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Hey all,
I have had a smart home for few years now and love it.
Just wondering if anyone else has went down that rabbit hole what they are using and what experience is.
I am running
Samsung V3 Smart Hub
Philips Hue Hub
Amazon Alexa's in most rooms.
Also use action tiles for phones / tablet on the wall.
I have over 50 devices all Zwave/Zigbee Plugs/Lights/Door sensors/Motion sensors/Smoke alarms
Works very well just looking for new ideas / your experiences with it
what are you guys using
I started to get things but never went too far into it.
First thing I suppose was hive. I bought it for a great price at the time £65 and installed it myself. Bought a hive light bulb and that was that because I moved house. I'd also got an echo dot but didn't use it for anything other than a standalone speaker/info device.
In the next house I had to fit a new boiler so bought via. Boxt and it came with nest and although I have never opened it it also came with the Google speaker. I use the nest app and have been pleased with it.
I saw an offer for an Alexa smart socket/plug so dug out the old echo dot and now use that for a table lamp. This I find very convenient. I've bought a second smart socket/plug but don't have a use for it, bought it because it was a tenner. What I did change was the Alexa activation word. I eventually got so fed up with it being activated by adverts and by programmes or YouTubers activating it for kicks. Such as a kungfuflash review where the fella got Alexa to play Carl Douglas everybody was Kung Fu fighting before starting his review. Good craic but annoying all the same.
So in essence I'm a relative luddite.
Every bulb in our house is a hue bulb.
we have echos in every room including the garage (my workshop) and an echo show in the kitchen.
Our front door lights are motion activated once it becomes darker, as does the exterior lights all hue too.
and we have 6 smart plugs controlling the inaccessible things like tv and fans but they are mainly for Xmas decorations.
Never went down the smart heating route as ours is a new system and is pretty good at keeping the house at 20 oc when we need it. And never had to think oh I wish I could put the heating on when we are out.
The echos control the fire tv and external cameras and the show activates when the ring doorbell is pressed as well as the living room and garage echo so we know when someone presses the button.
the motion detection is great on the phone too so when we get parcels and they don’t knock (every bloody time) our phone tells us someone is at the door.
apart from that I’m not sure what else we could add.
I wanted to get full into it and set up Home Assistant but never got the time. I used to have Alexa but moved to Google Home as I have Nest thermostat, Nest Hello doorbell, Nest IQ outdoor camera. Got Samsung SmartThings v3 hub, Google home mini connected to a Sonos surround, Google nest hub max, various ikea smart lights, most the light switches are smart touchscreen flashed with tasmota, one motion sensor which lights up an LED strip in the wardrobe, some smart plugs mainly used for Xmas tree but one connected to my UPS on the server rack.
To do a house out would cost a fortune, I was hoping the sensors would come down in price.
I bought alot of the SONOFF ZigBee sensors that pair fine with Samsung hub.
Got motion one in Kitchen / Games room with a automation to turn lights on and if no movement within 5 mins turn off light as kids love leaving them on.
Also got a load of the window sensors that work fine for notifying me if windows are left open at night ect.
I'm pretty sure my motion sensor is Sonoff, my light switches are, they seemed good value compared to the others but even buying them from sites like Banggood they work out a lot if you want to automate everything. One day I will get round to it, was annoying when Nest stopped their IFTTT integrations, I'm not sure if all my stuff would work with Home Assistant.Quote:
Originally Posted by TotallyRandom
Groovy support end September 30th. Here’s everything you need to know https://www.thedigitalmediazone.com/...is-going-away/
https://youtu.be/X3DXen0OgSg
All of my stuff is either wi-fi and I have 433MHz Energenie light switches and also have the electric monitored by the same ecosystem (never seen a need for bulbs - just switch control) and I use Homeassistant on a R-Pi in the main but have 2x google and 2x amazon speakers dotted around the place. Loathed to pay out again to replace with zigbee stuff but I am resigned to that fate I suppose.
HA does get quite addictive but indeed, the hardest part is thinking 'What Next ?' .
Recently setup Actionable Notifications in HA/Alexa that has a bit of a different twist on things. Rather than simply reacting/switching things on or off. This makes the speaker announce a change and asks if you want something to happen. For instance, at sunset, rather than switch a light on, Alexa will ask if you want it on and can be fun with a bit of imagination. This one below randomly asks one of the three questions if both the main living room light AND one of the lamps is on and waits for a yes/no answer.
Quote:
service: script.activate_alexa_actionable_notificationdata:
text: >-
{{ ["Both lights are on. Do you want the big light off?", "All the lights
are on. Should I turn the big light off?", "Hey. both lights are on. Are you
made of money? Do you want the big light out?" ] | random }}
event_id: actionable_notification_both_lights_on
alexa_device: media_player.echo