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spiralbrain posted:Take a look at Blink. I recently checked them out at CES. They have some outdoor cameras that are going to be released here very soon that run on AA batteries and have a two year life (if you can believe that). Motion activated and cloud monitoring you can dump video (720 I think) toyour phone. Best of all the cameras are only $120. Blink's indooor camera claim a year. But that's based on 5.5 hours of motion occurring in front of them. Most people were reporting actual battery life of weeks to months. Outdoor environments may be slightly better but are more likely to be much worse. They say they improved the battery life but I think 2 years is the marketing department being extremely optimistic.
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Jan 21, 2017 23:04
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Thomamelas posted:Blink's indooor camera claim a year. But that's based on 5.5 hours of motion occurring in front of them. Most people were reporting actual battery life of weeks to months. Outdoor environments may be slightly better but are more likely to be much worse. They say they improved the battery life but I think 2 years is the marketing department being extremely optimistic. Hence why Im keeping it on my radar. There are a few software features they plan on adding in that aren't available yet, plus I would only buy the outdoor model.
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Jan 22, 2017 00:39
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It doesn't seem like there's much Hue discussion... There's a motion sensor they make. It seems like third party apps can issue way more commands to the switches and sensors then the OEM software can.. Here's my idea for the bedroom: When it's time to sleep I hit a custom button on the switch (maybe long press off or something) that switches to this mode/scene. The motion sensor would be rigged to be in the doorway. The bulb setup is a bedside bulb, an overhead lamp dead center of the ceiling and then a light strip on the floor that washes the wall furthest from the bed. In this mode all the lights are set to 0..when someone activates the motion sensor a second time, the furthest light (the strip that washes up a wall) would fade on quickly to an ambient enough level in a deep blue, purple, or maybe red. This would let you see after you're no longer adjusted to the dark coming back from the bathroom with just enough dim colored light that you don't stumble around, and it shouldn't wake up the other person sleeping. This would then fade the light after 30secs-1 min so you can go back to darkness once back in bed. The entire mode would turn off at sunrise automatically each morning. Possible complications- Sometimes I have to be up for work well before the sunrise, so I'd also need to program a hotkey on the switch to disable the mode in a pinch. I'll let you guys know how well I fare..I use android/PC so hopefully there's a third party app that lets me set up this scene easily... Some other ideas for it: Bedside lamp pulses on notifications, colors to match my phones LED. Integrating with tasker (my phone has an IR blaster) to slowly bring up daylight into the room when I turn off the alarm, which will simultaneously also start the newest BBC news podcast on my receiver. Geofencing so I can't forget to turn off my lights ever. Voice control (useless but kinda neat to just say LIGHTS OFF and have it be a thing) Auto lights up and down when I play something in Kodi (also tied into my phone through pushbullet..phone rings, media pauses, lights come up..phone hangs up, reverse) Party Mode- color changes to music's beat Effects- Theres a few different apps with things like lightning storms and fire effects..impractical but fun to show off Auto fade up as the ambient level gets too dark in the room. Leave before the s/o mode: Brings up certain lights to dim levels, others pulse soothing sleep colors..mainly so one person to can grab poo poo if they leave before the other one without fully turning up the lights.
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Jan 22, 2017 22:33
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I bought two hue motion sensors but then had trouble figuring out how to make them work with my wife and I's dramatically different sleeping hours. Only thing I could think of was behind the computer monitor to turn on the light there. Every other light is obtrustive in our condo. Voice control via Google Home and Hue dimmers ended up being a better solution.
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Jan 23, 2017 07:20
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I just setup my first room with Hue ambient whites and I am a lot more impressed than I thought I would be. There was a bit of a snag getting homekit to work on my wife's phone. Turns out that I needed to perform a firmware system update on the Hue bridge (I just went straight into homekit without installing the Hue app). I put a dimmer switch on the wall and everything just works. It was really impressive and the quality of the on/off/dimming is better than I expected. We have a WeMo insight in the living room that has a second or two delay when giving alexa voice commands but the Hue respond really well. I couldn't be happier and now I'll probably set up another room with them. Total cost for 2x bulbs the bridge and a switch was $140 so not cheap but not terrible. I would definitely say it was worth it.
