Author: jcianci12
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I Was Quoted $34,126 for a 30 kWh Home Battery. The Sales Process Was the First Red Flag.
On 30 April 2026 I had a solar battery sales appointment in Queensland. The pitch was for a large Anker battery system: a 30 kWh Anker setup with inverter, plus a 5 kW Sungrow inverter mentioned as part of the proposal. The price shown to me was $34,126. The government credit was listed as $5,364.…
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Investigating a Strange Singapore Traffic Spike in GA4, WordPress, and Nginx Proxy Manager
I noticed something odd in Google Analytics: Singapore had suddenly become one of the largest sources of traffic to this site. At first glance, that sounded exciting. Maybe there was international interest in the ESPHome HVAC controllers, 24VAC relay boards, or Home Assistant content. But the numbers felt strange enough that I wanted to check…
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I Went to Buy One Schrader Valve on AliExpress. Somehow I Ended Up Questioning the Entire Checkout Funnel.
I was recently working on a new project and needed a simple part: a Schrader valve. Nothing exotic. Nothing glamorous. Just a little valve fitting so I could adapt an air line and pressure-test something properly. The sort of part you expect to find, add to cart, pay for, and move on with your life.…
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Angular Nginx Hosting Trouble shooting Guide
1. Initial Request Flow Client β Port 5020 β Nginx Container (Port 80) β /usr/share/nginx/html β Angular App Check Points & Why: # 1. Is port accessible? curl -v localhost:5020 # Checks if nginx is listening docker compose ps # Verify port mapping: “5020:80” # 2. Is nginx running? docker compose logs nginx # Check…
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π Mobile Workstation vs Gaming GPU Cheat Sheet
Workstation GPU Closest Gaming GPU Typical Performance Found in Laptops Like Typical Use Quadro M1200 GTX 950M π₯ Old β entry level ThinkPad P51, older ZBooks 2D CAD, light 3D Quadro M2200 GTX 960M π₯ Old β entry level ThinkPad P51, older Precisions Light CAD, 3D Quadro P1000 GTX 1050 π§ Better than M2200 Older…
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Our Jayco Starcraft 2025 Bush Pack Adventure (So Far)
After months of searching for the right off-grid-ready caravan, we finally landed a Jayco Starcraft 2024 model with the Bush Pack upgrade β and we got it at a great price through auction. Itβs 19.3 feet long, features a washing machine, and came with most of the mod cons you’d expect from a high-end touring…
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Why The Omada APs Needed a Relay, and How We Removed It
This article explains the Omada controller problem in very simple language. If you know nothing about networks, that is fine. Think of this as a story about two little Wi-Fi boxes trying to find their boss. The Simple Story Imagine: The workers need to know which house the boss lives in. For a while, they…
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ESPHome 8-Zone HVAC Controller V2 Setup Guide
Thanks for purchasing the ESPHome 8-Zone HVAC Controller V2. This guide shows you how to: connect the board by USB flash it in ESPHome add it to Home Assistant check the logs to confirm the board is responding adjust relay inversion settings if a zone behaves backwards then connect 24V AC so the relays can…
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Database Targeting Debugging in ASP.NET Core
Overview We tracked down a user-role issue that looked like a permissions problem, but the real cause was database targeting. One user could sign in and get roles. Another user with apparently similar data could sign in but did not get the expected roles. At first glance this looked like: Those were all worth checking,…
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Connection String FAQ
This page explains a common ASP.NET Core pattern where the app does not keep its main database connection string in appsettings.json. Instead, startup code retrieves the value from Azure Key Vault and inserts it into the normal .NET configuration tree before the rest of the app runs. What does the startup code actually look like? The…