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A lot of you probably already know this, but apparently the 2016 model of the SmartThings motion sensor is hot garbage, according to Amazon reviews. I picked up the home monitoring kit at Best Buy yesterday (their sale price matched Amazon's) and they had an older 2015 motion sensor on the shelf behind the new ones, so I snagged that. these reviews for the new one are pretty bad.
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Jan 2, 2017 17:11
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Hed posted:I personally think wireless cameras are bad because you still have to run power to them and if you're going to run a cable then PoE by virtue of being low voltage is a million times easier to deal with code-wise and with installation. Your specific placement may be lucky enough to not matter, though. This is a good point. Right now I'm just trying to catch who is letting their dog poo poo on my lawn. It's not even by the edge near the sidewalk, it's like right in the middle. I do prefer hard wired networking in most situations, but I'm lazy and I have an outdoor power outlet right where I would put the camera. I was able to do proof of concept with the iSpy software and an app to turn my cell phone into an IP Cam. I think if I decide to go for full house coverage, the PoE would be my best bet.
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Jan 2, 2017 17:55
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Welp, house from the 40's you win again on the electrical smart home front. (Tried to install Jasco (GE branded) Z Wave switches for a 3way light fixture, no neutrals on one side.) Wanting the second opinion on Lutron's Caseta stuff, anyone use it?
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Jan 2, 2017 19:45
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I also would like someone to tell me what switches to buy. Most importantly I want it to function just fine as a light switch without a hub. And I *think* I want z wave for dicking around with smart hubs. I mostly like the looks of Cooper aspire. It seems very feature complete, but I don't like that is is just a push button instead of rocker switch.
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Jan 2, 2017 20:49
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Can anyone recommend a smart z wave switch that doesn't require a neutral?
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Jan 2, 2017 22:54
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smoobles posted:Can anyone recommend a smart z wave switch that doesn't require a neutral? I don't think such a thing exists, how would the switch be powered when the light switch is off without a neutral?
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Jan 2, 2017 22:56
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Dang, good point. I guess I am SOL on switches unless I rewire the house.
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Jan 2, 2017 23:13
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Looks like there are some that work by letting a small amount of power through the light bulb. I don't know it will work with non incandescent bulbs though. http://www.zwavezone.com/z-wave-switch-no-neutral/
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Jan 2, 2017 23:44
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CopperHound posted:I also would like someone to tell me what switches to buy. Most importantly I want it to function just fine as a light switch without a hub. And I *think* I want z wave for dicking around with smart hubs. I bought Homeseer, they work well so far (switch, dimmer, companion) and have rockers. Z-wave+ and were simple to get connected to my SmartThings hub, but worked as switches before that and when my hub goes off the network.
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Jan 2, 2017 23:59
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I'm trying to figure out how to set up the FLIR camera "cloud" stuff, mainly the cloud backup that's advertised on the device's page. https://www.lorextechnology.com/hd-ip-security-camera-system/hd-security-camera-system-with-nvr-2-ptz-cameras-and-2-bullets/HDIP422Z-1-p None of my cameras or the NVR have the QR codes on them as far as I can see. What am I supposed to do? There's 15 different apps and computer programs and none of them seem to talk to each other. I'm wondering if I even want to get involved in this ecosystem if setup is going to be this painful.
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Jan 3, 2017 00:59
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CopperHound posted:I also would like someone to tell me what switches to buy. Most importantly I want it to function just fine as a light switch without a hub. And I *think* I want z wave for dicking around with smart hubs. I've got a couple of the GE smart switches and they work well.
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Jan 3, 2017 02:52
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Just wanted you folks to know, I'm in the middle of rolling out a huge number of Hikvision IP cameras - mostly the cube-style cameras, but also a few dome-style to be used to monitor exterior areas. About 22 cameras in total, all feeding into a machine running Blue Iris. Currently, it's going great! These Hik cameras are awesome, and although I initially had concerns about the computer hardware needed to make such a system function, Blue Iris plus 2012 hardware is more than up to the task.
