Llamatron

So, a half remembered Radiolab episode or maybe it was 99% Invisible talked about this. If I remember rightly they did consider changing it because it was so much quicker and easier typing in English and Chinese character set takes up a lot of storage which was a big deal in early computers. Until someone figured they could break down all the Chinese characters into a much smaller selection of base shapes. So you could make a character by pressing a small selection of keys. So it meant a much more manageable keyboard. I think it’s even resulted in quick Chinese typists being faster than English ones.

*hear

I’m using a raspberry pi with a ‘sonoff universal zigbee 3.0 USB dongle’. But I’ve no clue what I’m doing. I originally got into it just so I could automate a bedroom light for the wife. Beyond that I’ve got a couple of lights and contact sensors and the recent attempt at controlling a dehumidifier. Googling and blind luck has got me this far.

I wonder if it helps that the door contact sensor is in the same room as the zigbee dongle? Maybe 20ft away

I shall investigate. Thanks for the suggestion

Sadly I can’t find a UK Thirdreailty plug. Their website only shows US, doesn’t even detect I’m coming from the UK so I’d guess US only. Surprising seeing as the company is based in China.

Looks like there’s no DOGAIN UK plugs. Which is a shame. I have an INNR plug running a dehumidifier and it’s not great. It will turn off and on as per my Home assistant schedule and I get to see how much power is being used which is cool. However, it has a habit of turning itself off and back on randomly while as far as home assistant is concerned there’s been no interruption. It’s frustrating.

Aquara door sensors here too and they work great. I have one that turns on the kitchen light after sunset when the back door is opened and it works flawlessly.