{"video_id":"bTpKM43VhwA","title":"I HATE Batteries! - Converting Wireless to Wired (a cheapskate’s guide)","channel":"Linus Tech Tips","show":"Linus Tech Tips","published_at":"2023-05-05T14:53:29Z","duration_s":994,"segments":[{"start_s":0.0,"end_s":8.16,"text":"there's a time and a place for Batteries the place is the dumpster and even for","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":4.74,"end_s":10.5,"text":"rechargeables the time is eventually I","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":8.16,"end_s":13.86,"text":"hate them most of the batteries you buy are going to end up leeching nasty","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":12.059,"end_s":18.0,"text":"chemicals into the environment somewhere and even if you prefer coal rolling to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":16.44,"end_s":22.14,"text":"tree hugging they're a massive inconvenience I mean yes yes in some","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":20.34,"end_s":26.22,"text":"places they make sense I mean who would want to wire permanently attached to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":23.58,"end_s":33.36,"text":"their TV remote but what in the Sam Hill is this and where is the plug no I","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":30.48,"end_s":37.739,"text":"reject your reality and I substitute my own but","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":35.28,"end_s":42.059,"text":"don't get the wrong idea this is no Adam Savage level mod converting a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":40.14,"end_s":46.44,"text":"battery-powered device like this one to take regular wall power is both fast and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":44.94,"end_s":50.52,"text":"easy I don't think this is going to happen and if you don't mind taking some","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":48.66,"end_s":55.079,"text":"shortcuts it can be shockingly inexpensive unlike sponsorships for this","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":52.8,"end_s":60.3,"text":"channel like the one we sold to table mod elevate your RGB keyboard experience","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":57.96,"end_s":64.559,"text":"with cable mods beautiful ABS laser keycaps featuring Unique Designs and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":62.28,"end_s":70.14,"text":"maximum glow learn more at the link down below this trend towards filling up our","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":67.38,"end_s":75.36,"text":"homes with stationary objects that require regular battery Replacements is","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":73.02,"end_s":80.58,"text":"baffling and infuriating to me because when I say regular battery Replacements","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":77.88,"end_s":84.24,"text":"I'm being extremely generous a they tend to fail in a staggered rather than","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":82.5,"end_s":89.22,"text":"predictable manner meaning there is basically always something in your house","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":87.06,"end_s":96.299,"text":"waiting for you to grab a step stool and pop in a new Power Pod and these CR","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":93.24,"end_s":99.659,"text":"whatever the craps they are are anything","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":96.299,"end_s":103.56,"text":"but regular I mean they're mostly","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":99.659,"end_s":106.32,"text":"similar generally kind of button shaped","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":103.56,"end_s":110.52,"text":"in three-ish volts and lithium-based but they come in a wide variety of diameters","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":108.659,"end_s":114.72,"text":"and thicknesses to the point where trying to predict and stock everything","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":112.74,"end_s":118.799,"text":"you might need will make you feel like you're some kind of career procurement","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":116.399,"end_s":123.24,"text":"officer but then you're good right once you've got them all in your little","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":119.759,"end_s":125.52,"text":"organizer well no like any batteries","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":123.24,"end_s":129.179,"text":"they have a finite shelf life so you can't order too many of them you should","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":127.32,"end_s":132.9,"text":"spend that money instead on stocking up on waffle sweaters from ltdstore.com","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":131.099,"end_s":137.64,"text":"we've got lots of different colors now to be clear I fully support the idea of","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":135.42,"end_s":141.959,"text":"optional battery power or battery backups in the event of a power loss","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":139.739,"end_s":146.64,"text":"this is especially important for devices like smoke detectors or emergency","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":143.879,"end_s":151.2,"text":"lighting that must operate even in the event of a power outage or for devices","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":148.8,"end_s":156.66,"text":"with volatile memory but if I had a battery in every stupid connected thing","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":154.08,"end_s":161.34,"text":"in my house it wouldn't matter if they all boasted one year battery life it","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":159.48,"end_s":165.599,"text":"would be a weekly chore to be going around and swapping out and ordering new","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":163.739,"end_s":169.5,"text":"battery inventory even without much smart home nonsense it was getting to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":167.099,"end_s":174.66,"text":"that point at my old place which is why I implemented the zero batteries policy","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":172.56,"end_s":179.28,"text":"for my new house everything from security sensors to doorbells to smoke","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":176.519,"end_s":185.94,"text":"detectors is hardwired and it was working great until ecobee screwed