WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.160 there's a time and a place for Batteries the place is the dumpster and even for 00:00:04.740 --> 00:00:10.500 rechargeables the time is eventually I 00:00:08.160 --> 00:00:13.860 hate them most of the batteries you buy are going to end up leeching nasty 00:00:12.059 --> 00:00:18.000 chemicals into the environment somewhere and even if you prefer coal rolling to 00:00:16.440 --> 00:00:22.140 tree hugging they're a massive inconvenience I mean yes yes in some 00:00:20.340 --> 00:00:26.220 places they make sense I mean who would want to wire permanently attached to 00:00:23.580 --> 00:00:33.360 their TV remote but what in the Sam Hill is this and where is the plug no I 00:00:30.480 --> 00:00:37.739 reject your reality and I substitute my own but 00:00:35.280 --> 00:00:42.059 don't get the wrong idea this is no Adam Savage level mod converting a 00:00:40.140 --> 00:00:46.440 battery-powered device like this one to take regular wall power is both fast and 00:00:44.940 --> 00:00:50.520 easy I don't think this is going to happen and if you don't mind taking some 00:00:48.660 --> 00:00:55.079 shortcuts it can be shockingly inexpensive unlike sponsorships for this 00:00:52.800 --> 00:01:00.300 channel like the one we sold to table mod elevate your RGB keyboard experience 00:00:57.960 --> 00:01:04.559 with cable mods beautiful ABS laser keycaps featuring Unique Designs and 00:01:02.280 --> 00:01:10.140 maximum glow learn more at the link down below this trend towards filling up our 00:01:07.380 --> 00:01:15.360 homes with stationary objects that require regular battery Replacements is 00:01:13.020 --> 00:01:20.580 baffling and infuriating to me because when I say regular battery Replacements 00:01:17.880 --> 00:01:24.240 I'm being extremely generous a they tend to fail in a staggered rather than 00:01:22.500 --> 00:01:29.220 predictable manner meaning there is basically always something in your house 00:01:27.060 --> 00:01:36.299 waiting for you to grab a step stool and pop in a new Power Pod and these CR 00:01:33.240 --> 00:01:39.659 whatever the craps they are are anything 00:01:36.299 --> 00:01:43.560 but regular I mean they're mostly 00:01:39.659 --> 00:01:46.320 similar generally kind of button shaped 00:01:43.560 --> 00:01:50.520 in three-ish volts and lithium-based but they come in a wide variety of diameters 00:01:48.659 --> 00:01:54.720 and thicknesses to the point where trying to predict and stock everything 00:01:52.740 --> 00:01:58.799 you might need will make you feel like you're some kind of career procurement 00:01:56.399 --> 00:02:03.240 officer but then you're good right once you've got them all in your little 00:01:59.759 --> 00:02:05.520 organizer well no like any batteries 00:02:03.240 --> 00:02:09.179 they have a finite shelf life so you can't order too many of them you should 00:02:07.320 --> 00:02:12.900 spend that money instead on stocking up on waffle sweaters from ltdstore.com 00:02:11.099 --> 00:02:17.640 we've got lots of different colors now to be clear I fully support the idea of 00:02:15.420 --> 00:02:21.959 optional battery power or battery backups in the event of a power loss 00:02:19.739 --> 00:02:26.640 this is especially important for devices like smoke detectors or emergency 00:02:23.879 --> 00:02:31.200 lighting that must operate even in the event of a power outage or for devices 00:02:28.800 --> 00:02:36.660 with volatile memory but if I had a battery in every stupid connected thing 00:02:34.080 --> 00:02:41.340 in my house it wouldn't matter if they all boasted one year battery life it 00:02:39.480 --> 00:02:45.599 would be a weekly chore to be going around and swapping out and ordering new 00:02:43.739 --> 00:02:49.500 battery inventory even without much smart home nonsense it was getting to 00:02:47.099 --> 00:02:54.660 that point at my old place which is why I implemented the zero batteries policy 00:02:52.560 --> 00:02:59.280 for my new house everything from security sensors to doorbells to smoke 00:02:56.519 --> 00:03:05.940 detectors is hardwired and it was working great until ecobee screwed me 00:03:02.580 --> 00:03:07.379 over with the smart sensor due to a 00:03:05.940 --> 00:03:10.560 questionable design Choice by the original owners of this house the two 00:03:09.239 --> 00:03:16.140 bedrooms that we're about to walk through are on the same in-floor heating 00:03:13.500 --> 00:03:19.980 