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Jan 3, 2017 13:38
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What resolution cameras are you using? Is the PC monitoring them all at once?
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Jan 3, 2017 15:10
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Resolutions range from 1080P up to 2048x1536 for a couple of them. All cameras recording at 10fps. Motion detection is handled mostly by the PIR built into the cameras themselves, but a few of the cameras have Blue Iris doing motion detection also, to increase sensitivity. PFSense lets me do some back of the hand math and guesstimate that fully loaded the cameras will be outputting about 3 Megabytes of data per second. So if the cameras were recording all day every day the 4tb drive will hold about a month of recordings. I'm expecting about 1/3rd of that activity in normal use, so up to 3 months of recordings. bobfather fucked around with this message at 22:34 on Jan 3, 2017 |
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Jan 3, 2017 21:07
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CopperHound posted:What resolution cameras are you using? Is the PC monitoring them all at once? I use BlueIris to record 10 hikvision 4MP cameras continuously - mostly at 8mbit/s but a couple are higher. BI continuously uses about 50% of an Intel I7-4790 processor, and storage requirements are about 800GB / day.
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Jan 3, 2017 22:00
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PuTTY riot posted:I'm trying to figure out how to set up the FLIR camera "cloud" stuff, mainly the cloud backup that's advertised on the device's page. http://www.flir.com/uploadedFiles/Security/Products/Software/FLIR-Cloud-CMS/FLIR_CLOUD_CLIENT_CMS_MANUAL_EN_R2.pdf There is an option to configure for their cloud service via a local network and the app. And note, this isn't a cloud back up. It's a cloud service to prevent the need to set up port forwarding and DDNS.
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Jan 3, 2017 23:02
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RevKrule posted:So I started looking at Hue Tap (thanks to recent posts) as I'm in an apartment so rewiring light switches is a no go. I'm concerned with the notation that it has "50,000 lifetime clicks" and reading reviews that the number is much less (like basically a years worth a clicks). Does anyone have experience with them to sway me one way or the other? Does anyone have a better, less disposable solution? I have voice control but scenes elude me. I got the tap on kind of a whim despite not having a lot of faith in how useful it would be last year. Basically to stick near my door for the rare occasion that it's cloudy or I have my curtains drawn and I'm stepping into a dark apartment in the middle of the day (I have my geofence stuff set up to only turn the lights on automatically post sunset only, because normally that's the only time I need them) and want to turn a light or two on without having to dig through my pockets for my phone. It's worked perfectly for that, and been useful beyond that. Even though my apartment is set up so that I have a device capable of controlling my lights just about anywhere in the room, it's still frequently convenient having something that works quickly and reliably that I can press to change a scene or turn the lights off. I could've arguably done all this with voice controls, but I'm still having trouble justifying purchasing an Echo to myself (even with the incredibly low bar I have for justifying purchases) and Siri works most of the time but is less reliable and I don't want to be sitting there yelling at my phone when I can just hit a button. I've had it for a year and it's still going strong but I only average a tap or two a day so maybe I just haven't hit the thousand tap lifetimeor so that I've seen some people complain about.
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Jan 4, 2017 01:06
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For months now my hue just up and stopped following the routine to turn off the lights when I leave home and turn them back on when I get home. I thought it was because I switched phones, but reinstalling the app and logging into the Hue account has done nothing for me. It seems to follow other timed routines just fine, but obviously I really like not having to muck about in the dark when I get home and I'm bringing in groceries or something.
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Jan 4, 2017 02:56
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Droo posted:I use BlueIris to record 10 hikvision 4MP cameras continuously - mostly at 8mbit/s but a couple are higher. BI continuously uses about 50% of an Intel I7-4790 processor, and storage requirements are about 800GB / day. This is good information, I was considering making my own security DVR in a few years and had no idea what kind of hardware to expect. I don't think I'd need such hi res cameras or so many, either way good to know.