me","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":182.58,"end_s":187.379,"text":"over with the smart sensor due to a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":185.94,"end_s":190.56,"text":"questionable design Choice by the original owners of this house the two","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":189.239,"end_s":196.14,"text":"bedrooms that we're about to walk through are on the same in-floor heating","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":193.5,"end_s":199.98,"text":"zone now this could have been rectified during our renovation but it would have","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":198.06,"end_s":203.7,"text":"basically involved ripping out the existing tubing which is embedded in","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":201.72,"end_s":206.22,"text":"concrete by the way and running new Loops down to the basement mechanical","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":205.44,"end_s":211.62,"text":"room yeah that wasn't gonna happen which","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":208.98,"end_s":216.239,"text":"means that a single thermostat right here controls the heating for both of","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":213.959,"end_s":220.019,"text":"those rooms that's not inherently a huge problem given that both rooms face the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":218.099,"end_s":224.459,"text":"same direction and have similar sized Windows except that the thermostat and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":222.12,"end_s":229.08,"text":"therefore temperature sensor is in a completely different space in the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":226.5,"end_s":233.28,"text":"hallway and my daughters were thoroughly unimpressed to find that the new","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":231.06,"end_s":238.68,"text":"in-floor heat didn't activate for them at all because even though the upstairs","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":235.62,"end_s":241.62,"text":"hallway doesn't actually have tubes","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":238.68,"end_s":247.08,"text":"running under it heat rises and enough rows from downstairs that their","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":244.319,"end_s":251.819,"text":"thermostat was always reporting a comfortable temperature now one way","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":248.94,"end_s":255.48,"text":"around this is offsets ecobee and most other thermostats for that matter has a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":253.799,"end_s":260.22,"text":"simple interface that allows you to take the temperature of the room in your","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":257.34,"end_s":263.699,"text":"desired spot then key in an adjustment that allows you to account for that","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":261.72,"end_s":267.36,"text":"difference this is a great solution if your sensor happens to be right next to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":265.62,"end_s":271.199,"text":"a window and and you don't want the rest of the room to end up being stifling hot","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":269.34,"end_s":274.979,"text":"but for the girls it wouldn't do me a lick of good because the in-floor","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":273.18,"end_s":278.58,"text":"heating and the sensor are on the opposite sides of a wall I'd actually","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":276.84,"end_s":282.54,"text":"end up with the opposite problem they'd end up with heat stroke in the middle of","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":279.9,"end_s":288.12,"text":"winter how embarrassing thankfully there is a solution for this ecobee allows you","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":285.0,"end_s":290.4,"text":"to pair one or multiple smart sensors to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":288.12,"end_s":296.04,"text":"your thermostat wirelessly to feedback data on both temperature and occupancy","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":293.4,"end_s":300.419,"text":"ensuring that on average your room is comfortable so I picked up a two pack of","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":298.5,"end_s":306.12,"text":"these only to find out that there is absolutely no way to power them without","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":303.54,"end_s":311.28,"text":"batteries and wildly this wasn't even a case of me just buying the wrong version","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":307.979,"end_s":313.699,"text":"there is no wall powered smart sensor","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":311.28,"end_s":318.0,"text":"what the heck ecobee fortunately converting a battery powered smart","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":315.9,"end_s":321.84,"text":"sensor to a wall powered one should only take a few minutes","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":319.68,"end_s":325.979,"text":"there's one right here by their nature all battery powered devices will have","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":324.06,"end_s":330.0,"text":"their power contacts easily accessible all we need to do is get the same DC","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":328.199,"end_s":333.56,"text":"voltage that the battery was supplying to those contacts so our battery here is","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":332.82,"end_s":339.78,"text":"a cr2477 runs at 3 volts which is pretty","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":337.02,"end_s":345.06,"text":"typical of a button cell but not that typical of a wall power supply that's","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":342.539,"end_s":349.56,"text":"okay though we have some options you can get your hands on three volt power","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":346.56,"end_s":351.539,"text":"supplies or variable power supplies but","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":349.56,"end_s":354.9,"text":"I promised that this was going to be extremely cheap if you were willing to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":353.039,"end_s":359.759,"text":"take some shortcuts remember and that's exactly what we're going to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":356.4,"end_s":361.919,"text":"be doing 