The Aerie

I got tired of changing batteries

Posted on 2026-04-13 by Nick Brosnahan

I have a Schlage Encode Plus Smart Wi-Fi Lock for Front Door.

It’s a very usable door lock with many modern features. It takes a small battery pack that contains 4 AA batteries. This is fine.

Unfortunately, the failure mode for the batteries being dead is unpleasant. So, obviously, the best thing to do is to constantly check and change out the batteries before things go wrong.

You cannot win here. Eventually, you will suffer.

So, I decided to get out of the business of even caring about changing batteries and completely over-engineer a solution that satisfies my goals.

Goal #1: Line power

Goal #2: UPS based on line power

Goal #3: Never change batteries again

Turns out, it’s pretty easy to make this work.

I removed the battery pack completely and McGuyvered a single wire per contact in the unit. I ended up just looping wire underneath the “inverted-V” of the battery pack contact and then just twisted it around itself several times to secure it. Positive is on the right side (when looking at the back of the door lock. Negative on the left.

After that, I just used a couple of wire nuts and one of these beauties: USB C to 2 Pin Bare Wire Open End Power Cable. I also needed a nice USB-C extension cord to make the distance, but it worked great. $17.06.

So, now I just needed to power this USB-C pigtail with some UPC power. So, I got this: SKE DC20000 Plus Altair – Mini DC UPS. $71.68.

Plugged in the UPS to a wall socket and Voilà!

Line power + UPS + USB-A to C adapter + USB-C extension cable + USB-C pigtail + McGuyvering ==> RESULT!!

Wire loops around contacts (at the bottom of the battery pack cavity)

Wire loops connected with wire nuts to USB-C pigtail

USB-C extension connected to UPS using USB-A (why!?!)

For reasons that are unclear, I was unable to use the USB-C port on the UPS, so I just put in a C-to-A adapter and used the USB-A port instead.

The Schlage iOS app thinks the battery level is 32%, but since that never changes, I’m totally fine with that.

You too can spend money to solve a problem that is only a minor irritation. Good luck and may the force be with you.

Posted in IoT, Tech | Tagged battery, DIY, door lock, home automation, Schlage, UPS | Comments Off

Life After Cars

Posted on 2025-10-29 by Nick Brosnahan

After a long wait, my copy of Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile arrived last week. I tore through it, mostly in a frenzy of confirmation bias, but it is a good consolidation of research-backed findings of the damage caused by the rise of the automobile around the world. I do recommend it, even though I had heard many of the same arguments in books and articles that they referenced. I found it a well-organized and approachable text that everyone should read and understand, regardless if you’re anti-car or not.

Posted in Advocacy | Tagged cycling, driving, safety, transportation | Comments Off

Cities Moving

Posted on 2025-05-31 by Nick Brosnahan

citiesmoving.com is a nifty site that compares the mobility of a city’s people across active mobility, public transit, and private cars.

Not a surprise, but it’s pretty clear that San Francisco has a lot of work to do here:

Compared to Paris or Amsterdam:

Posted in Advocacy | Tagged cycling, driving, public transit, transportation | Comments Off

Fietsvlonders are awesome!

Posted on 2025-05-31 by Nick Brosnahan

I found this Dutch company that builds bike rack platforms that take up the space for a normal car parking space. It’s a wonderful idea. It essentially creates an 8-10x number of parking spots for bikes over a single car. I think it’d be interesting for San Francisco to consider putting one of these on each block of the slow streets.

Check it out here.

Posted in Advocacy | Tagged cycling | Comments Off

License to Kill

Posted on 2025-04-23 by Nick Brosnahan

If you haven’t read the CalMatters article about how the DMV is complicit in keeping killer drivers on the road after multiple collisions and even after multiple deaths caused by those collisions, you may want to give it a read.

https://calmatters.org/investigation/2025/04/license-to-kill/

It’s horrifying how we fail to punish people who clearly need to be removed from our roads.

Prepare to be angry.

Posted in Advocacy | Tagged driving, safety | Comments Off

AI 2027

Posted on 2025-04-23 by Nick Brosnahan

There’s a wonderful “what if” scenario piece over at https://ai-2027.com. It paints a picture of the paths future AI development might take. It feels very much like science fiction, but it might be right about timelines.

While a bit outlandish, but it combines international politics, competition, and compute capacity with the risks of AI misalignment to put together two plausible futures we should pay close attention to.

I enjoyed reading it.

Posted in Tech | Tagged AI, fiction | Comments Off

SF is still mostly empty above 40′

Posted on 2025-04-05 by Nick Brosnahan

Yes. Do this. Encourage building more housing in SF.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/lurie-housing-rezoning-plan-20255343.php

Posted in Advocacy | Tagged housing, SF | Comments Off

Oak Street Quick-Build Approved by SFMTA Board

Posted on 2025-04-05 by Nick Brosnahan

This is good news. There will be a new protected bikeway built next to the Panhandle on Oak Street in the eastbound direction (on the left side this time) to mirror the one that was put in on Fell Street (westbound).

Read the article here: https://www.sfmta.com/blog/improving-safety-and-access-panhandle-oak-street-quick-build-approved-board

An important statistic from the article is “With the Fell Street Quick-Build Project, a mirror image of the Oak proposal, there was a 38% drop in total collisions and a 50% drop in pedestrian collisions over a five-year period, and vehicle travel time increased by only 8–17 seconds.”

What this means is that this sort of infrastructure makes it much harder for drivers to hurt cyclists and pedestrians.

This is something to celebrate.

Posted in Advocacy | Tagged safety, SF | Comments Off

SVBC’s 2025 El Camino Real Ride

Posted on 2025-04-05 by Nick Brosnahan

Signups are now OPEN for Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition’s 5th Annual El Camino Real
Ride!

Please sign up today to join us on Saturday, May 17th for our annual ride for a safer and more vibrant El Camino Real.

This is your chance to ride safely and comfortably along this direct, convenient arterial road connecting the hearts of our South Bay and Peninsula cities.

Join us at the Santa Clara Transit Center at 9 AM, or meet us along the way at one of our rest stops destinations, where we will feature free refreshments from highlighted local businesses along El Camino.