What did you do today?

[Scottmichaelj]

The thing that concerns me is that it looks like they own a lot of the close/near RF technologies. They could stranglehold any or almost all to push whichever is most profitable for them. I have to believe that at some point they will want to simplify their product lines.
I guess we'll see.

Do they actually own the patent(s)? Even so, ZWave was under a patent or similar and once it expired we saw more companies and products. I honestly don’t know the legality of it all but I don’t believe they “own” it all in the normal sense where they can monopolize ZWave or anything else for that matter. Stranger things have happened and again I am not 100% certain.

[asbril]

11 minutes ago, Scottmichaelj said:

 

Do they actually own the patent(s)? Even so, ZWave was under a patent or similar and once it expired we saw more companies and products. I honestly don’t know the legality of it all but I don’t believe they “own” it all in the normal sense where they can monopolize ZWave or anything else for that matter. Stranger things have happened and again I am not 100% certain.

 

If I am not mistaken, Sygma owns (owned) the Zwave patent that must be used by all Zwave devices.  The expired patent that you may be referring to was a patent for instant status reporting. That patent expired (I believe) in February 2016.

 

[larryllix]

The warmer weather is coming quickly so I decided o get out to the shop and start building my A/V shelf.

The problem is the TV is too big now to be over top of the A/V equipment, and I want to drop the Television down by the platform height covering the A/V equipment currently. Then the A/V equipment would go over top of it but I need a sturdy self to hold 100 pounds of equipment on the wall.

Anyway, I got out my Kreg jig  for it's first trail run, to attach some red oak 1 x 2" edging to  3/4" pine plywood, for the show edge. I have no biscuit joiner and really didn't want to buy one at this late stage in the game, for the little use I would give it. This jig came to mind and should work quite well to strengthen the joints and hold the edging  tight while the glue hardens.

Here is what the little angle drilling jig and bit look like.

 

The jig makes the angle fastening holes you see on furniture when you peek at the  construction.

 

Clamping it on the edge with  protecting wood to avoid bruising the good wood.

 

Mounting the red oak edging on the edges.

Edited May 18, 2018 by larryllix

[oberkc]

3 minutes ago, larryllix said:

The warmer weather is coming quickly so I decided o get out to the shop and start building my A/V shelf.

The problem is the TV is too big now to be over top of the A/V equipment and I want to drop the Television down by the platform height covering the A/V equipment now. Then the A/V equipment woul go over top of it but I need a sturdy self to hold 100 pounds of equipment on the wall.

Anyway, I got out my Kreg jig to attach some red oak 1 x 2" edging to  3/4" pine plywood, fo the show edge. I have no biscuit joiner and really didn;t want to buy one at this late stage in the game for the little use I would give it. This jig cam to mind and should work quite well to strengthen the joints andhold it tight while the glue hardens.

 

 

 

 

 

Never miss an excuse to purchase a new tool!

 

[larryllix]

16 minutes ago, oberkc said:

Never miss an excuse to purchase a new tool!

 

I got tired of my HA following me around, giving orders to turn things on and off, so I escaped to the workshop where only one X10 device controls my dust collector system. The WC8 weather system sits quietly at the far end, and  never talks back  or makes demands though.

Edited May 18, 2018 by larryllix

[MWareman]

Never miss an excuse to purchase a new tool!
 

This reminds me. Must get a biscuit joiner before it gets too late in my game...

[oberkc]

Just got a job putting a roof on a small shed.  Sounded like an excuse to purchase a cordless air compressor to me.

Given that I am getting late in my game, I pity the fool that has to go through all my tools some day.

Edited May 18, 2018 by oberkc

[larryllix]

1 hour ago, oberkc said:

Just got a job putting a roof on a small shed.  Sounded like an excuse to purchase a cordless air compressor to me.

Given that I am getting late in my game, I pity the fool that has to go through all my tools some day.

Cordless air compressor? Did you mean cordless nailer?

You are lucky to not have to buy one in Canuckistani, here. The good framing nailers run $6-700 for the same models as the Borg (US Home Depot) for about $150-300.

https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/p.imli325-impulse-cordless-framing-nailer.1000769728.html

Of course you are looking for a shingle nailer with a different config. never priced any of those. We used a lot nail guns building our home. Looking back my wife and I may not of had tendonitis so bad in our shoulders if we were moving swinging a hammer instead of holding a heavy gun  above our heads for so long at a time. But I did manage to shoot my wife in the foot at the other end of a 10' 2x4 once.  Doubting her, (ooops) we found the dent in her steel toe cap of her boot under the punctured leather. During breaks the target practice into the trees in the field across the street was fun though.