5 volt low amperage USB power","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":359.759,"end_s":367.08,"text":"supplies like this are flipping everywhere they cost just a few dollars","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":364.5,"end_s":371.58,"text":"to buy brand new and realistically you probably have a handful of them lying","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":368.46,"end_s":373.62,"text":"around already it is possible that your","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":371.58,"end_s":378.12,"text":"device would actually take the 5 volt output from this just fine we talked in","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":376.139,"end_s":382.259,"text":"more detail about how to tell if a device has a range of acceptable input","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":380.58,"end_s":387.84,"text":"voltages in our recent video about converting old game consoles to USBC but","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":385.139,"end_s":393.419,"text":"the smart sensor unfortunately does not it's pretty sensitive and we need to get","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":390.18,"end_s":396.479,"text":"exactly 3.2 volts which is the nominal","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":393.419,"end_s":398.52,"text":"voltage of these button cells into it so","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":396.479,"end_s":401.819,"text":"here is how we're going to do it there are a number of different ways to step","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":400.139,"end_s":406.199,"text":"down the voltage coming out of our wall board depending on your tolerance for","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":403.819,"end_s":411.36,"text":"ratchetness our first attempt simply used resistors we did manage to get the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":408.6,"end_s":415.08,"text":"voltage down to about 3 volts but what we found was that once the device","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":412.979,"end_s":420.06,"text":"actually booted up it dropped down to 1.7 or so which caused it to to not boot","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":418.44,"end_s":426.3,"text":"up anymore so instead we're going with this mic 5504 voltage regulator which","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":422.94,"end_s":428.36,"text":"gets us down to 3.3 volts not quite low","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":426.3,"end_s":434.639,"text":"enough and this 1000 ohm potentiometer which is","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":432.06,"end_s":439.56,"text":"basically a variable resistor the total cost about 40 cents to do this over","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":437.639,"end_s":442.259,"text":"again I would probably just buy a 3 volt voltage regulator but they're less","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":440.819,"end_s":445.199,"text":"common and we didn't have any lying around so this is the route we took the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":443.88,"end_s":449.94,"text":"one thing to watch out for when you're using a voltage regulator though is that","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":447.18,"end_s":453.66,"text":"the higher power draw the device is the more heat it might kick out if you're","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":451.74,"end_s":458.4,"text":"inputting a higher voltage than what it's expecting so it's not like a a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":456.06,"end_s":461.88,"text":"magic oh I have a thousand volts incoming and I need five I'll just put","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":460.62,"end_s":469.02,"text":"one of these on here it doesn't really work like that it needs to be kind of close for wiring I'm just grabbing an","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":465.84,"end_s":471.3,"text":"old USB A2 mini B cable that I don't","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":469.02,"end_s":475.44,"text":"need anymore and to cleanly pass it into my device I'm just going to drill a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":473.22,"end_s":478.56,"text":"small hole in the existing backplate ah oh yeah","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":477.12,"end_s":483.78,"text":"so clean love it I do not have the best wire","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":481.02,"end_s":487.8,"text":"strippers for these tiny little wires I haven't yet these are my old janky ones","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":486.12,"end_s":491.16,"text":"honestly a fingernail is probably better than these the black and red wires in","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":489.539,"end_s":493.58,"text":"here should be five volt but we're just going to sanity check that real quick","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":492.66,"end_s":500.16,"text":"here 4.95 perfect now things are about to get","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":496.8,"end_s":502.56,"text":"extremely spicy unlike Dan who did the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":500.16,"end_s":506.639,"text":"proof of concept for this I do not have Helping Hands or a proper soldering","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":504.66,"end_s":513.44,"text":"workbench or really any of the things that I need to work on this so good luck","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":509.639,"end_s":513.44,"text":"to me soldering this to that","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":513.899,"end_s":520.5,"text":"okay um that actually went better than I","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":517.32,"end_s":523.94,"text":"expected all I have to do is about 10","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":520.5,"end_s":527.459,"text":"more successful micro solders","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":523.94,"end_s":530.519,"text":"I hate my socks I hate my flux this is","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":527.459,"end_s":532.56,"text":"really crappy old flux but the best flux","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":530.519,"end_s":538.64,"text":"is the flux you have if you don't like it go flex yourself","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":535.92,"end_s":543.56,"text":"whoops did I say 40 cents I