Smart home projects

[Fritzo]

Thank you, do you have a hub or central system. What do you run it all off?

Google Home doesn't really need a hub...I do have hubs of various types all over the place mainly to display information and to hear commands. If you're concerned about privacy when you do this you can go into the Google account settings and specify what types of key words/info they can use, keep, and how long they can keep it. A lot of devices are simply wifi and an app connects them to your cloud Google account.

For the Phillips Hue it does require a hub. You can usually get Hue Starter Kit that includes the hub and 4 bulbs (protip: look for the referb kits. They're usually good as new, come with a hub, and are under $99). From there you can add up to 50 lights to it.

After that it's just a matter of buying any devices you want that are compatible with Google Assistant. The Google Home app lets you manage everything, give access to others, and you can even voice lock certain devices or commands.

My only deviance from the design is my camera system. IMO Ring cameras are far superior to Nest cameras, but they're not Google compatible. That's fine though because there's not really a lot of voice things to do with cameras as they're handled with phone/tablet apps. We happen to use Amazon Firesticks on our TVs so those are Ring compatible, and we can speak into the remote saying "Show me the driveway" or "Display the back yard" and it will pop on the TV.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

Check out home assistant. Can do a lot of stuff with esphome, grafana, node red etc

Ars put out a great intro using home assistant recently. OP can find it here: https://arstechnica.com/information...vana-or-home-automation-without-subscription/

I got into some smart home stuff a few years ago but pretty much everything is unplugged now except my Hue lights, which admittedly are only one or two at this point. Oh and our ecobee for climate. I had like 4 dots throughout the house and decided to unplug them after I heard they were recording everything.

 

[JeepinEd]

Ars put out a great intro using home assistant recently. OP can find it here: https://arstechnica.com/information...vana-or-home-automation-without-subscription/

I got into some smart home stuff a few years ago but pretty much everything is unplugged now except my Hue lights, which admittedly are only one or two at this point. Oh and our ecobee for climate. I had like 4 dots throughout the house and decided to unplug them after I heard they were recording everything.

I have a ton of smart lights and switches in my home. It was very enlightening when one of my Iotty switches started acting up. I called their tech support and they were able to tell when, and how often that switched was used. I want to start looking for switches that work on a local network or through power lines, like the old X-10 switches.

 

[dank69]

Been meaning to get more into it, but right now I only have hvac control, as well as monitored mouse traps, server room battery and hydrogen levels.

I hate cloud/proprietary stuff so I just made all my own stuff and coded the back end. Don't need to worry about relying on any 3rd parties for anything to keep working. I do want to totally redesign this stuff so it's more modular though, right now it's mostly hard wired/hard coded.

Older pics/screenshots:

HVAC:







Monitoring:



DIN rail with controller server (the one under the firewall) :
And yeah that firewall is totally a Pentium 3. It's not there anymore though, I have a newer box there now.



Arduino that does the alarm point monitoring:





Temp sensor and relay controller for HVAC:




Lot of it is a little "how you doing" along with some stuff flapping around in the breeze and kinda thrown together but my eventual goal is to build a more modular system where the monitoring and control is all done from one system that is expandable. Been kind of brainstorming it in my head over time but I have other stuff I want to finish before I start on it. I'll eventually get my own PCBs manufactured and probably use DIN mounted cases and setup a proper cabinet. The server rack seemed like a good idea at first but it's kind of a waste of U space when I can just have a separate cabinet on a wall. Crazy to look at these dates and realize that this has been running for like 8 years untouched. It was suppose to be a temp solution until I make something better.

I thought about rolling my own residential data mining kit but in the end decided it would be faster and cheaper to just paint my walls blue and stencil Windows error codes all over them.

 

[bbhaag]

I just watched that whole ~17 minute video. Suffice to say, home automation is a RABBIT HOLE.

Exactly and honestly this is what has held me back on going balls deep into home automation. I'd love to but there are just so many different "eco systems" right now that it's held me back on pulling the trigger.

 

[Nobece]

Google Home doesn't really need a hub...I do have hubs of various types all over the place mainly to display information and to hear commands. If you're concerned about privacy when you do this you can go into the Google account settings and specify what types of key words/info they can use, keep, and how long they can keep it. A lot of devices are simply wifi and an app connects them to your cloud Google account.

For the Phillips Hue it does require a hub. You can usually get Hue Starter Kit that includes the hub and 4 bulbs (protip: look for the referb kits. They're usually good as new, come with a hub, and are under $99). From there you can add up to 50 lights to it.

After that it's just a matter of buying any devices you want that are compatible with Google Assistant. The Google Home app lets you manage everything, give access to others, and you can even voice lock certain devices or commands.

My only deviance from the design is my camera system. IMO Ring cameras are far superior to Nest cameras, but they're not Google compatible. That's fine though because there's not really a lot of voice things to do with cameras as they're handled with phone/tablet apps. We happen to use Amazon Firesticks on our TVs so those are Ring compatible, and we can speak into the remote saying "Show me the driveway" or "Display the back yard" and it will pop on the TV.

