im gonna use it to send commands to 3 motors to rise/lower my blinds via bluetooth or something
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Well, here's what I'm going to use mine for. I'll get a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ to use it just for building a monitoring and control system as part of my Smart Home project in connection with a Sonoff bridge and my already existing professional alarm system.
I'm also thinking of integrating a 13.56 MHz Mifare compatible Dahua reader, an Arduino Uno, an ESP8266, a microwave proximity sensor and a camera with an IR Cut Filter and a remote controllable motor with backup power supply to implement a secure access control mechanism for my front door.
By using a hackproof in-house proprietary software and a custom version of a smart ring I'll hopefully get rid of having to carry around my keys without exposing myself to all the buggy and backdoor filled already existing solutions that are pretty hackable.
I already have complete remote control over my appliances and live feed video of my property. A few more steps and I'll have everything at my little finger from anywhere in the world :).
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That's impressive and disturbing at the same time :D
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It's a project I'm planning to work on in my already scarce spare time. I expect to have some fun implementing it :D.
You said disturbing; which part exactly? :)
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It's a bit hard to explain. You already briefly addressed security concerns regarding hacking in your post so that wasn't the vaguely disturbing part for me.
It's just to me personally having technology involved (I'm trying to avoid the word controlling) so many aspects of my home doesn't seem very appealing. For example video surveilance for the whole premises has a bit of a Bond villian vibe to me :D
I guess I should also point out that I live in a flat on a higher floor so my security needs are obviously different than when you're living in a house with garden. In my area and my flat I suppose I just need a sturdy door and a good lock and I'm pretty much set. Also beside wanting to program my HDD-recorder remotely maybe once a year I can't really imagine a situation where I'd want or need remote control over my appliances.
I do however understand that with our aging demographic, particulary in the west, smart homes are the future at least as soon as we manage to make them so intuitive even old people can understand and use them.
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Fair point. However, I find it quite useful to be able to monitor and control things like heating, cooling, humidity, lighting, power consumption, structural integrity, various sensors and appliances and so on, as well as the overall security of the property.
To give you an example of how useful such a system really is, three years ago, during the night, someone triggered my security mechanism while I was 300 km away from home. I instantly got a notification and I remotely turned on the lights and the TV and turned the TV volume all the way up (Home Alone style :)), while monitoring the live feed on my phone. Rather than sound the alarm, thus suggesting there was nobody home, I decided to use scare tactics and it worked. The intruder got scared and ran away.
Another example is that I found my car hit and the culprit driver ran away. By checking the security footage I was able to identify the license plate, the exact car model and the person that was driving the car that hit mine. This way, not only that I was able to identify the culprit but due to the available evidence he also got fined and had to provide his insurance details to cover the entire cost of the repair.
A third example is that I often control the air temperature and humidity to reach optimum comfort levels before getting home, which is pretty neat.
Having options is always better than not being able to do anything.
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I've been waiting for this, gonna see if I can find some goodies. I'm really tempted to buy some clothes because a lot of them look awesome at affordable prices (albeit some of them only look good on the store page pictures and are actually pretty bad when you get them, but thanks to AliExpress's customer review system where we're allowed to upload pictures of the product those kind of products can be easily avoided). But I'm so worried that I'll order the wrong size and waste my money.
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Looked through bunch of things but... if I order a cheap drone, customs will tear me a new one (the law allows them to set customs tax based on retail price they find online, they don't care for discounts at all) and well... I dunno... things under $10 I can get any day.
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Just a reminder for people in the EU, to import products from China that are over a certain amount of money (depends on your customs office) you have to fill out tax forms and pay extra tax on them. Usually, the tax-free price is extremely low (under 15-25€)
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most sellers mark the price under 45 anyways lol. i bought 6 copy samsung phones and they put 35 ukp lol
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Yeah, but when they decide to look up the retail price (which they are allowed to do), they'll make you prove that you actually got it for that price. And since you can't prove it, you'll be fined.
