how smart has your home gone?

[deuse]

Have you tried HomeSeer?

Pretty much everything covered and you can tinker to your hearts content on Windows or Linux.

Thanks

Never heard of HomeSeer. Will do some reading about it today

 

[andy_mk3]

Ah, slightly different to the ones I bought. What's the use of the gyro sensor in them?

Honestly, not a clue! I got the ones without that.

Planning to use one as a doorbell, then the others as overrides for the automation I think. Will have to have a play.

 

[PaDE]

Thanks

Never heard of HomeSeer. Will do some reading about it today

If you wanna know anything let me know......happy to help

 

[deuse]

If you wanna know anything let me know......happy to help

I looked and said HOW MUCH!!!

Think I will pass on that hub thanks

 

[andy_mk3]

I looked and said HOW MUCH!!!

Think I will pass on that hub thanks

Just had to have a look myself. Don't blame you for passing on that.

Home Assistant is really good, it seems daunting at first but I found that Node-Red was a massive help for automations.

 

[Semple]

I looked and said HOW MUCH!!!

Think I will pass on that hub thanks

The hubs and components they sell look really outdated as well. I know the hub is largely irrelevant as it should be hidden away, but looks like an old 90s modem.

Even some of the sensors look a little strange, and yes the pricing is ridiculous. Take door sensors $25 for a single one, or $117 for a 5 pack. Aqara sensors look much more modern, and i think you could pick up a 5 pack of door sensors for ~£30. There's nothing special in the sensor to warrant a $25 price tag.

The problem with a lot of smart home companies that develop a hub is that it's a one-off cost upfront and then there's no more revenue (Wink is prime example here), so they have to offer additional components to keep a revenue stream incoming. Frankly though, the prices they're charging for addons is just plainly ripping off their customers.

 

[Puzzled]

Any recommendations for a smoke alarm that interlinks wirelessly and sends a warning to your phone.

Need one to go in the garage but cant hear a standard alarm going off from in the house.

I've heard good things about the nest alarms but worry it might be a bit sensitive in the garage, maybe a heat alarm would be better.

 

[PaDE]

HomeSeer is software that sits where you want. I’ve had it running on Windows and Linux PCs.

Coupled with RFXCOM it caters for practically every protocol and manufacturer of accompanying bits of kit like switches and sensors etc. without the need of the hubs.

Z-Wave, Zigbee, Smart Things, SONOFF, SONOS, IKEA, SOMFY, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Energenie, Oregon .... too many to list.

I think the hub you are referring to are their trollers. They are basically net top PCs running Windows preloaded with HomeSeer and all the plugins. There’s also a Pi version.

The switches etc they sell are their own brand. Other brands integrate equally as well.

Price is off putting, but its so well supported by both HomeSeer and the community it’s a great investment. Plus it just works.

PS

I’m not a HomeSeer salesman!!! Lol

The hubs and components they sell look really outdated as well. I know the hub is largely irrelevant as it should be hidden away, but looks like an old 90s modem.

Even some of the sensors look a little strange, and yes the pricing is ridiculous. Take door sensors $25 for a single one, or $117 for a 5 pack. Aqara sensors look much more modern, and i think you could pick up a 5 pack of door sensors for ~£30. There's nothing special in the sensor to warrant a $25 price tag.

The problem with a lot of smart home companies that develop a hub is that it's a one-off cost upfront and then there's no more revenue (Wink is prime example here), so they have to offer additional components to keep a revenue stream incoming. Frankly though, the prices they're charging for addons is just plainly ripping off their customers.

 

[deuse]

How do you guys feel about smartthings latest update?

I really don't want all the devices controlled by Alexa\Google.
There should be away for us to say what alexa\google can control.

https://community.smartthings.com/t/updates-to-the-smartthings-platform/200513

More reason now to use Hubitat.

 

[Phil Gr]

Just found this thread - made me think how much stuff we have in our home, and the journey we have been on to make our home smarter and more usable.

I moved house 3 years ago, to a 2yr old self build. The day I collected the keys i realised the the property has zero mobile phone coverage, and a truly terrible internet connection - big big oversight, first 4 weeks of moving we had no internet, no mobile phone signal and no Sat TV, Thought we had made a massive mistake, and it really took the shine off the new home feeling, when the internet was finally connected we got a basic 1meg connection, investigation found issues with the external and internal wiring - sorting that got us to a 4meg line and then had to wait 3 months for the local cab to be upgraded for increased capacity so now have 70meg FTTC, also had to our swap mobile phone supplier to get Wifi Calling so the mobiles would work.

Overall not the best start to our new dream home.

So over the last 3 years I have slowly been fixing things and integrating the following to the property

• Ubuiquiti Unifi Network - USG, Cloudkey, 6 x Switches, 3 x Access Points - this provides full wifi coverage and allows wifi calling for the mobile phones (internal & external), all rooms have Cat 5 wired network access
• 7 x Alexa's - Covering Kitchen Living Areas, and Bedrooms
• Sky Q - 1 x 4K Box, 4 x Minis
• 6 x Smart TV's
• Most rooms have HomeKit enabled speakers via AV amp or Soundbar
• Couple of Apple HomePods
• Smart Lighting (Philip's Hue, Hive)
  • External - 8 x Hive Gu10's
  • Internal - 12 x mixed types (IKEA, Philips Hu, Hive)
• Smart Home Heating - Hive Thermostat, 5 x Smart Radiator Valves (EVE)
• 8 x Smart Plugs, connected to room lights etc.
• several Raspberry Pi's, - PiHole add blocker, Octoprint for the 3d printer, Hifiberry to turn some old speakers into smart speakers
• Iphones, Ipads, Laptops, Gaming PC, Playstation, Nintendo Switch - all connected to the hone network

The Unifi home network is the heart of everything, at any one time there is 40ish clients connected throughout the home, and we use the Alexa's along with Philips Hue and Hive and with the smart plugs to control the lighting and heating etc..