zone now this could have been rectified during our renovation but it would have 00:03:18.060 --> 00:03:23.700 basically involved ripping out the existing tubing which is embedded in 00:03:21.720 --> 00:03:26.220 concrete by the way and running new Loops down to the basement mechanical 00:03:25.440 --> 00:03:31.620 room yeah that wasn't gonna happen which 00:03:28.980 --> 00:03:36.239 means that a single thermostat right here controls the heating for both of 00:03:33.959 --> 00:03:40.019 those rooms that's not inherently a huge problem given that both rooms face the 00:03:38.099 --> 00:03:44.459 same direction and have similar sized Windows except that the thermostat and 00:03:42.120 --> 00:03:49.080 therefore temperature sensor is in a completely different space in the 00:03:46.500 --> 00:03:53.280 hallway and my daughters were thoroughly unimpressed to find that the new 00:03:51.060 --> 00:03:58.680 in-floor heat didn't activate for them at all because even though the upstairs 00:03:55.620 --> 00:04:01.620 hallway doesn't actually have tubes 00:03:58.680 --> 00:04:07.080 running under it heat rises and enough rows from downstairs that their 00:04:04.319 --> 00:04:11.819 thermostat was always reporting a comfortable temperature now one way 00:04:08.940 --> 00:04:15.480 around this is offsets ecobee and most other thermostats for that matter has a 00:04:13.799 --> 00:04:20.220 simple interface that allows you to take the temperature of the room in your 00:04:17.340 --> 00:04:23.699 desired spot then key in an adjustment that allows you to account for that 00:04:21.720 --> 00:04:27.360 difference this is a great solution if your sensor happens to be right next to 00:04:25.620 --> 00:04:31.199 a window and and you don't want the rest of the room to end up being stifling hot 00:04:29.340 --> 00:04:34.979 but for the girls it wouldn't do me a lick of good because the in-floor 00:04:33.180 --> 00:04:38.580 heating and the sensor are on the opposite sides of a wall I'd actually 00:04:36.840 --> 00:04:42.540 end up with the opposite problem they'd end up with heat stroke in the middle of 00:04:39.900 --> 00:04:48.120 winter how embarrassing thankfully there is a solution for this ecobee allows you 00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:50.400 to pair one or multiple smart sensors to 00:04:48.120 --> 00:04:56.040 your thermostat wirelessly to feedback data on both temperature and occupancy 00:04:53.400 --> 00:05:00.419 ensuring that on average your room is comfortable so I picked up a two pack of 00:04:58.500 --> 00:05:06.120 these only to find out that there is absolutely no way to power them without 00:05:03.540 --> 00:05:11.280 batteries and wildly this wasn't even a case of me just buying the wrong version 00:05:07.979 --> 00:05:13.699 there is no wall powered smart sensor 00:05:11.280 --> 00:05:18.000 what the heck ecobee fortunately converting a battery powered smart 00:05:15.900 --> 00:05:21.840 sensor to a wall powered one should only take a few minutes 00:05:19.680 --> 00:05:25.979 there's one right here by their nature all battery powered devices will have 00:05:24.060 --> 00:05:30.000 their power contacts easily accessible all we need to do is get the same DC 00:05:28.199 --> 00:05:33.560 voltage that the battery was supplying to those contacts so our battery here is 00:05:32.820 --> 00:05:39.780 a cr2477 runs at 3 volts which is pretty 00:05:37.020 --> 00:05:45.060 typical of a button cell but not that typical of a wall power supply that's 00:05:42.539 --> 00:05:49.560 okay though we have some options you can get your hands on three volt power 00:05:46.560 --> 00:05:51.539 supplies or variable power supplies but 00:05:49.560 --> 00:05:54.900 I promised that this was going to be extremely cheap if you were willing to 00:05:53.039 --> 00:05:59.759 take some shortcuts remember and that's exactly what we're going to 00:05:56.400 --> 00:06:01.919 be doing 5 volt low amperage USB power 00:05:59.759 --> 00:06:07.080 supplies like this are flipping everywhere they cost just a few dollars 00:06:04.500 --> 00:06:11.580 to buy brand new and realistically you probably have a handful of them lying 00:06:08.460 --> 00:06:13.620 around already it is possible that your 00:06:11.580 --> 00:06:18.120 device would actually take the 5 volt output from this just fine we talked in 00:06:16.139 --> 00:06:22.259 more detail about how to tell if a device has a range of acceptable input 