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Jan 4, 2017 13:57
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Looking for a cheapish indoor IP camera. I love how easy my Nest Protects are to setup and use, but I don't want to spend that much for a Nest Cam. What's a good alternative?
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Jan 4, 2017 16:23
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I just picked up a dahua ip camera off AliExpress for myself, running it with blue iris. Liking it very much!
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Jan 5, 2017 01:59
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Looking for a simple solution for audio control in my master bathroom. Ideally, a wall plate with Power, Volume Up, Volume Down, Source and FM Preset buttons. I will be powering the bathroom speakers off of zone 3 of a Sony STR-DA3100ES receiver. The receiver has an RS232 interface which could be used for control or I have a Harmony hub that could be used as an IR blaster to the receiver. I will also be adding a Samsung Smart Things hub if that is helpful. I'm trying to determine how I would wire the wall plate such that it could deliver signaling to the receiver via IR or RS232. Are there Zwave or other type switches with assignable buttons that you can map to certain functions within a smart hub and then have the smart hub trigger the Harmony hub to blast ir to the receiver? I have it setup in the Harmony already where you can press an activity on your phone in the Harmony app called "Bathroom Radio" and it will turn on the receiver and turn to FM as source. You can then use number buttons to select presets. I'd like to be able to do that same thing with a physical wall plate instead of the smart phone/Harmony app.
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Jan 5, 2017 02:23
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Rick posted:I got the tap on kind of a whim despite not having a lot of faith in how useful it would be last year. Basically to stick near my door for the rare occasion that it's cloudy or I have my curtains drawn and I'm stepping into a dark apartment in the middle of the day (I have my geofence stuff set up to only turn the lights on automatically post sunset only, because normally that's the only time I need them) and want to turn a light or two on without having to dig through my pockets for my phone. Hmm, my situation sounds similar. Thanks, this is useful.
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Jan 5, 2017 03:40
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My only smarthome device is an Ecobee 3 Lite and I'm having some troubles with its automation. I set it up using Homekit, but they don't seem to agree on things. For example my phone will say its set to 68-76 degrees and currently at 71, but the device itself and its app will say its 70-80 and currently 68 degrees. I have a few automations set up that SEEM to work but not always. It basically seems like the ecobees programed settings, which I've cleared as much as I can but still has home/away/sleep that I can't change, take priority over what I tell it to do. Is there a way to clear it out so that my Homekit always takes priority, or should I try resetting everything?
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Jan 5, 2017 14:35
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Droo posted:I use BlueIris to record 10 hikvision 4MP cameras continuously - mostly at 8mbit/s but a couple are higher. BI continuously uses about 50% of an Intel I7-4790 processor, and storage requirements are about 800GB / day. Did you enable hardware acceleration in BI? I have 5 3mp cameras on an 4770 and CPU usage is around 10% recording continuously.
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Jan 5, 2017 17:28
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Thomamelas posted:http://www.flir.com/uploadedFiles/Security/Products/Software/FLIR-Cloud-CMS/FLIR_CLOUD_CLIENT_CMS_MANUAL_EN_R2.pdf Gotcha. I got that set up, though I'm not sure why it's called "cloud" if I have to set up port forwarding and DDNS since I don't have QR codes on my devices. What I'm referring to is this: https://www.lorextechnology.com/profile/subscriptions?menu=cloud quote:FLIR Cloud Subscription
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Jan 5, 2017 17:45
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FCKGW posted:Did you enable hardware acceleration in BI? I have 5 3mp cameras on an 4770 and CPU usage is around 10% recording continuously. Yes it looks like it is enabled. Options->Cameras->Intel HD hardware acceleration is set to Yes, and each camera is set to "Use Default". I also have direct to disk enabled for each camera. I think the bitrate and frame rate has a lot to do with it.. between all the cameras I am recording 200 fps and a total of 92mbit/second. Are you doing 20fps/8mbit on each of your cameras? I also throttled the CPU to 90% in power management, and I'm not running BI in service mode. I'm not sure how much the service mode affects it, but obviously the CPU throttling does - but now it sits at 55C instead of 70C and I wasn't using the excess anyway. Edit to add: it also looks like 50% is really only true when I am looking at the web interface over the LAN, using that nice custom web UI2 the one guy made that you can download. It's pulling a high res jpeg at like 8fps. When I'm just logged in to the computer that runs it and there are no clients connected, it seems to be more like 35-40% CPU. Droo fucked around with this message at 22:05 on Jan 5, 2017 |
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Jan 5, 2017 20:07
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Pants Donkey posted:For months now my hue just up and stopped following the routine to turn off the lights when I leave home and turn them back on when I get home. I thought it was because I switched phones, but reinstalling the app and logging into the Hue account has done nothing for me. It seems to follow other timed routines just fine, but obviously I really like not having to muck about in the dark when I get home and I'm bringing in groceries or something. One thing that happened to me in this situation is that I deleted the theme I was using before (I use the original Hue app instead of the new one, though, which I hear has problems with geofencing in general). When I selected a new theme it worked. Also, in another instance, I changed the names of one of the lights. When I reselected the theme, it worked again. RevKrule posted:Hmm, my situation sounds similar. Thanks, this is useful. No problem, glad it was useful.