Have have really enjoyed adding the above to our new home and after the initial disappointments we have really turned a corner, the property is quite large and the addition of the smart functionality really adds to the enjoyment of of our home.

Future additions

• Upgrade of the Unifi Network to add a Unifi Dreammachine Pro - this will tidy the unifi network up a bit and will give increased capabilities and allow me to add CCTV to the property and a CCTV door bell
• Another Wifi Access point to improve a black spot to the external wifi coverage and help with Wifi Calling coverage
• Garage door smart controller - allow the remote closing of the garage door - sick to death of the Mrs asking if the garage door is closed when I just got into bed.
• More smart lighting - External to the rear of the property
• Upgrade to smart thermostats to the downstairs underfloor heating (5 thermostats required)

Now going to read this thread from the start to look for any further inspiration

Phil G

 

[SimonR]

Homeseer controlled smart home, Ubiquiti Wifi, Hikvision CCTV, smart lights and switches too many to mention, 6 echo's and echo dots but big change is my alarm. Just replaced a Honeywell Galaxy Flex with an Ajax smart alarm. Both Grade 2, both Hybrid but the Ajax is just a 'better' alarm, which I never thought I would say compared to a Honeywell.

 

[PaDE]

Have you made the transition to HS4?

Homeseer controlled smart home, Ubiquiti Wifi, Hikvision CCTV, smart lights and switches too many to mention, 6 echo's and echo dots but big change is my alarm. Just replaced a Honeywell Galaxy Flex with an Ajax smart alarm. Both Grade 2, both Hybrid but the Ajax is just a 'better' alarm, which I never thought I would say compared to a Honeywell.

 

[SimonR]

I am now on HS4. It's pretty stable so far

 

[andy_mk3]

This is very much a work in progress, but I have been making a dashboard for Home Assistant at long last. Main aim is a mobile friendly interface for now, with the most useful information and controls. It's definitely a learning curve, sunk many hours into it, but everything it working on this page now. Using Node-red as the backend to handle it all. Home Assistant is incredibly powerful, when you look around on Reddit and forums to see what people are doing with it, it's absolutely mind blowing. I'm going to expand my setup slowly over the future.

 

[MassiveJim]

So Alexa decided to randomly lose all of my smartthings devices 2 days ago, I cannot get it to find them at all.
MAJOR PITA as I have quite a few light automations setup and since the devices have disappeared from Alexa it has just deleted the devices from the routines as well.

Weirdly any scenes that I setup in smartthings get detected by the alexa app almost immediately, so I have restored some functionality this way but I can't directly voice control my smartthings devices now and I have no idea why or how to correct it.

 

[matt100]

So Alexa decided to randomly lose all of my smartthings devices 2 days ago, I cannot get it to find them at all.
MAJOR PITA as I have quite a few light automations setup and since the devices have disappeared from Alexa it has just deleted the devices from the routines as well.

Weirdly any scenes that I setup in smartthings get detected by the alexa app almost immediately, so I have restored some functionality this way but I can't directly voice control my smartthings devices now and I have no idea why or how to correct it.

Just FYI I think there was a smartthings hub update the other day, mine stopped working for pretty much a whole day too.

Great when all the lights work with it

 

[MassiveJim]

Just FYI I think there was a smartthings hub update the other day, mine stopped working for pretty much a whole day too.

Great when all the lights work with it

The hub and both apps (classic and new smartthings) work fine.
Alexa can pickup any new scenes that I create.
My devices have just disappeared completely from alexa.

I did get a notification on my phone from alexa a day before this happened but as everything is trying to notify me all the time I just dismissed it and now have no idea what it said.
i do know that the classic smartthings skill no longer exists and they have moved to the new smartthings skill.
I have tried linking and unlinking several times an re-adding devices but alexa never discovers any of my devices.

 

[Cleisthenes]

I'm considering replacing a wireless 7 day thermostat with a Nest unit, but I read that they have to be hard wired, is this right? Makes it a much more costly exercise if I have to get power wired to it.

Has any one had experience with the installation of them?

Thanks in advance.

 

[shiver]

Just ordered a couple of "meross Smart Power Strips" from Amazon that are HomeKit compatible. I often wondered why there weren't any smart power strips yet.

I'll be able to consolidate a few smart plugs and they have built in USB charge ports so I can get rid of a couple of Anker USB chargers in the sitting room.

 

[CaptainRAVE]

Its getting smarter, mostly through smart plugs. Lots of lights on timers now that automatically adjust according to daylight hours. My gym lights and heating are all switched on or off via my phone. Our hot tub and garden lighting again is controlled via my phone with different zones of the garden independently operated. Also have multiple CCTV cameras covering the outside of the house, several areas inside and my gym all connected to my phone and the cloud. Its all working well, especially with the new Sky router.