What's new
Fantasy Football - Footballguys Forums

Welcome to Our Forums. Once you've registered and logged in, you're primed to talk football, among other topics, with the sharpest and most experienced fantasy players on the internet.

"Smart Home"....How Far Have You Taken It? Which Platform? (1 Viewer)

Have some Google homes and 2 WEMO outlets.

Would like to get a new thermostat, but none are available for the custom wiring system that was installed in the house in the late 90's.  2 systems, 3 zones each, and 6 thermostats.  I tried to get a general programmable, but none will work on this "Perfect zone" system

 
Been thinking about putting up a few fake cameras as deterrents to package thieves and potential burglars. Oh and a nest thermostat.

 
Following up my last post....

I watch a bunch of crime shows and one thing the cops always do is check cell phone data. I'm waiting for the story where the murderer says he was home all night and the wife/gf lies for him only to be outdone by his smart home showing a car entering his garage an hour after the murder.

(Even better would be if the crime was early morning and he claims he slept in but Alexa shows he did the wake up routine at 0500)

 
Ron Swanson said:
Heavily invested in SmartThings for several years. Close to a couple hundred devices.  Thankfully all are Zigbee or Zwave so I can port them to other hubs if needed. The SmartThings platform has gone through a lot over the years but has been pretty solid the last 3-4 years under Samsung ownership.  Unfortunately, it is still the most flexible platform on the market. But there is a lot of uncertainty about the future of the platform now. Samsung has stopped manufacturing hubs and devices and is deprecating older hubs.
Click to expand...
Will the real ron swanson please stand up?

 
JaxBill said:
i guess I'm in the minority that I intentionally keep my house dumb because I don't need Big Tech knowing more about me than they already do.

I have a couple of Alexa capable devices that I have intentionally left disabled.  

I wouldn't mind exterior lights/camera as long as they weren't tied into Google/Amazon. It's bad enough they know most of what I'm buying. They don't need to know when I leave my house,  go to bed, or wake up.

Irony- I am in IT and pursuing cloud computing so I have a few AWS certifications. 
Click to expand...
This is us. I use Google and Amazon for some things but would prefer to keep them from having access to literally every facet of my life.

I think the only company I would really trust for this type of stuff is Apple but they don't seem to have any interest in this space ☹️

 
JaxBill said:
Following up my last post....

I watch a bunch of crime shows and one thing the cops always do is check cell phone data. I'm waiting for the story where the murderer says he was home all night and the wife/gf lies for him only to be outdone by his smart home showing a car entering his garage an hour after the murder.

(Even better would be if the crime was early morning and he claims he slept in but Alexa shows he did the wake up routine at 0500)
Click to expand...
That made me think of this true crime story

 
Just an iRobot.  My BIL brags on how he can see what the temperature is in his fridge, or change the thermostat in his house to mess with his wife when he is out of town, among other things.  But, I guess I don't see the point.   :shrug:

 
JaxBill said:
Following up my last post....

I watch a bunch of crime shows and one thing the cops always do is check cell phone data. I'm waiting for the story where the murderer says he was home all night and the wife/gf lies for him only to be outdone by his smart home showing a car entering his garage an hour after the murder.

(Even better would be if the crime was early morning and he claims he slept in but Alexa shows he did the wake up routine at 0500)
Click to expand...
OK but I'm not planning any murders any time soon so I think I'm good.

 
chet said:
I have Control4.  Great system.  It can control just about anything with a switch.  I use it mostly for distributed audio and video but also have thermostats and lights on there.  At my old vacation house, we had a fireplace on C4.
Click to expand...
C4 has a remote as well as app to use with the phone...right? How do you tend to use the automation- via app and remotes, or localized at switches...or either?

John123 said:
Pretty heavily invested in Amazon Alexa technology.  Echo's/Dots throughout the house.

- Ecobee smart thermostat with Alexa built in.

- Several lights/outlets controlled by Alexa/smartapp.  Had a switch set up with a timer at Xmas to turn the Xmas lights on and off every night. 

- Dish Satellite TV supports Alexa.  Don't use it too much but it's configured/connected.

- All the blinds in the house are connected to the Alexa ecosystem.  It's cool when you say "Alexa, open living room" and four motorized blinds start going up in unison.

I got a new Wi-Fi router a month ago and it supports Alexa.  I haven't configured it because I have no idea what the benefit of being able to control a wi-fi router with voice commands would be.  Just scratching my head over that one.

Want to start replacing light switches in rooms with Alexa capable ones so that's next on the list. 
Click to expand...
Do these systems require separate panels for the lighting/dimming?