00:06:20.580 --> 00:06:27.840 voltages in our recent video about converting old game consoles to USBC but 00:06:25.139 --> 00:06:33.419 the smart sensor unfortunately does not it's pretty sensitive and we need to get 00:06:30.180 --> 00:06:36.479 exactly 3.2 volts which is the nominal 00:06:33.419 --> 00:06:38.520 voltage of these button cells into it so 00:06:36.479 --> 00:06:41.819 here is how we're going to do it there are a number of different ways to step 00:06:40.139 --> 00:06:46.199 down the voltage coming out of our wall board depending on your tolerance for 00:06:43.819 --> 00:06:51.360 ratchetness our first attempt simply used resistors we did manage to get the 00:06:48.600 --> 00:06:55.080 voltage down to about 3 volts but what we found was that once the device 00:06:52.979 --> 00:07:00.060 actually booted up it dropped down to 1.7 or so which caused it to to not boot 00:06:58.440 --> 00:07:06.300 up anymore so instead we're going with this mic 5504 voltage regulator which 00:07:02.940 --> 00:07:08.360 gets us down to 3.3 volts not quite low 00:07:06.300 --> 00:07:14.639 enough and this 1000 ohm potentiometer which is 00:07:12.060 --> 00:07:19.560 basically a variable resistor the total cost about 40 cents to do this over 00:07:17.639 --> 00:07:22.259 again I would probably just buy a 3 volt voltage regulator but they're less 00:07:20.819 --> 00:07:25.199 common and we didn't have any lying around so this is the route we took the 00:07:23.880 --> 00:07:29.940 one thing to watch out for when you're using a voltage regulator though is that 00:07:27.180 --> 00:07:33.660 the higher power draw the device is the more heat it might kick out if you're 00:07:31.740 --> 00:07:38.400 inputting a higher voltage than what it's expecting so it's not like a a 00:07:36.060 --> 00:07:41.880 magic oh I have a thousand volts incoming and I need five I'll just put 00:07:40.620 --> 00:07:49.020 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 00:07:45.840 --> 00:07:51.300 old USB A2 mini B cable that I don't 00:07:49.020 --> 00:07:55.440 need anymore and to cleanly pass it into my device I'm just going to drill a 00:07:53.220 --> 00:07:58.560 small hole in the existing backplate ah oh yeah 00:07:57.120 --> 00:08:03.780 so clean love it I do not have the best wire 00:08:01.020 --> 00:08:07.800 strippers for these tiny little wires I haven't yet these are my old janky ones 00:08:06.120 --> 00:08:11.160 honestly a fingernail is probably better than these the black and red wires in 00:08:09.539 --> 00:08:13.580 here should be five volt but we're just going to sanity check that real quick 00:08:12.660 --> 00:08:20.160 here 4.95 perfect now things are about to get 00:08:16.800 --> 00:08:22.560 extremely spicy unlike Dan who did the 00:08:20.160 --> 00:08:26.639 proof of concept for this I do not have Helping Hands or a proper soldering 00:08:24.660 --> 00:08:33.440 workbench or really any of the things that I need to work on this so good luck 00:08:29.639 --> 00:08:33.440 to me soldering this to that 00:08:33.899 --> 00:08:40.500 okay um that actually went better than I 00:08:37.320 --> 00:08:43.940 expected all I have to do is about 10 00:08:40.500 --> 00:08:47.459 more successful micro solders 00:08:43.940 --> 00:08:50.519 I hate my socks I hate my flux this is 00:08:47.459 --> 00:08:52.560 really crappy old flux but the best flux 00:08:50.519 --> 00:08:58.640 is the flux you have if you don't like it go flex yourself 00:08:55.920 --> 00:09:03.560 whoops did I say 40 cents I meant 80 cents 00:09:04.140 --> 00:09:09.120 I love down for how awesome he is but I hate him for how he makes the rest of us 00:09:07.380 --> 00:09:12.720 look if you're watching this thinking surely there must be an easier way yes 00:09:10.680 --> 00:09:16.500 the easier way is to not use surface mount components like this that are 00:09:14.399 --> 00:09:20.160 intended for like board manufacturing our red and black cables go into a y 00:09:18.660 --> 00:09:24.959 splitter and directly into our potentiometer respectively it goes out 00:09:22.620 --> 00:09:28.920 into our 3.3 volt regulator and then we just need to dial in the pot to make 00:09:26.760 --> 00:09:32.839 sure that the voltage is going out to our ecobee smart sensor are exactly and 00:09:31.740 --> 00:09:37.339 exactly 3.2 volts so let's just go ahead and 00:09:35.880 --> 00:09:43.800 double check that 3.26 uh okay well we'll need to adjust 00:09:40.800 --> 