Home Automation

Discussion in 'General Gossip, Troll Wars & Game Development' started by luggage, Mar 12, 2018.

  1. hexland

    hexland Industry God One Of Us

    Most of my house has been converted to Z-Wave sensors, switches and dimmers (apart from a few Hue lights (which are Zigbee) and a couple of IKEA Tradfri LED drivers (also Zigbee)).
    I use the Hubitat Elevation C7 home controller specifically because it has an onboard ITTT engine, and doesn’t have any reliance upon the cloud.
    I’m also using a Raspberry Pi as a HomeKit bridge, so I can put control widgets on my phone (The Hubitat mobile software is a bit kak)
     
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  2. Arend101

    Arend101 Post-It™ Printer One Of Us

    The home automation I would really like is something which detects my cat has used the litterbox (pressure sensor? motion sensor?) and turns on a robovac to do the rounds of the room the litter box is in (bathroom) to deal with the litter crumbs it leaves behind. Given that the litterbox is in the bathroom, I'm guessing the robovac would need to live outside the room and somehow gain entrance to the bathroom through a flap in the door*. Or maybe the door needs to open automatically. Would definitely need to modify the threshold as currently the robovac can get into the bathroom (if the door is open) but can't get out, so it rolls around busily sweeping until it runs out of battery and plaintively beeps for someone to come retrieve it.

    *: Alternatively build a hutch for it that's underneath the litterbox and somehow moisture controlled?
     
  3. allan175

    allan175 Industry God One Of Us

    Given the socket arrangement in our living room the tree lights are always a pain. Saying "Alexa, turn off tree" saves a lot of stretching around furniture!

    Although, the actual behind-the-scenes process outlined above is ridiculous.

    And reading about those easily hackable bulbs I checked mine, turns out they are those ones (from Costco)! I can't seem to connect to them though, so they might have updated firmware that was mentioned.
     
  4. CaptainFuture

    CaptainFuture Man of Tomorrow One Of Us

    Alternatively get a litterbox where the cat has to walk over a grate to leave...
     
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  5. Arend101

    Arend101 Post-It™ Printer One Of Us

    I've tried various mats, and the most effective one is now in use. But it only catches about half the litter. A grate is fine in principle, but my cat refuses to walk over one to get to the litterbox, resulting in protest-poops right next to the litter box.
     
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  6. hexland

    hexland Industry God One Of Us

    I have the same setup for my arcade machines...
     
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  7. TheUmpteenth

    TheUmpteenth Dinosaur One Of Us

    you really need to set up "Alexa, happy christmas" to turn on the lights. it'll mean that by christmas, you're actually sick of the phrase, and you'll wish it was new year.

    I'm still reserving a routine for "Alexa, fuck the fuck off".
     
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  8. trave

    trave Muppet One Of Us

    It's hard enough to get our (somewhat elderly) cat to use the litter tray at all, rather than a doormat/corner of carpet/etc to wee on, right now. My poor wife has a much more sensitive sense of smell than me, so I hardly ever deal with these "accidents" myself. It's not that I don't care, it's just that I don't notice...
     
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  9. EyeballKid

    EyeballKid Bitter. Twisted. Cynical. One Of Us

    For some reason, this makes me think there's some Redstone circuitry involved...

    (actually, piping sensor data through Minecraft would be much less stupid than a lot of the online-based automation systems...)
     
  10. TheUmpteenth

    TheUmpteenth Dinosaur One Of Us

    Is it really £30 for a motion sensor? that seems ridiculous.

    Also, isn't there one that just plugs into your light socket - that would be the most useful. don't even need a wifi signal then.
     
  11. scorpion

    scorpion 游戏程序员 One Of Us

    Time for a Covid test?
     
  12. trave

    trave Muppet One Of Us

    No, my sense of smell is normal. Right now, for example, I can smell the bread baking. Mme Trave has always had a much more sensitive sense of smell than I do. She has always suffered for it ;)
     
  13. hexland

    hexland Industry God One Of Us

    I picked up a bunch of Z-Wave multi-sensors (motion, light, temp and humidity) for $15 from Monoprice... probably doesn't help you in the UK though :)
     
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  14. nic

    nic Hardcore Gamer One Of Us

    We just stuck a basic PIR sensor in our garage next to the light. No internet, instant on when you enter and off when you leave (On a timer). Gets a bit annoying if your not moving too much though - eg searching a toolbox for a particular tool - and it just goes off...
     
  15. Arend101

    Arend101 Post-It™ Printer One Of Us

    This morning the tradfri lights did their sunrise brightening thing. I woke up, remembered it was a public holiday. Light switch is next to the bedroom door but I used the app on my phone to turn the lights off so I could go back to sleep. The future truly is now.
     
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  16. MaciejS

    MaciejS Industry Superbeing One Of Us

    So what's the TCE hive mind opinion on smart locks? My old lock is getting a bit iffy and it's time to replace.. I am somewhat tempted by smart locks, mostly for convenience (kid would not need a key, just code/fingerprint, autolocking etc). Two possible problems: security (tbh I do not expect 'hackers' to be super interested in my house, but just on principle) and reliability (although I imagine most/all locks can be opned with a key). I do not need/want wifi options... Any experiences to share?
     
  17. CaptainFuture

    CaptainFuture Man of Tomorrow One Of Us

    Lock picking lawyer has a few:

    The problem is often that the unlocking logic is on the actual door/keypad side instead of inside the house, so you have easy access to various exploits. Personally I'd use keypad if many people need to access a door that may not have access to a key, for my own house I plan to use a configurable lock system where several locks can be opened with the same key.
     
    Last edited: Sep 8, 2021
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  18. benjymous

    benjymous FactCheckTCE Staff Member Moderator

    Something I'd like to do is set up some temperature loggers around the house and garden, and a (local network) web based portal that shows current values, trends, etc.

    Any hints where to start? Basically I think I want a bunch of Bluetooth beacons that'll do the temperature monitoring - ideally as cheap as possible, and not something that requires a third party app or online service - just a bog standard Bluetooth LE device that I can pair with my phone, of laptop, or rpi, and get the last N hours worth of temperature readings.

    Software side, I'm happy to roll my own, but it'd be good if the sensors were something off the shelf
     
  19. e-freak

    e-freak Gaming God One Of Us

    I think zwave (wireless) and ubp (wired) are more common for home automation
     
  20. CaptainFuture

    CaptainFuture Man of Tomorrow One Of Us

    ESP32?
     
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