 
El Floppo said:
C4 has a remote as well as app to use with the phone...right? How do you tend to use the automation- via app and remotes, or localized at switches...or either?

Do these systems require separate panels for the lighting/dimming?
Click to expand...
Depends on the device. Many these days expose brightness controls through their API or device handler so systems like Alexa can integrate those features. So, for instance, if brightness for a particular switch or light is exposed you could tell Alexa, "Alexa, turn on Kitchen lights, 70% brightness". Panels are available, and this can be controlled by the app as well.

 
Ron Swanson said:
Depends on the device. Many these days expose brightness controls through their API or device handler so systems like Alexa can integrate those features. So, for instance, if brightness for a particular switch or light is exposed you could tell Alexa, "Alexa, turn on Kitchen lights, 70% brightness". Panels are available, and this can be controlled by the app as well.
Click to expand...
So I'm understanding right...the bulbs are smart? Or do you swap in a smart dimmer switch? And then that connects to Alexa...and Alexa is just the small tabletop box? The panels allow for what kind of extra benefits?

I'm really only used to the fully integrated systems I mentioned above (mostly Lutron, which AV consultants seem to prefer for better integration of all systems), and for those I have to find space for what are essentially extra electric (dimmer) panel boxes.

 
El Floppo said:
So I'm understanding right...the bulbs are smart? Or do you swap in a smart dimmer switch? And then that connects to Alexa...and Alexa is just the small tabletop box? The panels allow for what kind of extra benefits?

I'm really only used to the fully integrated systems I mentioned above (mostly Lutron, which AV consultants seem to prefer for better integration of all systems), and for those I have to find space for what are essentially extra electric (dimmer) panel boxes.
Click to expand...
Lots of different options and flexibility on the market. There are smart bulbs that can dim and they are great for things like table lamps, but anywhere there is wall switch control, especially for banks of lights I recommend using smart dimming switches.  This is to prevent users from disabling smart bulbs by turning off the wall switch and to avoid individual troubleshooting. The newer GE Enbrighten series are actually pretty damn good. 

Sometimes they connect directly to an Amazon Echo (Alexa is the voice engine) or Google Home or Apple whatever. Or they can connect to a smart home hub like SmartThings or Homeseer adn then that connects to the Echo.  Originally the Echos and Home devives really just provided the voice engine and API connection but the newer models can now connect directly to traditional HA devices as long as they have the correct radio.  Both Echo and Home offer direct Zigbee connections.  If you have Zwave then you need an intermediary hub like SmartThings. Wifi devices typically connect via API (server to server).

Panels really only allow control for users unwilling or unable to use voice and who don't have the app on their phones. Like houseguests, AirBNB or special needs scenarios.

 
Anyone have recommendations on smart locks?  We are starting up a vacation rental 5 hours away that I want to be able to manage the lock on remotely, but every lock I read about has people with issues about having to re-install or re-sync the unreliable locks regularly, which obviously wouldn't work for us since we won't be there in person often.

 
El Floppo said:
So I'm understanding right...the bulbs are smart? Or do you swap in a smart dimmer switch? And then that connects to Alexa...and Alexa is just the small tabletop box? The panels allow for what kind of extra benefits?

I'm really only used to the fully integrated systems I mentioned above (mostly Lutron, which AV consultants seem to prefer for better integration of all systems), and for those I have to find space for what are essentially extra electric (dimmer) panel boxes.
Click to expand...
I feel dumb for asking, but I'm not sure what you mean by panel boxes. Like new electrical boxes for wall switches?

In 2017 we remodeled. We had recessed lighting but we had an electrician swap out all the ceiling lights for dimmable LEDs. We probably could have done it ourselves, but we also had new recessed lighting put in where the electrician had to saw the holes in the ceiling and wire everything, plus wire those to the switch. 

Here was my process: I swapped out regular wall switches for Lutron Caseta smart dimmers. For those, I have a Lutron Caseta wireless hub, which allows the switches to be controlled via my phone app. On the Alexa app, you install a "skill" (in this case, Lutron Caseta) where you log in to Lutron in order to connect it to Alexa. We have Alexa devices in almost every room. Then, like Ron Swanson said, I can tell Alexa to lower the lights to a certain percentage, or whatever. We have a two-story house, and I'm always the last one to head upstairs, so I have set it up so that when I say, "Alexa, lights out," then it will turn off the kitchen, family room and dining table lights. I do like being able to turn off lights by voice, because I've reached the age where I yell at people for leaving lights on everywhere. But if you don't want Alexa (or Google Home or whatever), then you can still control everything via the Lutron app. If you have Siri (or "OK Google" if on Android), then you could probably do voice control via your phone, but I haven't explored that. (I have an iPhone but don't really use Siri at all.)_

 
El Floppo said:
C4 has a remote as well as app to use with the phone...right? How do you tend to use the automation- via app and remotes, or localized at switches...or either?

