Carlos

The question is always welcome.  We have one dog that would like to be left alone, and one whose only objective in life is to roll around on the ground with children.

On 9/26/2019 at 8:52 AM, Twotoes said:

What ever happened to paying with cash?

It became obsolete and foolish, as well as a huge waste of time.  Right now the Amex Blue Cash Everyday card is paying us back 6% on groceries (yes, six percent, not a typo), and 3% on gas/diesel.  It would be crazy to use cash.  And it takes longer to get it, and use it, and deal with change.

Back on topic, Fry's here in Phoenix doesn't show any indication of not taking any cards.  Some stores used to be anti-Amex, and that's been my primary card for a while, so I'd just go to other stores.  Vote with your dollars.  There are lots of options.

My brother has two vehicles registered here in AZ, but using his CA address.  One was to bypass emissions issues, not dollars.  Although, now he knows there's a big dollar benefit too.  If they didn't have ridiculous emissions regulations he'd be happy to pay his local taxes for it, but they made it impossible.  (The car physically passes emissions, but because of an engine swap, they still "fail" it.)  The other was a bike that was not drivable when he bought it, but CA assesses back fees AND penalties for a vehicle even if it wasn't usable.  So bringing it here means you erase all that.

Anyway, it's all worked out fine, no issues.

I'm considering the same to keep the sun from beating ours up.  Meanwhile, I'm planning to put one of the fiberglass polish/waxes on it that is said to stop UV for about a year, now that it's finally cooled off.  I don't have a place to put a carport, the trailer is in storage.  Otherwise I'd really consider the carport.  Also our trailer is much smaller so a cover would be easier to handle.  Some people claim that a great wax applied yearly will do almost as well as a cover.  We have no trees/leaves to worry about.

It may go right. 

They are still trying to hang on to the old "channel" and time based models, which are dead.  With Apple now launching their own service, the might of Netflix and Amazon already there, the entire concept is dying quickly.  I have no desire to "watch CBS" or anything like that, and I'm not interested in watching anything live or on a schedule.  Younger generations are even more finicky.  The entire way of consuming media is changing, and these companies are fighting to keep the old way.

If you're around AZ, let's trade.  Mine is exactly the same as your RPOD, except you have the better AC unit and the better fridge.

You will probably need more than two batteries.  I run two 6v GC batteries in series, and like that a lot.  I recently set that up for a friend with a larger trailer and kids, and he says the batteries "last forever" where before he'd get a day at most.  However we both have propane fridges.  Sam's and Costco sell the GC batteries for about $90 each, and you can get the extra cable needed for series wiring from any auto store.

4 minutes ago, packnrat said:

set up chairs, tables and cold drinks.

This is common on boat ramps at "drinking lakes" like Havasu.  It's a lot of fun.

Yeah, I thought it was funny that it was followed with "no need to install the expensive car GPS navigation system."  Sure, if you install a very expensive huge system, you don't have to spend MORE money.  LOL.  Meanwhile, the normally-priced Alpine head unit in the tow vehicle does all that also.

While off leash, our dog was attacked by a much smaller dog also off leash.  Luckily for the idiot dog/owner, ours has a "what's your deal" attitude as he could have probably taken his head off in one bite.  What's amazing here is how many people simply don't know how their dogs will behave and act accordingly.

And yet, computers are still safer than meat bags.  Those things fall asleep, get confused, get tired, or simply don't see something.  They do great under good conditions, but toss in the hundred variables that affect them, and they fail.  Who here wants to be the fail?

TODAY, the self-driving cars are less reliable in terrible weather.  That's why AZ is a primary testing area.  They are still statistically safer than meat bag drivers.

GSM is not analog.  The Onstar in your old truck was, and they were still installing 2G/3G digital until just a few years ago, which is also going to stop working.  There's some sort of swap-out program in place now.

Ray, fire that phone up, wait for it to search for networks (say five minutes), and then dial 611.  Old GSM phones MIGHT still be working, even for some years.  LTE is an enhancement of GSM, basically, while CDMA is now just dead tech.

Hmm, I'm sure I have some ancient GSM phones in my old tech pile...

