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wolrah posted:Does your WiFi not reach the garage? Pis are cheap and almost all of them have WiFi now. Just get another one and use that. It doesn't need a high quality signal. It almost certainly would, but I just didn't consider that solution. I guess I didn't think a Pi would be cheap enough to justify such a simple task... seems way overkill, but looking at prices it might make the most sense. Would it hold up in a garage? I'm in NC, so it'll see probably 20-30F in winter up to 90-100F in the summer.
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Dec 2, 2020 02:35
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Boris Galerkin posted:Is there a way to get those cheap GE smartbulbs working with Hue or an Apple TV (I think that acts as a hub of sorts)? TBF in 2020 I dont understand why they would release smart lightbulbs for only Google and Alexa but Im not in marketing Pretty sure you can get them working with Hue: https://www.howtogeek.com/216811/how-to-add-third-party-smart-bulbs-to-your-philips-hue-system/ That said, I just got some Ikea tradfri bulbs to add to my Hue system, thinking they were so much cheaper than the Hue bulbs. And yeah, turns out you get what you pay for. The Ikea bulbs take a second or so to power on or respond to controls (vs the Hue bulbs which are instant). I guess they have a slower processor inside? Also the bulb that I paired can't be seen by the Hue hub anymore. I'm not sure if that's because I paired an Ikea dimmer to it (you can't actually connect the Ikea dimmers to the hub), or if it just has a shittier radio and so only worked when it was in the same room as the hub. Anyway, my advice would be to buy one of the GE bulbs and try it out before buying whole lot of them. It could be that they're cheap because they're lovely. Lol, I also recently got an Amazon flex to put in a room the needed an intercom down to the kitchen. The rest of the system is Amazon dots and spots. Like with the Ikea bulbs, I was all "oh this is so cheap, and they're cranking up the prices on the dot, so let's go with this". And it turns out that the speaker is lovely and tinny, and the microphones aren't as good, and, well, you get what you pay for. It does the job, and I'm not really in a place to return it, but if I were to buy it again I'd fork out the extra $15 and get the dot.
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Dec 2, 2020 13:19
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I had a similar experience with an IKEA bulb when they first came out and I thought/hoped they would be better by now. I also bought one of their smart plugs about a year ago to control the lights under my kitchen cabinet and they worked but they made this mechanical switch/click sound when I turned it on that was annoying enough to return. Do other smart plug/outlets make any sound when they get turned on? I just bought an air purifier for my bedroom but I dont need/want the thing running 24/7. I saw that they had some smart options including one that supposedly senses your room size and whether or not theres any people inside so it know when to be loud and quiet but yeah Im not sending that information to some random company. I guess Ill just add a GE bulb to my next Target run to give it a shot. Are these the ones that everyone was making fun of cause it had like a 5 minute video to reset them? Boris Galerkin fucked around with this message at 17:33 on Dec 2, 2020 |
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Dec 2, 2020 17:31
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Boris Galerkin posted:I also bought one of their smart plugs about a year ago to control the lights under my kitchen cabinet and they worked but they made this mechanical switch/click sound when I turned it on that was annoying enough to return. That's totally normal and has been in every smart plug I've bought, regardless of brand. What you're hearing is a relay, and it needs to be a relatively chonky one to support the things that people plug into it.