Do these systems require separate panels for the lighting/dimming?
Click to expand...
For watching TV, I use the C4 remote  exclusively.  Lights--wall switches.  Music--iphone app.

 
FreeBaGeL said:
Anyone have recommendations on smart locks?  We are starting up a vacation rental 5 hours away that I want to be able to manage the lock on remotely, but every lock I read about has people with issues about having to re-install or re-sync the unreliable locks regularly, which obviously wouldn't work for us since we won't be there in person often.
Click to expand...
I've had good luck with the Kwikset 910 zwave locks paired to SmartThings and the custom lock manager app. But yes. It has to be pieced together at this point. Nothing simple or elegant.

 
Ron Swanson said:
Heavily invested in SmartThings for several years. Close to a couple hundred devices.  Thankfully all are Zigbee or Zwave so I can port them to other hubs if needed. The SmartThings platform has gone through a lot over the years but has been pretty solid the last 3-4 years under Samsung ownership.  Unfortunately, it is still the most flexible platform on the market. But there is a lot of uncertainty about the future of the platform now. Samsung has stopped manufacturing hubs and devices and is deprecating older hubs.
Click to expand...
Like this. Been doing this for probably 10+ years. Initially on Homeseer, before SmartThings came along and make it a bunch easier. Our current house is mostly smart, and we just bought a weekend place in the mountains that I just am finishing up “smartening up.”  It’s so great when the place is several hours drive away but you can see video, open the doors to let workers in, control thermostats, etc.  

It’s pretty fantastic. Only issue is that recently for some reason there are ghosts in the setup in my main house. For no good reason a bunch of lights will switch on and off randomly at certain times of day. Started out of nowhere and no idea why. Been frustrating to troubleshoot and lately I’m just living with it. But it’s annoying. 

 
We have a Wyse camera that I set up when we're away from our condo for any length of time as well as app based temp control. Smart TVs to stream apps and such but nothing we talk to for control. Keepin' it dumb. Google has enough access as it is.

 
Otis said:
Like this. Been doing this for probably 10+ years. Initially on Homeseer, before SmartThings came along and make it a bunch easier. Our current house is mostly smart, and we just bought a weekend place in the mountains that I just am finishing up “smartening up.”  It’s so great when the place is several hours drive away but you can see video, open the doors to let workers in, control thermostats, etc.  

It’s pretty fantastic. Only issue is that recently for some reason there are ghosts in the setup in my main house. For no good reason a bunch of lights will switch on and off randomly at certain times of day. Started out of nowhere and no idea why. Been frustrating to troubleshoot and lately I’m just living with it. But it’s annoying. 
Click to expand...
@OtisI have the same issues recently. But only with certain lights/switches.

 
SimpliSafe alarm system

Amazon Alexa

Nest

Im not paranoid enough to be overly concerned about overblown privacy implications, and lose out on the convenience of these types of systems. They’re pretty neat. 

 
Ron Swanson said:
@OtisI have the same issues recently. But only with certain lights/switches.
Click to expand...
Same. Been driving me bonkers. Called their tech support and they were worthless. No easy solutions online. It’ll be a huge PIA to have to factory reset everything and then readd everything, but that’s sort of where I am. 

 
By the way, that Ring monitored alarm system is great. When we bought the vacation house it had an old school alarm system and monitoring. I replaced with Ring and we love it. Cheaper and better and I can actually see things on my app. Likely going to convert our primary home to the same. 

 
JaxBill said:
i guess I'm in the minority that I intentionally keep my house dumb because I don't need Big Tech knowing more about me than they already do.

I have a couple of Alexa capable devices that I have intentionally left disabled. 
Click to expand...
While I understand your perspective, these devices have become an integral part of our family life at home.

  • "Echo*, what's the news today?"
  • "Echo, what's the weather today?"
  • "Echo, what was the score of X game?"
  • "Echo, set a remind to lay chicken out for dinner for 10am"
  • "Echo, play Frank Sinatra station"
  • "Echo, set a 10 minute timer"
I use it pretty much all day, every day.

*We had to change the name on our devices to Echo as I have a daughter named Alexis and it would constantly get confused.