Not to mention, 45€ is probably the highest price in the EU thanks to you being in a rich country. Even mildly rich countries have the maximum tax-free prices as 20€ or so.
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They go through E-Packet so they not subject to customs as under a certain weight. they go through usual security for drugs or money etc but they arrive within 4 days from china. never had any problems. and rich countrys does not mean rich residents unfortunately.
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I agree with the last sentence for sure. I just mean that the buying power is obviously better. You might be poor in your country, but you'd be rich somewhere else.
Like, compare the minimum wage of Norway to the minimum wage of Romania. You'd be rich there because the country isn't rich.
But yeah, the customs can check your packages randomly and you'd probably be fined. My stuff's been randomly checked before, even when it came from Germany. Just because you haven't been unlucky yet, doesn't mean it won't happen. Just be careful.
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I was turned off by that at first too, but after reading more about them and the owner company Alibaba I was reassured that they're trustworthy so I just use my debit card. When you pay for an item AE gets your money and they give it to the seller only after you mark the item as received, otherwise you can ask for a refund.
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just tried it now and it doesn't give me any paypal option maybe it depend on the country
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I've bought quite a bit of camera gear and other stuff from Ali in the past, and I wasn't disappointed. I mean not the actual cameras or lenses, but various accessories like tripods and stabilisers, chargers, etc. Saved quite a lot of money that way. However I would stay away from cheap cables, that stuff broke for me.
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i also buying in:
BangGood
and
Gearbest
you need to check on all sites !!
yes Aliexpress is the bigger and you can use paypal now...
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
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how to use Paypal just tried it now and it doesn't give me any option to choose paypal
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I disagree. I bought some ram there myself and they work just fine. Not only that, but they cost about 30% of my local stores' ones. Just pick a seller with a lot of reviews and products with a lot of orders and you should be fine.
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Two years ago I somehow "discovered" AE and would order several things each month. My mailman was so mad. My no.1 tip is to spend hours researching. I found great deals + decent quality stuff (mostly clothes), but I only opted for reputable stores and items with lots of reviews.
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time to buy some 18650 cells, some tweezers, pliers, reed switches, glue gun sticks
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I bought loads there in the past, some bad experiences but most of them were well worth it.
Just read the reviews well and click through at the bottom to see the same product from different sellers
I do need to keep payments per item under €20/24 so it doesn't get slammed with huge tarrifs at customs.
some things I can recommend (since you can't go wrong with them, prices might have changed since I bought them...)
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This looks like an actual interesting deal
https://es.aliexpress.com/item/1Pcs-PIR-Motion-Sensor-Toilet-Seat-Novelty-LED-lamp-8-Colors-Auto-Change-Infrared-Induction-Night/32786473553.html
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The prices are mostly the same as before the sale.
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like black friday in brazil:
pay the half of the double.
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Hmm, I didn't find anything interesting I couldn't get cheaper or for the same price from a local store which is a bit weird. Some items were even three times more expensive that the local offers so be careful when buying and check your local offers first.
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Shady site that doesn't let you use paypal...I will have to pass even though there are some stuff I'd like to get.
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PayPal is supported. It depends on the seller accepting it or not, though.
The site is not shady, but many sellers are. It's a marketplace like Amazon or eBay. Many Chinese brands have official pages on aliexpress, selling real and legit items, but most of the other cheap stuff on there is generic or counterfeit.
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For sure there a lot of pumped-up prices, just to be cut for the sale (Like a $78 watch that is listed for 220 cut to 19 :D), but I keep a lot of stuff on my wishlist there and majority of them have 40%+ discount and the regular 1% off when confirm the purchase thru the app.
They will get my yearly ~$50 for nicks knacks.
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And just like that I spent $50 on stationary and figurines.
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most figurines looks cheap
Edit: found one that looked good at 30usd
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