00:09:46.920 that oh boy I turned that way too much 00:09:43.800 --> 00:09:49.140 oh okay good I might need you to hold 00:09:46.920 --> 00:09:52.380 this steady 3.1 should be fine okay let's go 00:09:50.760 --> 00:09:55.740 let's go obviously the stand isn't really designed to account for this 00:09:54.300 --> 00:10:00.480 extra weight off of the back but that's okay so might have a problem we'll solve that another day 00:09:58.440 --> 00:10:06.540 okay let's plug this bad boy in ah 00:10:03.560 --> 00:10:10.860 yep and I guess this dresser stays that far from the wall now okay 00:10:08.580 --> 00:10:16.500 add a new sensor blah blah blah blah blah blah sure fine oh I gotta scan the 00:10:14.220 --> 00:10:21.240 QR code inside it if I break this wiring I will be 00:10:18.620 --> 00:10:26.480 extremely unhappy select an ecobee device to connect to 00:10:23.519 --> 00:10:26.480 this smart sensor 00:10:26.519 --> 00:10:31.920 okay sure connect is it gonna work no 00:10:30.660 --> 00:10:36.000 lights on it or anything because it's designed to run on battery for like two 00:10:34.019 --> 00:10:39.540 years or something like that is this one of those cases where I have over 00:10:37.260 --> 00:10:43.620 engineered the solution yeah most people probably aren't going to do this shoot I 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:47.640 think I have to adjust that pot again one of the troubleshooting steps is to 00:10:45.959 --> 00:10:55.800 bring the sensor closer to your thermostat maybe that's the problem nope 00:10:52.019 --> 00:10:58.680 okay it's basically an exactly 3.2 now I 00:10:55.800 --> 00:11:02.880 wonder if it's dead this may have been more trouble than it was worth let's uh 00:11:01.320 --> 00:11:07.920 let's try a different sensor real quick here one of those things where 00:11:06.120 --> 00:11:11.640 hate every moment of it while I'm doing it but as soon as I'm done I can't wait 00:11:10.019 --> 00:11:16.560 to do it again you know why is my hobbyist this 00:11:13.680 --> 00:11:20.060 why are you 4.2 volts well I sincerely hope I didn't fry this 00:11:18.600 --> 00:11:28.019 thing 3.175 okay let's try it Boop 00:11:25.380 --> 00:11:32.100 girl's room nope hello go ahead hey you're on speaker I'm at my Wit's End 00:11:29.519 --> 00:11:37.320 here okay it could be that it's registered to the 00:11:34.200 --> 00:11:39.120 the ecobee here no I tried I tried 00:11:37.320 --> 00:11:45.720 popping your thing into a different one it's at 3.200 volts exactly what you 00:11:43.500 --> 00:11:49.980 specified I accidentally ran it at a higher voltage momentarily it was at 00:11:47.519 --> 00:11:54.600 like 4.5 do you think I just fried it no I was doing that a lot what you could 00:11:52.019 --> 00:11:58.440 try doing is is furlough or like increasing the voltage 00:11:56.040 --> 00:12:04.440 down the pot until it spikes up to four and then increasing it from there to 00:12:00.899 --> 00:12:06.600 bring it back down to 3.2 I think it has 00:12:04.440 --> 00:12:11.279 a large bit of draw right at the start and that screws with our little Jank 00:12:08.519 --> 00:12:15.600 system oh I think we've reached the point in this video where I can't say 00:12:12.839 --> 00:12:20.100 that I would recommend doing this yeah hey guys Dan here I figured out 00:12:18.060 --> 00:12:25.019 what was going wrong with Linus's ecobee one of the little tiny wires inside the 00:12:22.440 --> 00:12:28.740 USB end actually broke and so we weren't getting the full five volts that we 00:12:26.760 --> 00:12:32.220 needed to make it run at all Linus actually did a great job with the 00:12:30.240 --> 00:12:36.300 impossible soldering task that I gave him I hope you can appreciate just how 00:12:34.019 --> 00:12:40.200 absolutely tiny some of these SMD size components are I mean honestly could you 00:12:38.040 --> 00:12:44.040 solder onto that like in your carpet that's nuts these do come in larger 00:12:42.060 --> 00:12:47.880 versions but we didn't have any on site so I had to kind of make do with what we 00:12:45.839 --> 00:12:52.320 had however while troubleshooting I actually did find a better solution 00:12:49.980 --> 00:12:55.560 that's kind of you know Linus proof look at the size of this guy it's giant I 00:12:54.180 --> 00:12:58.980 don't even have to use tweezers to hold it up far easier I've done a little test 00:12:57.480 --> 00:13:02.700 set up here so you can kind of see how they work it's