 
Otis said:
By the way, that Ring monitored alarm system is great. When we bought the vacation house it had an old school alarm system and monitoring. I replaced with Ring and we love it. Cheaper and better and I can actually see things on my app. Likely going to convert our primary home to the same. 
Click to expand...
I have Simplisafe and now that they've integrated cameras it's pretty good.  I've kept those, my Blink cams, and my Wyze cams off the SmartThings platform.

 
AAABatteries said:
While I understand your perspective, these devices have become an integral part of our family life at home.

  • "Echo*, what's the news today?"
  • "Echo, what's the weather today?"
  • "Echo, what was the score of X game?"
  • "Echo, set a remind to lay chicken out for dinner for 10am"
  • "Echo, play Frank Sinatra station"
  • "Echo, set a 10 minute timer"
I use it pretty much all day, every day.

*We had to change the name on our devices to Echo as I have a daughter named Alexis and it would constantly get confused.
Click to expand...
"Dad, I don't know what the ####### weather is outside.  Stop asking!"

 
Started out with the Insteon line per the recommendations of a couple guys I work with. While these work great for the most part, they are proprietary and have some serious issues if you don't remove them from a scene the correct way. Then the hubs started failing. Everyone I knew that had this line had their hub die within a couple months of each other. Including me. Started migrating over to the Smartthings ecosystem and have been very happy with the Z-Wave and Zigbee platforms. But with the uncertainty on the hardware and the future of the entire line, I've been trying to move to wifi only devices when installing new things. Love the Kasa line.

So now I have basically a hodgepodge of a setup.

Alex devices for voice control. Have those things everywhere. Have an Echo Studio in our main living area... sound is GREAT on that thing. Dots in the bedrooms, outside patio, office. Some newer generation Echos in the basement setup as pairs.

Insteon - still have a couple switches and leak sensors on this hub. Will ride them out until they die

Smartthings (zwave Zigbee) - Most switches, sensors, are these in our house. Front door deadbolt is a smart lock zwave. Have a zwave mousetrap in the garage that @Otis recommended in an old thread on this. Love that thing. 😆

wifi - numerous plugs, some switches, a couple outlets, an outside weather resistant plug. All Kasa line. 

Basically I use Alexa as the central place to tie these together. Have an insteon switch in the laundry room with a zwave motion sensor. Use a routine in Alexa to turn the light on from the motion sensor. Kind of cool that I can tie the completely different platforms together here.

Simplisafe alarm system.

The only things that are NOT on some type of smart technology in our house I can think of is the office ceiling fan and our blinds in the house. 

 
top dog said:
Started out with the Insteon line per the recommendations of a couple guys I work with. While these work great for the most part, they are proprietary and have some serious issues if you don't remove them from a scene the correct way. Then the hubs started failing. Everyone I knew that had this line had their hub die within a couple months of each other. Including me. Started migrating over to the Smartthings ecosystem and have been very happy with the Z-Wave and Zigbee platforms. But with the uncertainty on the hardware and the future of the entire line, I've been trying to move to wifi only devices when installing new things. Love the Kasa line.

So now I have basically a hodgepodge of a setup.

Alex devices for voice control. Have those things everywhere. Have an Echo Studio in our main living area... sound is GREAT on that thing. Dots in the bedrooms, outside patio, office. Some newer generation Echos in the basement setup as pairs.

Insteon - still have a couple switches and leak sensors on this hub. Will ride them out until they die

Smartthings (zwave Zigbee) - Most switches, sensors, are these in our house. Front door deadbolt is a smart lock zwave. Have a zwave mousetrap in the garage that @Otis recommended in an old thread on this. Love that thing. 😆

wifi - numerous plugs, some switches, a couple outlets, an outside weather resistant plug. All Kasa line. 

Basically I use Alexa as the central place to tie these together. Have an insteon switch in the laundry room with a zwave motion sensor. Use a routine in Alexa to turn the light on from the motion sensor. Kind of cool that I can tie the completely different platforms together here.

Simplisafe alarm system.

The only things that are NOT on some type of smart technology in our house I can think of is the office ceiling fan and our blinds in the house. 
Click to expand...


Dude, that Zwave mousetrap is amazing.  I've caught probably a dozen mice in it over the past few years, maybe more.  I have it set to text me as well when it catches something.  No more periodically wandering the basement to see if you caught anything.  Also just got one for the second house. 

 
AAABatteries said:
While I understand your perspective, these devices have become an integral part of our family life at home.

