips on my road bike.
7. Easily replaceable watch bands (quick disconnect).  Eventually, I see myself getting a black leather band and deciding on an "elegant" watch face for special events.

I'm still getting used to the Garmin, but I already have thoughts on the transition:

1. I'm liking the battery life.  On five days of continuous use (with a couple of one hour hikes and some spinning) now after getting to 100% charge.
2. The iOS app is solid
3. The Garmin Connect website is better than Fitbit's
4. I really like the audio prompts when I'm running telling me how my heart rate is doing.
5. I would like to see the heart rate on the screens for the various activities.  I think that this is possible, but I haven't figured it out yet.
6. Too much of the setup of the watch is done by manipulating the watch.  All of it should be accessible on the app.  Creating a new information summary page for running would be so much easier there than on the watch.
7. I do miss the touch screen cababilities on the Surge, but overall, I think it's a win.
8. Garmin should add a feature to turn on the screen's backlight when the user flicks their wrist in a manner consistent with them wanting to see the time.
9. Why does this watch not automatically connect to the Schwinn bike at Equinox to record my spinning workout details (or every treadmill)?
10. Fitbit's assertion that "Your data belongs to you!" is a joke.  Just try to export your information.  One month at a time (or one activity at a time).  No heartrate information for monthly information.  They have the data - they just won't give it to you in a reasonable format.  Even the date selector boxes are insanely designed (can't just type in dates).  Total garbage.

I'm sure I will have more to say, but this is where I am so far.  I'd obviously prefer a more aggressive price point, but this is a fantastic watch.

A Great Idea Only to Find It's Been Done . . . Sorta

I was just sitting at my desk doing work today when I remembered that I have to add chemicals to my hottub this weekend.  Yes, I have a reminder set on my Google calendar and I'll get an alert when the time comes.  That said, I'm not necessarily in a convenient place when that reminder comes.  Wouldn't it be nice to put an unobtrusive device on my bathroom counter that will blink a red LED when something is past due and then let me push it to indicate that it has been compete?  An app or website would serve as the primary interface, but the ability to have the reminder device in the place that you do the activity would be great.

The first thing that I do when I have "brilliant" ideas is to see if they've been done by somebody else.  This one largely has via Droplet.  They were quarter-sized little buttons that you could stick to things and you'd get a phone reminder that you needed to do something.  Once you were done doing that something, you push the Droplet and it records that you have finished the task.  Not quite exactly my idea, but quite close.  The Droplet required a hub to be plugged into an outlet somewhere in your house.  They claimed 100ft or so coverage.  My guess is that it was using bluetooth LE to get the battery life up to anything useful.

Unfortunately, Droplet was a Kickstarter project that was raising money in the beginning of 2015.  It's not clear that they got the product out the door.  Their website (as of the writing of this post) was still up and looking reasonably modern.  The shop link was dead, though.  And I can't find an app that looks to be them.  Sadly, I can't even find anybody on the internet talking about why or how they died.  And only limited angry Kickstarter posts, given that the updates to the project are only for backers of the project.  Social media updates stopped in November of 2015; the last updates on the Kickstarter website were in spring 2016.  It seems reasonable to assume that it is dead.

If this review is the last word on the subject, the world is without a good system now.  Potentially time to hack something together.

Closer to "All LED, All the Time"

I have been writing, albeit sporadically, about LEDs since 2008.  I've been super nerdy and calculated the payback on LEDs for daily outdoor lighting at my house.  Based on that post (and the fact that it is more than four years later), LEDs have been good to me.

I've wanted to get to the point where I only had LEDs in my house, but I've been limited by four problems (1) the under-cabinet bulbs in my kitchen and (2) the landscape lights in my backyard (3) I had found fluorescent replacement lights to be very common or inexpensive and (4) I had halogen-based light fixtures.  Slowly, I'm getting past all of these barriers and making progress toward only LED lighting in my house.

Here's how my solutions to the four issues has gone.  By the numbers, see below.

(1) I recently found some good candelabra base corn-cob LEDs on Amazon.  They are bright and I've ordered another 5 after the first 10 have worked out.  Now, I just need to figure out get the bread box lit in the corner.

Under-cabinet lighting!  (see the dim area in the corner that used to be the bread box).

Hard to tell they are corn cob from this view, but quite easy to see in the reflection with your naked eye.

(2) I found a good T10 replacement that was svelte enough to fit into Cast Wall lighting fixtures that abound in my backyard.  Unfortunately, it was super expensive ($20).  Just recently, I found a package of 20 LED bulbs on Amazon for $50.  Given that I needed 19, this was perfect.  And $380 wasn't a particularly attractive purchase price.  My wall lights had been installed when the backyard was redone in 2012, but most of the bulbs have burnt out by now.  (I had originally thought that the wiring was bad, but it turned out to be the simpler problem of just burnt out bulbs).  LEDs should basically last forever and limit my need to do awkward replacements.  And they are 2.6 watts instead of 40 watts.  So now I'm contemplating adding some more lights with all of those spare watts that I have on my transformer.

Bright indirect landscape lighting.  Only beware that many of the LEDs of the T10 size are really designed to work via DC.  If you run them in an AC circuit (as is my landscaping lights) there will be a 60 hz flicker.  This isn't too annoying for indirect lighting

(3) Fluorescent replacements are readily available and quite good.  I bought four two foot units and six four foot units.  Both are well-rated on Amazon.  Most of the bad feedback is stupidity on the part of the customers.  Just be sure that you are ready to do some (very simple) rewiring of the units.  I pulled out and threw away the ballast on all of the units that I replaced.  See pictures and descriptions below.

