u/purplegreendave

Trying to do an electrical plan for my house build and wondering about the living room/AV gear. I have had a lightning storm take out gear before... Granted it was 20+ years ago and I think it came down the phone line because IIRC it took out a modem and network card in a computer.

We will be bringing in 200A service to the house.

I've always had my stuff plugged into a "surge protected" power bar but never really considered that they actually did a whole lot or that the manufacturer would actually reimburse me.

Is it worth getting a surge protector over a power bar or are they pretty worthless?

Would it be better to get a "whole home" protector at the panel, something like this?

https://www.rona.ca/en/product/eaton-7-in-surge-protection-device-chspt2ultra-13345171

Like anyone else I have a drawer full of old USB cables and chargers. Been meaning to sort and get rid of a few for ages, but hit breaking point last night when we plugged the Switch 2 into a charger labelled "Fast Charger", and while it had a charging icon lit up on screen, it couldn't keep up with handheld gaming and the % continued to drop, albeit slower (Must be an older standard, the writing is too faded to see but I'm assuming it's 15W). One of my power banks was the same story, and finally another power bank did the trick.

Thought I'd just buy a cheap USB tester and now I'm teetering on the edge of a really deep rabbit hole. Seems like I'd need 2x devices, a USB Tester and a USB Cable Tester. Then there's so many to choose from FNIRSI, Power-Z, Kowsi, Treedix etc etc

While reading last night I came across a few useful posts saying things like: there's two sets of D+/- but only one set should be enabled; there are power-only cables with no data pins and some devices like flashlights or BT speakers will only charge with those cables; there are cables which have X number of wires which are ok, cables with Y number of wires which are ok and cables in the wild with Z number of wires which are bad and should be thrown out. Unfortunately I lost/closed those posts and can't find them again (or hell maybe I dreamt about them after I went to bed)

So all in all, I'm sort of lost - first what should I buy, and second how tf do I use it?

In the never ending quest for a super reliable, fast, modded printer, I've printed a new fan shroud (SF 3x5150) and added a cartographer probe.

I am however having some issues and looking for some tips because I know I'm close and some tweaks to my PRINT_START would probably fix it.

I followed the Cartographer setup and installed the KNCM Macro. I was told that using a brass brush on the nozzle is a bad idea with a cartographer, hence the cleaning macro.

The filament I'm using right now is Tinmorry PETG-GF, Frosted Red. After doing a temp tower I'm printing at 260 first layer, 255 others.

Here's what I think is my issue: At the end of a print the nozzle oozes a bit. Then everything cools and this filament dries rock hard. So much so that on my next print, the TOUCH_HOME is thrown off by filament hitting the bed, and ultimately I get a disastrous first layer - or more often it just doesn't adhere to the bed at all and I end with spaghetti/a blob on the nozzle. At which point I'm back to square one with an even dirtier nozzle.

PRINT_START section here because it's too messy to format on reddit:

https://pastebin.com/PBJ1bjyx

Food prices are crazy right now especially where I live in the town of Buttfuck, province of Nowhere.

Absolutely no competition for groceries, so we've taken to just buying what's on sale and figuring out what to do with it later.

Just picked up some pork chops, labelled Sirloin end/Rib end Pork Chops. I mention Canada because I know with beef some cuts are labelled differently, not sure if it's the same with pork.

Is this the sort of cut you can just grill/sear and eat? Slice and stir fry? Braise?

Looking to dip my toes into wearable world. With various promos, these 4 are all in a similar price band of $180-200 CAD on aliexpress from "Brand+" sellers.

The pro versions of the GT 5 and Fit(s) are a bit more than I want to spend right now unless there's a very, very compelling reason. I'm not sure I'll get along with a wearable at all, could decide after a week that I don't like it.

I know they're not going to run regular Play Store apps, but wondering which would be best for the following:

• Sleep tracking

• Spotify control (watch linked to phone, playing through BT headphones, headphones connected to phone, phone on the other side of the room)

• Notifications (answer calls or reply to sms, phonecall on BT headphones connected to phone)

• Maps (walking around the city, check walking directions on your wrist without pulling phone out of your pocket)

• Hiking trails (similar to above, checking progress on trail, which turn to take where several trails are intertwined without taking phone out of pocket)

• Altimeter ("nice to have" not "need to have", good for ski touring)

For the last two phone would/could be in my pocket either with cell service or downloaded maps.

Basically never looking to leave my phone at home, but at work I don't carry it in my pocket I leave it in my toolbox within BT range. Hiking it's usually in my backpack.

For hiking maps, where can you pull trail data from? Assuming Trailforks/Strava won't work without Play Store.

I have read that real hardwood floors don't like in-floor heat. Not sure how true or not that is, wondering if there's a mat or something to go between the slab and wood so they behave well together?

What other flooring materials are compatible with/on top of a heated concrete slab?

And in 2026, what is the best bang for buck material in terms of looking/feeling nice, wearing well (cats, no kids), spill resistant (kitchen/bathroom) and I guess bonus points for DIY install.

I've done laminate floor and wall tile before, never tried floor tile but I'm assuming it's not much harder than wall tile.

I got a small cheap saw for free, an old Poulan Pro nothing fancy. I don't plan on falling anything just bucking what's already on the ground (although I have done the BC Basic Chainsaw Operator Course and feel comfortable falling most <6" if I need to).

A plastic part of the carb was broken so I replaced the entire carb. It seems to start ok after a few pulls full choke then half choke. Seems to be idling ok. If I go idle to full throttle straight away it bogs but if I tease it up to high idle with a few small pulls first it seems ok and holds a high idle.

I've been doing all my carb adjustments after bucking a few pieces so it's warmed up, but I can't figure out the bogging on the ramp up.

Air filter, fuel filter and spark plug are new. Spark arrestor is not plugged.

I'm having trouble importing a csv document into onlyoffice as a spreadsheet

I have fields with entries like "53-A", "50-A-1", "46 Top"

When I import the csv it's converting them to "53.0-A", "50.0-A-1", "46.0-Top" which is pretty annoying

When I click them and look at what the text is in the formula bar it only contains "53", "50", "46",

Which means if I select the column -> right click -> Number Format -> "General" or "Text" then I lose the second half ie. "-A", "-A-1", " Top"

Any suggestions on how to manage this?

Edit: I figured it out:

Open a new blank spreadsheet instead of opening the csv file.

Ctrl + A + A, set the Number formatting to text.

Data -> Get Data -> csv