Home automation and voice control

denverpilot said:
Had a hectic evening, but just looked at that one, looks interesting!
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I've been really happy with it... I had it tied to my home assistant to automatically open the garage door for me when I was within 25 meters of the house. Made being lazy that much better that I didn't have to reach up and push a button LOL. Girlfriend put the kibosh on that rule after she realized someone could steal my phone and break in... Women.. Hmph
 
sferguson524 said:
I've been really happy with it... I had it tied to my home assistant to automatically open the garage door for me when I was within 25 meters of the house. Made being lazy that much better that I didn't have to reach up and push a button LOL. Girlfriend put the kibosh on that rule after she realized someone could steal my phone and break in... Women.. Hmph
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What are you using for geo-fencing? Your phone or do you have something installed in the car?
 
John221us said:
What are you using for geo-fencing? Your phone or do you have something installed in the car?
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Was going to ask the same thing. I joked with my wife that we could do geofencing out here but the cell data coverage is crap right at the end of the driveway and as soon as you start down it, the phones are in the middle of figuring out that they see the home WiFi and changing networks and I suspect it would go something like this...

Hit the driveway, drive 850’ down it, by now phone is on WiFi but still doing the DHCP thing, sit in front of garage door where outdoor WiFi is the weakest of anywhere on the property, especially 5 GHz and I have the phones locked to the 5 GHz network for unrelated reasons, a couple minutes later the phone finally has switched networks, is running on WiFi with massive packet loss, but geofencing finally knows where it is now, and pops the door open.

WiFi immediately gets better because the doors are steel. Now that we don’t need it anymore. Hahaha.
 
denverpilot said:
Was going to ask the same thing. I joked with my wife that we could do geofencing out here but the cell data coverage is crap right at the end of the driveway and as soon as you start down it, the phones are in the middle of figuring out that they see the home WiFi and changing networks and I suspect it would go something like this...

Hit the driveway, drive 850’ down it, by now phone is on WiFi but still doing the DHCP thing, sit in front of garage door where outdoor WiFi is the weakest of anywhere on the property, especially 5 GHz and I have the phones locked to the 5 GHz network for unrelated reasons, a couple minutes later the phone finally has switched networks, is running on WiFi with massive packet loss, but geofencing finally knows where it is now, and pops the door open.

WiFi immediately gets better because the doors are steel. Now that we don’t need it anymore. Hahaha.
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I just re-read his post and it looks like it is his phone. I wouldn't be interested in that. There are some devices that can be installed in the car and used for that (Bluetooth). It seems kind of clugey though.
 
John221us said:
What are you using for geo-fencing? Your phone or do you have something installed in the car?
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Home assistant's app has geofencing built in to IOS. IOS app uses the GPS in your phone.. Otherwise you can use OwnTracks over MQTT
 
sferguson524 said:
This is what I am using as the brains to drive all of my automation. https://www.home-assistant.io/ price is right - Free
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I have a gen 1 Wink Hub and has been compatible with everything I have wanted so far. I mis-stated above on the front door lock. I have the Schlage front door lock, not the Kwikset. The Wink will manage all the door codes, lock and unlock the front door, manage the Chamberlain garage door, Honeywell thermostat and all my lights (I replace the in wall switches, that way if someone manually turns off a light at the switch, it doesn't break the automation, like a bulb or outlet control would). Wink also lets you set up "bots" for sending alerts and controlling devices. I would upgrade to a gen 2, but it really doesn't add any functionality, just a little better performance. You can pick up a gen 1 for $29 on Amazon.
 
John221us said:
I have a gen 1 Wink Hub and has been compatible with everything I have wanted so far. I mis-stated above on the front door lock. I have the Schlage front door lock, not the Kwikset. The Wink will manage all the door codes, lock and unlock the front door, manage the Chamberlain garage door, Honeywell thermostat and all my lights (I replace the in wall switches, that way if someone manually turns off a light at the switch, it doesn't break the automation, like a bulb or outlet control would). Wink also lets you set up "bots" for sending alerts and controlling devices. I would upgrade to a gen 2, but it really doesn't add any functionality, just a little better performance. You can pick up a gen 1 for $29 on Amazon.
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I had thought long and hard about doing Wink. Especially when learning to code the YAML that HASS uses. Problem was I was under the impression if the Internet was down you couldn't control it. HASS is all internal, i have a HTTPS rule on my firewall for 8123 to connect to it when I am outside the house. The only cloud integration is for Alexa. One can use Snips.io if they want the voice control to be completely internal, and not present to the outside if they choose to keep it totally isolated.
 
