What home improvement work did you do today?

Most of the kits contain warped wood according to most reviews. I am building this one off of plans from shedking.

 

Love your setup! Oof,on the layoff. Hope you get something good come your way soon.

I might get in contact with you about setting up a unifi camera system for our house and as a baby monitor. I know it's possible,but I'm not 100% confident. I like the idea of keeping my camera and video on my own network/server and not on someone else's servers.

 

Cool thank you. I'm going to look into that. Has it been better easy? Do you do a lot of DIY stuff? I'm trying to gage the skill level needed as I've just starting trying to be more self sufficient and do more DIY stuff.

 

Make sure your foundation is stable. I had a prefab unit brought in on blocks and some of the blocks in the middle have settled and I got enough bounce in side that pisses me off. Need to find someone REALLY skinny to get up under and shim it up more.

 

It's definitely solid at this point. My other shed not so much....I have to rebuild it. This one is all 2x6 and alot of block support. The other one was 2x4 which didn't help matters at all lol.

 

Just got done doing some spring cleaning... Just pressure washed the whole house with a chlorine/simple green solution... Then cleaned the gutters out and removed the screens out of the downspouts (since leaves are done falling) ... I have the downspouts hooked into black corrugated drain pipes that run underground all the way to the culvert pipe in the ditch... I don't need those to get plugged up and have to replace them or snake them out so I use the screens to keep leaves and debris out...

 

Jack the shed up with a 4x4 or 6x6 spanning between two walls, set a new footer? Better yet, form and pour an in-ground footer?

Layoff was a good thing. I got paid to leave after investing 25 years of my life - company isn't doing well - and they sent me away with enough coin to live the same lifestyle 6-8 months, or if I scale back, 12-14 months. All the cars are paid off, so it's basically mortgage and insurance. Wife had better insurance (European company) so switching over was a no-brainer. I'm taking the next couple months to focus on house stuff that's overdue, which is why you'll see me posting in here more often, probably. I'd have liked to've gotten 1.5x - 2x what they gave me after 25 years, but things are bad enough those who are left may not get much of anything if things continue to decline. Timing was good, all-around.

That said ... on the Unifi stuff. I have an "FYI" I email over to friends I can copy/paste from. Here's most of what you need to know, with some filler:

<START BIG ASS WALL OF TEXT>

Before you get started, think about a space where this stuff will go. It should be somewhere that has some room to breathe, whether you're creating the venting by slapping in a high-up grille on a wall, or maybe it already exists. It ideally shouldn't be a be a dusty or damp area. Let's call it your "media closet" or "data closet". In my case, I use an area under my stairs. I have a grill vent at the 2nd to last stair near the bottom of that triangle, and I put a small fan venting system (AIRFRAME T7) at the top of the triangle venting into my garage. The fans pull cool air from the floor and vent hot air off the room ceiling out into another area. It creates a good crossflow. This is only important for longevity if you're enclosing the equipment in smaller areas.

It's not absolutely required, but the ideal location will have pre-existing network cables running to it and an internet connection nearby or within cabling distance. If you have no pre-existing cabling, your ideal location will be somewhere easy to run cabling in/out of. If you're a single-floor space or have drop ceilings, that could potentially be anywhere. If you're multi-floor, it can become challenging, and I try to find some cable chase or chute that will allow me to easily run a dozen or more cables from my media closet up to each floor. How you run your cables will vary on how you choose to rack/stage your equipment.

Everything in Unifi world starts with a "controller" for the system. Maybe it's best to call that a "head" because it essentially is the master brains and orchestration for your Unifi system, and typically for your entire network. It holds all of your configuration locally, and adopts devices (cameras, wifi access points, phones, etc.) into the system. All three of these options offer CCTV/network/access control functionality, but require you to have some form of wired network in-place, so your devices can talk back to them. It's possible to run headless (longer story), but I don't recommend it for newbies.

• Option 1: UCK (Unifi Cloud Key) => It's a little 3" x 5" box with a laptop hard drive inside and an LCD front display. If you don't have power over ethernet (POE) on your network, you'll need a separate power brick. Can store CCTV footage on the internal disk.
• Option 2: UDM Pro (Unifi Dream Machine) => This is a combo device: Does everything the UCK does, but it mounts into a rack, and adds a 3.5" hard drive bay to put any size drive you want, adds network switching with several ports, adds network connection redundancy (input 2 internet connections and the unit can failover if one dies for internet redundancy), adds firewall functionality, adds VPN functionality for remote access, and enables Wifiman function to monitor/scan/tweak your network.
• Option 3: UDM "SE" (Unifi Dream Machine "Special Edition") => This is basically UDM Pro, but the network switch portion of the device adds POE ports, so you don't need to have a separate POE switch, you can supply power over network cables for up to 8 devices.