Very well-lit upstairs hallway

I removed the diffusers on the 4' units - they are being used in an indirect application already, so I figured it would just dim the light.  I also stapled Aluminum foil on the sides of the trench they are sitting in to help reflect light.

The 2' LED bulbs lighting up the (very messy) loft

By removing two screws, you can easily remove the diffuser on the 4' bulbs that I installed.

I don't know where the external diffuser is for this light in my laundry room, so I left the integrated diffusers on these 4' LED bulbs.

(4) I had some Ikea wall sconces and a bathroom light that used halogen bulbs (for which there is no ready LED replacement).  I ended up replacing the Ikea sconces because a past renter had broken the glass piece on it.  I replaced it with a $40 LED only fixture that I expect to last the lift of the house.  The one remaining bathroom fixture will be replaced over the next week with a light fixture that can take LED bulbs.

Old, Ikea halogen-based wall sconce

The new unit on - hard to get a sense of the relative color temperature between this picture and the last, but the LED is closer to daylight (preferred by me).

Further notes on LEDs:

• I've had bad experiences with LEDs five years ago from low light output (lumens) or flakey electronics that die reasonably early (days).  
• Light output has gotten uniformly better.  Just keep an eye on color temperature and make sure you are getting what you want.  On Amazon, color temperature and lumens are always available.  If you are skeptical of light output, check out how many watts it's using.  Compare to other bulbs who claim the same lumens.  Nobody has super fancy proprietary LED technology right now, if it seems to good to be true, it is.
• With respect to the early end-of-life on cheap LEDs, I now always do a 24 hour test of the bulbs.  This is nothing complicated, just keep the LEDs on for 24 hours.  All of my recent bulbs have passed the test with flying colors.
• I still have six 4' and two 2' fluorescents in closets around the house.  And two 8' units in the garage.  Most will be harder to rewire due to the restricted working area, but not too much of a problem.  They don't get used much, so there isn't a hurry, but I would like to see them go at some point.
• I still have CFLs in my garage and furnace room sitting in porcelain light fixtures.  I think that there are about 8 total.  I'd like to replace them with high output corn cob LEDs at some point, but I'm not finding any compelling options at the moment.  At that point, I will reach full LED saturation (excluding inaccessible bulbs, such as in my oven).

The (Second) Vive Report

So since my initial post, several things have changed:

1. My son built me a new windows PC with a 980Ti
2. My sons and I have spent many more hours in virtual reality

Thus, I wanted to provide an update on all things Vive.

Titles

I'm not terribly impressed with the titles available for the Vive so far.  There appear to be many on the horizon, but I'm not sure that the situation will be ideal until it is standard practice that all new first-person oriented games are released with VR support from the start.

I am in the camp that believes that VR will help usher in a new wave of puzzle-based games (a la Myst).  They will be fun to play (and likely quite challenging, too).

Gaming in VR

I love it.  Plain and simple, it is so much more engrossing to play a game like this than staring at a screen.  Vanishing Realms is probably a very mediocre game if on a screen, but it totally sucked me in.  I put my headset on in the morning to play and am suddenly transported to night.  The world is less interactive than I assume that they will be eventually, but it is still fun poking around and finding new bits lying around.  And swinging a sword through an ogre is great fun (and will elevate your heart rate).  I can't say that I've been reduced to a sweaty mess that others have, but it is still feels like good, active fun.  I have experienced a sense of vertigo standing on the ledge.

I'm looking forward to many more hours of gameplay.  Though, my youngest has so solidly run up the Space Pirate Trainer high score list that I'm not sure I'll be placing there any time soon.  Not to say that I won't be trying.

One Step Beyond

I still have a few things that I haven't tried yet and problems for the VR developer community to solve.

1. 360º videos:  Not expecting too much here, have watched a few on a flat screen and didn't think that they were that interesting.
2. Building something in VR:  I think the tools lag here.  Perhaps virtual graffiti will be my thing?  More interesting would be building 3D models with tools that are well-suited for the task.  I need to research this area further.
3. VR Tourism:  Looking forward to it, but need to find the right experiences.  Any recommendations?
4. Movement:  sticking a controller in my pants doesn't seem ideal.  But, then again, neither does instantly teleporting around a game area.  It's easy to dodge fire and the blows of ogres when using the teleportation method.  Also, Vive needs to figure out how to allow the playing area to be larger, or use tricks to make my brain think that it is bigger.  This is likely going to be a big challenge for all of the VR manufacturers.
5. Additional sensors:  HTC and Steam should let others build specific purpose sensors or gaming implements to be used.  An obvious first option - a gun (rifle not a pistol, the normal controller works well enough to fool me there).  Such things exist, but I'm looking forward to widespread usage and support in games.
6. Social VR: maybe this comes much, much later when households have 3 or 4 headsets, but it would be fantastic to play cooperative games in VR with friends and family.
7. 3D Sound: I'd love to be playing in VR with one of the Ossic headphones, but they are best case shipping them next February.  And I'm not sure that I'll be willing to pay $300.  But, I can imagine that they will matter in providing an even fuller experience.  You will be sucked into the other (VR) realm 100%.  At least I'm guessing here (I've not demo'd their headset).