My journey into home automation
- Thread starter Stalker
- Start date
Stalker
I removed my teeth on purpose....if you catch my d
Topics:
Types of Automation/Smart Homes
Requirements (Hardware, Skills/knowledge, money)
Brands
Concerns
Choices
Implementation
Type of Automation
There are three generations of automation. Most people when they think of home automation they generally don't go full Jetsons on it, but think more along the lines of coming home to lights that turn on when they walk in a room. Maybe waking up and having the curtains/blinds open for them automatically. Most people aren't thinking that they can pull up to the driveway, the garage door opens automatically, they get out, go in and there's a bath ran already at 101 degrees because the house knew you were coming home and ran it so it'd be that temperature when you walked in the door. The three generations are:
Generation 1: Wireless Technology
Generation 2: Artificial Intelligence
Generation 3: Robot Buddy
For the purpose of this write up, I'll focus strictly on Generation 1 and a little of Generation 2. What does this mean to the commoner? It means my goal is to have a home that I can audibly/Motion command aspects and in other areas, have the home know how to do things on its own.
Requirements
Generally speaking the requirements from a hardware perspective are very low. You basically need a wireless network and that's really it. If you don't have a wireless network, then this write up probably isn't for you to begin with. From a skills/knowledge standpoint, that's a different discussion. Depending on your end goals, you can have the technical know how of my mom, or you may have to be a full blown programmer with an electrical engineer background. For this write up, I'm going to write this up as 'at my mom's level' as I can, but it may require you to either do some learning, or get one of your friends to help. No need for an Electrical Engineering Degree. As fat as money goes, that's your call. You can go with a single vendor and automate your whole home and easily spend a couple grand, or you can nit pick what rooms you want automation and only spend a couple hundred. For this write up, I'm working off of a budget of about $1000.
Types of Automation/Smart Homes
Requirements (Hardware, Skills/knowledge, money)
Brands
Concerns
Choices
Implementation
Type of Automation
There are three generations of automation. Most people when they think of home automation they generally don't go full Jetsons on it, but think more along the lines of coming home to lights that turn on when they walk in a room. Maybe waking up and having the curtains/blinds open for them automatically. Most people aren't thinking that they can pull up to the driveway, the garage door opens automatically, they get out, go in and there's a bath ran already at 101 degrees because the house knew you were coming home and ran it so it'd be that temperature when you walked in the door. The three generations are:
Generation 1: Wireless Technology
Generation 2: Artificial Intelligence
Generation 3: Robot Buddy
For the purpose of this write up, I'll focus strictly on Generation 1 and a little of Generation 2. What does this mean to the commoner? It means my goal is to have a home that I can audibly/Motion command aspects and in other areas, have the home know how to do things on its own.
Requirements
Generally speaking the requirements from a hardware perspective are very low. You basically need a wireless network and that's really it. If you don't have a wireless network, then this write up probably isn't for you to begin with. From a skills/knowledge standpoint, that's a different discussion. Depending on your end goals, you can have the technical know how of my mom, or you may have to be a full blown programmer with an electrical engineer background. For this write up, I'm going to write this up as 'at my mom's level' as I can, but it may require you to either do some learning, or get one of your friends to help. No need for an Electrical Engineering Degree. As fat as money goes, that's your call. You can go with a single vendor and automate your whole home and easily spend a couple grand, or you can nit pick what rooms you want automation and only spend a couple hundred. For this write up, I'm working off of a budget of about $1000.
Stalker
I removed my teeth on purpose....if you catch my d
Choices.
for the purpose of this, I am looking to maximize the impact, ensure long lasting support of the products, minimize the cost as much as possible, and keep it as easy to implement as possible. My main goal is to utilize voice activation for products as well as motion sensitive features when feasible. Below is a breakdown of the choices I'm working with.
Both of these devices are voice activated and work with both Android and Apple devices.
Google Home -
Search: It's powered by the Google search engine
Assistant: It uses Google Assistant. It's similar to Siri but stronger in it's search and command capabilities
Age: It's new having only been released in the last 3 months.
Music: You can use several different music streaming services including Youtube Music, Spotify, Pandora, Google PLay Music, and TuneIn.
Sound: The built in speaker is decent. It plays low sounds well but seems to focus on those lows more than anything else. You're not going to buy this and use it to play music for a social event or party. For a room or your office though, this will do just fine.
Home Automation Options: It's fairly limited at this time. Currently it works with Next, Philips Hue, IFTTT, and Samsung SmartThings. They are adding things quite regularly and I expect this to grow.