meant 80 cents","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":544.14,"end_s":549.12,"text":"I love down for how awesome he is but I hate him for how he makes the rest of us","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":547.38,"end_s":552.72,"text":"look if you're watching this thinking surely there must be an easier way yes","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":550.68,"end_s":556.5,"text":"the easier way is to not use surface mount components like this that are","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":554.399,"end_s":560.16,"text":"intended for like board manufacturing our red and black cables go into a y","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":558.66,"end_s":564.959,"text":"splitter and directly into our potentiometer respectively it goes out","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":562.62,"end_s":568.92,"text":"into our 3.3 volt regulator and then we just need to dial in the pot to make","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":566.76,"end_s":572.839,"text":"sure that the voltage is going out to our ecobee smart sensor are exactly and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":571.74,"end_s":577.339,"text":"exactly 3.2 volts so let's just go ahead and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":575.88,"end_s":583.8,"text":"double check that 3.26 uh okay well we'll need to adjust","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":580.8,"end_s":586.92,"text":"that oh boy I turned that way too much","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":583.8,"end_s":589.14,"text":"oh okay good I might need you to hold","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":586.92,"end_s":592.38,"text":"this steady 3.1 should be fine okay let's go","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":590.76,"end_s":595.74,"text":"let's go obviously the stand isn't really designed to account for this","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":594.3,"end_s":600.48,"text":"extra weight off of the back but that's okay so might have a problem we'll solve that another day","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":598.44,"end_s":606.54,"text":"okay let's plug this bad boy in ah","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":603.56,"end_s":610.86,"text":"yep and I guess this dresser stays that far from the wall now okay","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":608.58,"end_s":616.5,"text":"add a new sensor blah blah blah blah blah blah sure fine oh I gotta scan the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":614.22,"end_s":621.24,"text":"QR code inside it if I break this wiring I will be","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":618.62,"end_s":626.48,"text":"extremely unhappy select an ecobee device to connect to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":623.519,"end_s":626.48,"text":"this smart sensor","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":626.519,"end_s":631.92,"text":"okay sure connect is it gonna work no","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":630.66,"end_s":636.0,"text":"lights on it or anything because it's designed to run on battery for like two","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":634.019,"end_s":639.54,"text":"years or something like that is this one of those cases where I have over","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":637.26,"end_s":643.62,"text":"engineered the solution yeah most people probably aren't going to do this shoot I","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":642.0,"end_s":647.64,"text":"think I have to adjust that pot again one of the troubleshooting steps is to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":645.959,"end_s":655.8,"text":"bring the sensor closer to your thermostat maybe that's the problem nope","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":652.019,"end_s":658.68,"text":"okay it's basically an exactly 3.2 now I","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":655.8,"end_s":662.88,"text":"wonder if it's dead this may have been more trouble than it was worth let's uh","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":661.32,"end_s":667.92,"text":"let's try a different sensor real quick here one of those things where","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":666.12,"end_s":671.64,"text":"hate every moment of it while I'm doing it but as soon as I'm done I can't wait","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":670.019,"end_s":676.56,"text":"to do it again you know why is my hobbyist this","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":673.68,"end_s":680.06,"text":"why are you 4.2 volts well I sincerely hope I didn't fry this","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":678.6,"end_s":688.019,"text":"thing 3.175 okay let's try it Boop","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":685.38,"end_s":692.1,"text":"girl's room nope hello go ahead hey you're on speaker I'm at my Wit's End","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":689.519,"end_s":697.32,"text":"here okay it could be that it's registered to the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":694.2,"end_s":699.12,"text":"the ecobee here no I tried I tried","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":697.32,"end_s":705.72,"text":"popping your thing into a different one it's at 3.200 volts exactly what you","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":703.5,"end_s":709.98,"text":"specified I accidentally ran it at a higher voltage momentarily it was at","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":707.519,"end_s":714.6,"text":"like 4.5 do you think I just fried it no I was doing that a lot what you could","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":712.019,"end_s":718.44,"text":"try doing is is furlough or like increasing the voltage","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":716.04,"end_s":724.44,"text":"down the pot until it spikes up to four and then increasing it from there to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":720.899,"end_s":726.6,"text":"bring it back down to 3.2 I think it has","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":724.44,"end_s":731.279,"text":"a large bit of draw right at the start and that screws with our little Jank","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":728.519,"end_s":735.6,"text":"system oh I think we've reached the point in this video where I can't