NOTE: Since I typed up this email, Ubiquiti has launched several more controllers/gateways, including the Dream Wall (UDW), Dream Router (UDR), Cloud Gateway Ultra (UCGU), Unifi Express (UUF). Some of those may be a better fit for some folks, especially the UDW, if you can't install a proper rack, and want a sleek wall-mount unit that does virtually everything the UDM SE does, it's wall-mounted with a touchscreen, so super compact.

Those three options all require a rack of some sort, For the UCK it can just be a shelf somewhere, for the UDM it uses standard 19" size. It can be a rolling under-desk rack, like you see in @Florida AF's picture, or it can be a wall/backboard-hung rack like mine. If you do not have space for a rack, or you don't want the hassle of a rack, but you want all the functionality of the UDM SE, your wallet will hate you but the UDW is probably what you want/need.

Once you have your controller picked, setup an account at https://unifi.ui.com and buy it at the store, plug it into your network and walk through the supplied instructions to set it up - it's actually pretty easy if you can follow basic directions/ You technically don't need to get everything at once, but I do recommend checking out their wifi access points. If you want to get started with one baseline camera, the G3 is an inexpensive and easy-to-setup option.

After the basic configuration is done, and your unit is linked to your account, you can login at the Unifi website I linked in the last paragraph and begin configuration. I also recommend downloading the Unifi smartphone app and logging in with your Unifi account, and if doing CCTV, install the Protect app and login.

The Unifi system has some basic concepts at a high level:

• Your controller is the head of your network, and (except for the UCK) connect directly to your internet modem/connection, and manage all traffic in/out of your network.
• Network setup at the most basic level involves the following:
  • In the network settings, you create one or more "Networks", which are blocks of addresses your network devices will use (if you create multiple networks, you can segregate devices into different "virtual" network areas)
  • In the network settings, you can create as many SSID (wifi network names) as you like, and link those to any of the "Networks" you created (this means you can keep wifi devices separated into different network areas based on where they connect, or create public hotspots)
    • Optional: In the security settings, you can define traffic rules to block/allow specific traffic for individual devices OR "Networks" you created OR the whole network, and those can be on a schedule (ex: for kids traffic blocking), and you can get so granular as to block specific services (TikTok, YouTube, Discord, etc.) ... you can even do content filtering for categories of traffic (porn, gambling, medical, hacking, etc.)
• Once network is setup, you can start adding ("adopting") devices into the network:
  • Any Unifi-ready device can be added, but most require POE, which may be an "Aha!" if you opted for a non-POE-capable gateway like the UCK or UDM Pro.
  • Adoption is simple:
    • Basically, you'll plug in the device into either (A) a POE-enabled network port or (B) into a network port and you supply external power
    • When it comes online, the configuration portal (either on the website or smartphone app) will tell you 'a device is ready for adoption' and allow you to click to add it to your controller
    • Adoption can take a second ... once adoption starts, the device will be linked to your controller, then it typically connects to the network, updates itself, then reboots itself, so this can take a minute and sometimes throw weird messages.
    • You can adopt a significant number of devices into your network, but I recommend to always check how many devices (and users/clients) your controller is able to manage before buying. (more info here)

tl;dr - Once the controller is confgured, and the network is setup, you can start plugging in devices for adoption as advised on that last line. Personally, I recommend adopting wireless access points first so you can wifi-enable your new Unifi network, but if you're not planning to use wireless, it can always be a camera or whatever else you're setting up.

For network port expansion, you can go with additional rack-mount switches, and everything down to "mini" switches, which are POE-powered, and even support POE handoff (so you're not dealing with wall bricks). Lots of options. For network switches, never run cabling or install network devices near fluorescent ballasts or similar fixtures. Try not to run network cables for more than a couple of feet alongside power wires, for interference reasons.

