Home Automation and Security Systems

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Home Automation and Security Systems

WhyteRyce: Dec 30, 2001

Is it expected to have a WeMo switch power off after firmware update? I have one switch which I assumed was defective because it would "randomly" shut off, but I've been playing around with the replacement and that one shuts off after a firmware update is complete. I'm assuming this is expected behavior? Is there some way to disable that behavior? Or at least set a rule to automatically turn it back on?

# ¿ Feb 10, 2015 06:05

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 6, 2024 05:44

WhyteRyce: Dec 30, 2001

Nest/ecobee question. I've always avoided looking at smart thermostats because someone is generally in my house most of the time and I don't want it shutting off accidentally on people. For geofencing, I'd assume I'd have to have it enabled on the phone of every person that might be in my house? If the activity sensor detects someone, would Nest/ecobee retain the default "someone is home leave it on/at a specific temperature" setting? Also my thermostat is in the hallway and people aren't necessarily walking by it ever hour, how accurate are the activity sensors going to be? Would I be expected to get Nest Protect to function as an additional sensor?

# ¿ Apr 11, 2016 18:43

WhyteRyce: Dec 30, 2001

stevewm posted:

No, to control actual Philips Hue lights you still need the bridge.

This feature in Home Assistant fakes a hue bridge and allows other devices or systems to control devices inside the Home Assistant software via the Hue API.

For example I have ZWave controlled light bulbs in my Living Room lamps on my Home Assistant system. HomeAssistant exposes these via it's fake Hue Bridge, so the Amazon Echo can see them and I can control them with voice commands to the Echo... for example: "Alexa, turn on living room lamps". As far as the Amazon Echo is concerned, it is controlling Philips Hue lights.

Before this feature, getting Alexa/Echo integrated in Home Assistant was not an easy task.

For those of you who don't mind a little coding and messing about, I really recommend Home Assistant. It is so flexible and supports soooo many devices. https://home-assistant.io/components/ It does have a somewhat steep learning curve due to the configuration being done via YAML text files. But this also allows it to be extremely flexible.

How is HA vs. OpenHAB? I've got OpenHAB controlling my ZWave switches and working with a bridge to Echo, but I couldn't figure out how to get the dimmers/fan switches to do anything other than just be Off/On with Echo.

# ¿ Sep 21, 2016 19:02

WhyteRyce: Dec 30, 2001

Moey posted:

On this note. I should be moving into a place I own within two months. I plan on going hog wild with automation.

From my research, it seems like there is no perfect controller. I have looked into Vera, SmartThings, OpenHAB and HomeSeer.

I have a home server, so spinning up a VM and passing through a Z-Wave stick or whatever isn't hard.

Any suggestions to point me towards something that will function and I will not hate? Looking to use a thermostat, door lock, window/door/motion sensors and light bulbs/switches.

OpenHAB is absolutely terrible. Once it's up it's straight forward enough but I still run into quirks like not finding a GUI that works well with sliders and documentation being poo poo. HomeAssistant sounds way easier according to a friend that did both.

Both annoy me because it seems like device support lags commercial hubs like Smartthings. At least for more exotic things like garage door openers.

WhyteRyce fucked around with this message at 04:15 on Nov 12, 2016

# ¿ Nov 12, 2016 04:11

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Home Automation and Security Systems