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Jan 5, 2017 23:23
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PuTTY riot posted:Gotcha. I got that set up, though I'm not sure why it's called "cloud" if I have to set up port forwarding and DDNS since I don't have QR codes on my devices. The spec sheet for the DNR100 Series NVRs doesn't mention the Flir/Lorex cloud at all. But it does mention the older DDNS service. My guess is you got an older one with older firmware. Contact their support and see if there is a firmware update for it.
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Jan 6, 2017 00:06
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Now I get to learn how to work with the neutral and ground that aren't wired to my dumb switches, in order to install the smart ones. They're both in the box, so I'm sure I can figure it out. Right?
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Jan 6, 2017 01:01
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Droo posted:Yes it looks like it is enabled. Options->Cameras->Intel HD hardware acceleration is set to Yes, and each camera is set to "Use Default". I also have direct to disk enabled for each camera. Ah, it's probably remote viewing then. My CPU spikes to about 25% on remote view with half the cameras you do so that makes sense. Also that UI2 page has a new h.264 viewer for live view that's pretty nice.
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Jan 6, 2017 01:04
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Subjunctive posted:Now I get to learn how to work with the neutral and ground that aren't wired to my dumb switches, in order to install the smart ones. They're both in the box, so I'm sure I can figure it out. Right? I ran into this exact situation just now trying to install a smart dimmer in my skylight. They're crammed back there and when I went to pull them out, the entire box came loose and pulled out of the wall and the drywall cracked on all sides. Hell yeah let's turn a simple five minute job into a multi step repair process.
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Jan 6, 2017 03:17
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HEY NONG MAN posted:I ran into this exact situation just now trying to install a smart dimmer in my skylight. They're crammed back there and when I went to pull them out, the entire box came loose and pulled out of the wall and the drywall cracked on all sides. I'm gonna need more wine.
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Jan 6, 2017 03:19
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Can anyone here point me to a comprehensive breakdown of major smart home ecosystems? I would like to get some basic stuff set up, but I am having a hard time figuring out what system to buy into. The cost of these things isn't trivial when you look at the number of outlets, switches and single purpose devices in a decent sized home and I am worried about sinking too much money into it and finding out its a dead end standard or whatnot. For a more specific question, does any other company make anything comparable to Insteons 6 and 8 button smart switches? Those seem like a really nice implementation for easy scene selection and control without having to mess with my phone or voice, but form what I can tell Insteon is a closed system and no on else can talk to their stuff. Is that right? What do people suggest?
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Jan 6, 2017 15:19
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emocrat posted:Can anyone here point me to a comprehensive breakdown of major smart home ecosystems? I would like to get some basic stuff set up, but I am having a hard time figuring out what system to buy into. The cost of these things isn't trivial when you look at the number of outlets, switches and single purpose devices in a decent sized home and I am worried about sinking too much money into it and finding out its a dead end standard or whatnot. It certainly feels like this market is exploding/about to explode even more. I know a lot of us use disparate systems, I know I really only have a good handle on Philips Hue and Alexa stuff. Maybe we should think about collaborating on a new thread OP. I don't know enough about the market to add to much, but could easily write up sections on Hue, and Alexa.