1 minute ago, Dutch_12078 said:

Fortunately, there's enough band overlap among carriers that it shouldn't be a major problem.

Depends on where you are.  I'm in a place with little overlap, and if you're not on Verizon or AT&T, you can't count on making calls.  If you have an old CDMA phone, you're not getting anything (tried it).  So the important part to remember is that the old "spare emergency phone" is becoming less useful.  I think it's important for people to know this since it's the first time we've done a fast, radical cellular tech change like this in the US.  Verizon plans to have ALL non-LTE service gone by end of year.

Wow, and I thought I was pedantic about technical details.

All wireless phones and providers in every first world country that I know of are required to process an emergency call using any available signal.  They also get priority on channels and signal strength.  Bear in mind however that right now we are under a massive change of cellular infrastructure here in the US, and older phones may simply not be able to connect to the newer systems at all.  Verizon, for example, is shutting down everything that is not LTE.  So you can't assume that your old flip phone is going to keep working.

I primarily worked with Axis when I ran the video software company.  Those are the $4k cameras I mentioned.  I have some of them here for demo usage.  They simply aren't worth it in a home environment.

If you have a Synology NAS, you should probably try using their built-in video recorder.  I played with it once, thought it was good, but it's been a couple years.  I really don't have other recommendations.  You could also consider the Amcrest/Foscam cloud service to control and manage the cameras, get notifications, and things like that.  I have one Amcrest camera connected to that now, and it seems to work fine.  Nothing to manage on your end.

Sorry, I know nothing about the Amcrest software.  I use a product called Security Spy; it's not cheap, but very powerful, with great support and upgrades.  It works with just about any camera.  I had a number of Foscams, but a couple failed.  In doing research, I found that Amcrest is somehow affiliated with Foscam (they won't answer how), but have better products.  I spent hours looking at the camera specs, and I've worked in the video business.  I recently exited as a founder of a high end video management product, working with $4k cameras.  Everything about Amcrest looked great for $70-130.

Here's what I got for outdoors, and the results are excellent, day and night:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CHPZKQM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And what I got for a huge room where I wanted lots of pixels and super wide angle:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B077Y52782/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The Wyze pan/tilt is indeed noisy.  Also, I find it useless as a general home camera.  My sister in law currently has it to see if she can figure out what has damaged her food garden and killed a chicken or two.

I also don't really like the Wyze cams as an all around, but that's partly because I already have recording/management software running on my desktop and it does a far better job than the Wyze cloud system.  I think the Wyze cams are a cheap solution for limited uses.  For general use I'd choose and recommend Amcrest.  Just installed a couple of their super high res cameras, and they are really amazing.

Oh, and I drive around self-driving cars all the time.  Our area is where Google/Alphabet/Uber are testing most of their cars.  I've watched them, it's an impressive ballet of perfect driving when there are a bunch of them.  And I'll admit that I've messed with them, when they are not carrying passengers, just to see how they'd react.  Very well.

Exactly.  It's funny that anyone who's been on a horse would think that only humans can "drive."

Just now, GlennWest said:

But if it runs on batteries it should work.

That's the important point, regardless of semantics.  The thermostat needs to run on batteries of its own, and provide a simple contact closure.  The one I linked to meets both of those.  Household thermostats MIGHT be able to run on batteries, and they provide a pair of closure terminals for "on" as well as several other connections.  They will work if the person installing it knows which terminals to use for that.  The Hunter 42999 only provides two terminals so you can't go wrong.

And yet you still use a millivolt system thermostat.  The semantics notwithstanding, you don't have 12v available at the thermostat to power it on most RVs.

We have an American Staffordshire that is a cuddler and loves people, with no aggression to anything.  But he's also considered a vicious killer by some park rules.  It's been a challenge.  We didn't choose him for breed, he was a rescue and was thought to be something else, then we did a DNA test.

Nearly all RV systems are microvolt, not 12/24v, and cannot power a thermostat.  This is what I put in our TT and love it.  Super easy to install, works great, and no wild temp swings any more.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B000ALEBZY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1