say","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":732.839,"end_s":740.1,"text":"that I would recommend doing this yeah hey guys Dan here I figured out","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":738.06,"end_s":745.019,"text":"what was going wrong with Linus's ecobee one of the little tiny wires inside the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":742.44,"end_s":748.74,"text":"USB end actually broke and so we weren't getting the full five volts that we","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":746.76,"end_s":752.22,"text":"needed to make it run at all Linus actually did a great job with the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":750.24,"end_s":756.3,"text":"impossible soldering task that I gave him I hope you can appreciate just how","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":754.019,"end_s":760.2,"text":"absolutely tiny some of these SMD size components are I mean honestly could you","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":758.04,"end_s":764.04,"text":"solder onto that like in your carpet that's nuts these do come in larger","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":762.06,"end_s":767.88,"text":"versions but we didn't have any on site so I had to kind of make do with what we","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":765.839,"end_s":772.32,"text":"had however while troubleshooting I actually did find a better solution","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":769.98,"end_s":775.56,"text":"that's kind of you know Linus proof look at the size of this guy it's giant I","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":774.18,"end_s":778.98,"text":"don't even have to use tweezers to hold it up far easier I've done a little test","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":777.48,"end_s":782.7,"text":"set up here so you can kind of see how they work it's really neat we can use","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":780.66,"end_s":785.7,"text":"three of them in series to step down the voltage to exactly what we want if we","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":784.26,"end_s":789.42,"text":"wanted a lower voltage then we could just add more in the first section","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":787.26,"end_s":793.62,"text":"before the diode we're getting our 5 volts that's directly right out of our","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":791.399,"end_s":798.779,"text":"USB wall Ward and at the final position we're getting 4.3 now that's not the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":797.22,"end_s":802.44,"text":"three volts we need which is kind of weird because there's no current being","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":800.82,"end_s":804.959,"text":"sucked out of the diodes the circuit kind of doesn't know what's going on and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":803.88,"end_s":811.56,"text":"the power supply doesn't know what's going on nothing's being drawn as soon","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":807.54,"end_s":814.079,"text":"as we add our ecobee sensor in here on","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":811.56,"end_s":820.26,"text":"our first section we're getting 5.1 on our second section we're getting 4.7 and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":817.5,"end_s":824.459,"text":"our third section we're getting 4.3 and then finally on the output we're now","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":822.36,"end_s":829.579,"text":"hovering around 4 volts so we've stepped down like a whole volt these ecopies are","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":826.26,"end_s":832.68,"text":"ultra low draw devices these draw like","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":829.579,"end_s":834.6,"text":".005 of a milliamp which is almost","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":832.68,"end_s":837.24,"text":"nothing when we're about to pair them they're actually drawing a lot of","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":835.92,"end_s":840.6,"text":"current they know that they're not paired and they're drawing 30 to 50","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":839.04,"end_s":845.1,"text":"milliamps and that's kind of what we're seeing when we're dropping down to our","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":842.04,"end_s":847.019,"text":"three volts initially every four to ten","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":845.1,"end_s":850.079,"text":"minutes you get a little Spike of 7 million this is one of the reason Linus","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":848.88,"end_s":853.56,"text":"was struggling so much because it's asking for wildly different amounts of","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":851.88,"end_s":858.06,"text":"current I think this is kind of one of the weirder devices in this category to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":856.139,"end_s":861.3,"text":"convert to battery power I think both of us learn quite a lot on this interesting","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":859.62,"end_s":865.86,"text":"little project and here's another little finished one I did I'm happy to be done","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":862.98,"end_s":869.639,"text":"with this however Linus doesn't know any of this because he was trying it about a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":867.6,"end_s":875.0,"text":"week ago let's see how he does here's what we're going to do","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":871.26,"end_s":875.0,"text":"we're going to unplug it","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":875.339,"end_s":881.22,"text":"oh shoot I just melted a bunch of the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":878.7,"end_s":884.82,"text":"plastic housing oh it still fits thank goodness now we just need to go into","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":883.019,"end_s":888.48,"text":"home assistant and see if we're actually getting a readout from it holy crap I","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":886.86,"end_s":895.019,"text":"think it might be working let's take it into the room holy crap I will I will come up with a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":892.86,"end_s":899.82,"text":"better system for this later and we finally got a temperature