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Dec 2, 2020 18:40
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Cornjob posted:Anyone tried this? My tablet is up to date but i dont have this feature yet Re-asking this... my fire tablet still doesnt have it, curious if anyone has tried it
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Dec 2, 2020 19:56
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DaveSauce posted:It almost certainly would, but I just didn't consider that solution. I guess I didn't think a Pi would be cheap enough to justify such a simple task... seems way overkill, but looking at prices it might make the most sense. I rarely recommend a Zero for anything not size constrained but for this role as long as you're not looking to do anything else with it it'd be fine. If the idea of having a Pi out in the garage makes you think of other things it could also be doing, then maybe spend the extra couple of bucks on a quote:Would it hold up in a garage? I'm in NC, so it'll see probably 20-30F in winter up to 90-100F in the summer. Depending on where in NC you are humidity can be an issue that shortens the life of any electronics exposed to it, but in the end it's a Pi. They're almost disposably priced and you can swap a SD card from one to another if it dies. wolrah fucked around with this message at 20:10 on Dec 2, 2020 |
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Dec 2, 2020 20:06
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Don't know anything about this brand but this is a cheap deal for some smart plugs w/ energy monitoring. Alexa is supposed to be able to control individual outlets as well. KT-KMC via Amazon has 2-Pack KMC 4-Outlet Wi-Fi Mini Smart Plug w/ Energy Monitoring for $18.99 - $9.50 w/ promotional code KUKIJ98D= $9.49 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SWZ2N4J
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Dec 3, 2020 02:05
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azurite posted:That's totally normal and has been in every smart plug I've bought, regardless of brand. What you're hearing is a relay, and it needs to be a relatively chonky one to support the things that people plug into it. Ugh that sucks. I hope it bothers someone rich and important enough that they pour money into fixing it.
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Dec 3, 2020 02:14
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Boris Galerkin posted:Ugh that sucks. I hope it bothers someone rich and important enough that they pour money into fixing it. Solid state relays are a thing, but much more expensive for something that will reliably do 15 amps. People looking for randomly named chinese company plug in adapters probably aren't a market that is too picky about this kind of thing. Have you look at zwave outlets? I don't have any experience with them, but my Honeywell zwave switches don't make any noise. The on/off ones or the dimmers, so I assume those are SSR. Something in that class of product but an outlet would likely be similar.
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Dec 3, 2020 02:18
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My clicky smart plugs are all Z-Wave. To your point, none of mine are name brand, though.
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Dec 3, 2020 04:00
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Henrik Zetterberg posted:This happened to my current home. Previous owners drywalled the chime leads into the wall, which is super annoying. I ran a probe & tone kit and found an obvious drywall cut along the path. Rather than re-cut the section out to install a physical chime, I said gently caress it and just bought a wifi Ring Chime. Works great, I just had to hook up the doorbell button wires to the transformer in the garage to get power to my button. I contacted Eufy support, and once they saw the pictures they recommended I hire an electrician. Nope. I'm returning it and getting a wireless version instead.
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Dec 3, 2020 16:30
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If anyone is curious about why mechanical power switching tends to be clicky, Technology Connections did a good video on the topic a while back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrMiqEkSk48 The video is focused on manual switches, but the same logic applies to relays.
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Dec 3, 2020 16:34
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wolrah posted:If anyone is curious about why mechanical power switching tends to be clicky, Technology Connections did a good video on the topic a while back: Wow thats really interesting. I always assumed that manual switches clicked because thats just what people want. Like how there are audio engineers who engineer how car doors sound when they open/close just because thats what people expect. I had no idea its an actual part of the design.
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Dec 4, 2020 01:55
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Boris Galerkin posted:Wow that’s really interesting. I always assumed that manual switches clicked because that’s just what people want. Like how there are audio engineers who engineer how car doors sound when they open/close just because that’s what people expect. I had no idea it’s an actual part of the design. It partly is, a lot of digital switches have distinct audible feedback where they could be completely inaudible, simply because people have learned to associate these things.
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Dec 4, 2020 14:46
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SEKCobra posted:It partly is, a lot of digital switches have distinct audible feedback where they could be completely inaudible, simply because people have learned to associate these things.
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Dec 4, 2020 19:55
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Smart home dashboard finally added to my fire tablet. Loving it. Executing routines with a touchscreen rather than voice command is so much more practical in my house https://www.engadget.com/amazon-fire-tablet-smart-home-dashboard-alexa-171540337.html
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Dec 7, 2020 02:32
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Any recommendations for a blind engine that works well with Google assistant? Finally moving into my new place after renting for a year and a half and it has floor to ceiling windows everywhere.