sferguson524 said:
I had thought long and hard about doing Wink. Especially when learning to code the YAML that HASS uses. Problem was I was under the impression if the Internet was down you couldn't control it. HASS is all internal, i have a HTTPS rule on my firewall for 8123 to connect to it when I am outside the house. The only cloud integration is for Alexa. One can use Snips.io if they want the voice control to be completely internal, and not present to the outside if they choose to keep it totally isolated.
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I live in the burbs. I don't lose Internet too often and when I do, it is usually just for a few minutes. I work from home a lot, so losing Internet causes a much bigger issue for me than loss of home automation. Back when I had AT&T, though... but, then again, that is why I don't have them anymore. I like the toys and automation but my coding days are behind me. The most I do now days is PowerShell scripting (which is fun).
 
John221us said:
I live in the burbs. I don't lose Internet too often and when I do, it is usually just for a few minutes. I work from home a lot, so losing Internet causes a much bigger issue for me than loss of home automation. Back when I had AT&T, though... but, then again, that is why I don't have them anymore. I like the toys and automation but my coding days are behind me. The most I do now days is PowerShell scripting (which is fun).
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Heard that.. I WFH full time.
 
Someone posted a screenshot of their new and useful Alexa Routine to Reddit today. LOL.

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sferguson524 said:
I had thought long and hard about doing Wink. Especially when learning to code the YAML that HASS uses. /QUOTE]

YAML isn’t that bad.

(Says the guy who needed four commits to git to get his damn formatting of an ansible vault file with ssl keys inside of it to work right today... arghhhhhhh!... two spaces in front of every line of the key...)

Beat. Head. Here.
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Rushie said:
Besides that, I'm wary of having a device in my house that's recording every word I say or other sounds I might make. Maybe that's too tin foil hat-y but I just have a bad feeling about it. Cell phone companies record all our texts and look where we ended up with that. On the other hand, I believe it's important to keep up with technology or we'll be left behind when we're old, unable to communicate with our grandchildren.

I think I'll download the Tor browser, start buying everything with cryptocurrency and be done with it. I don't even like Netflix tracking which shows I watch.
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I love the idea of all this automation. It would be cool to walk in, say "Lights on" and go about your business, along with all the other things that can be done. Doing things remotely while deployed (already doing it with my thermostats) would be nifty. However, I'm hesitant to do these things because each and every one of the systems I've looked at appear to be monitored by some big conglomeration (Amazon, Google, etc.) that won't necessarily use their collected data for my benefit, despite the way they may spin it.

If they come out with a system that doesn't require a connection to the cloud or whatever, and doesn't require me to geek out on setting it all up, then I might actually give that system some thought.
 
Anymouse said:
I love the idea of all this automation. It would be cool to walk in, say "Lights on" and go about your business, along with all the other things that can be done. Doing things remotely while deployed (already doing it with my thermostats) would be nifty. However, I'm hesitant to do these things because each and every one of the systems I've looked at appear to be monitored by some big conglomeration (Amazon, Google, etc.) that won't necessarily use their collected data for my benefit, despite the way they may spin it.

If they come out with a system that doesn't require a connection to the cloud or whatever, and doesn't require me to geek out on setting it all up, then I might actually give that system some thought.
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Well stated. Especially being able to control things while you are away. If we had had say, cameras and water level detectors in our house communicating with us while we were away, we could have called a neighbor and had them immediately use the key we left with them to go into the house and shut off the water, saving our insurance company tens of thousands of dollars.
 
Nate, I am probably 180 out from you on tech choices.

I have been using the SmartThings 2nd generation hub since it first came out. We have had zero issues with it so far. Our internet is pretty reliable now. And over time they have moved a few things into the hub itself so bit by bit a internet outage is leaving more stuff running. Of course with a internet outage, unless you have a 3G/4G internet in the home you won't be remotely monitoring or remotely controlling your home at all until its back up.

Someone asked about garage doors. Those were my first 2 sensors (tilt sensors). My number one concern is leaving a garage door open when we leave or at night. So a smartthings alert is programmed for that.

As to controlling the garage door...that probably introduces as many problems as solutions so haven't there yet.

We absolutely love the ability to use our normal can lights and have them on a schedule for vacation and direct control. So we have replaced 7 light switches with the smartthings switches (GE). A few have dimmers. I would probably replace 2 more but they are 3-way switches and those cost more. My favorite light to control is the rear exterior house light. If we're upstairs in bed and hear something I can turn on the back light without having to go downstairs...right next to very door I am concerned about...to turn on that light. And I can see better from above anyways.