update","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":897.12,"end_s":903.12,"text":"it's about a 20 minute cycle time which I guess makes sense on a device that's","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":901.26,"end_s":907.92,"text":"intended to run for years on a button cell but anyway the point is it's","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":905.639,"end_s":914.339,"text":"flipping working which means I don't have to run the heat pump in the winter","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":910.079,"end_s":916.44,"text":"anymore see you later uh uh wait yeah","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":914.339,"end_s":920.279,"text":"work I'm so excited this worked I'm not","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":918.42,"end_s":924.66,"text":"excited to do up another two of them without Dan's help but I am excited to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":922.86,"end_s":928.62,"text":"tell you about our sponsor a big thank you to vesi for sponsoring today's video","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":926.72,"end_s":933.06,"text":"wet socks see even hearing the words makes you","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":930.72,"end_s":937.8,"text":"cringe don't worry vessey's on the case fessy Footwear claims that their dymatex","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":935.699,"end_s":941.399,"text":"technology makes their shoes a hundred percent waterproof and keeps your feet","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":939.48,"end_s":945.72,"text":"cool in the summer and warm in the winter and their new storm burst shoes","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":943.38,"end_s":950.399,"text":"combine the comfort of a sneaker with the grip and coverage of an outdoor boot","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":947.88,"end_s":954.0,"text":"vesi has added extra layering for added warmth as well as extra grip to prevent","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":952.44,"end_s":958.56,"text":"you from slipping and sliding in unfavorable weather conditions unless","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":956.1,"end_s":962.639,"text":"you want to even then it'll be hard most boots are hard to put on and take off","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":960.24,"end_s":966.72,"text":"not the storm bursts take them off and put them on with ease thanks to the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":964.38,"end_s":969.899,"text":"handy pull tabs the storm bursts are feature packed and will make great gifts","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":968.399,"end_s":973.86,"text":"with the unpredictable Spring weather coming up so check out the vessi storm","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":971.88,"end_s":979.5,"text":"burst and other styles at vessi.com Linus Tech tips and use code LTT for 15","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":976.98,"end_s":982.62,"text":"off your entire order that's a pretty this is part of the deal if you guys","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":981.0,"end_s":985.8,"text":"enjoyed this video maybe go check out the one where Jake helped me hack","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":984.0,"end_s":989.399,"text":"together this whole ecobee home assistant thing in the first place it's","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":987.6,"end_s":993.86,"text":"pretty interesting staying actually these are this is not how these things","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":991.019,"end_s":993.86,"text":"are intended to be used","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0}],"full_text":"there's a time and a place for Batteries the place is the dumpster and even for rechargeables the time is eventually I hate them most of the batteries you buy are going to end up leeching nasty chemicals into the environment somewhere and even if you prefer coal rolling to tree hugging they're a massive inconvenience I mean yes yes in some places they make sense I mean who would want to wire permanently attached to their TV remote but what in the Sam Hill is this and where is the plug no I reject your reality and I substitute my own but don't get the wrong idea this is no Adam Savage level mod converting a battery-powered device like this one to take regular wall power is both fast and easy I don't think this is going to happen and if you don't mind taking some shortcuts it can be shockingly inexpensive unlike sponsorships for this channel like the one we sold to table mod elevate your RGB keyboard experience with cable mods beautiful ABS laser keycaps featuring Unique Designs and maximum glow learn more at the link down below this trend towards filling up our homes with stationary objects that require regular battery Replacements is baffling and infuriating to me because when I say regular battery Replacements I'm being extremely generous a they tend to fail in a staggered rather than predictable manner meaning there is basically always something in your house waiting for you to grab a step stool and pop in a new Power Pod and these CR whatever the craps they are are anything but regular I mean they're mostly similar generally kind of button shaped in three-ish volts and lithium-based but they come in a wide variety of diameters and thicknesses to the point where trying to predict and stock everything you might need will make you feel like you're some kind of career procurement officer but then you're good right once you've got them all in your little organizer well no like any batteries they have a finite shelf life so you can't order too many of them you should spend that money instead on stocking up on waffle sweaters from ltdstore.com we've got lots of different colors now to be clear I fully support the idea of optional battery power or battery backups in the event of a power loss this is especially important for devices like smoke detectors or emergency lighting that must operate even in the event of a power outage or for devices with volatile memory but if I had a battery in every stupid connected thing in my house it wouldn't matter if they all boasted one year battery life it would be a weekly chore to be going around and swapping out and ordering new battery inventory even without much smart home nonsense it was getting to that point at my old place which is why I implemented the zero batteries policy for my new house everything from security sensors to doorbells