That makes sense re the google hub. I didn't think about it but my android has a built in google home hub, so that makes sense. Brain fart moment my end.

I have nothing to hide, but i do value my privacy so that's always a tick on my list.

Thanks, the hue lights do appeal to me, but the price tag seems very high. Is the durability worth it in your opinion, as I would hope they last much longer than a regular bulb?

After doing a bit of research on the hue hubs I came across this article by the-ambient which mentions:

"Another option is to use an Ikea Trådfri gateway as a hub for your Hue smart bulbs instead of the official Philips Hue Bridge. Just like the Amazon Echo Zigbee devices, the gateway, which plugs straight into your router, handles communications between your phone and the Hue bulbs you've installed. "

which got me thinking... If this is just a ZigBee device that seems restricted to only operating lights, would i not be better off getting something like this cheaper zigbee 3.0 hub as a central place to control everything? Looking at the description it seems to be able to control other areas too such as plugs ect. Hopefully this would allow some cross compatibility to some smart bulbs too? I'm not sure, just throwing ideas out there! I'm sure this is just a Chinese version and I can find something similar for cheaper on AliExpress or something similar.

The whole firestick/ring compatibility seems interesting, and i have a firestick. Downside is i'm also in an apartment, so a ring doorbell isn't something i would need at this point - but I will keep that in mind!

Thanks for your help.

 

[Nobece]

I have a ton of smart lights and switches in my home. It was very enlightening when one of my Iotty switches started acting up. I called their tech support and they were able to tell when, and how often that switched was used. I want to start looking for switches that work on a local network or through power lines, like the old X-10 switches.

crikey, that puts me off smart switches a bit! How they're allowed to collect that much data about random, seemingly - but apparently not - useless stuff is beyond me...

 

[Nobece]

Ars put out a great intro using home assistant recently. OP can find it here: https://arstechnica.com/information...vana-or-home-automation-without-subscription/

I got into some smart home stuff a few years ago but pretty much everything is unplugged now except my Hue lights, which admittedly are only one or two at this point. Oh and our ecobee for climate. I had like 4 dots throughout the house and decided to unplug them after I heard they were recording everything.

Thank you, I have bookmarked and will read religiously this evening.

 

[Nobece]

Right now it's only really for hvac, and it's honestly kinda cobbled together, but I really want to redesign it so it's more modular with professionally done PCBs and where the software is plug and play. I've been brainstorming how I want it to work and I may even make it commercially available, though selling stuff is a huge pain, having to deal with sales tax for every single jurisdiction so if I do it I'll probably only sell it in Ontario. The idea I have in mind is it would be a bunch of nodes daisy chained together and only one can speak at a time on a common bus, the nodes as far as the system is concerned just have a list of variables that can be read and/or set. These can be values from a sensor, or turning a relay on/off, or even setting RGB colours on something. The system won't care. The actual devices will then connect to the node to load up the available variables. From the front end software you will be able to see all the variables from all the sensors and basically make them do what you want. I've just been lazy to actually start on this, but it's also given me lot of time to think about how I want it to work. And yeah the server is a bit overkill, I would have it run on a RPI. Basically just needs a Linux OS to run the front end software and the back end data acquisition via serial.

All this would be browser based too, no apps to worry about.

Very nice, I look forward to seeing updates when you get round to perfecting and making this. I must admit, it's way out of my knowledge range, but I do love to geek out and appreciate the work.

 

[Red Squirrel]

crikey, that puts me off smart switches a bit! How they're allowed to collect that much data about random, seemingly - but apparently not - useless stuff is beyond me...

Yep and it's even worse with stuff like Alexa and smart TVs where it's actually recording your voice. It's why I try to stay away from that stuff. Even my phone... I often consider just getting a dumb phone, but it sucks that there's hardly no options for those, would be nice to have something that has a good camera and full keyboard at least.

 

[Muse]

Yep and it's even worse with stuff like Alexa and smart TVs where it's actually recording your voice. It's why I try to stay away from that stuff. Even my phone... I often consider just getting a dumb phone, but it sucks that there's hardly no options for those, would be nice to have something that has a good camera and full keyboard at least.

I am using my land line to make phone calls. I'm using my smart phones mainly as a heart rate monitor and to listen to music. Maybe look up the weather. Yeah, I have a hundred apps on each but mostly I don't use them. My garage door is 100% mechanical. In fact I rebuilt that door entirely (personally)... new everything! ... I close it by pulling on a dangling piece of rope. I have a key on my keychain to lock and unlock it. I've seen so much stuff about people fucking with their garage door openers, I'm not interested. Well, I don't keep my car in my garage. That's a factor, also the fact that I can go weeks without driving my car.

 

[Fritzo]

That makes sense re the google hub. I didn't think about it but my android has a built in google home hub, so that makes sense. Brain fart moment my end.

I have nothing to hide, but i do value my privacy so that's always a tick on my list.

Thanks, the hue lights do appeal to me, but the price tag seems very high. Is the durability worth it in your opinion, as I would hope they last much longer than a regular bulb?

