Thanks!!
I found an Intermac 15 used on ebay. Bought it. I'll give it a try. I knew things like this existed, but I couldn't find it.
-Gary
---- Forwarded message from bob r <bob.dev.oak@gmail.com> -----
Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2024 18:03:33 -0800
From: bob r <bob.dev.oak@gmail.com>
To: Gary <saclug@garymcglinn.com>
CC: lug-nuts@bigbrie.com
Subject: [Lug-nuts] Re: A problem, a phone, and a solution
Found it. It is called an astronomical time switch.
Mine is the RT-200-I Made by Watt Stopper. But it is a few years old.
The -W version is available on amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Wattstopper-RT-200-W-Astronomical-Timer-Switch/dp/B00BMZFAOI
On Thu, Jan 4, 2024 at 5:40 PM bob r <bob.dev.oak@gmail.com> wrote:
> We have one of those switches you install in the wall, instead of a normal
> light switch, and it automatically adjusts changes to when the sun sets and
> rises and also accounts for the time changes. It always goes on at sunset
> and always goes off at sunrise. Once every 2 years or so, I have to reset
> the time back a few minutes, but other than that you just program the time
> in once and you are good to go. Best thing ever.
> I can't remember what the guy called it, but it sounded like an "automatic
> lightswitch" but that is not it.
> I even have an extra one. Let me try to find it....
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jan 4, 2024 at 4:07 PM Gary <saclug@garymcglinn.com> wrote:
>
>> I hope you find this entertaining.
>>
>> I have a very simple problem. I have a secondary structure on my
>> property some distance from my house. It has a light that I want to come
>> on sometime after sunset and turn off sometime before dawn.
>>
>> There are a few issues.
>>
>> 1. The light is visible from the road, so it should look nice. Adding a
>> socket with a day night sensor isn't possible. It won't fit inside the
>> current lighting fixture.
>>
>> 2. The WiFi from the house does reach this structure, but it isn't very
>> strong. My laptop can pick it up just fine, but the Shelly home automation
>> switch I bought doesn't see it.
>>
>> 3. I have an extra phone that I use only for 2 factor authentication and
>> a few other minor uses. I have a $10/month plan for that phone.
>>
>> Note: The Shelly is installed. It can't see any WiFi, so it won't let
>> me set up a schedule because it can't see a clock. Not withstanding the
>> fact that I could tell it what the time is and even $0.20 chips have a
>> reasonably accurate clock. We aren't flying planes or running nuclear
>> reactors here. But it will let me tell it how long to wait after I turn it
>> on to turn it off. This uses a clock, but I guess it slipped through.
>> It's from Romania. I manually turn the light on every evening.
>>
>> Plan 1
>>
>> Move the second phone to the secondary structure and just use VNC to get
>> any messages. Turn on the hot spot and have the Shelly get the time from
>> that.
>>
>> Result: I abandonded this plan when I couldn't VNC into the phone from
>> the world. Lo and behold, this only works if you access the phone using
>> WiFi. Since I want to use the hotspot, this means being connected to the
>> phone's hot spot. Which means I have to be there, which defeats the whole
>> purpose.
>>
>> Plan 2
>>
>> Set up my rPi on the hot spot from the phone. Use a remote ssh tunnel to
>> access the rPi and then access the phone.
>>
>> Result: The remote tunnel is blocked. I only did some brief reading, but
>> you have to do some packet inspection to do this.
>>
>> Plan 3
>>
>> Use the slow network from the house to contact the rPi on a second
>> external and good antenna. Use the rPi's native antenna to contact the
>> phone.
>>
>> Result: This works. But it is incredibly slow. The clock on the phone
>> that I see when using vnc updates every 5 minutes. But despite this, it
>> seemed pretty stable. Not really workable though.
>>
>> Note: Although an ssh remote tunnel won't work, sshfs apparently will.
>> I wouldn't have guessed that.
>>
>> Note: Devices that are using the phone's hot spot can't see each other.
>> They can only see the phone. This would mean that if I connected the
>> Shelly to the hot spot, I wouldn't be able to see it from another device,
>> like the rPi that I can talk to from my house. However, the phone can see
>> all of the connected devices. And the rPi can VNC to the phone.
>>
>> Next plan
>>
>> Connect the Shelly to the hot spot. That should give it a clock and I
>> should be able to schedule it using the phone. If I am away and need to
>> make a change I should be able to use the rPi to VNC headlessly to the
>> phone. Then I am thinking screen shots requested by the slow connection
>> and forwarded to the sshfs share over the hot spot. I'll have to make sure
>> I set the Shelly up with a static IP, or I'll never find it, since the
>> phone, the only thing that could see it, won't nmap or tell me what is
>> connected to it.
>>
>> Thoughts
>>
>> Having a few old phones and access to $10/month plans, it would be nice
>> to just be able to access a phone from the world. It would be easy to
>> monitor and perhaps control things at remote locations for cheap. I've
>> used phones this way before, but they were alway on WiFi and so I had
>> access. When they are the hot spot/AP, things get all jacked up. As an
>> aside:I hate IoT.
>>
>> If anyone has any thoughts, comments, or suggestions, I would welcome
>> them.
>>
>> If you read this far, I hope it was entertaining.
>>
>> Final thought
>>
>> After rereading this, I think I could just replace the Shelly with an
>> X-10 light switch. Install the controller on the rPi and control it with a
>> cron job. I could make any changes using the slow connection from the
>> house. Or alternatively, I could use the native WiFi interface on the rPi
>> as an Ad Hoc/AP for the Shelly. I did try this, but it didn't work. But
>> I've upgraded the OS on the rPi to bookworm from stretch since then. Maybe
>> that will address some of the issues. I was using my laptop to test and I
>> think I was having version compatiblity issues.
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>> Full circle
>>
>> -Gary
>>
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>
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