Any smart home aficionados here?

MikekiM

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A few decades ago I setup my entire house using smart devices. X10 was the hot brand back then. Remote control was quite different back when we didn't have smart phones. You needed proprietary controllers to manipulate all the (also proprietary) devices through existing house wiring. WiFi didn't exist back then.

Today's smart home is run via smart hubs, WiFi & Bluetooth using your smart phone, computer, tablet as well as all kinds of nifty sensors, detectors, shortcuts and automations. They can detect when you arrive home and run countless scenes with door locks, lights, air-conditioning and heat, fans etc. Surely @Zorba would be sent into an uncontrolled tailspin.

I have thirteen circuits controlling outside lighting; each circuit required its own analog timer and those timers would all require manual reset if the electric blipped or if a different timing pattern was needed, as with daylight savings. Any idea how long it takes to manually reset thirteen timers? I just finished replacing all of them with smart switches that are now set to dawn & dusk +/- random time frames. I am hoping they never need to be reset because they will automatically adjust to daylight hours through the seasons.

Slowly I am adding more devices and automations. Room lights come on at various times. The high hats in my daughter's room turn off when she leaves the room (twenty years I am asking her to please turn off the lights when you leave a room). Turn on the TV after dark and the lights dim, or go off. Motion detector in the garage turns on the light and then turns it off ten minutes after motion is no longer detected. Done watching TV? Turn the TV off and it triggers a series that turns on lights in the home theatre at 20% so I don't kill myself walking around in the dark, bedside light comes on at 5%, in night-vision friendly red, so I can navigate yet not wake my wife and bathroom shower niche light comes on similarly. And when I get in bed I can pass my Apple Watch, phone or iPad past an NFC tag mounted under my bedside table and everything goes off, the garage door status is checked and the outside doors are confirmed locked.

The devices are all very reliable with only a few exceptions. One smart bulb that has a mind of its own and one smart outlet that should control the backlight on the bathroom mirror (KasaSmart KP200) simply won't connect to my network.

Curious if anyone else is playing with smart home?
 
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A few decades ago I setup my entire house using smart devices. X10 was the hot brand back then. Remote control was quite different back when we didn't have smart phones. You needed proprietary controllers to manipulate all the (also proprietary) devices through existing house wiring. WiFi didn't exist back then.

Today's smart home is run via smart hubs, WiFi & Bluetooth using your smart phone, computer, tablet as well as all kinds of nifty sensors, detectors, shortcuts and automations. They can detect when you arrive home and run countless scenes with door locks, lights, air-conditioning and heat, fans etc. Surely @Zorba would be sent into an uncontrolled tailspin.

I have thirteen circuits controlling outside lighting; each circuit required its own analog timer and those timers would all require manual reset if the electric blipped or if a different timing pattern was needed, as with daylight savings. Any idea how long it takes to manually reset thirteen timers? I just finished replacing all of them with smart switches that are now set to dawn & dusk +/- random time frames. I am hoping they never need to be reset because they will automatically adjust to daylight hours through the seasons.

Slowly I am adding more devices and automations. Room lights come on at various times. The high hats in my daughter's room turn off when she leaves the room (twenty years I am asking her to please turn off the lights when you leave a room). Turn on the TV after dark and the lights dim, or go off. Motion detector in the garage turns on the light and then turns it off ten minutes after motion is no longer detected. Done watching TV? Turn the TV off and it triggers a series that turns on lights in the home theatre at 20% so I don't kill myself walking around in the dark, bedside light comes on at 5%, in night-vision friendly red, so I can navigate yet not wake my wife and bathroom shower niche light comes on similarly. And when I get in bed I can pass my Apple Watch, phone or iPad past an NFC tag mounted under my bedside table and everything goes off, the garage door status is checked and the outside doors are confirmed locked.

The devices are all very reliable with only a few exceptions. One smart bulb that has a mind of its own and one smart outlet that should control the backlight on the bathroom mirror (KasaSmart KP200) simply won't connect to my network.

Curious if anyone else is playing with smart home?
Yes…not sure who I annoy more, my wife or the kids…

Lights and cameras inside and out, motion, action and time based triggers.

I’ve got an older house so installing WiFi bulbs + remote is gray way to add switch based lighting without pulling cable

Home audio/Sonos scripted with IoS shortcuts, automaticity disables the surround sound and sets volumes when the 5yr old watches Sat morning cartoons. Pairs and sets music / EQ by room, etc.

Garage alerts for the tween who never remembers to close it.