After doing a bit of research on the hue hubs I came across this article by the-ambient which mentions:

"Another option is to use an Ikea Trådfri gateway as a hub for your Hue smart bulbs instead of the official Philips Hue Bridge. Just like the Amazon Echo Zigbee devices, the gateway, which plugs straight into your router, handles communications between your phone and the Hue bulbs you've installed. "

which got me thinking... If this is just a ZigBee device that seems restricted to only operating lights, would i not be better off getting something like this cheaper zigbee 3.0 hub as a central place to control everything? Looking at the description it seems to be able to control other areas too such as plugs ect. Hopefully this would allow some cross compatibility to some smart bulbs too? I'm not sure, just throwing ideas out there! I'm sure this is just a Chinese version and I can find something similar for cheaper on AliExpress or something similar.

The whole firestick/ring compatibility seems interesting, and i have a firestick. Downside is i'm also in an apartment, so a ring doorbell isn't something i would need at this point - but I will keep that in mind!

Thanks for your help.

There are a ton of lighting options available now that don't need a hub. I was just an early adopter to Hue so I'm vested in their platform. Philips makes really high quality stuff, but I agree it's overpriced (I normally wait to around the holidays- refurb packs show up all over the place and I can save 70% off retail). Their app support is really nice too.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I am using my land line to make phone calls. I'm using my smart phones mainly as a heart rate monitor and to listen to music. Maybe look up the weather. Yeah, I have a hundred apps on each but mostly I don't use them. My garage door is 100% mechanical. In fact I rebuilt that door entirely (personally)... new everything! ... I close it by pulling on a dangling piece of rope. I have a key on my keychain to lock and unlock it. I've seen so much stuff about people fucking with their garage door openers, I'm not interested. Well, I don't keep my car in my garage. That's a factor, also the fact that I can go weeks without driving my car.

I ended up unplugging my garage door opener, someone stole the remote for it, so they could come any time and open it. I have two chains with hooks to lock the door into position as it can still be manually lifted even without the remote, and I don't want that person to come back and try to open it and with the chains there it would burn out the motor, possibly cause a fire. I'll probably end up taking the opener out completely when I redo the garage this summer. I'm even debating on removing the door completely as I want the garage to just be a shop area, and garage doors are a big heat loss no matter how well you try to seal it. Though the garage door is still useful for loading lumber and stuff.

 

[sdifox]

I ended up unplugging my garage door opener, someone stole the remote for it, so they could come any time and open it. I have two chains with hooks to lock the door into position as it can still be manually lifted even without the remote, and I don't want that person to come back and try to open it and with the chains there it would burn out the motor, possibly cause a fire. I'll probably end up taking the opener out completely when I redo the garage this summer. I'm even debating on removing the door completely as I want the garage to just be a shop area, and garage doors are a big heat loss no matter how well you try to seal it. Though the garage door is still useful for loading lumber and stuff.

Err you can change the remote code...

 

[Red Squirrel]

Err you can change the remote code...

Need to change the clock crystal and possibly even the antenna as it will be impedance matched to the frequency. There are no dip switches in this one, it's hard wired to the frequency. Easier to just turn it off.

 

[sdifox]

Need to change the clock crystal and possibly even the antenna as it will be impedance matched to the frequency. There are no dip switches in this one, it's hard wired to the frequency. Easier to just turn it off.

How old is it lol.

 

[Red Squirrel]

How old is it lol.

Probably older than I am lol.

 

[Muse]

I ended up unplugging my garage door opener, someone stole the remote for it, so they could come any time and open it. I have two chains with hooks to lock the door into position as it can still be manually lifted even without the remote, and I don't want that person to come back and try to open it and with the chains there it would burn out the motor, possibly cause a fire. I'll probably end up taking the opener out completely when I redo the garage this summer. I'm even debating on removing the door completely as I want the garage to just be a shop area, and garage doors are a big heat loss no matter how well you try to seal it. Though the garage door is still useful for loading lumber and stuff.

I keep my garage locked because the occasional prowler walks off with stuff from my yard. One day around 4-5 years ago I was looking out my kitchen window (above the sink) and spotted a man jump the fence onto my property. Looking through windows I saw him try the handle on the garage to discover he couldn't open it (because I always lock it at the same time I open it, i.e. after starting the opening process, I rotate the key 180 degrees to ensure that when I close the door it will be locked. I opened my back door and shouted, "you don't belong there." He was clearly glad I didn't call the cops instead of warning him, and ran away.

Our winters here are very mild, the lowest nighttime temperature this winter was maybe 35F. The lowest I've experienced here is maybe 25F. Most winters doesn't get below about 32F. Many microclimates here. Mine is nice.

There's no keep moisture out the garage. I can keep rain out but water comes under the door, the concrete is just messed up there. In any case, the garage door is just a lift-up, and miles from air tight. Moist air gets in. Many tools in my garage (which is given up to tool and materials storage) show some rust. Not awful rust, but it makes the tools look less than beautiful.