to smoke detectors is hardwired and it was working great until ecobee screwed me over with the smart sensor due to a questionable design Choice by the original owners of this house the two bedrooms that we're about to walk through are on the same in-floor heating zone now this could have been rectified during our renovation but it would have basically involved ripping out the existing tubing which is embedded in concrete by the way and running new Loops down to the basement mechanical room yeah that wasn't gonna happen which means that a single thermostat right here controls the heating for both of those rooms that's not inherently a huge problem given that both rooms face the same direction and have similar sized Windows except that the thermostat and therefore temperature sensor is in a completely different space in the hallway and my daughters were thoroughly unimpressed to find that the new in-floor heat didn't activate for them at all because even though the upstairs hallway doesn't actually have tubes running under it heat rises and enough rows from downstairs that their thermostat was always reporting a comfortable temperature now one way around this is offsets ecobee and most other thermostats for that matter has a simple interface that allows you to take the temperature of the room in your desired spot then key in an adjustment that allows you to account for that difference this is a great solution if your sensor happens to be right next to a window and and you don't want the rest of the room to end up being stifling hot but for the girls it wouldn't do me a lick of good because the in-floor heating and the sensor are on the opposite sides of a wall I'd actually end up with the opposite problem they'd end up with heat stroke in the middle of winter how embarrassing thankfully there is a solution for this ecobee allows you to pair one or multiple smart sensors to your thermostat wirelessly to feedback data on both temperature and occupancy ensuring that on average your room is comfortable so I picked up a two pack of these only to find out that there is absolutely no way to power them without batteries and wildly this wasn't even a case of me just buying the wrong version there is no wall powered smart sensor what the heck ecobee fortunately converting a battery powered smart sensor to a wall powered one should only take a few minutes there's one right here by their nature all battery powered devices will have their power contacts easily accessible all we need to do is get the same DC voltage that the battery was supplying to those contacts so our battery here is a cr2477 runs at 3 volts which is pretty typical of a button cell but not that typical of a wall power supply that's okay though we have some options you can get your hands on three volt power supplies or variable power supplies but I promised that this was going to be extremely cheap if you were willing to take some shortcuts remember and that's exactly what we're going to be doing 5 volt low amperage USB power supplies like this are flipping everywhere they cost just a few dollars to buy brand new and realistically you probably have a handful of them lying around already it is possible that your device would actually take the 5 volt output from this just fine we talked in more detail about how to tell if a device has a range of acceptable input voltages in our recent video about converting old game consoles to USBC but the smart sensor unfortunately does not it's pretty sensitive and we need to get exactly 3.2 volts which is the nominal voltage of these button cells into it so here is how we're going to do it there are a number of different ways to step down the voltage coming out of our wall board depending on your tolerance for ratchetness our first attempt simply used resistors we did manage to get the voltage down to about 3 volts but what we found was that once the device actually booted up it dropped down to 1.7 or so which caused it to to not boot up anymore so instead we're going with this mic 5504 voltage regulator which gets us down to 3.3 volts not quite low enough and this 1000 ohm potentiometer which is basically a variable resistor the total cost about 40 cents to do this over again I would probably just buy a 3 volt voltage regulator but they're less common and we didn't have any lying around so this is the route we took the one thing to watch out for when you're using a voltage regulator though is that the higher power draw the device is the more heat it might kick out if you're inputting a higher voltage than what it's expecting so it's not like a a magic oh I have a thousand volts incoming and I need five I'll just put one of these on here it doesn't really work like that it needs to be kind of close for wiring I'm just grabbing an old USB A2 mini B cable that I don't need anymore and to cleanly pass it into my device I'm just going to drill a small hole in the existing backplate ah oh yeah so clean love it I do not have the best wire strippers for these tiny little wires I haven't yet these are my old janky ones honestly a fingernail is probably better than these the black and red wires in here should be five volt but we're just going to sanity check that real quick here 4.95 perfect now things are about to get extremely spicy unlike Dan who did the proof of concept for this I do not have Helping Hands or a proper soldering workbench or really any of the things that I need to work on this so good luck to me soldering this to that okay um that actually went better than I expected all I have to do is about 10 more successful micro solders I hate my socks I hate my flux this is really crappy old flux but the best flux is the flux you have if you don't like it go flex yourself whoops did I say 40 cents I meant 80 cents I love down for how awesome he is but I hate him for how he makes the rest of us look if you're watching this thinking surely there must be an easier way yes the easier way is to not use surface mount components like this that are intended for like board manufacturing our red and black cables go into a y splitter and directly into our potentiometer respectively it goes out into our 3.3 volt regulator and then we just need to dial in the pot to make sure that the voltage is going out to our ecobee smart sensor are exactly and exactly 3.2 volts so let's just go ahead and double check that 3.26 uh okay well we'll need to adjust that oh boy I turned that way too much oh okay good I might need you to hold this steady 3.1 should be fine okay let's go let's go obviously the stand isn't really designed to