Regarding the Alexa...a co-worker gave me one. We had it for about 3 months and the novelty wore off quickly. We would ask when a movie is playing near us but flippin' Amazon would then think it should inform us of the movie information at the big popular theater farther away - not what we wanted, nor what we asked. And we would ask it science stuff and get these lame answers. And all along we wondered what it was actually doing with the microphone and how much it was caching and sending. My wife uplugged it one day. I finished the job and chucked it. It was decent for listening to music and quick weather. We never tried lighting control by voice, maybe its worth it?
 
Anymouse said:
I love the idea of all this automation. It would be cool to walk in, say "Lights on" and go about your business, along with all the other things that can be done. Doing things remotely while deployed (already doing it with my thermostats) would be nifty. However, I'm hesitant to do these things because each and every one of the systems I've looked at appear to be monitored by some big conglomeration (Amazon, Google, etc.) that won't necessarily use their collected data for my benefit, despite the way they may spin it.

If they come out with a system that doesn't require a connection to the cloud or whatever, and doesn't require me to geek out on setting it all up, then I might actually give that system some thought.
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Check out snips. https://snips.ai/ it's just what you're looking for
 
SmartThings user here and thanks to independent developers I’ve modified things enough to be able to do just about all the things I want to do with it. Don’t like the cloud part of it but they’ve been making lots of things local lately. The wife still hates it. And it’s workable on my crappy internet out here in the country.
Folks that were tired of the issues with SmartThings are talking about and moving to this https://hubitat.com/
 
denverpilot said:
So who’s into this?
...

There are apps in FireTV that don’t have the control API built into them yet, like changing channels on DirecTV NOW doesn’t work yet. Still need the remote for that. Apparently PlayStation Vue does it so DirecTV NOW had better hurry up. ...
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It’s not Now, but their is a DirectTV skill for Alexa. Works fine for us.
 
TCABM said:
It’s not Now, but their is a DirectTV skill for Alexa. Works fine for us.
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Yeah, DirecTV skill controls the satellite receivers.

DirecTV NOW is their streaming service, and it hasn’t been updated by AT&T to have the correct internals yet. Which is somewhat pitiful since their competitors in the streaming space announced this ability back in November... but they only recently got DVR working in the app, so they’re way behind.

(Competitors to DirecTV NOW are PlayStation Vue, Philo, Hulu, etc.)

https://amazonfiretv.blog/now-alexa...l-access-and-more-ba43253cd32?gi=6b041d0ffb74

NOW has rudimentary voice controls, doesn’t support voice search for content, can’t change channels with voice.

The really cheap newcomer, Philo, only has rudimentary controls only and doesn’t appear to support voice search or channel change either. Seems like the newer streamers miss that that can do that, what making their apps. They’ll get there, or they won’t.

https://www.fastcompany.com/90200466/philo-is-a-rare-skinny-tv-bundle-in-a-world-of-ever-fatter-ones

At $16/Mo Philo is a screaming deal for all of those channels. They also allow you to authenticate and use the channel’s native apps, which are sometimes better, for 35 of their channels.

May have to do the one week trial on that soon. NOW is fine, but Philo looks to be even cheaper than NOW with the same feature set.
 
denverpilot said:
Yeah, DirecTV skill controls the satellite receivers.


(Competitors to DirecTV NOW are PlayStation Vue, Philo, Hulu, etc.)

...The really cheap newcomer, Philo...

At $16/Mo Philo is a screaming deal for all of those channels. They also allow you to authenticate and use the channel’s native apps, which are sometimes better, for 35 of their channels.

.
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I’m going to have to look into Philo. Most of the channels I want and save $2k/ year on DirecTv subscription?

No brainer.
 
TCABM said:
I’m going to have to look into Philo. Most of the channels I want and save $2k/ year on DirecTv subscription?

No brainer.
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Yeah. Literally just started. Not quite sure how they’re doing it, but there has to be a catch somewhere. Ha.

Finally gets most of those channels down to what they’re actually worth though! Hahahah. :)
 
For a while, the stupid party trick was (when visiting you're friend's house) to go up to his Amazon devices and say "Alexa, order 20 large bags of packing peanuts" (or whatever annoying cheap thing you could think of). And 2 days later.....

Was that ever fixed?
 
wsuffa said:
For a while, the stupid party trick was (when visiting you're friend's house) to go up to his Amazon devices and say "Alexa, order 20 large bags of packing peanuts" (or whatever annoying cheap thing you could think of). And 2 days later.....

Was that ever fixed?
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It never worked in the first place. Default configuration is no ordering. You have to turn it on and then you can add a four digit code for security.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201952610
 
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