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Jan 25, 2017 08:07
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particle9 posted:I just setup my first room with Hue ambient whites and I am a lot more impressed than I thought I would be. There was a bit of a snag getting homekit to work on my wife's phone. Turns out that I needed to perform a firmware system update on the Hue bridge (I just went straight into homekit without installing the Hue app). I put a dimmer switch on the wall and everything just works. It was really impressive and the quality of the on/off/dimming is better than I expected. We have a WeMo insight in the living room that has a second or two delay when giving alexa voice commands but the Hue respond really well. I couldn't be happier and now I'll probably set up another room with them. Total cost for 2x bulbs the bridge and a switch was $140 so not cheap but not terrible. I would definitely say it was worth it. I did the exact same thing just yesterday, but also added an LED strip in a different room, then immediately went into the Hue's JSON API to program the dimmer so "hold up" turns the LED strip on and off. Pretty neat what you can do with that thing, it can even record state so you could do something hilariously complex if you wanted.
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Jan 25, 2017 10:39
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I don't think we have a perfect thread for this question, so I'll start here: Is there any way to program the Harmony Hub to repeat a command X times other than going through the laborious process of adding the command over and over via the app?
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Jan 25, 2017 16:43
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Not that I know of, but mass editing like that was somewhat less painful using a PC with their Harmony software rather than a mobile device.
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Jan 25, 2017 21:37
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Looking for some direction in smart lighting. Currently, I've got a google home, an alexa. Ideally I'd like something that plays nice with both, so I can have them on opposite sides of the house and have the option to ask either to turn the lights on/off. I'm in a smallish rental, so I don't need a ton of lights. I think there are ~9 lights between the living room, dining room and kitchen. I'm in a rental, so I can't go poking holes in the walls and replacing wall switches etc. With that, I wouldn't mind having something semi future proof, but I'm not sure if that exists with the current state of things? Also not sure how long in the future I might be purchasing a home.. so might not be a real concern I guess. I was thinking the Phillips Hue bridge would be good, it can do 50 lights so that'd be more than enough. And I like the idea of changing the hue of the lights. Maybe make a party mode with different colors? I also see that wemo lights work with home now, so that would do alexa and home. I can't tell if you can only change the hue of white, or if you can go full blue/red?
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Jan 26, 2017 20:02
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Hue definitely does what you want, and I'd recommend it. You can buy bulbs that only do shades of white or ones that also do color.
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Jan 26, 2017 20:19
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Just installed a 2nd gen Kwikset Kevo smartlock on my front door and it works really well. I was a bit scared because the customer reviews were really polarized but I've had no problems. And you can still use it as a regular lock if anyone else is a technophobe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UjzcXeq8lw Having to install a 20 minute software update on my lock is pretty weird though.  And now my door handle looks really ugly/old in comparison.Definitely recommend getting fobs, makes the bluetooth work much faster than just a phone. You don't need to pull them out of your pocket.
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Jan 26, 2017 22:17
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deong posted:Looking for some direction in smart lighting. I haven't used anything Hue so I can't say anything about it one way or the other, but if you're looking at "future proofing" I would consider some sort of hub that does more than just lights like SmartThings.
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Jan 27, 2017 16:55
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deong posted:Looking for some direction in smart lighting. I just bought a Hue bridge and it easily works across the length of my apartment, while a wi-fi signal won't reach the other end due to the idiotic layout. Hue is compatible with Alexa and Google Home (and SmartThings). The standard app is a bit clumsy for changing the color of an entire room at once unless you have a scene set up, but there's a ton of free and paid apps that'll enhance it, plus it has a JSON API that you can go wild with if you're into that sort of thing. It also supports Osram and Innr lamps (though the former might require a firmware update in the US). As for future-proofing, the Hue bridge works without an internet connection/cloud/whatever, which is a huge plus in my books, and if someone just uses the normal light switch, the bulbs behave like you'd expect them to.
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Jan 27, 2017 17:55
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dreesemonkey posted:I haven't used anything Hue so I can't say anything about it one way or the other, but if you're looking at "future proofing" I would consider some sort of hub that does more than just lights like SmartThings. Also from what I know, the Hue bridge is needed if you want to control colored Hue lights with a ST hub, if that's a factor.