 

[DrLumen]

8 hours ago, asbril said:

If I am not mistaken, Sygma owns (owned) the Zwave patent that must be used by all Zwave devices.  The expired patent that you may be referring to was a patent for instant status reporting. That patent expired (I believe) in February 2016.

 

That would make sense as to the instant status patent. They must have let it lapse.  From what I can tell the original zwave patent still has 8 years. But with each new version, like 500 now, I think they can get new patents for the enhancements basically/theoretically extending the original patent. All they would have to do is not license the making of the chips which would force everyone to their door. (geez i hope they aren't reading this and getting any ideas). This is likely why they are cornering the market.

This is what I saw. "...with the addition of Z-Wave, all of the short-range IoT connectivity options are together under one roof. This means manufacturers looking to develop smart home security can use Silicon Labs as a one-stop-shop for all their shortwave IoT solutions."

Since they bought Sygma, it would be hard to believe they didn't get the intellectual property to zwave.

Not that I am looking forward to it but it wouldn't entirely bother me to dump some of this buggy stuff and start over. Why do I get the feeling this is going the way of tech change like CD/DVD/BluRay or ISA/EISA/PCI/PCI-E?

 

 

[DrLumen]

8 hours ago, larryllix said:

The warmer weather is coming quickly so I decided o get out to the shop and start building my A/V shelf.

The problem is the TV is too big now to be over top of the A/V equipment, and I want to drop the Television down by the platform height covering the A/V equipment currently. Then the A/V equipment would go over top of it but I need a sturdy self to hold 100 pounds of equipment on the wall.

Anyway, I got out my Kreg jig  for it's first trail run, to attach some red oak 1 x 2" edging to  3/4" pine plywood, for the show edge. I have no biscuit joiner and really didn't want to buy one at this late stage in the game, for the little use I would give it. This jig came to mind and should work quite well to strengthen the joints and hold the edging  tight while the glue hardens.

Here is what the little angle drilling jig and bit look like.

 

The jig makes the angle fastening holes you see on furniture when you peek at the  construction.

 

Clamping it on the edge with  protecting wood to avoid bruising the good wood.

 

Mounting the red oak edging on the edges.

I've been thinking about getting one of those Kreg jigs. See them advertised on TV a lot. I want to get a router too but the end of the game is getting close here too.

[oberkc]

10 hours ago, larryllix said:

Cordless air compressor? Did you mean cordless nailer?

No...cordless compressor.  Dewalt makes the one I bought.  

[larryllix]

6 hours ago, DrLumen said:

I've been thinking about getting one of those Kreg jigs. See them advertised on TV a lot. I want to get a router too but the end of the game is getting close here too.

I think I picked this one up for around $10 years ago, thinking it would be handy. I had to dig  pretty deep to find it.

It works very well but I had the fudge the 3/4" thickness setting slightly on the drill depth stop. I couldn't find a drill bit long enough to drill out the remaining material at that sharp angle, down the hole and I figured the screw may break out the hole too much.

Edited May 19, 2018 by larryllix

[larryllix]

55 minutes ago, oberkc said:

No...cordless compressor.  Dewalt makes the one I bought.  

<photo snipped>

Wow! I didn't know such a thing exists! Hard to believe a battery could last very long charging such an inefficient energy storage method. Air compression has a lot of wasted heat and condensation etc.. But batteries are doing much better these days. 

[asbril]

8 hours ago, DrLumen said:

That would make sense as to the instant status patent. They must have let it lapse.  From what I can tell the original zwave patent still has 8 years. But with each new version, like 500 now, I think they can get new patents for the enhancements basically/theoretically extending the original patent. All they would have to do is not license the making of the chips which would force everyone to their door. (geez i hope they aren't reading this and getting any ideas). This is likely why they are cornering the market.

This is what I saw. "...with the addition of Z-Wave, all of the short-range IoT connectivity options are together under one roof. This means manufacturers looking to develop smart home security can use Silicon Labs as a one-stop-shop for all their shortwave IoT solutions."

Since they bought Sygma, it would be hard to believe they didn't get the intellectual property to zwave.