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Dec 7, 2020 10:42
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I've bought a few plugs, a switch, and a shelly 1 to start automating some things in the house. The plugs and switch have Tasmota already installed on them. I've gotten home assistant up and running to somewhat cohesive setup. What things should I keep in mind as I set everything up? I.e. naming, schema, etc. Something that won't frustrate me in the future because I didn't setup something up properly in the beginning.
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Dec 7, 2020 11:28
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Question for Hue-knowers. I was looking for multi-button stations which can be more flexibly configured than the Hue Dimmer Switch, e.g. a different scene on each button. While googling this I came across the iConnectHue app, which claims to be able to make the Hue Dimmer Switch do just that - including press&hold and multi-press actions. Where does that configuration live though? In the Switch? In the Bridge? I'm just not clear how a 3rd party app can alter the config of Hue-brand products in this way. Would be cool though, my day job is basically this but on a commercial building scale, and our configuration software is absurdly flexible, so I often run into Hue limitations and go "dohhhhhh".
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Dec 7, 2020 16:34
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Finally! https://twitter.com/techcrunch/status/1335990280496041987?s=21 This was my one big pain with my Google Home setup.
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Dec 7, 2020 18:29
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HI everyone, I have a question, and I am not sure if this is the right place for it, so if I need to switch up the post please let me know. My Dad contacted me the other day about my grandmothers house and an issue with thermostats. Apparently, the heat there is all electric and theres a crazy total of 8 old mechanical thermostats in 8 different rooms. This isnt a big house, there arent a lot of rooms, just two floors, two bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room, a dining room, and two bathrooms. For some reason in the 70s when they built the house, they did electric heat, and it was common to install a thermostat in every room with the electric heat. Either way he was looking to install a thermostat that could control all the rooms remotely via a phone, I have had good results with a Nest in the past, but electrical heat is a high voltage system (120v/240v) to the current thermostats, not a 12 volt like the Nest would use to connect to a gas or oil heat furnace and even then I am not sure how I could get it to control 8 separate rooms with electric baseboard heaters from a phone. Is there a way I can do this or a better option specifically for homes with electric heat?? Even if I have to get 8 separate thermostats could I get something like a RC840T-240? Or what type of other gadget do I need?
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Dec 7, 2020 19:22
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Bobstar posted:Question for Hue-knowers. I was looking for multi-button stations which can be more flexibly configured than the Hue Dimmer Switch, e.g. a different scene on each button. While googling this I came across the iConnectHue app, which claims to be able to make the Hue Dimmer Switch do just that - including press&hold and multi-press actions. My guess is that it lives in the bridge since once you authorize a third party app on the bridge it just works and I believe it will do so without an internet connection as long as it's on the same wifi so where else could it be?
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Dec 7, 2020 23:59
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I bought a Google nest hub but all I want is a screen to show the Nest doorbell cam at the back of the house / ring to be easier to hear. Is there something cheaper that doesn't involve a lot of programming or anything?
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Dec 8, 2020 07:51
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I have an Android tablet and a few alexa compatible devices. Is there any good app to give me a nice button interface for this?
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Dec 8, 2020 11:06
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https://www.droid-life.com/2020/12/08/wow-google-and-samsung-partner-for-smartthings-google-assistant-integration/ Well it looks like Google and Samsung decided to play nice with each other on home automation. Of course it remains to be seen how nice but two of the biggest home automation platforms starting to work on some integration is nice to see.
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Dec 8, 2020 21:48
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I installed the Shelly 1 on my fireplace. Works perfectly. Now on to other projects to automate in the house. Recommendations on LED strips? We have a projector and screen in our basement and wouldn't mind putting up some lighting in the back for ambiance.
