Most liked posts in thread: Garage fire recovery... and other random projects.

Quick update - so I installed all the fire alarms. They appear to be working like a champ. I’m traveling this week. When I get back, I will take a few pics and maybe some video of them working. Really happy with this.... now for the “scope creep”.... or the normal tuner scenario of “Since I’m in there”... For this project my scope creep much to the dismay of the boss was “making sure the network wasn’t a problem”. In all seriousness, I’ve lived in this house for 13 years and the network has been an issue. Spotty coverage on wireless and I couldn’t run iRacing or Forza 7 with my kids without it randomly dropping. Literally the boys would say “Dad you just disappeared” off the track. So I’m also solving that problem. The “logic” is... since I’m going to have a drywall person come, lets go ahead and fix some other issues.... yes I could do the drywall myself. But frankly, it just not something I enjoy. I started here:


Upgraded my thermostat wire to 8 strand so I could support a next for the downstairs unit.. “since I was there”... I also ran two conduit runs for future use if needed and CAT6 and RG6 to the upstairs and garage. Now every bedroom and more importantly... the garage has both CAT6 and RG6. At the same time I fixed the wireless coverage by adding in wireless access point distributed across the house. These are pretty slick. They are Ubiquity AC-PRO that run Power over Ethernet (POE). Note in the picture above, just the Ethernet cable is there powering the access point and providing a hardware communication path back to the switch.

Now that I had a plan.. had to start buying the parts and tools (of course.. always need more of those)... this is just a small number of them.




Here is the main trunk of wires.. already punched down in the patch panel.


At that point, I then terminated them in the walls... “B” standard






Then put the covers over the wires and put on the face plates.. here is the “final” wall image..

The BBQ competition trophy approved..

 

Now its time to setup the network cabinet... Here is the current state with me testing and configuring everything. Once I’m done, I will clean it all up and make cables to fit etc.. for my OCD..

All in changed the network to support gigabit.. with Ubiquity USG, AC-PRO, 16 Port POE switch, network cabinet.. still researching how to handle the RG6.. appears there is a different between standard cable (Comcast) and direct TV. I.e. splitters and patch panels are different.. go figure.

Cloud Key - fully manageable from anywhere in the world:

POE switch to power the access points.. and in the future video


Initial “testing” configuration...


yea its a mess.. I’ll clean it up. No worries there.

Round two.. in this case (on top of the painters tape) its a Ubiquity edge router.. think I’m going to move to the USG (Ubiquity Secure Gateway).. fully integrated system with UniFi. Both have the ability to do Virtual LANs (vlans), quality of service (QOS) and deep packet inspection (to help ensure my twin’s don’t “Grow up” to fast on the internet...

 

Sooo received 2 alerts over the last 2 days from the new alarms. Essentially cooking bacon appears to throw off some smoke (inlaws in the basement). All good. They gave warnings and worked like a charm. Feedback from the family is very positive so far. They love the night lights and the ability to control the alarms (see bacon cooking above) so it doesn’t go off. ~8 days in and liking them..

 

Ok - so I set them up.. granted I’m in the honeymoon period but they are nice. I tested the “night light” feature in the in laws beadroom. Wow it works like a champ. For example, when they get up at night for whatever reason, it’s 100% black.. can’t see anything. Now when they step away from their bed it lights up.. and they can control how bright. They don’t have to find a flashlight or turn on the lamp. Really happy with that. Let’s see long term. Also in the common areas with wired ones, you can set it to a always be on. Also nice in initial testing.. I’ll report back in two weeks (on the road tomorrow through Monday else would report in 1 week.

Yup - that is what saved me. The fire extinguisher was right there. That said, I did order 4 more... they will be here this week.

Nice.... I dream of that. Would love to have a shop like that..

 

Yea - I’ve been super happy with my thermostats.. so off the bat I was leaning that way.. really are nice, well made and saved me 9 hours of AC/Heat last month.

 

Man - that really sucks! I wanted to say the car that you can see was a Triumph spitfire.. but its no when I zoomed in. What is it? My house is older and I don’t have fire suppression in the garage. If I did an addition/change to the house by code I would have to add... which I would. If you asked me prior to the fire I would blow it off... can’t say that now. Now I would put it in even if not required. Needless to say I went a little overboard on the fire alarms compared to what many would think. But to me, its now worth it... not only for family after but also for my projects. Almost lost the 88M5 and the boys RZR. The GP2 and 03M5 wasn’t in the garage at that point. Crazy..

 

Wow.. 3 more bays.. that would be nice! Wish I had a separate garage.. but not in the cards right now. Regarding cameras.. only reason I will do that is we live pretty much “in town”.. on busy road. I’ve had some crazy things happen like a stolen car out of the driveway.. but in general now issue especially once I put the gates up. That said, I have two external sheds that have somewhat valuable stuff in there. It’s really more to monitor those and scare off any would be bad actors who are thinking about doing something.. they at least would see they are going to get filmed.. at least until the knock them down. If that were to ever happen. Similar to a alarm sticker.. that’s most of the prevention right there.

 

Agreed - I’ve kept insurance on the 88M5 while the engine is out..

Regarding the cars that went down.. that sucks.

 

Yes - that said, I don’t have any of their cameras yet. Also their doorbell is on pre-order. Its released in March... Rign is a good product. When I get the nest doorbell in, I’ll post about it.

 

Here you go - will find the link to the service itself. https://nest.com/cameras/
But that will be tomorrow.