Image of beer pump
Philips Perfect Draft Machine

I’ve been known to enjoy a glass or two of delicious malty goodness, and back in 2018 my better half arranged to purchase a Perfect Draft machine.

This uses special kegs to dispense fresh beer at a perfect chilled temperature. I loved it.
Time passed, and and in late 2020 suddenly the temperature gauge started acting up – saying the beer was at 15ΒΊC – even as the keg was freezing solid.

Restting the machine and changing kegs didn’t help. The machine was 2 years old and I figured I’d have to pay Philips to get this repaired.
I went to their website, and in the end spoke to a helpdesk agent. He checked the details, asking for the serial number, and said that should be repairable.

It would be done under warranty. I was emailed a post paid label – and sent the device in for repair on a Friday afternoon.

On the following Monday, I was astounded to get a text confirming my beer pump had arrived at the repair centre; followed by another text an hour later to say it had been repaired.

In a week, my pump was sent away, repaired and returned to me – and continues to serve me perfect beer.

I use Philips for Hue lighting amongst other things.
Their products may not be cheap – but their customer service is exemplary.


So, my ongoing lockdown projects.
I was looking at sorting out my IndieWeb credentials – a little progress there with h-card and linking sites together; although I’m still being a bit lazy about making my content here and sending it elsewhere (see POSSE).

Jekyll and Hugo?
Wow.
Nowehere. I think some of my problems were I got an updated site on GitHub Pages, but was managing it with GitHub Desktop.
I suspect I’d be better doing it with raw git. So, more to do!

As a break from that I decided to tackle a couple of other little projects; like a lot of people I have the odd Raspberry Pi lying about – three of them, in fact.
So…

I now have

  • a working adblocker (a pi-hole) which also handles my DHCP and coincidentally shoves every DNS query over HTTPS for the whole network
  • a working media centre which plays anything I throw at it from my recently repaired NAS, which is done with OSMC [and it streams Freeview TV to every PC in the house by using a pi TV HAT]
  • and finally, a working torrent box. Mostly done with this wiztime article.

For my own future reference – remember that SAMBA is started as a service
sudo systemctl start samba

Don’t call your VPN with the .ovpn attached to its name πŸ™‚

sudo service [email protected] start

This means I have now run out of Pis, and have no idea of another project for one anyway.
So I may have to start looking at git again.

Photo Credit: I LIKE IT SIMPLE Flickr via Compfight cc

Harmony 650 image
Lovely remote control, have used it for years.
Suddenly one of the buttons stopped working. A replacement with the current model would have cost me around Β£60 (around $75US).

I had a despairing look around and I found a wee site called P1Repair.

Found a repair kit, clear instructions – and hey, it was about $12.45US shipped – about Β£10.
I took the risk and ordered it – on 8 April, as it happens – it arrived in the Scottish Highlands on 15 April.

Got round to it yesterday.
Worked. Easily.

I recommend both the kit, and the supplier if you have a problem with your remote – or indeed anything with a button!

As their website says

P1Repair designs button repair kits for anything with a button. Most new product ideas come from customers like you! Any product that carries some popularity is welcome. Individual buttons are also an option for virtually anything with a rubber button.

I have no connection with the firm, other than being a very satisfied cutomer.

So, another day in Scottish Highlands lockdown.
Delivered to the door: crevettes, scallops and mussels.
Cooked on the barbecue, with a substantial beer πŸ™‚