I've found the same thing with regard to workflow - I find it really weird when people say it's nothing like any other CAD programs, because it really is. You start with sketches and build up from there. Yes, the spreadsheet feature is amazing! I couldn't believe SolidWorks forces you to buy Excel to do the same thing, which is crazy. The spreadsheet integration in FreeCAD is great - with the macro that handles the reference labels.
There's not a single thing you can't do in FreeCAD that you can do in other CAD programs - but you do have to understand how it works and it's limitations.
I finally realised how freecad wants me to use it and found it much nicer to work with after that
Exactly this - once people invest the time to understand the FreeCAD flow, and get over it, they'll find it's an amazing and extremely productive tool.
I tried out SolidWorks and it's a complete mess. You can't just download and install it, it runs a bunch of weird background programs on the computer, and interacting with the multiple web sites is a nightmare. I've been waiting well over a month for them to refund under the promised 30 day guarantee. I'd never, ever do anything with that awful company again.
I'm really looking forward to see how Ondsel does. I've been using it for the last week or two, as it's integrated 0.22 features, and I think it could be a really good thing for the FreeCAD community.
Strongly disagree. There's nothing I can do in any of the commercial CAD programs that I can't do in FreeCAD. Most people just don't want to invest the time to learn it - and instead blame the tool. Yes, there's a learning curve and it requires understanding the tool's limitations, but if it wasn't for FreeCAD we'd have nothing in the free, open source space for CAD.
I'm glad it was helpful. They are great little controllers and ESPHome makes them so accessible for people like me who don't really want to write code manually.
I don't have an exact answer to your problem, but I do have a few ideas to think about. I've got a few ESP32 WROOM boards running in various applications, so I'm a bit familiar. So here's my thoughts:
I only plug the module into data USB (computer) for the initial firmware provisioning. After that, it's 100% wifi and USB is only for power using a power supply, not the computer. And I do the initial provisioning with just the bare ESP32 - no breakout board, nothing plugged into GPIO. Get the device up on wifi with NO other configuration in the firmware.
I use the "arduino" framework. I don't know if that's correct or really matters, I've heard it's the same as "esp32dev" but I don't really know. I use "arduino" because that's what the examples used when I setup my first board.
Is it possible that the sensor module/board is using the same GPIO that the USB UART uses? There is a lot of shared usage of the GPIO that you've got to be careful to work around. The dev tools will often catch this when you compile your firmware, but not always. Again, using wifi after the initial provisioning might be enough if it is sharing GPIO with the serial port.
If you repower the ESP32 too many times rapidly it'll boot into safe mode. You can change the settings on that, but you can also just work slowly - make sure the device is powered on for a few minutes to record a good boot in the flash. It outputs a message in the logs, so it's handy to always be running the log command in a terminal while developing.
Hope that helps! They are a lot of fun to integrate with HA.
Our house has wall vents for all 4 bathrooms, so it's definitely something allowed by code here. It works just fine, there are louvered exits on each one. It's better than venting into the attic like a lot of older houses for sure.
Same here. Useful breakdown on tools, several of which I've used. I've invested a lot of time in FreeCAD thus far, and as I've learned how to do things with the right workflow to prevent errors it's really quite nice and very powerful - and it will continue to only get better with each release. Fortunately, there are great videos and posts when I do get stuck. I can't say enough good things about MangoJellys YouTube videos in learning how to do things the FreeCAD way - probably half of FreeCAD I'd never learn to use by just clicking around. I intend to continue down this road too, and have donated to the FreeCAD project and supported creators versus paying for commercial software. No regrets!
Nope - that's the whole point of ZFS - you don't need any special hardware, nor do you want that layer hiding the details since ZFS manages the drives. Plus, you probably want to use RAIDZx with spare drives to absorb failure.
100% all this. Canonical has been pushing snaps for awhile, and I wonder if the 12 year LTS for Ubuntu is part of that strategy - want something newer? It's in the snap store. snap is terrible, worse than flakpak and appimage - but just as you say, as an arch user I don't have to care. Whatever I want is probably in the AUR if not the main repos. Rolling distros, done right (arch), are an amazing experience.
It's a good question - I don't know, because I haven't used it. If it's 100% compatible with i3 down to its configuration and features, then sure, it's palatable.
In a word - yes - i3 is incredibly productive and customizable, but it's not for everyone. I've been using i3 with no DE or DM for about a decade. Every time I try to use a full DE like KDE, Gnome, etc, it's just so slow and bloated, and gets in the way. And there's 100's of extra packages that get installed, and be updated, that I don't use. I don't need anything but terminals (of which I have about 40 open in 12 different virtual desktops), a browser, and an editor when vim isn't enough. So for me, it's perfect and simple. I don't know what will happen when Wayland finally wins, but that's 5-10 years away before it really wins.
Profiles work fine, but you might have to set things up initially with working Internet. No idea about watch lists or parental controls though - we don't use them.
Just install arch if that's what you want.
Otherwise, RTFM - debootstrap.