On wifi access points, there also tons of options. But basically, for inside-a-building installs, I usually go with the traditional ceiling-mount domes, or an in-wall unit. There are mesh units, long range outdoor units, etc. The "Pro" units cost a little more, but they broadcast "hot" (strong) as hell and will cut through a lot. Know that some things, like metal walls, and metal rafters, can interrupt or screw with wifi signals.

For racking, again, you can use a small roller, or go wall-mount. I personally feel Startech makes the best racking on the market, especially for lower-U racks ("U" = one rack unit height, similar to how "DIN" is a single car stereo unit size), and I say that because their smaller wall-mount racks use a stabilizer strap on top which the cheapie no-names on Amazon don't typically include. Side note: You can install two things in these racks: Network equipment and/or shelving. Some people like to go with a couple of extra U's of space and install a shelf to hold stuff, you know, so you have a place to drop your cable modem, a music system, Raspberry Pi, Sonos gateway, etc. For example...

• 6U rack: https://www.startech.com/en-us/server-management/wallmount6
• 4U rack: https://www.startech.com/en-us/server-management/wallmount4
• Sample shelf: https://www.pyleaudio.com/sku/PLRST...f,-Universal-Device-Server-Rack-Mounting-Tray

These racks are usually setup with mounting holes at standard-wall-stud-width so install is easy. Some people like to mount a large data "back board" on the wall, then mount this to that board, so studs aren't a concern. They like doing that because you can route cables and mount other stuff on the board like this, it's easier than going direct into drywall.

Keystones, patch panels, etc... Unless you plan to do a custom structured cabling setup, or terminate your wires and plug directly into your unit, you'll probably want a "patch panel". A patch panel acts as a termination point for your cables, and typically use 1 "U" of space mounting into your rack. Patch panels either let you terminate your cables directly into the rear of the panel, or you can get ones that have blank holes (like mine pictured) which accept "keystones" (little connection modules). Patch panels typically come in sizes of 12, 18, 24 for 1U tall size, 48 for 2U tall size, 72 for 3U tall size. Basically, for residential, I almost always order a 24-port because houses normally have less than 20 cables total. Else, I count the # of wires I need to terminate, and buy a panel with at least 2-8 keystone holes to grow. TrendNet is my favorite, I find their square mounting holes have very wide compatibility.

https://www.trendnet.com/support/support-detail.asp?prod=130_TC-KP24

There are others available. I don't recommend other brands, and definitely, definitely avoid the cheap shit on Amazon. And for the keystones ... Read this blog post to see some of the most common types - there's literally one for everything, video, audio, network, BNC, RF/coax, you name it. For the network, I'd go with these, they'll support CAT5 and CAT6. Monoprice has good ones, theirs and Cable Matters are my go-to, and they fit nicely into the TrendNet 1U blank I just linked.

Battery backup: I prefer rack mount battery backups, but they're not a necessity. This APC unit will support up to 4 critical devices, you'd want to plug your firewall/gateway into it, and your POE switch into it, your modem into it, so that any time power goes out, your stuff stays up. It's Li-Ion so more battery longevity in smaller pkg. It's also able to communicate over USB to shut things down if power hits a certain low point.

https://www.apc.com/shop/us/en/prod...s-SmartConnect-Port-Short-Depth/P-SCL500RM1UC

There's no reason you can't just go with a couple of these, though, just the same - if you look at the instructions for battery backups they're usually tell you if it's wall-mountable, which is nice, you'll be replacing the battery every 3-5 years, typically.

$80 APC UPS Battery Backup & Surge Protector, 600VA Backup Battery Power Supply, BE600M1 Back-UPS with USB Charging Port

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FWAZEIU/

Battery backups serve two functions: (1) They obviously keep your network and data circuit up during power fails, but (2) these also protect any/all attached devices from power surges originating on the AC/120v side of your hardware. If your wifi access points, cameras are getting power from your UDM SE, and it stays alive during a power blip, the network and devices will stay up. Remember that. I have my modem on the same battery backup ... We've had 5-10 minute power outages where we were all still working, because the modem and the network switch remained powered on.

Really, the most important part is the design. You need to sit down and figure out what you want/need, what devices to include. You don't have to buy everything at once. It starts with a controller/gateway and you build from there, so it's important to pick the right gateway for your needs.

