Smart House - Home Automation Thread

[old_gregg]

i guess none of you have seen the disney channel original cautionary tale starring katey sagal about the enormous risk involved in home automation and sentient robotics. don't say i didn't warn you.

[Walter Sobchak]

I doubt Apple really cares about someone reversing the lower level protocols.

For personal use, sure. Devices compatible with Amazon Echo far outnumber "HomeKit-certified" devices... for now anyway. Perhaps when Apple catches up, they'll be a little less acquiescent about these home-brewed solutions.

Remember that early on in the life cycle of iTunes there were several reverse-engineered open-source alternatives. Those were all eventually squashed by Apple.

Not that I really care. I don't use Echo or Siri.

[Uncle Ted]

For personal use, sure. Devices compatible with Amazon Echo far outnumber "HomeKit-certified" devices... for now anyway. Perhaps when Apple catches up, they'll be a little less acquiescent about these home-brewed solutions.

Remember that early on in the life cycle of iTunes there were several reverse-engineered open-source alternatives. Those were all eventually squashed by Apple.

Not that I really care. I don't use Echo or Siri.

That was different... Apple actually makes money with their music store. You can't have folks getting into the cookie jar.

[Clark Addison]

i guess none of you have seen the disney channel original cautionary tale starring katey sagal about the enormous risk involved in home automation and sentient robotics. don't say i didn't warn you.

I have a son who was 6 when that cautionary tale first came out. I have seen it somewhere around 18 times.

[Pelado]

I have a son who was 6 when that cautionary tale first came out. I have seen it somewhere around 18 times.

And you still haven't learned your lesson?

[Moliere]

Installed two Ecobees today. Was very easy even without a C wire. I got them from Prime Day for $50 off and have been wanting a smart thermostat for a while since my kids tend to change the temp upstairs all the time

Next up is a smart garage door opener but that won’t be for a couple months.

[BigFatMeanie]

I installed a Sense energy monitor today. I pigtailed the power supply into the 30AMP circuit for the AC (lower left). The AC is on 10 gauge solid core wire which was a pain to work with. The current clamps are on the top of each panel box (split service) and the sense is mounted to the stud below the panels.

sense_install2.jpg

It takes a few days for the algorithms to start picking out individual devices by their electrical signature. It will be interesting to figure out which device is pulsing every 30 seconds.

IMG_1423.jpg

EDIT: Man, vBulletin's inline image conversion sucks donkey balls. It resizes stuff down so small you can't see it.

[BigPiney]

I installed a Sense energy monitor today. I pigtailed the power supply into the 30AMP circuit for the AC (lower left). The AC is on 10 gauge solid core wire which was a pain to work with. The current clamps are on the top of each panel box (split service) and the sense is mounted to the stud below the panels.

[ATTACH]10580[/ATTACH]

It takes a few days for the algorithms to start picking out individual devices by their electrical signature. It will be interesting to figure out which device is pulsing every 30 seconds.

[ATTACH]10577[/ATTACH]

EDIT: Man, vBulletin's inline image conversion sucks donkey balls. It resizes stuff down so small you can't see it.

That looks really cool. I will be interested in seeing how well it does in picking out the devices as well as finding ways for you to cut some costs. Please follow up in a few months.

[Uncle Ted]

I recently switched from using a SmartThings hub to using Home Assistant running on a HP T430 thin client that I got cheap off eBay. Part of the reason I dropped SmartThings was samsung dropped support for the old app and I don't like the new app. One other reason is Home Assistant is written all in Python which makes it easy to hack on. The amount of device support on HA is pretty crazy too. Setting it up to work with my security cameras, ecobee's, MyQ garage opener, video door bell, heat pump water heater, Z Wave stuff, etc. was simple. The builtin automation web interface is fairly powerful. There is this add-on called Node-Red that looks crazy powerful.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I recently switched from using a SmartThings hub to using Home Assistant running on a HP T430 thin client that I got cheap off eBay. Part of the reason I dropped SmartThings was samsung dropped support for the old app and I don't like the new app. One other reason is Home Assistant is written all in Python which makes it easy to hack on. The amount of device support on HA is pretty crazy too. Setting it up to work with my security cameras, ecobee's, MyQ garage opener, video door bell, heat pump water heater, Z Wave stuff, etc. was simple. The builtin automation web interface is fairly powerful. There is this add-on called Node-Red that looks crazy powerful.

Pardon my ignorance, but what does this Home Assistant do for you that you can't do with the apple home thing?

[Uncle Ted]

Pardon my ignorance, but what does this Home Assistant do for you that you can't do with the apple home thing?

Home Assistant supports a lot of "smart" or IoT devices (https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/) that are not directly controllable with Apple Home(Kit). There is lots of community support. In short, Home Assistant is a home automation "hub" like Apple Home(Kit) uses an iPad or Apple TV for but connects/controls far more stuff.

An Apple HomeKit Bridge is actually built in (https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/homekit/) so all your IoT devices will show up in the Apple Home app and let you use Siri to control them. Of course, you can use it with the Amazon Alexa or Google crap that sells your data as well.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Home Assistant supports a lot of "smart" or IoT devices (https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/) that are not directly controllable with Apple Home(Kit). There is lots of community support. In short, Home Assistant is a home automation "hub" like Apple Home(Kit) uses an iPad or Apple TV for but connects/controls far more stuff.

An Apple HomeKit Bridge is actually built in (https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/homekit/) so all your IoT devices will show up in the Apple Home app and let you use Siri to control them. Of course, you can use it with the Amazon Alexa or Google crap that sells your data as well.

Very cool. Thanks.

I would love to add more home automation, but our house is 30 years old and we don't have the neutral wires to our switches so everything is more complicated. We have a ring doorbell and I recently installed a myQ garage door thing that works great.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Been looking at smart deadbolts. Man, they are expensive. Anyone use these with success?

[Uncle Ted]

Very cool. Thanks.

I would love to add more home automation, but our house is 30 years old and we don't have the neutral wires to our switches so everything is more complicated. We have a ring doorbell and I recently installed a myQ garage door thing that works great.

Oh man, that sucks you don't have a neutral. I did install these bathroom fan timers (see link below) recently and was surprised that they require a neutral connection. I could find any kind of battery. At first, I assumed it used the ground for the neutral. When I installed the first one I was sure it was going to trip the GFCI but it didn't. How they work is explained below, FYI...

These timers, BTW, work great and can be programmed to function in different ways. Also, I like the looks.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BFKZAYU

There are some smart switches that don't require neutral. Here is a video were they figured out how they work... (Lots of good electronic geek stuff in this video. )

https://www.superhouse.tv/2019/09/

So they use the potential across the switch and use a current limiter.

[Copelius]

Bathroom timers are awesome! I just installed them in my bathrooms at home after getting tired of fans being left on for hours. Ivory, which built the house 25 years ago, did some weird wiring compared to what I had seen in our old house, but I eventually figured it out.