  • "Echo*, what's the news today?"
  • "Echo, what's the weather today?"
  • "Echo, what was the score of X game?"
  • "Echo, set a remind to lay chicken out for dinner for 10am"
  • "Echo, play Frank Sinatra station"
  • "Echo, set a 10 minute timer"
I use it pretty much all day, every day.

*We had to change the name on our devices to Echo as I have a daughter named Alexis and it would constantly get confused.
Click to expand...
We must have 20 various Echos all over our houses.  Maybe more.  About one per room at this point.  It's to the point I don't know what to do with them.  Got a free Show from Verizon for signing up for Fios internet, and left it on the counter for a few days trying to figure out what to do with it. Eventually realized it makes the perfect bedside alarm clock and white noise machine replacement.  They're great. 

 
Otis said:
Dude, that Zwave mousetrap is amazing.  I've caught probably a dozen mice in it over the past few years, maybe more.  I have it set to text me as well when it catches something.  No more periodically wandering the basement to see if you caught anything.  Also just got one for the second house. 
Click to expand...
I laughed my butt off when you posted how awesome it was. I was like "Dude. It's a freakin mousetrap. Seriously?" But then I decided what the hell, I'll buy one. It's awesome. I've put that thing in my garage, the crawl space, all over. I get all excited when I get the text that it zapped one. I always talk #### to the dead mouse as I'm throwing it in the garbage can. TECHNOLOGY #####!  :lmao:

 
I jumped on the Z-wave bandwagon with a Vera controller back in 2011 when we bought the house.  It was still green back then, but has come along way in terms of reliability and compatibility.  Slowly upgraded and added items...integration with Amazon Echo was a usability tipping point as it allowed voice control.  Now the wife and kids use it for all sorts of stuff.

Currently have the following on a Vera Edge integrated with the Echo platform:

  • All door locks (3), and garage doors (Chamberlain MyQ)
  • Thermostats - 2 zone HVAC, and 2 baseboard heat units in the basement
  • Home Alarm is an older Ademco Vista 10SE that I utilize an old Vera plug-in to make "smart."  Can arm/disarm remotely, get trigger alerts, and disarm when door keypads are unlocked with the right code.
  • Probably 25 hard wired light switches, outlets, and lamp modules around the house
  • 1 ceiling fan in the master bedroom - maybe my favorite/most used if you get hot at night...
  • Landscape lights controlled via an outdoor module.


I really want to get smart blinds, but just too much investment at this point.  

 
We are preparing for a remodel and I want to figure out my smart home integration chapter and verse before we start opening walls.

I am already fairly heavily integrated with Ring having a doorbell and three cameras outside.

I have about 10 Philips Hue bulbs but the cost of outfitting my whole home with them has always made me hesitate about moving forward with them. Ron Swanson recommends going with Z-Wave or Zigbee ready outlets and switches and just using simple bulbs. It makes sense from a cost and integration standpoint.

This rabbit hole runs deep.
 
I am not sure if there is an "Official" smart home thread so I'm choosing this one because it had the most recent posts of the three threads I found.

If there is an official thread I would appreciate a link. TIA

Note: My general go-to source for tech answers is Tom's Guide. YMMV

Question 1):

Which smart hub?

Most of us started building our smart home tech piecemeal so we have a variety of devices which use different communication protocols with multiple interfaces. So the thought of a central hub to connect them is enticing.

We have a vision of "One app to rule them all" but is that truly possible? Will the roll out of Matter be the final key or another layer of frustration?

Most people probably use Alexa, Homekit or Google for integration. These are perfectly easy to use and have mostly good functionality. But you will still likely have to use multiple apps to extract full functionality and, generally speaking, you have to go through various steps to get integration for both ZigBee & Z-Wave support.

Samsung's SmartThings is no more but the Aeotec Smart Home Hub appears to be SmartThings in a new package. You get ZigBee, Z-Wave, WiFi, Matter, Alexa, Google (but no Homekit). It seems like the ideal, if only, option.

After that the options are virtually non-existent except...

One, allegedly, promising option is Homey (pre-orders only), which sets itself as a one-stop hub for virtually everything. It sounds great (supports everything) but scrolling through their website is dizzying enough, I can see using it at home being migraine inducing. I have to imagine this is a piece of technology where 90%+ of the functionality will only be extracted by power users because most of us think an API ranks college football teams for Bowl Games.

Anyone have any thoughts on smart home hubs?
 
