Simple review of the Netgear Nighthawk A7000 WiFi USB adapter

Why get a USB adapter instead of PCIe?

My PC motherboard has a Broadcom 2T2R mini PCIe WiFI+BT card (BCM43xx) that supports up to 866Mbps data rate since it only has two antennas. Instead of trying to find a mini PCIe card that supports a 1300Mbps data rate, bluetooth, and some coax cables and antennas, I decided that a simpler USB WiFi adapter would be good enough.

Hard Drives for use in my Synology NAS

 Why I purchased Seagate IronWolf drives

I recently purchased two 6TB Seagate IronWolf drives. They are similarly priced to the WD Reds but have a faster RPM of 7200 compared to 5400 on the Reds. The IronWolf also have 128MB of cache vs 64MB on the Red. To get a drive similar in spec to the IronWolf would require purchasing Red Pro drives, which are a lot more expensive.

Getting Synology PhotoStation to use the same directory as Lightroom

Photo Station does exactly I want. It provides a web interface to look at all of my pictures and also provides iOS and Android apps. I already use it for my iPhone and iPad automatic photo backups, so I wanted to use it for all my pictures imported with Lightroom as well.

Updates in automating my life (HomeBridge,SmartThings, Sonarr, etc...)

I usually like to set up a new project, write a blog post about it, and then move on. But once in a while it is a good idea to go back and see if anything has changed or if anything newer/better has come along.

Setting up a CUPS server with Docker on a Synology NAS for my Brother printer

My Brother Printer made for Windows

I made the unfortunate mistake of purchasing a cheap brother printer, the Brother HL-L2300D, which is USB only. And not only is it a USB printer, it is a Winprinter which makes it very limited in anything other than Windows. The laser printer is great for printing, but purchasing the cheapest feature-limited version was a bad decision. If I could go back in time, I would tell myself to purchase a Brother network printer and save myself the trouble and hassle trying to network share a USB printer. I encourage you to do the same. But if you are reading this page, you probably made the same mistake I did, so read on...

Controlling Philips Hue lights with an Amazon Dash button

So I have read around online that people have found a way to hack Amazon Dash buttons. Without doing much research, I jumped on buying a few Amazon Dash buttons for $1 during Amazon Prime Day. Once I got them and started working on hacking them to do what I wanted, I realized things were not as clear-cut ready as I thought it was. But luckily a few people had a great head start and it didn't take much tweaking in order to succeed.

Trying to charge my MacBook 2015 with a Quick Charge 2.0 USB wall charger

What is Quick Charge 2.0?

The Apple MacBook 2015 charges using a USB-C cable and a 30 watt wall charger. When using a generic USB charger, they usually output 10 Watts at 5 Volts and 2 amps. Maximum possibly being 12 Watts at 5 Volts and 2.4 amps. Quick Charge 2.0 is capable of outputting a maximum of 18 Watts at 9 Volts 2 amps. Since that is more powerful than generic USB charging, can the MacBook take advantage of it?

Running HomeBridge on my Synology NAS to interface SmartThings with HomeKit

I have gone through a few platforms and configurations in my home automation adventures. I've used openHAB and the Wink Hub. Recently, I have stuck with the SmartThings Hub V2 for almost half a year. Apart from some instabilities, which they have been working on, I have been happy with the setup. It interfaces with my Amazon Echo perfectly for voice control, which is great! Because of this, I have not really bothered with trying to get Apple's Siri plugged into my home. But I have been seeing HomeBridge come up in many discussions which allows Apple's HomeKit to work with devices that are not approved. Since it got me curious, I decided to set it up and see what it's like!