Ryan's Wisdumb

 I just got up and running with a new DIY project that absolutely amazes me.  It is called BirdNet-Pi and it is a software package running on a Raspberry Pi that uses AI analysis of audiograms to automatically identifies birds by sound in real time.  It is designed to run 24/7 and collects data on all of the birds it hears around your house.  It can even generate notifications that I can receive on my cell phone so I can come running if it detects a bird I haven't seen in my yard before.  Almost as amazing, it is a free, open-source project! I was clued in to this project by a Facebook ad for a BirdWeather PUC  (shown above).  This is a standalone device that does much of the above- listens and identifies birds that it hears.  It is fully integrated with the BirdWeather website and shares its data to the BirdWeather database.  You can look up real time ID results for any PUCs that are shared on their map.  Pretty cool!  I wanted one...

 I've spent the past two weeks doing battle with my pool cleaning robot and want to share what I've learned so others can fix their own if they run into the same problem. My robot is a Maytronics Dolphin S200.  The internals are probably very similar or identical to other models, and I think there are even rebranded versions, so the details below likely apply to a fair amount of the population.  These robots are pretty expensive to buy, but they are, in my opinion, the best way to clean my pool.  My pool is surrounded by pine trees and they are always dropping stuff in the water, so I keep my robot in the pool and it runs daily on its timer with little intervention from me and uses much, much less electricity than my previous pressure-side pool cleaner. Rant on Robot Manufacturer Greed There is a lot of markup on these robots.  The S200 I got for $600 in 2017 (and its equivalents) now sell for more than $1000.  The exact same design.  No new technology...