I've been using SmartThings since their v2 hub came out. (2015)? I still use it today. Overall, it's been solid considering all that it does but there are quirks and glitches fairly regulatory. I researched replacing it last year when it was thought all support was going to cease. I couldn't find anything that could do everything it did and frankly became overwhelemd at the though of transitiong over my well over 100 devices and associated integrations. At this point I am firmly in wait and see mode and as things fail I simplify my automations. That's my other piece of advice. No matter how tempting it is to get very granular with your automations, don't do it. Keep it simple. When things break (which they will), mutiple layers of automation is a pain to troubleshoot. For example, a lot of the lighting control routines I set up initially had several layers. Like I would set the lights to come on in a room when the motion sensor in that room was triggered and then turn off after 20 minutes of no motion, but then add different lux or time parameters that determined how brights the lights were. Not anymore. Just on and off at a set brightness level.

Overall, I'm still glad I did it and we use it daily. But one of my initial motivations was to simply make sure lights were turned off when a room wasn't occupied. But now that we're 100% LED I don't really care as much since the draw is so low.

The secret sauce behind SmartThings was all the radios and all the device drivers and the open nature of developing device drivers. I'm not sure how another company ever replicates that or monetizes it. Maybe Matter will change things.
 
I’m so overwhelmed just reading @Chaka s post. 😂 I currently have a Stone Age house. I’m doing A remodel and would like to bring my house out of the dark ages.

I’ll Be following.
 
Ron Swanson said:
I've been using SmartThings since their v2 hub came out. (2015)? I still use it today. Overall, it's been solid considering all that it does but there are quirks and glitches fairly regulatory. I researched replacing it last year when it was thought all support was going to cease. I couldn't find anything that could do everything it did and frankly became overwhelemd at the though of transitiong over my well over 100 devices and associated integrations. At this point I am firmly in wait and see mode and as things fail I simplify my automations. That's my other piece of advice. No matter how tempting it is to get very granular with your automations, don't do it. Keep it simple. When things break (which they will), mutiple layers of automation is a pain to troubleshoot. For example, a lot of the lighting control routines I set up initially had several layers. Like I would set the lights to come on in a room when the motion sensor in that room was triggered and then turn off after 20 minutes of no motion, but then add different lux or time parameters that determined how brights the lights were. Not anymore. Just on and off at a set brightness level.

Overall, I'm still glad I did it and we use it daily. But one of my initial motivations was to simply make sure lights were turned off when a room wasn't occupied. But now that we're 100% LED I don't really care as much since the draw is so low.

The secret sauce behind SmartThings was all the radios and all the device drivers and the open nature of developing device drivers. I'm not sure how another company ever replicates that or monetizes it. Maybe Matter will change things.
Click to expand...
I am in the same exact boat. Also kind of in a wait and see mode. LOVE your advice on keeping the automation simple. I had a situation a couple years ago where I picked up a 60" Samsung TV on a Black Friday deal at Best Buy. Every now and then that TV would just turn off. I thought the TV was going bad. I was VERY close to taking it back to Best Buy as I was getting close to the end of my return period. Only problem was they didn't have any more or anything comparable at that price point. Finally figured out that I had a motion sensor in the upstairs bathroom that was connected to an automation that would turn on the bathroom light on motion. Would also turn off the light after 30 minutes of no motion. Except somehow I managed to have it connected to the basement TV for that last piece instead of the lights. So when motion triggered the bathroom light to come on upstairs (usually the wife going to bed) after 30 minutes the automation turned OFF the basement TV. Which I was usually watching at that time. Took me FOREVER to figure that one out. :lmao:
 
Still keeping it mostly simple here. I have 4 smart outlets (geeni), Wyze cams and Wyze sensors around the house using wifi from my ASUS mesh router setup (binding by router). No hubs at all.
 
the moops said:
I don’t get the smart lightbulb thing. Switches work just fine for me.
Click to expand...
@Ron Swanson made a great point a couple years ago about this. It really does seem like switches and outlets are the better way to go rather than going with smart bulbs. I don't believe smart switches will allow you to modify color or hue, so you will need to be app based for that, but the on off, dimming, motion detection activation etc can all be handled by switches & bulbs.

Now, depending on how you build your system you want to pay attention to any new switches you want to buy and make sure they have the same communication protocol as the existing ones in your house. IE if your current switches are Zigbee based then the ones you buy in the future should be Zigbee based as well. This is not a hard rule as there are workarounds but it will make integration easier overall.
 