Not that I am looking forward to it but it wouldn't entirely bother me to dump some of this buggy stuff and start over. Why do I get the feeling this is going the way of tech change like CD/DVD/BluRay or ISA/EISA/PCI/PCI-E?

 

 

From what I understand, because all manufacturers must use the Sygma chip, there is such good inter-operability between Zwave devices. Now I am opening again the Insteon vs Zwave Pandora box, Insteon not only owns the patent but they also are the only manufacturer. Depending on what side of the hill we are each standing, there are pros and cons.

[oberkc]

3 hours ago, larryllix said:

Wow! I didn't know such a thing exists! Hard to believe a battery could last very long charging such an inefficient energy storage method. Air compression has a lot of wasted heat and condensation etc.. But batteries are doing much better these days. 

I guess those 60V and 120V batteries pack a bit more punch.  I think they will run on the "20V" batteries, but probably not for long enough to be useful.  I use the same batteries for a cordless table saw and love it.  

I thought about the battery-powered nail guns, but found them to be heavy and decided to take this route.  I hope I don't regret it.  And, in the end, I don't have too many jobs where power is not available.

[Scottmichaelj]

From what I understand, because all manufacturers must use the Sygma chip, there is such good inter-operability between Zwave devices. Now I am opening again the Insteon vs Zwave Pandora box, Insteon not only owns the patent but they also are the only manufacturer. Depending on what side of the hill we are each standing, there are pros and cons.

Funny how that works out but Apples HomeKit chips can’t be as universal.

[paulbates]

2 minutes ago, Scottmichaelj said:

Funny how that works out but Apples HomeKit chips can’t be as universal.

 

Actually Apple is a similar example to Smartlabs. Apple has the IC for its own patented chips for its phones and is the only mfg. By 2020, they will also be (again) for their desktops. They also own the patent for the OS for both and they are the only mfg/publisher.

[Scottmichaelj]

Actually Apple is a similar example to Smartlabs. Apple has the IC for its own patented chips for its phones and is the only mfg. By 2020, they will also be (again) for their desktops. They also own the patent for the OS for both and they are the only mfg/publisher.

... and Apple has billions in the bank to invest in R&D to grow, unlike Insteon.

[paulbates]

True. At the same time, I'm entering year 12 as an Insteon customer and hear this over and over. There are issues/risks with them, no doubt, like all technology products. But personally I don't identify with this as one of them.

Edited May 19, 2018 by paulbates

[Scottmichaelj]

True. At the same time, I'm entering year 12 as an Insteon customer and hear this over and over. There are issues/risks with them, no doubt, like all technology products. But personally I don't identify with this as one of them.

Agree, my home right now is all Insteon with a handful of ZWave thrown in like door locks and Aeotec Multisensors. That said all new home client installs I tend to use ZWave now or Luton RadioRA for larger more expensive and large houses since it just works. Everyone has different needs.

[larryllix]

7 hours ago, oberkc said:

I guess those 60V and 120V batteries pack a bit more punch.  I think they will run on the "20V" batteries, but probably not for long enough to be useful.  I use the same batteries for a cordless table saw and love it.  

I thought about the battery-powered nail guns, but found them to be heavy and decided to take this route.  I hope I don't regret it.  And, in the end, I don't have too many jobs where power is not available.

Many of the pros went cordless with CO2 operated nailers.  Lighter and no heavy air hose to drag around. In your case a small roof it shouldn't be a problem.

When you are finished the cartridges could be used for making pop (US=soda)

Edited May 19, 2018 by larryllix

[asbril]

14 hours ago, larryllix said:

Many of the pros went cordless with CO2 operated nailers.  Lighter and no heavy air hose to drag around. In your case a small roof it shouldn't be a problem.

When you are finished the cartridges could be used for making pop (US=soda)

Popping the question ?

[builderb]

Got my woodworking tools out of an 8 year storage, cleaned up, tuned up, and running again. Need to pull some new electric circuits once I decide where things will live, but I finally can do stuff in the garage!

[larryllix]

2 hours ago, builderb said:

Got my woodworking tools out of an 8 year storage, cleaned up, tuned up, and running again. Need to pull some new electric circuits once I decide where things will live, but I finally can do stuff in the garage!

I guess. Is that nym short for "Builder Bob"?

[builderb]

I guess. Is that nym short for "Builder Bob"?

Good guess but no.

Bob the Builder actually irritates me to no end. I’d so fire his crew the first time they took off chasing a butterfly.