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Dan Fixes Coin-Ops

I had some ideas and I looked on amazon to see if my idea could already be purchased and apparently my idea of a smart fan is very different from capital's idea of a smart fan

Me: 🦝 a smart fan is one that turns itself off when it's not pointed at a person

🦝 also it'd be neat if all the various fans around my house could coordinate with each other to move hot air to where it's either useful or not actively harmful

Capital: 🐷 a smart fan is one where you say "Hey Alexa, turn on this fan" rather than pressing the button

10 July at 16:17 | Open on retro.social
13 comments
Stu

@ifixcoinops I recall Gates mentioned wearing a pin that allowed the new house he was building (late 90s?) to turn lights on and off based on his presence. I don't think we need that but we could totally do something with motion sensors, etc. But there's no subscription upsell for that so no chance these days. Turning houses into thin clients.

10 July at 16:22 | Open on hachyderm.io
Dan Fixes Coin-Ops

@tehstu the annoying thing is that it's so trivially easy to make a life form detector that everyone who gets a hobby microcontroller does it accidentally before they find out about pullups

10 July at 16:24 | Open on retro.social
Dan Fixes Coin-Ops

🦝 obviously a smart fan would need a big SPDT switch so it could be toggled back to hardwired Just A Fan mode

🐷 obviously a smart fan could have no buttons or switches and just a bunch of shitty capacitive sensors because they're so much cheaper

10 July at 16:23 | Open on retro.social
✨phred🧙🏼‍♂️

@ifixcoinops omg I have a vornado and it has no buttons, just capacitive plates. Turns on at full blast every time, just outstanding design here

10 July at 16:27 | Open on weirder.earth
Dan Fixes Coin-Ops

The angel on my left shoulder: 👼 If we put electronics in a fan then that means a power supply, and capacitors fail

The trash-fingered raccoon technician on my right shoulder: 🦝 There are fans that run off a drill battery

10 July at 16:29 | Open on retro.social
Charles U. Farley

@ifixcoinops Mitsubishi ductless mini-split heat pumps have models with motion sensors.

Could just use a zwave or ZigBee plug or even X-10 with a motion senor. There are probably also plugs with motion sensors built in.

10 July at 16:31 | Open on retro.social
Dan Fixes Coin-Ops

👼 DC motor, 🦝, brushes also fail

🦝 Brushless DC motors are also a thing

👼 Ah yes, reinventing the AC induction motor, rock-solid reliable basic tech for over a century, by involving a, what was it, a COMPUTER, yes,

10 July at 16:34 | Open on retro.social
Dan Fixes Coin-Ops

🦝 Alright there are some things to think about, but the answers could save people a lot of money, not to mention the emissions versus air conditioning

👼 But for how long, 🦝? A basic fan will last as long as its owner, how long will your brushless DC computer fan keep going? Will it fail just outside of the warranty?

🐷 pardon me, gentlemen, I couldn't help but overhear...

10 July at 16:39 | Open on retro.social
Steven Hoefer

@ifixcoinops 🧐Smart fan is consuming some power at all times so it can respond to voice commands, and if you do something like wire it to a timer or motion sensor it won't work because it boots up in "spying but not blowing" mode.

10 July at 16:29 | Open on wandering.shop
Michael Kohne
Doug Baker

@ifixcoinops Probably 30 years ago Bill Gates’ house (on Seattle’s Lake Union, I think) was set so that each room would sense a person’s approach/presence and then turn on lights, audio etc. Your idea should be easily doable.

10 July at 16:24 | Open on mstdn.ca
Joe Glombek

@ifixcoinops I reckon you might be able to do something with #Dyson fans (or any with temperature sensors and an HA integration) and some complicated #HomeAssistant routines!

10 July at 16:28 | Open on umbracocommunity.social
misery :gay_as_hell:

@ifixcoinops I mean ZigBee enabled fans and presence sensors can be hacked together to turn off when no one's around. Yes, it adds complexity, but could still improve power and heat efficiency

10 July at 16:38 | Open on tech.lgbt
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