Ron Swanson said:
I've been using SmartThings since their v2 hub came out. (2015)? I still use it today. Overall, it's been solid considering all that it does but there are quirks and glitches fairly regulatory. I researched replacing it last year when it was thought all support was going to cease. I couldn't find anything that could do everything it did and frankly became overwhelemd at the though of transitiong over my well over 100 devices and associated integrations. At this point I am firmly in wait and see mode and as things fail I simplify my automations. That's my other piece of advice. No matter how tempting it is to get very granular with your automations, don't do it. Keep it simple. When things break (which they will), mutiple layers of automation is a pain to troubleshoot. For example, a lot of the lighting control routines I set up initially had several layers. Like I would set the lights to come on in a room when the motion sensor in that room was triggered and then turn off after 20 minutes of no motion, but then add different lux or time parameters that determined how brights the lights were. Not anymore. Just on and off at a set brightness level.

Overall, I'm still glad I did it and we use it daily. But one of my initial motivations was to simply make sure lights were turned off when a room wasn't occupied. But now that we're 100% LED I don't really care as much since the draw is so low.

The secret sauce behind SmartThings was all the radios and all the device drivers and the open nature of developing device drivers. I'm not sure how another company ever replicates that or monetizes it. Maybe Matter will change things.
Click to expand...
Agreed about the hub options, they are essentially non-existent at the moment. The Aeotec hub is apparently SmartThings in a new housing but I have not looked into it enough to compare ST to Aeotec.

The Homey is interesting but it looks like it has the potential to be way, way too granular for 95% of users.
 
Osaurus said:
Still keeping it mostly simple here. I have 4 smart outlets (geeni), Wyze cams and Wyze sensors around the house using wifi from my ASUS mesh router setup (binding by router). No hubs at all.
Click to expand...
It really seems that most everything of true practical use can be controlled by voice assistant.

When Matter integration is rolled out and fully functional there shouldn't be much need for a Hub outside of your voice assistant of choice. Apple, Amazon and Google are apparently all in on Matter.
 
Chaka said:
I am not sure if there is an "Official" smart home thread so I'm choosing this one because it had the most recent posts of the three threads I found.

If there is an official thread I would appreciate a link. TIA

Note: My general go-to source for tech answers is Tom's Guide. YMMV

Question 1):

Which smart hub?

Most of us started building our smart home tech piecemeal so we have a variety of devices which use different communication protocols with multiple interfaces. So the thought of a central hub to connect them is enticing.

We have a vision of "One app to rule them all" but is that truly possible? Will the roll out of Matter be the final key or another layer of frustration?

Most people probably use Alexa, Homekit or Google for integration. These are perfectly easy to use and have mostly good functionality. But you will still likely have to use multiple apps to extract full functionality and, generally speaking, you have to go through various steps to get integration for both ZigBee & Z-Wave support.

Samsung's SmartThings is no more but the Aeotec Smart Home Hub appears to be SmartThings in a new package. You get ZigBee, Z-Wave, WiFi, Matter, Alexa, Google (but no Homekit). It seems like the ideal, if only, option.

After that the options are virtually non-existent except...

One, allegedly, promising option is Homey (pre-orders only), which sets itself as a one-stop hub for virtually everything. It sounds great (supports everything) but scrolling through their website is dizzying enough, I can see using it at home being migraine inducing. I have to imagine this is a piece of technology where 90%+ of the functionality will only be extracted by power users because most of us think an API ranks college football teams for Bowl Games.

Anyone have any thoughts on smart home hubs?
Click to expand...

When my Smart Things v1 hit the end of the road, I built my own hub with Home Assistant. Works with just about everything, zwave, zigbee, Alexa, Google, and almost every other thing out there. A lot of systems that are controlled by their own app can be controlled by Home Assistant. And since it's all locally controlled, there's no dependence on continued support from a cloud service run by some other company that might decide to pull the plug some day.
 
Runkle said:
Chaka said:
I am not sure if there is an "Official" smart home thread so I'm choosing this one because it had the most recent posts of the three threads I found.

If there is an official thread I would appreciate a link. TIA

Note: My general go-to source for tech answers is Tom's Guide. YMMV

Question 1):

Which smart hub?

Most of us started building our smart home tech piecemeal so we have a variety of devices which use different communication protocols with multiple interfaces. So the thought of a central hub to connect them is enticing.

We have a vision of "One app to rule them all" but is that truly possible? Will the roll out of Matter be the final key or another layer of frustration?

Most people probably use Alexa, Homekit or Google for integration. These are perfectly easy to use and have mostly good functionality. But you will still likely have to use multiple apps to extract full functionality and, generally speaking, you have to go through various steps to get integration for both ZigBee & Z-Wave support.