Several Raspeberry PIs 1) running webcam and status monitoring for the 3d printer, 1) doing whole home internet DNS and content filtering (no TikTok in my house) 1) probably putting something on the internet that shouldn’t be like forcing my Nests to respond to Siri.

20+ years of an IT career and piles of freebies and spare parts.
 
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A few decades ago I setup my entire house using smart devices. X10 was the hot brand back then. Remote control was quite different back when we didn't have smart phones. You needed proprietary controllers to manipulate all the (also proprietary) devices through existing house wiring. WiFi didn't exist back then.

Today's smart home is run via smart hubs, WiFi & Bluetooth using your smart phone, computer, tablet as well as all kinds of nifty sensors, detectors, shortcuts and automations. They can detect when you arrive home and run countless scenes with door locks, lights, air-conditioning and heat, fans etc. Surely @Zorba would be sent into an uncontrolled tailspin.

I have thirteen circuits controlling outside lighting; each circuit required its own analog timer and those timers would all require manual reset if the electric blipped or if a different timing pattern was needed, as with daylight savings. Any idea how long it takes to manually reset thirteen timers? I just finished replacing all of them with smart switches that are now set to dawn & dusk +/- random time frames. I am hoping they never need to be reset because they will automatically adjust to daylight hours through the seasons.

Slowly I am adding more devices and automations. Room lights come on at various times. The high hats in my daughter's room turn off when she leaves the room (twenty years I am asking her to please turn off the lights when you leave a room). Turn on the TV after dark and the lights dim, or go off. Motion detector in the garage turns on the light and then turns it off ten minutes after motion is no longer detected. Done watching TV? Turn the TV off and it triggers a series that turns on lights in the home theatre at 20% so I don't kill myself walking around in the dark, bedside light comes on at 5%, in night-vision friendly red, so I can navigate yet not wake my wife and bathroom shower niche light comes on similarly. And when I get in bed I can pass my Apple Watch, phone or iPad past an NFC tag mounted under my bedside table and everything goes off, the garage door status is checked and the outside doors are confirmed locked.

The devices are all very reliable with only a few exceptions. One smart bulb that has a mind of its own and one smart outlet that should control the backlight on the bathroom mirror (KasaSmart KP200) simply won't connect to my network.

Curious if anyone else is playing with smart home?

I remember X10 well.

The one thing that I'd like to automate is our picture lites, fountains, altar lites and similar. Right now, they're all on discrete timers which is a PITA. I've looked a little bit into smarthome controllers, there's evidentially some open source software - would like to just run it on my desktop computer instead of a dedicated system - and of course I want no smartphones or tablets in the loop, nor do I want to spend a butt ton of money on what is essentially a toy. Any advice would be appreciated.
 
Garage alerts for the tween who never remembers to close it.
Your tween must know mine.

Have any experience with TP-Link controllers? I just installed a KasaSmart dual smart outlet. It is the only device I have had an issue connecting. Tried adding it via different devices. Tried switching the wifi to 2.4 only. Reset the switch. No Bueno. There aren't many smart outlets. Plenty of smart modules that piggy back on a dumb outlet to make it smart, but this outlet is behind the heated mirror so not much room. Was going to try a smart relay.. but neither Aqara nor
Shelly relays will fit in the junction box. First level frustration...

I remember X10 well.

The one thing that I'd like to automate is our picture lites, fountains, altar lites and similar. Right now, they're all on discrete timers which is a PITA. I've looked a little bit into smarthome controllers, there's evidentially some open source software - would like to just run it on my desktop computer instead of a dedicated system - and of course I want no smartphones or tablets in the loop, nor do I want to spend a butt ton of money on what is essentially a toy. Any advice would be appreciated.
I'm not the one to help with a desktop solution though I am sure there is such. Depending on the bulb size the picture lights could be easy. The fountains, which are simple on/off are easy too.

The prices are all over the place. If you kit out in all Lutron or Eve you'll pay your panties and then some. The outside light timers were $12 each. $13 each for dimming versions. I bought them at Best Buy. TP Link brand. Setup was an absolute breeze. I can't speak to longevity, so I bought a handful of extra's just in case. The timers I took out were about $30 each at Ace Hardware and I have had to replace more than a few over the years. Not only were they a PITA to setup but they were finicky. They would hard reset far too often.
 
I had a Philips Pronto remote back in the day.
Programming that was a worthwhile chore.
Customizing it was a fools' errand that I wasted far too much time on.

Today I use smart lighting and outlets along w/ a nest TS.
I don't want my TV or, Alexa, or Siri , or whatever else listening in the background for me, I feel like that's a bit too invasive but to each their own on that.

