Thinking of creating one here. Looking at lights/sockets (great for when away, so looks like home) doorbell, outdoor cams, possible link to new alarm (have old style one but may be time for upgrade). Obvoius one is Amazon based, echo home system with ring cams, guessing most plugs fit so just add to the lamps…. Any tips/advice/must do’s? What about alarms?
I’ve only gone as far as ring doorbell and cctv although my cctv and alarm is separate (hik connect and Pyronix)… and I like it that way. I’m a bit tin foil hat wearing about tech/ai/automation etc etc. Which is funny because I work in that sector The more the world goes digital the more I crave analogue One of my neighbours has the full ring set up and it does look good to be fair.
Me too tbh, always steered clear of Alexa, but think it’s probably the cheapest solution now to what I need. Alternative is a lan cable from the house, but that means trying to get from the hall outside, under ground which includes tarmac and paving and into garage.
I'm tin foil hat too. I stick to those plug things you can set timer on to put lights on etc whilst away.
Use light bulbs, plug-in switches, etc, with the free Smart Life app. Been using it for about 4 years. The app supports most wireless devices and supports routines, schedules, sequences, timezones and weather. It was cheaper than buying into a single brand like Hue - bulbs about a £5 - chinese so I am sure they now know exacty when my toliet light comes on!
we have ring door bell and CCTV set up, linked to alexa app. We run the lights off the ikea hub and bulbs which also links the the alexa app so all can be set up and controlled from mine or my partners phones works well to be fair. Wasnt too keen on the camera but actually turns out to be really good and has spot lights on it too. Various wired or non wired and best advice wait until the amazon sale and you can get good discounts. The ikea hub and bulbs work well and are pretty easy to set up
yep same with ring all wireless, the camera is wireless i just have it perm wired to electric source rather than battery which the doorbell is - so covers the garage either in powercut or normally but both are wireless - same as all the ikea bulbs etc
Yes and are controlled via Alexa or various Apps https://www.screwfix.com/c/electrical-lighting/light-bulbs/cat8350001?smartcompatibility=smart
Have a look at Shelly https://shellystore.co.uk/?gclid=Cj...JJIl6aySaKnCJxfGptw7ZS2T1WeqAw3hoCg_AQAvD_BwE They do a range of products that turn existing circuits into smart ones. Check YouTube out for how they can be used on circuits. They also do smart bulbs and TRVs.
I currently have AISIRER Smart Bulbs (WiFI LED, Dimmable) as they are cheap, and use Teckin Smart Plugs SP27 (13AMP, 2.4Ghz). You add the devices via the App so get that installed and setup (also uses IFTTT and Alexa, etc.). Really simples and never had a bulb fail in about 4 years (yet...). Plugs are added the same way. Then leave the physical wall switches, wall socket switches, and light switches on and just use the app as the on/off. Note that Smart Life is a web service (like IFTTT). BTW, the Techin plugs have a manual switch to override the App. There is no switch on the bulbs, they just have wirelss receiver built in so look like a standard bulb. Works, easy, reliable, and the app so far has covered all devices. The other reason for my setup is that there are no additional hubs - just my wifi router and Alexa. I already had Blink dotted around but may change to cameras on this setup. Oh and Hive... less said about that malarky the better IMHO... It was all easier and a lot cheaper than switching out sockets and switches for wifi stuff. Not particulary high tech but works and is accessible from anywhere...
im running a few different items, some of the Switchbot cameras and curtain openers, Ring devises, bulbs, and the main reason to switch radiator thermostats. all are able to be controlled via their own app, but all can be controlled centrally via Alexa. i have 2 smoke detectors that are connected to the system via wifi and can be used also as alarms linked with window door sensors etc so its just a matter of being clever with the scenarios to get great integration on lights etc
The IKEA lights I've got use ZigBee to communicate to their own hub, which in turn connects to my router, so is phone-app controlled over home WiFi. ZigBee is yet another radio thing/protocol/system that was developed for low power (i.e. battery) devices - been around for years mainly for industrial use until 'controllable' lights came along....
So I've been using https://www.home-assistant.io/ for a while and it's - for what we use it for - quite nice. It's open source and doesn't need a third party server as you use your own. You can access your server via a special service from outside of your network (5$ a month, which is more of a donation to the developers, as it's an open source project). Or you could set iut up as a VM on a NAS and connect to that to access it. You won't be at risk to lose control over your devices (while at home at least) when internet cuts out or some smart-company shuts down their servers. What's good about it? - you can integrate almost all "Smarthome" thingies into it (e.g. Shelly, Philips Hue, etc...) and it's mostly plug and play (see https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/ ) - you can use microcontrollers and combine them with sensors, if you're into that - Setup automations (e.g. Camera detects movement and saves a screenshot and turns light on OR you can tell your coffee machine to have the coffee ready at the time you wake up) WAT? Ok, a few examples from my use case: This is the desktop overview of the most used devices. It's a few lights, temperature sensors, coffee machine (shelly plug), an "all lights off" button and the battery state of a Wifi button (used to turn on specific lights when you have to get up at night). The Volumio is a raspberry pi providing internet radio. The second screen shows the weight of the bottle of the Wifi scale (usually used to weigh our kid) and a picture of the night vision cam (which might be used as a baby-cam at some point) Besides the few things I used it for there are tons of possibilities for integrations. As I don't need access to my stuff away from home, it runs on the server and is contained to my network at home. So now a look at the hardware That white thing in the back with the fan on it is the server. It's an Odroid XU4 single board computer, max power use is 5 Volts, 4 Amps. Clutch lever for scale. Temperature sensor, ESP32 with a sensor wired on a breadboard because I didn't have time to make a PCB or a housing. That's the night vision camera, an ESP32 CAM with two 3 Watt IR Leds Cute old lamp that got an upgrade with RGB Leds (WS2812b), controlled by an ESP32 with a programme called WLED. You can sync all WLED-Lamps within your network to output the same colour or effect. The only not selfmade stuff I use (yet) is the Shelly Plug S. Integrating such a device into homeassistant is easy: plug it in, connect it to the network and homeassisitant pops up a message that a device has been found. Miscellanious The idea to build a scale was derived from reading from someone who build a scale and put his water bottles on it. Via the programming, the server knew how many bottles where left and put "water" automatically on the shopping list. Someone else uses the weighing function to track his cats litter box for the weight of the cat and the weight of the present left behind. All in all it's usefull and fun to play around with.