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Jan 27, 2017 18:00
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gschmidl posted:As for future-proofing, the Hue bridge works without an internet connection/cloud/whatever, which is a huge plus in my books, and if someone just uses the normal light switch, the bulbs behave like you'd expect them to. SmartThings drives Hue and Z-wave and Zigbee without internet access, fwiw.
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Jan 27, 2017 19:15
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Subjunctive posted:SmartThings drives Hue and Z-wave and Zigbee without internet access, fwiw. How does this work exactly? I've never pulled the Ethernet cable to try, but when SmartThings had an outage one evening, I lost control of everything.
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Jan 27, 2017 20:41
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azurite posted:How does this work exactly? I've never pulled the Ethernet cable to try, but when SmartThings had an outage one evening, I lost control of everything. Those use local wireless protocols (at least Z*). The app might not work, I guess (the ST hub weirdly doesn't have wifi), but things like timers and scenes triggered from z-wave devices seem to work when the internet is down.
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Jan 27, 2017 21:07
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Gotcha. I guess all the pre-scripted stuff must work, but not remote control via the app.
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Jan 27, 2017 21:20
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Subjunctive posted:SmartThings drives Hue and Z-wave and Zigbee without internet access, fwiw. Only if you use bone-stock device handlers along with their basic (limited) SmartApps. In other words, use any non-standard code and your device is completely dependent on internet access to function. My whole setup breaks when internet goes down, but I have HomeKit running as a backup.
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Jan 27, 2017 23:19
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I'm planning to add some lighting automation to my house as well as security monitoring cameras outside. My current devices are: Nest Thermostat, Nest indoor cam (no storage just use it to harass pets), 2 nest protect smoke/c02 detectors Sonos audio in kitchen, living room and dressing room Google Nexus Player/Android TV in bar room and theater room What is the most logical way to go about introducing an automation system ? Is smartthings the way to go ? Is nest a dead end ? Sonos is currently a dead end but I believe they're attempting to expand their compatibility with other systems. There is limited Google Play Music casting functionality.
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Jan 31, 2017 23:29
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Sonos is adding support for Echo soon using Amazon's devices for control, and later in v.next hardware, adding it to the Sonos speakers themselves.
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Feb 1, 2017 00:05
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Jonathan; since I know you like overkill: Check out some of the dahua starlight ip cameras with varifocal lenses. I'm running mine with Blue Iris software, which notifies my phone when motion is detected. Low light vision is great, the sensors on those cams are pretty big. Camera:  iPhone 7+:  Both pics taken at about the same time. It's a 2mp sensor, don't need much more, and helps a lot with low light. not bad for 230$ shipped, IMO. Frank Dillinger fucked around with this message at 02:27 on Feb 1, 2017 |
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Feb 1, 2017 02:17
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Nice quality! I miss having Cat-5 runs to my PoE cameras from my old house to have that kind of quality. I have to use WiFi cameras at the new place in the boonies but they serve their purpose. I notice that you have overlays on the cameras themselves as well as Blue Iris Re-encode with settings. Turning off all text and graphics overlays on BI and changing the recording to Direct-to-disc will lower your computer's processing stress since the cameras will display the location and time stamp for it.
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Feb 1, 2017 04:06
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done! here's a night shot:  aaaand now i can't imgur. if i right click and choose open in new tab its fine though? -double edit: fixed Frank Dillinger fucked around with this message at 06:27 on Feb 1, 2017 |
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Feb 1, 2017 06:25
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jonathan posted:I'm planning to add some lighting automation to my house as well as security monitoring cameras outside. I'm really happy with a Google Home and Hue. Can control nest too. Not sure about Android TV but works well with Chromecast.
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Feb 1, 2017 09:59
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Would a Hue Go work for TV bias lighting or should I shoot for a LED strip?
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Feb 1, 2017 13:31
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gschmidl posted:Would a Hue Go work for TV bias lighting or should I shoot for a LED strip? The strip and the Go cost about the same amount. The Go is also larger than I though it was before I bought it (it's about the size of a medium mixing bowl). I'm not sure what your situation is but my Go definitely wouldn't fit behind my TV but the light strip and go right on the backside of my tv stand and be totally hidden until it's turned on.
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Feb 1, 2017 13:58
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RevKrule posted:The strip and the Go cost about the same amount. The Go is also larger than I though it was before I bought it (it's about the size of a medium mixing bowl). I'm not sure what your situation is but my Go definitely wouldn't fit behind my TV but the light strip and go right on the backside of my tv stand and be totally hidden until it's turned on. Ok, that cinches it for the Strip, I wouldn't have room for the Go. Thanks!