Unifi, like Apple, is a contained system, and they have a lot of aesthetically pleasing things (some at a big price point). Some people get shocked by the price tag up front. Here's the thing: The hardware is incredibly robust. Their support is great. The equipment is essentially Enterprise/Business equipment, not your cheap, shitty residential equipment most people use, and it lasts for damn-near-ever. They continue to update and support equipment for an absurd length of time compared to residential, and at ZERO cost. From an Enterprise perspective, their equipment is also stupid-cheap compared to Cisco/Meraki, Mist, and other similar big names, and it tends to have fewer bugs and problems. It also combines a unique feature-set and integration you cannot get easily from other vendors ... and it usually just WORKS. It auto-updates for security if you let it. There's no finagling with crap.

It may also be helpful to draw out a basic topology of what you need on paper. Like ... here's one of the simpler business installs I managed in 2022 (but sanitized). I typically do a physical and logical topology for all of my customers. It shows the wired (phsyical) equipment involved and how it's attached, then the logical (virtual configuration) of things. While it's nice for them if I get hit by a truck, it also lets me more easily support them remotely if/when something goes wrong. But my reality is, the only time they ever need to call is when they want to add/change things. The equipment is absurdly stable if setup properly. I get alerted by the Unifi smartphone app any time something is wrong, which 99% of the time is "someone unplugged something".

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My brain hurts.

Man some of you are so smart.

 

Very appreciated! Going to spend some time after work to absorb this. Love it! I'll follow up with any questions then

Also, yeah, the separation thing is a bit of a blessing in disguise . You sort of lucked out in a sense. Another also, I don't think you'll have any difficulty finding a new job when you're ready. You know your shit

 

I had a loft/mezzanine built in the garage. I wanted to tackle it myself, but being in a new state means no friends or family around to lend a hand with 16' 2 x 10's. I hired a contractor and his crew did a great job. Couldn't be happier with the result!

I didn't want stairs, so I built an elevator. It is a smaller footprint compared to stairs, it's easier to bring large items up into the loft, and....it's just cool! I added a fall arrestor in case the winch, winch cable, or strap fails. I'm thinking of some more ideas to make it even safer, I'd like a redundant fail safe. It looks more complicated than it is - a simple winch, some unistrut guides, trolley wheels, and a 80/20 carriage. It was fun to knock out a garage project rather than a "honey do" project!

 

We've been hustling the last couple weeks to get our house ready to list for sale. This is the worst part of selling a house for me as I have a certain level of quality I work towards so rushing doesn't always work for me and I have very little trust in others so finding good help is hard. We'll get there but the stress level is at 10 for at least the next week.

 

The bar has been set, "Elevator in your garage?"

 

Sounds great, when can you do it??

Problem I have is I have a roof off the back, plumbing and electrical coming in.

 

Ah. Yeah. That kinda makes things more difficult.

 

Thank you, sir!

Thank you! I'm still processing having a house with an "elevator" lol.

I seriously thought about the urinal. There is an RV drain for black and grey water, and I don't own an RV. Thinking about a "relief station" hahahaha.

Detailing bay is in the works. Saving some pennies for a wall mounted pressure washer and vacuum. Just got my cabinets installed last weekend as well. We're getting there!

 

You're going to thank yourself, as a parent. They make it so easy to filter/control what your kids are doing in an automated way, so as long as they can't hook into another wifi source, or cellular data, traffic blocking is a snap.

I've got a few basic rules in place, either in "always on" or on a timed schedule. Like ... kids don't need to be on the internet after 9:30p so it's shut down from then until 7:45am, a few minutes before they're off for school. I caught them streaming videos on one of the TVs after hours, so I added those to the overinight internet block. I stop all Netflex in the house after 11pm. I also block TikTok from all their devices. I limit YouTube and Pinterest on some devices. I think I'm about to set working windows/limits on Discord use too. It's been fun to hammer it down as they use their little creative kid brains to work around stuff. There are a few ways (like using network privacy mode or MAC Address spoofing) to work around it, but if they use those, their device shows up as a new/unknown in your clients list, so you can block that device from connecting and wait to see who bitches about it to find the culprit.

Anyway, lots of fun ways to leverage this. And it's all free. Netgear and other home wifi router companies charge for similar services offered freely here. There should be a standalone thread to just discuss this stuff alone!

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Holy smokes very nice utilization of once deep space!
That lift is 100% bonus round for sure.

One of the many things that came to mind was that Aerosmith video "Livin on the edge" were at the beginning the hot chick running the elevator asks with that sexy smerck going down Mr. Tyler?

