u/Fatel28

Probably one of the prettiest orioles I've ever seen, and it decided to stop in for a bath.

Most of the others I see in my backyard trees have much more muted colors.

We'll see how well this works. I left it way high up so the birds don't lose the feeder. I'll likely lower it once they're used to it.

I've noticed the feeder dies down a LOT around the time birdnet hears red shouldered hawks and Mississippi kites, so I'm assuming they just want some cover when the raptors are out. May also help keep the bath water cooler.

If anyone's interested, deets on my setup here:

https://github.com/chasem12345/BackyardBirding

I had a bunch of requests to do a writeup so.. here it is. I put it in github because that seemed to make the most sense to me.

https://github.com/chasem12345/BackyardBirding/tree/main

Feel free to ask questions / comment, and if anyone else has a similar setup or decides to replicate mine, I'd love to see it!

Just a quick post after I've got things mostly setup working how I want. It's been a hell of a journey to get it working as it is in the video.

It's a dual camera setup, which is WAY overkill, but I couldn't decide on whether I wanted a zoomed in or out setup, so I went both. The zones are handled by Frigate on the static zoomed out camera. If Frigate detects a bird in a specific zone boundry, Home assistant triggers the PTZ camera to zoom in on a preset defined in the Reolink PTZ cam.

The focus was the trickiest part, as Reolinks auto focus tends to prioritize the background, so Home assistant once again handles the focus after the camera is in position. I'm still tuning it a bit, but the video showcases how well it works, especially on the hummingbird.

Once I have everything fully dialed in (and if there's interest), I can do a full writeup with all the grueling details, but for now I'm just proud to show off what I've got working.

Writeup -

https://github.com/chasem12345/BackyardBirding/tree/main

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Females - most pristine birds you've ever seen

Males - crackheads

I currently have a Reolink RLC-811A which advertises 8MP w/ 5x optical zoom, but at max zoom from about 12ft away, everything is still blurry as hell, and Frigate struggles to detect smaller birds.

I'm considering something like a Reolink RLC-823S2 for the 16x optical zoom at 8MP, but open to other ideas. The camera landscape has been.. surprisingly difficult to navigate on this particular subject.

Hoping someone has a suggestion or has a similar use case (bird detection from a few feet away) and can provide some input/examples

Wanted to get in some vball practice at home. Partner and I joined a rec beach league. This is what I came up with.

Had to replace the overhead opener with a side mount for overhead space. Works great. Above red line is net height.

Ball hanging from ceiling is at my serve height

Figured I'd share since I haven't seen many posts on incorporating some volleyball drills in home gym setups.

So my garage is extremely well insulated (garage door insulated and sealed, all walls pumped full of dense pack cellulose, r40 insulation in attic

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However, my portable AC unit that cools the space (dual hose unit, so no air pressure issues) is a little undersized and needs some help. It can successfully cool the garage down from 85 to 69 in around 8 hours.

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Issue is, I'd like to get that time down just a little bit. I know I could spend some money on a proper mini split that would be way more efficient at cooling, but I just recently spent $$$$$ on all new central HVAC, including new ducting in the attic.

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Is it possible to cut a register where the red square is (garage ceiling), then use the old cat flap that's already cut into the door where the green square is as a "return" vent, which I imagine would be a necessity since the garage is well sealed and outside the rest of the homes envelope?

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I'd supply the new red vent by getting a Y off the vent on the other side of the door (blue square)

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I'd only open the red/green vents when I wanted to cool the garage faster, and would hook up some kind of smart vent system to facilitate this, blocking them when not in use.

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As far as I can tell, this would not cause any pressure issues since I'm not blocking any of the vents added in the original install/pressure calculations.

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My question is, does this idea work? Is the juice worth the squeeze? In my head it's a no brainer way to get a little extra cooling in the garage when we need it. We keep the house on the diffuse setting so it's often cycling air, if that adds any context.

There's a LiftMaster 98022 on marketplace near me for 300 bucks. Would it be a drop in replacement? Any guestimate on how much it'd cost for a garage door company to do the swap?

At some point I'll get a better rack, but for now I have pretty much everything I'll ever need

I got one of these off marketplace for really cheap. Rows are great on it, however lat pulldown I'm not sure how to brace myself. I can sit on my bench and do them, but at heavy weights it's hard to keep from pulling myself up.

Anyone got any clever ideas? An attachment or something? Seatbelt under the legs somehow? Any ideas welcome

The exact model is this one

https://a.co/d/0izQJUks

Was trying to figure out a good way to do calf raises. The taweret actually works pretty good. Just need to stick a plate in the seat to weigh it down.

Excuse the pants. Home gymming has no dress code.