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Feb 1, 2017 15:15
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gschmidl posted:Would a Hue Go work for TV bias lighting or should I shoot for a LED strip? If you're going for an ambilight setup the lag from the hue stuff won't really work well. There's a bunch of guides & software for using a rasberry pi and an LED strip to power a passthrough that reads the frame buffer in realtime and gives you corresponding colors. Google Lightberry for an example of a company selling kits...
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Feb 1, 2017 15:59
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jonathan posted:Sonos is currently a dead end but I believe they're attempting to expand their compatibility with other systems. There is limited Google Play Music casting functionality. Not sure what you are trying to do but http://forums.indigodomo.com/viewtopic.php?f=142&t=8683&sid=bc7ac06cf70e7d27c66b7130743fa91c
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Feb 1, 2017 17:24
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Frank Dillinger posted:Jonathan; since I know you like overkill: Check out some of the dahua starlight ip cameras with varifocal lenses. I'm running mine with Blue Iris software, which notifies my phone when motion is detected. Low light vision is great, the sensors on those cams are pretty big. Thanks and the overkill compliment made me feel all warm inside. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlecTBevmzc
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Feb 1, 2017 21:38
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zer0spunk posted:If you're going for an ambilight setup the lag from the hue stuff won't really work well. There's a bunch of guides & software for using a rasberry pi and an LED strip to power a passthrough that reads the frame buffer in realtime and gives you corresponding colors. Google Lightberry for an example of a company selling kits... I use this plugin for Kodi and my Hue Lightstrip v2s update to match the scene within 1/4 - 1/2 second. It doesn't work well on movies where there are multiple, fast cuts, but I would say it's brilliant on almost everything else. In particular, Planet Earth 2 was amazing.
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Feb 1, 2017 21:55
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zer0spunk posted:If you're going for an ambilight setup the lag from the hue stuff won't really work well. There's a bunch of guides & software for using a rasberry pi and an LED strip to power a passthrough that reads the frame buffer in realtime and gives you corresponding colors. Google Lightberry for an example of a company selling kits... I've been told to stick with 6500K white, but hey, I already have a Raspberry with Kodi running, so...
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Feb 1, 2017 23:18
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I have a Smarthings hub and want to control my front porch lights remotely. Is this something that would fit my needs? https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GONGX98/
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Feb 2, 2017 20:17
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hotsauce posted:I have a Smarthings hub and want to control my front porch lights remotely. Is this something that would fit my needs? Yeah, that should work fine.
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Feb 2, 2017 20:21
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Subjunctive posted:Yeah, that should work fine. Cool, thanks for the quick response. Free Saturday delivery coming right up! Edit: went with this one, looks to serve the same function at a lower cost: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0035YRCR2/ hotsauce fucked around with this message at 20:27 on Feb 2, 2017 |
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Feb 2, 2017 20:23
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hotsauce posted:I have a Smarthings hub and want to control my front porch lights remotely. Is this something that would fit my needs? Yeah as long as your boxes are deep enough (smart switches tend to be deeper) and you have a neutral (won't always have that in older houses). If not easier approach is to just use smart bulbs.
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Feb 2, 2017 20:33
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Am I alone in thinking these smart switches, receptacles, light bulbs are just too expensive? I mean in the sense of them gaining widespread attraction. They may very well just cost a lot of money to make, but it seems like $40+ for a decora switch that you can operate with your smartphone is going to be a very hard sell for most non-nerdy people.
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Feb 3, 2017 00:45
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You're absolutely right, just about all the smart home stuff is priced to fleece enthusiasts and early adopters. It might just be that is the only real market for the stuff now, though.
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Feb 3, 2017 02:01
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Thermopyle posted:Am I alone in thinking these smart switches, receptacles, light bulbs are just too expensive? They're priced fine. Consider that until about 2 years ago regular old LED bulbs were still $10 a bulb. I just picked up 4 Osram Lightify bulbs that connect to SmartThings and can dim and be remote controlled for $32 total, or $8 a bulb. Not everything costs what Hue bulbs cost.
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Feb 3, 2017 02:14
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