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Jan 6, 2017 15:31
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emocrat posted:Can anyone here point me to a comprehensive breakdown of major smart home ecosystems? I would like to get some basic stuff set up, but I am having a hard time figuring out what system to buy into. The cost of these things isn't trivial when you look at the number of outlets, switches and single purpose devices in a decent sized home and I am worried about sinking too much money into it and finding out its a dead end standard or whatnot. I went through this exercise a few months back as I was in the same position as you. I ended up going with Insteon for the reason that my neighbo already used it and so it was easy to implement from his experience. All of my research led me to the point that no matter what you decide to do, there's ALWAYS an option to tie them all together with a different hub/software configuration. There are solutions that will control Zwave, Insteon, Hue, Homekit all from one central solution. So go with one of them and do not be overly concerned about investing too much into one protocol only to switch a few years down the road and lose that investment. There's always a way to use the old stuff. By that time you'll likely WANT to have the more comprehensive and more advanced hubs as well...
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Jan 6, 2017 15:31
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SpaceCadetBob posted:It certainly feels like this market is exploding/about to explode even more. Agreed. I have nothing to contribute to it unfortunately, but a comprehensive OP would be fantastic. Well maintained and informative OP's are one of the best things about SA in my experience. That aspect of this community has been invaluable to me in the past. TraderStav posted:I went through this exercise a few months back as I was in the same position as you. I ended up going with Insteon for the reason that my neighbo already used it and so it was easy to implement from his experience. Huh, good to know. I would be very interested in finding out what could bridge Insteon with Smart Things. Looks like potentially Logitech Harmony works with both, although not officially with smart things. This stuff is a maze right.
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Jan 6, 2017 17:06
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emocrat posted:Agreed. I have nothing to contribute to it unfortunately, but a comprehensive OP would be fantastic. Well maintained and informative OP's are one of the best things about SA in my experience. That aspect of this community has been invaluable to me in the past. There's software (I can't recall the name off the top of my head) that you load on a dedicated PC that would be the brains as well as another hub made by Insteon that also is compatible with Zwave. I have heard comments that it isn't 100% compatible but I want to think that with exception for some edge cases it's a perfect match. Sorry I don't have more information for you to act on, but wanted to share my conclusion as I spent a few weeks himming and hawing over the purchase on this very issue and once I knew there were solutions down the road it opened me up to just buy whatever worked for me.
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Jan 6, 2017 17:13
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emocrat posted:Huh, good to know. I would be very interested in finding out what could bridge Insteon with Smart Things. Looks like potentially Logitech Harmony works with both, although not officially with smart things. This stuff is a maze right. For a small bit of info, Insteon claims their hub can be controlled through the Harmony Hub, Amazon's Echo/Dot, and Apple's HomeKit.
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Jan 6, 2017 18:01
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emocrat posted:For a more specific question, does any other company make anything comparable to Insteons 6 and 8 button smart switches? Those seem like a really nice implementation for easy scene selection and control without having to mess with my phone or voice, but form what I can tell Insteon is a closed system and no on else can talk to their stuff. Is that right? What do people suggest? I use this to make my Insteon stuff work without an Insteon hub. https://www.indigodomo.com/ It's what TraderStav is talking about. I use Insteon plugs and switches where it makes sense. An ecobee for thermostat. Harmony for electronics control. Philips Hue for the smart / color bulbs. Sonos plugin as well. All tied together with this software. It's solid. If the inlaws ever arent here for a weekend (or I don't travel for work), I was going to do an effortpost showing how to use an Insteon panel to control and set scenes with Philips Hue bulbs. sellouts fucked around with this message at 04:04 on Jan 7, 2017 |
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