 

Oh man... where to start?

@aelarson excellent writeup and pictures. This looks well thought out and beautiful! As much awe as I have, I am finding a little inspiration coming along too! Amazing...

@shifty` excellent writeups on both your recent ones. Lots of detail I am sure people will reference and find useful, as others in your life have. Congrats on the new path in life too! Hopefully the new time is fruitful and you find what you want to do next, quickly!

@ScootARoot take your time, ask questions, look at reddit/sites, and enjoy the process. My "simple" little cart was a long time coming due to a couple moves I hadnt planned on. I love the toolless mini cart, although I see myself upgrading to a wall mount in the future. For the price, I wouldn't hesitate buying it again. Also, I am using a good, but simple APC battery backup for now. I will go rack mount in the future as my life and funds settle down a bit. The picture I shared is what I call "working draft" as I need to do cleanup to fit my standards, but I threw this together to make sure everything was working before committing the time to do all the pretty stuff. When I get home and clean it up, I will post it up on here. But that is probably a month out with what I have going on right now. I also agree with the G3 for some camera options, but I will be going with the G5 bullets for the rest of my exterior cameras and I forgot with flex camera, but I will have a couple for indoors, to include a baby monitor.

@IMXPLRN Good luck bud! Moving sucks, prepping sucks, all of that sucks... but breath deep as the pictures look beautiful!

 

I like you can buy the G3 flex in multi-packs too. Only really good for interior spaces where you need a quick fix, though, or focus on one thing. Like ... I have one in my data closet to keep dibs on who touches stuff. downsized screenshot below.

I also went with a simple APC UPS. I used a SFF wall mount to strap it to the wall below the rack. You can see its green bar LED in the screencap below. But I also dropped a photo of it mounted under the screencap. Works great and super cost-effective compared to Li-Ion rack-mount APC.

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Nice! Early assembly of the nerd corner, here you can see my APC on the side. I need to swap the outlet over to the inside, just havent gotten to it yet.



I cant stand the look of live testing, but really glad I did. I saved myself te trouble of hooking up the cellular backup and now I get to list it on FB MP to try to recover some of the costs. Looking forward to getting the last pieces printed and getting everything spaced correctly.

 

Starting to chew on the elephant once again. I got the scaffolding set up so I can start pressure washing, sanding, caulking and staining the 2nd floor exterior. I got the first floor done last fall and winter interrupted further progress.

 

You going to turn your kids into great hackers getting around those blocks.

 

First floor looks amazing! Good Luck with the project.

 

How come you didn't like cell backup? I almost ordered one, but decided just to 3d print a mount for my hotspot and go that route. I get about 20down/5up on my hotspot, but i figured if i ever needed to get better i'd get one of the U-LTE-Backup Pro's so i could POE it somewhere further away with better cell signal.

 

I wish APC/CP would make more consumer Lithium based UPS'. I had to buy a slim model (

$80 CyberPower SL700U Standby UPS System, 700VA/370W, 8 Outlets, Slim Profile, Black

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07SKX78PV?ie=UTF8&th=1) to fit in the network box below my UDW....if they did away with lead acid, there would be a lot of power in a really small package. I thought about trying to DIY a LiFePO4 UPS but not sure i'd trust it. I've also thought about running a ecoflow or something similar as a ups, but id be tripping over it in the laundry room where the UDW is.
We dont loose power all that often, and usually power is re-routed within a few min unless something big went down. Only bad side about the Ubiquity stuff is takes quite a bit more juice than just a standalone router. On my old ASUS setup, i could get a few hours out of my UPS, i think i'll get about 30min with my UDW on the slim UPS and there's no way to preform a clean shut down.

 

Long story short, I dont need it. I thought, veer so ignorantly; it was something more than what it is. The plan rate and accessibility isnt what I needed and its backbone carrier is terrible out where I am. So I picked my Verizon hub back up and have that on standby. I will sell this one off, and since I dont have the box (I do have all the hardware) I will be letting it go fairly cheap. If you are interested, let me know. I had it plugged in for all of 2 minutes before unplugging it. Never even adopted it to my system.

 

Is it the Pro or regular version? Guessing the regular version since you are talking about the plan being not what you wanted (the pro you use your own sim/plan)?

 

nice catch, yes sir the regular.