Samsung's SmartThings is no more but the Aeotec Smart Home Hub appears to be SmartThings in a new package. You get ZigBee, Z-Wave, WiFi, Matter, Alexa, Google (but no Homekit). It seems like the ideal, if only, option.

After that the options are virtually non-existent except...

One, allegedly, promising option is Homey (pre-orders only), which sets itself as a one-stop hub for virtually everything. It sounds great (supports everything) but scrolling through their website is dizzying enough, I can see using it at home being migraine inducing. I have to imagine this is a piece of technology where 90%+ of the functionality will only be extracted by power users because most of us think an API ranks college football teams for Bowl Games.

Anyone have any thoughts on smart home hubs?
Click to expand...

When my Smart Things v1 hit the end of the road, I built my own hub with Home Assistant. Works with just about everything, zwave, zigbee, Alexa, Google, and almost every other thing out there. A lot of systems that are controlled by their own app can be controlled by Home Assistant. And since it's all locally controlled, there's no dependence on continued support from a cloud service run by some other company that might decide to pull the plug some day.
Click to expand...
I like it. Is this Home Assistant?

What about control for when you are away from home? Can you access all the features if you are not connected to your network?
 
Chaka said:
Runkle said:
Chaka said:
I am not sure if there is an "Official" smart home thread so I'm choosing this one because it had the most recent posts of the three threads I found.

If there is an official thread I would appreciate a link. TIA

Note: My general go-to source for tech answers is Tom's Guide. YMMV

Question 1):

Which smart hub?

Most of us started building our smart home tech piecemeal so we have a variety of devices which use different communication protocols with multiple interfaces. So the thought of a central hub to connect them is enticing.

We have a vision of "One app to rule them all" but is that truly possible? Will the roll out of Matter be the final key or another layer of frustration?

Most people probably use Alexa, Homekit or Google for integration. These are perfectly easy to use and have mostly good functionality. But you will still likely have to use multiple apps to extract full functionality and, generally speaking, you have to go through various steps to get integration for both ZigBee & Z-Wave support.

Samsung's SmartThings is no more but the Aeotec Smart Home Hub appears to be SmartThings in a new package. You get ZigBee, Z-Wave, WiFi, Matter, Alexa, Google (but no Homekit). It seems like the ideal, if only, option.

After that the options are virtually non-existent except...

One, allegedly, promising option is Homey (pre-orders only), which sets itself as a one-stop hub for virtually everything. It sounds great (supports everything) but scrolling through their website is dizzying enough, I can see using it at home being migraine inducing. I have to imagine this is a piece of technology where 90%+ of the functionality will only be extracted by power users because most of us think an API ranks college football teams for Bowl Games.

Anyone have any thoughts on smart home hubs?
Click to expand...

When my Smart Things v1 hit the end of the road, I built my own hub with Home Assistant. Works with just about everything, zwave, zigbee, Alexa, Google, and almost every other thing out there. A lot of systems that are controlled by their own app can be controlled by Home Assistant. And since it's all locally controlled, there's no dependence on continued support from a cloud service run by some other company that might decide to pull the plug some day.
Click to expand...
I like it. Is this Home Assistant?

What about control for when you are away from home? Can you access all the features if you are not connected to your network?
Click to expand...

Yes and yes, that is HA, and everything you can do at home, you can do remotely. It required setting up a DNS forward and opening a port on my system, I forget the actual specifics but, as with most everything in HA, there are instructions somewhere on how to do it. I believe I use an integration with the free service DuckDNS.

It's a ongoing, open-source project, so there are the usual hiccups with that kind of setup... things change frequently (the base software is updated several times a month, you never know when some developer's change will break your setup), and the documentation is severely lacking (other developers rarely update instructions to match the changes made after they finish their project).

It's not easy, but if you have an intermediate level of tech-savvy it's not difficult either. Once everything is up and running, you can pretty easily keep it that way, and making additions is pretty simple. Other than that, I subscribe to the subreddit just so I can see when something huge (significant software update) is going to cause a problem with my system.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Ministry of Pain
For those who actually clean their own Home...tips on cleaning products-organic vs chemicals, and any life hacks you use
Replies
16
Views
618
Mrs. Rannous
Mrs. Rannous
Ministry of Pain
Office Home Furnishings and Renovations
Replies
5
Views
203
Ministry of Pain
Ministry of Pain
Gianni Verscotchie
Smart Home Automation / High Tech House Thread
2 3
Replies
144
Views
4K
DA RAIDERS
DA RAIDERS

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Top