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Dec 8, 2020 23:56
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calandryll posted:I installed the Shelly 1 on my fireplace. Works perfectly. Now on to other projects to automate in the house. superbrightleds.com is having a holiday sale Hubis fucked around with this message at 16:57 on Dec 9, 2020 |
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Dec 9, 2020 16:41
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Just saw Logitech announced a homekit enabled doorbell, I am very interested! https://www.logitech.com/en-us/products/cameras/circle-view-video-doorbell.html
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Dec 9, 2020 22:04
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Bobstar posted:Question for Hue-knowers. I was looking for multi-button stations which can be more flexibly configured than the Hue Dimmer Switch, e.g. a different scene on each button. While googling this I came across the iConnectHue app, which claims to be able to make the Hue Dimmer Switch do just that - including press&hold and multi-press actions. In the Bridge. It's a little, square RESTful web server, and most everything the official Hue app does is accomplished using the published Hue API. There's a flexible rules engine running on the Bridge around which basically everything is built. The catch is that there's a cap on the number of rules (100 with the current model, I think) due to the Bridge's limited resources. The official Hue app keeps things streamlined both for user-friendliness and to keep the rule count low enough to build larger Hue systems. (For perspective, a Hue Dimmer Switch configured through the official app uses up to ~9 rules: The four "on" slots, press brighter, hold brighter, press dimmer, hold dimmer, and press off. Now you're down to 91 rules.) Third-party apps throw both of those constraints out the window to let you do whatever. If you've got a smaller Hue system, you can go pretty crazy building stuff using third-party apps or the API directly before running into the rule cap. Molten Llama fucked around with this message at 06:54 on Dec 13, 2020 |
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Dec 13, 2020 06:40
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Molten Llama posted:In the Bridge. It's a little, square RESTful web server, and most everything the official Hue app does is accomplished using the published Hue API. There's a flexible rules engine running on the Bridge around which basically everything is built. The catch is that there's a cap on the number of rules (100 with the current model, I think) due to the Bridge's limited resources. Thanks, that makes sense. I'll have a read of the API. My systems's pretty small right now, I use it in the living room (for the ability to turn all the little lamps and ceiling lamps on/off from one switch), and the garden (for the astronomical timed event abilities), but for the bedroom expansion I have planned (wife: "aren't lightbulbs a boring Christmas present?"), I want to make use of colour temp and create a bunch of scenes (working light/cosy/reading etc) and it would be nice to have them on buttons, rather than having to multi-press.
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Dec 13, 2020 12:44
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What lightbulbs should I be looking at if Im only interested in HomeKit and I want wild colours as well as a range of normal lightbulb temperatures?
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Dec 17, 2020 06:42
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Are any of the on the market popular home automation ecosystems even remotely decent when it comes to privacy? I mean Google, Amazon etc are not even worth considering, but what about any others?
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Dec 17, 2020 09:49
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tuyop posted:What lightbulbs should I be looking at if Im only interested in HomeKit and I want wild colours as well as a range of normal lightbulb temperatures?  (I'm not sure of the technical merits/drawbacks between the two). But anyway it does whatever colors you want, whether wacky or normal cool to warm white hues. I don't know if you can do the fancy HomeKit new adaptive lighting thing with them, but I already had a similar automation for that based on my own schedule. I just try to use the manufacturer apps as little as possible, although iirc the Vocolinc app already had something similar built in.MrOnBicycle posted:Are any of the on the market popular home automation ecosystems even remotely decent when it comes to privacy? I mean Google, Amazon etc are not even worth considering, but what about any others? Would Home Assistant count, or Homebridge (in conjunction w/HomeKit), or is it kinda moot privacy wise since the devices themselves still use the other services?
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Dec 17, 2020 10:17
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japtor posted:I got these Vocolinc wifi ones for some lamps and have no complaints. But if you need a crapload of lights maybe one of the hub based ones would be better? drat they dont seem to sell lights on Amazon Canada. I dont think I need too many lights, its just a one bedroom place. Maybe 2-5 bulbs, max. Also interested in some kind of IR-spoofing smart device. I got a string light with one of those remotes, but the remote eats a CR2025 every three weeks so gently caress that. I was thinking of possibly training my Harmony 650 with the remote but a HomeKit remote would be much cooler. Edit: maybe this? Though its about as much as the lights cost 🙄 BroadLink RM4 Mini IR Universal Remote Control, Smart Home Automation Wi-Fi Infrared Blaster for TV Air Conditioner STB Audio, Works with Alexa, Google Home, IFTTT https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07ZSF46BX/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fabc_QI22FbCYNCTHE?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
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Dec 17, 2020 15:17
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MrOnBicycle posted:Are any of the on the market popular home automation ecosystems even remotely decent when it comes to privacy? I mean Google, Amazon etc are not even worth considering, but what about any others? Apple Homekit stuff since they arent literally an advertising company. Devices like TP-link have local APIs so you can use them even without cloud access.