Professionally, I have installed and commissioned more than a handful of commercial, smart-lighting projects around the country, and even in Canada.
One of my primary focal points has been smart controls and wireless networks that monitor everything from individual fixture current draw records, to individual desk occupancy sensors, thermal tracking sensors, and that kind of thing.
They can build a digital image of a complete building and track everything from bathroom stall occupancy to the heat signature of the HVAC.
We are living in the age of IoT.
 
How would you do something in a 25 year old house with all the lights and outlets?

Do you pick and choose? Replace switches for whole rooms, etc.

I have cameras, sprinklers, a front door lock, smart thermostat, circuit power meter, weather station and garage door opener all seperate but on the network. I'm not consolidated because I'm not the biggest fan of IoT (too close to Id10T) all in one place. What happens when one company goes bankrupt or gets data stolen? I don't do any google or alexa compatible anything.

I spread it around. It's somewhat of a pain, but when the machines take over, I'll have a fighting chance.
 
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I'm not the one to help with a desktop solution though I am sure there is such. Depending on the bulb size the picture lights could be easy. The fountains, which are simple on/off are easy too.

Last time I looked, I needed a dedicated controller - now I can just run the control software on my desktop, which is on all the time anyway. I'm trying the open source "openHAB" and see how it goes. I'm tired of these darn timers, they're never in sync, they get screwed up and I have a shit ton of them.
 
.Curious if anyone else is playing with smart home?
I worked in the high tech comms side of the US Navy under the NSA as a crypto spy. Then I worked as a high level engineer for Americas largest telecom corp in the 3rd largest city master plant

I was “inside” when 9-11 happened and watched Americas privacy get destroyed with thr Patriot Act that was named to obfuscate its true intentions which was to dismantle the Bill of Rights. Right then and there NSA entered all comm sites with “black boxes” for surveillance…..I was there

So was Mark Klein who blew the whistle
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/how-att-helped-the-nsa-spy-on-millions/
After much exposure to all this “high tech /“smart” crap, Ive learned its NOT for your benefit, but for the surveillance State

SMART devices are used for surveillance
So to answer your question…..
HELL NO

Knowing what I know, my house is “DUMB”
RING is used by the Local PDs with cloud surveillance
Google Echo, Amazon Alexa are listening 24/7
Your cellphone is listening 24/7 and reporting all metrics
Your modern vehicles with telematics track EVERY destination you have ever been to

Learned that one from a State Dept contractor overseas I know

If you value your privacy, do an about face and walk AWAY from the SMART / surveillance agenda
 
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I worked in the high tech comms side of the US Navy under the NSA as a crypto spy. Then I worked as a high level engineer for Americas largest telecom corp in the 3rd largest city master plant

I was “inside” when 9-11 happened and watched Americas privacy get destroyed with thr Patriot Act that was named to obfuscate its true intentions which was to dismantle the Bill of Rights. Right then and there NSA entered all comm sites with “black boxes” for surveillance…..I was there

So was Mark Klein who blew the whistle
[URL]https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/how-att-helped-the-nsa-spy-on-millions/[/URL]

After much exposure to all this “high tech /“smart” crap, Ive learned its NOT for your benefit, but for the surveillance State

SMART devices are used for surveillance
So to answer your question…..
HELL NO

Knowing what I know, my house is “DUMB”
RING is used by the Local PDs with cloud surveillance
Google Echo, Amazon Alexa are listening 24/7
Your cellphone is listening 24/7 and reporting all metrics
Your modern vehicles with telematics track EVERY destination you have ever been to

Learned that one from a State Dept contractor overseas I know

If you value your privacy, do an about face and walk AWAY from the SMART / surveillance agenda

Likewise, I'm too paranoid to invite a bunch of other people's "smart" spy crap into my house.

I wouldn't mind putting some automation, or really just more of my own control, into my HVAC. I've got a raspberry pi but only got as far as installing the OS and writing a basic thermostat program for an Arduino before I got too busy with other stuff and a year went by.
 
If you value your privacy, do an about face and walk AWAY from the SMART / surveillance agenda
Yep. That's why I won't do a "smart house" per se either, I'm just looking for centralized computer control of some outlets. Besides, its expensive and relatively pointless.
 
If you really want to go down a rabbit hole, check out www.enlightedinc.com

Street poles are already capable of listening for things like gunshots, able to broadcast wi-fi, cell signal repeaters, etc.

had to install one of those types of stop lights on a project up in norcal. the prescribed cable had a 2.5 year lead time regardless of length needed.. 🤬