really neat we can use 00:13:00.660 --> 00:13:05.700 three of them in series to step down the voltage to exactly what we want if we 00:13:04.260 --> 00:13:09.420 wanted a lower voltage then we could just add more in the first section 00:13:07.260 --> 00:13:13.620 before the diode we're getting our 5 volts that's directly right out of our 00:13:11.399 --> 00:13:18.779 USB wall Ward and at the final position we're getting 4.3 now that's not the 00:13:17.220 --> 00:13:22.440 three volts we need which is kind of weird because there's no current being 00:13:20.820 --> 00:13:24.959 sucked out of the diodes the circuit kind of doesn't know what's going on and 00:13:23.880 --> 00:13:31.560 the power supply doesn't know what's going on nothing's being drawn as soon 00:13:27.540 --> 00:13:34.079 as we add our ecobee sensor in here on 00:13:31.560 --> 00:13:40.260 our first section we're getting 5.1 on our second section we're getting 4.7 and 00:13:37.500 --> 00:13:44.459 our third section we're getting 4.3 and then finally on the output we're now 00:13:42.360 --> 00:13:49.579 hovering around 4 volts so we've stepped down like a whole volt these ecopies are 00:13:46.260 --> 00:13:52.680 ultra low draw devices these draw like 00:13:49.579 --> 00:13:54.600 .005 of a milliamp which is almost 00:13:52.680 --> 00:13:57.240 nothing when we're about to pair them they're actually drawing a lot of 00:13:55.920 --> 00:14:00.600 current they know that they're not paired and they're drawing 30 to 50 00:13:59.040 --> 00:14:05.100 milliamps and that's kind of what we're seeing when we're dropping down to our 00:14:02.040 --> 00:14:07.019 three volts initially every four to ten 00:14:05.100 --> 00:14:10.079 minutes you get a little Spike of 7 million this is one of the reason Linus 00:14:08.880 --> 00:14:13.560 was struggling so much because it's asking for wildly different amounts of 00:14:11.880 --> 00:14:18.060 current I think this is kind of one of the weirder devices in this category to 00:14:16.139 --> 00:14:21.300 convert to battery power I think both of us learn quite a lot on this interesting 00:14:19.620 --> 00:14:25.860 little project and here's another little finished one I did I'm happy to be done 00:14:22.980 --> 00:14:29.639 with this however Linus doesn't know any of this because he was trying it about a 00:14:27.600 --> 00:14:35.000 week ago let's see how he does here's what we're going to do 00:14:31.260 --> 00:14:35.000 we're going to unplug it 00:14:35.339 --> 00:14:41.220 oh shoot I just melted a bunch of the 00:14:38.700 --> 00:14:44.820 plastic housing oh it still fits thank goodness now we just need to go into 00:14:43.019 --> 00:14:48.480 home assistant and see if we're actually getting a readout from it holy crap I 00:14:46.860 --> 00:14:55.019 think it might be working let's take it into the room holy crap I will I will come up with a 00:14:52.860 --> 00:14:59.820 better system for this later and we finally got a temperature update 00:14:57.120 --> 00:15:03.120 it's about a 20 minute cycle time which I guess makes sense on a device that's 00:15:01.260 --> 00:15:07.920 intended to run for years on a button cell but anyway the point is it's 00:15:05.639 --> 00:15:14.339 flipping working which means I don't have to run the heat pump in the winter 00:15:10.079 --> 00:15:16.440 anymore see you later uh uh wait yeah 00:15:14.339 --> 00:15:20.279 work I'm so excited this worked I'm not 00:15:18.420 --> 00:15:24.660 excited to do up another two of them without Dan's help but I am excited to 00:15:22.860 --> 00:15:28.620 tell you about our sponsor a big thank you to vesi for sponsoring today's video 00:15:26.720 --> 00:15:33.060 wet socks see even hearing the words makes you 00:15:30.720 --> 00:15:37.800 cringe don't worry vessey's on the case fessy Footwear claims that their dymatex 00:15:35.699 --> 00:15:41.399 technology makes their shoes a hundred percent waterproof and keeps your feet 00:15:39.480 --> 00:15:45.720 cool in the summer and warm in the winter and their new storm burst shoes 00:15:43.380 --> 00:15:50.399 combine the comfort of a 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me hack 00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:29.399 together this whole ecobee home assistant thing in the first place it's 00:16:27.600 --> 00:16:33.860 pretty interesting staying actually these are this is not how these things 00:16:31.019 --> 00:16:33.860 are intended to be used