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Dec 17, 2020 17:06
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japtor posted:I got these Vocolinc wifi ones for some lamps and have no complaints. But if you need a crapload of lights maybe one of the hub based ones would be better? What I would do is get HomeKit stuff wherever possible, but also get a Home bridge set up and use it for things that arent available for HomeKit. That way you arent locked into really inferior devices for things you want just because they are the only ones that work with HomeKit. There are plenty of things that I think are fine to go through the cloud for or to use other services for. There are only a couple I think you should only go through HomeKit, and that is locks for your house and video devices watching your property. Nitrousoxide fucked around with this message at 17:34 on Dec 17, 2020 |
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Dec 17, 2020 17:32
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Moving into a new house in Jan, and like another poster above looking to get the basics of a Smart Home/Security system up and running. We are pretty much an all-Apple household to begin with, so I figured HomeKit is the right place to start for us. Here's what I was going to pick up to start with - any glaring omissions? - Abode security kit with sensors for doors + windows - Netatmo Video Doorbell - Ecobee smart thermostat - Yale Assure smart locks for front + rear door - 2 Eufy Indoor 2K cameras for inside - 1 Logitech Circle View for exterior I figure this will get me pretty comprehensive security + video coverage, and is a good base package to then start to layer on any of the home automation things we want to do later...
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Dec 17, 2020 19:10
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japtor posted:How many major players are even there outside of them? Apple is the obvious one, I think Samsung and LG have stuff too, but it seems like 90% of it is through Google/Amazon...or some hodgepodge of stuff I'd trust even less than them (and most of those work through Google/Amazon too). Hmm, from what I gather, I can run Homebridge on my PC, right? Or would it be better to just run a Raspberry Pi? I've never messed with the Pis at all before. e: Hmm, I have a NAS (unraid) that supports docker. I wonder if I could just install it there instead of my desktop PC, which has more downtime? e2: Ha, they have a specific unraid page: https://github.com/oznu/docker-homebridge/wiki/Homebridge-on-Unraid
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Dec 17, 2020 19:19
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Henrik Zetterberg posted:Hmm, from what I gather, I can run Homebridge on my PC, right? Or would it be better to just run a Raspberry Pi? I've never messed with the Pis at all before. You can run it on a PC. Obviously itll only work as long as the PC is on so it may not be a terribly energy efficient way of running a home bridge. If you get a raspberry pi it will be a extremely low power way to maintain that bridge and it wont break because the computer shut off due to Windows updates. The home bridge website includes a how-to for setting it up on a raspberry pi. I would personally recommend that method if you are doing more than just dipping your foot into experimenting with it.
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Dec 17, 2020 19:21
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So plugging away at this at work. These Sengled bulbs seem to be highly reviewed. https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B08L1SCM71/ref=crt_ewc_title_dp_3?ie=UTF8&smid=A1QN15KBISZ8DL&th=1 And the $30 coupon brings them to less than I spent on these Meross Homekit bulbs that don't actually do white. Can someone confirm that I can just Homebridge these into Homekit? I got Homebridge up and running on my RPi 3 no problem. Is there any advantage (beyond the cheap white bulbs), to also grabbing this bridge and using them together? https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B01N7I56OE/ref=crt_ewc_title_dp_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A1QN15KBISZ8DL Thanks, this is a really confusing little ecosystem that they've got going on. And is there any reason to buy a wifi switch as well? It sounds like these Sengled bulbs just return to the last colour when a hardware switch is flipped.
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Dec 17, 2020 19:59
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