account for this extra weight off of the back but that's okay so might have a problem we'll solve that another day okay let's plug this bad boy in ah yep and I guess this dresser stays that far from the wall now okay add a new sensor blah blah blah blah blah blah sure fine oh I gotta scan the QR code inside it if I break this wiring I will be extremely unhappy select an ecobee device to connect to this smart sensor okay sure connect is it gonna work no lights on it or anything because it's designed to run on battery for like two years or something like that is this one of those cases where I have over engineered the solution yeah most people probably aren't going to do this shoot I think I have to adjust that pot again one of the troubleshooting steps is to bring the sensor closer to your thermostat maybe that's the problem nope okay it's basically an exactly 3.2 now I wonder if it's dead this may have been more trouble than it was worth let's uh let's try a different sensor real quick here one of those things where hate every moment of it while I'm doing it but as soon as I'm done I can't wait to do it again you know why is my hobbyist this why are you 4.2 volts well I sincerely hope I didn't fry this thing 3.175 okay let's try it Boop girl's room nope hello go ahead hey you're on speaker I'm at my Wit's End here okay it could be that it's registered to the the ecobee here no I tried I tried popping your thing into a different one it's at 3.200 volts exactly what you specified I accidentally ran it at a higher voltage momentarily it was at like 4.5 do you think I just fried it no I was doing that a lot what you could try doing is is furlough or like increasing the voltage down the pot until it spikes up to four and then increasing it from there to bring it back down to 3.2 I think it has a large bit of draw right at the start and that screws with our little Jank system oh I think we've reached the point in this video where I can't say that I would recommend doing this yeah hey guys Dan here I figured out what was going wrong with Linus's ecobee one of the little tiny wires inside the USB end actually broke and so we weren't getting the full five volts that we needed to make it run at all Linus actually did a great job with the impossible soldering task that I gave him I hope you can appreciate just how absolutely tiny some of these SMD size components are I mean honestly could you solder onto that like in your carpet that's nuts these do come in larger versions but we didn't have any on site so I had to kind of make do with what we had however while troubleshooting I actually did find a better solution that's kind of you know Linus proof look at the size of this guy it's giant I don't even have to use tweezers to hold it up far easier I've done a little test set up here so you can kind of see how they work it's really neat we can use three of them in series to step down the voltage to exactly what we want if we wanted a lower voltage then we could just add more in the first section before the diode we're getting our 5 volts that's directly right out of our USB wall Ward and at the final position we're getting 4.3 now that's not the three volts we need which is kind of weird because there's no current being sucked out of the diodes the circuit kind of doesn't know what's going on and the power supply doesn't know what's going on nothing's being drawn as soon as we add our ecobee sensor in here on our first section we're getting 5.1 on our second section we're getting 4.7 and our third section we're getting 4.3 and then finally on the output we're now hovering around 4 volts so we've stepped down like a whole volt these ecopies are ultra low draw devices these draw like .005 of a milliamp which is almost nothing when we're about to pair them they're actually drawing a lot of current they know that they're not paired and they're drawing 30 to 50 milliamps and that's kind of what we're seeing when we're dropping down to our three volts initially every four to ten minutes you get a little Spike of 7 million this is one of the reason Linus was struggling so much because it's asking for wildly different amounts of current I think this is kind of one of the weirder devices in this category to convert to battery power I think both of us learn quite a lot on this interesting little project and here's another little finished one I did I'm happy to be done with this however Linus doesn't know any of this because he was trying it about a week ago let's see how he does here's what we're going to do we're going to unplug it oh shoot I just melted a bunch of the plastic housing oh it still fits thank goodness now we just need to go into home assistant and see if we're actually getting a readout from it holy crap I think it might be working let's take it into the room holy crap I will I will come up with a better system for this later and we finally got a temperature update it's about a 20 minute cycle time which I guess makes sense on a device that's intended to run for years on a button cell but anyway the point is it's flipping working which means I don't have to run the heat pump in the winter anymore see you later uh uh wait yeah work I'm so excited this worked I'm not excited to do up another two of them without Dan's help but I am excited to tell you about our sponsor a big thank you to vesi for sponsoring today's video wet socks see even hearing the words makes you cringe don't worry vessey's on the case fessy Footwear claims that their dymatex technology makes their shoes a hundred percent waterproof and keeps your feet cool in the summer and warm in the winter and their new storm burst shoes combine the comfort of a sneaker with the grip and coverage of an outdoor boot vesi has added extra layering for added warmth as well as extra grip to prevent you from slipping and sliding in unfavorable weather conditions unless you want to even then it'll be hard most boots are hard to put on and take off not the storm bursts take them off and put them on with ease thanks to the handy pull tabs the storm bursts are feature packed and will make great gifts with the unpredictable Spring weather coming up so check out the vessi storm burst and other styles at vessi.com Linus Tech tips and use code LTT for 15 off your entire order that's a pretty this is part of the deal if you guys enjoyed this video maybe go check out the one where Jake helped me hack together this whole ecobee home assistant thing in the first place it's pretty interesting staying actually these are this is not how these things are intended to be used"}