Streaming options: It can stream to items that have chromecast built in. These include TVs and Speakers. Brands include Vizio, Toshiba, Philips, Sony, Bang & Olufsen, B&O Play, and many others. Using these features you can stream anything you would normally stream to a Chromecast.
Setup: Very easy. Download the app, start the app, select your new device, follow the voice prompts and you're done.
Cost: $130
Amazon Echo Dot -
Search: It's powered by Bing search
Assistant: Echo voice activated personal assistant. Does essentially the same thing as Google/Siri.
Age: 1.5 years (June 2015)
Music: Like with Google, you can use several services. Amazon Music, Spotify, Pandora, iHeart Radio, and TuneIn.
Sound: the dot isn't an apples to apples comparison to the Google Home because the Dot is built to be compact. The speaker is more in line with a cell phone speaker. The full Echo is more in line with the Google Home and it's sound is similar.
Streaming options: At this time, the echo does not support direct streaming video content to the Firestick.
Setup: Easy. The app is a little more convoluted than the Google Home app, but most novice users can eventually figure out what they are looking at.
Cost: Amazon dot is $50. Amazon Echo is $180
Pros and Cons:
Each device has their pros and Cons. I'll outline those below. As expected, there is a level of subjectivity to this. Granted I like both companies equally, my preferences may differ from yours. It should be noted that at the time of writing this, I own 2 Amazon dots and 2 Google Homes. All my interactions are conducted equally to both devices.
Google Home Pros
1. Powered by Google. When it comes to search, Google is just too good to overlook. While on a day to day use in my browser I use Bing because I like the layout better, when talking to the Home, I felt I received better answers than from the Dot.
2. Music. I pay for a Google Music subscription and I have Amazon prime. When it comes to selection, Google's selection is far better than Amazon by a long shot. I don't use my Home to listen to music though as the speaker just isn't good enough for me to bypass my system in the house.
3. Assistant. Google Assistant uses a continuity of thought process which is really nice. If you were to say "Hey Google, who was the 13th president of the United States?" it would reply back with an answer. If you follow that up by saying "How old was he when he died?" Google would then answer that relative to the question before. This can continue till you stop or ask it to change the subject. If you ask Google to tell you about your day, it'll pull from your calendar and tell you what you have going on that day. It'll then give you a news briefing which you can select the source the news comes from.
Google Home Cons
1. Still too new. Home's support of products is very limited because it's only been around for a couple months. This is in direct comparison to Echo. Google's supported products are tied down to specific technologies as well. For instance, when it comes to lighting, you can't go buy a Cree bulb, put it in the socket and the Home app recognizes it. Home REQUIRES a hub based system. This is due to Googles current apparent fascination with ZigBee. This is a communication protocol which currently is not available natively via home networks and cell phones. So you have to have a device plugged into your network which can translate for your cell phone. This limits the ability to shop cheaper prices (which right now isn't impactful as prices tend to be the same no matter the provider) but more importantly it limits your ability to use brands outside of what Google has programed their device for.
2. Possible longevity. Google has a history of taking products, making them better and then selling them off (See the Moto360). There's a concern that Google may lose interest in this and you'll have your support and products sold off to someone you may not like (Lenovo for the Moto360). This is a long term investment and until Google can prove that they are emphatically going to stick around with this it's something to be aware of. The market growth expectation for smart home devices is expected to balloon, so there's definitely incentive for Google to stick around, but Google doesn't do things for the money. They just keep making money and making decisions on what the company wants to do instead of what is the best for the bottom line. Great company to work for, but makes buying their products a slight risk.
Amazon Echo Dot Pros
1. Size. It's the size of a tuna can. Can hear you just as good as Google Home even when tucked away. To some this may be a concern.
2. Integration with many products. Echo has been around 1.5 years. This means they have more products available. They are also not limited to Zigbee protocols. This means you can buy a dot, buy a Cree bulb, plug it in and then control that Cree bulb with your voice (After doing the setup obviously). This opens the range of products immensely. it also allows for the mixing of products. You don't feel obligated to continue to only buy Smart Things or Hue because you have the hub. You can buy any of the many supported products and mix and match at your pleasure. Just will require an app on your smart device (Phone or tablet) to set it up.
Amazon Echo Dot Cons
1. Assistant. If you ask the assistant for an update on your day, it strictly gives you a report on the news. Doesn't tell you about your calendar even though you'll have a calendar synched to the device. I've not researched if this is expected behavior or if it should tell me about events in my calendar. I'll update this once I figure that out.
for the purpose of this, I am looking to maximize the impact, ensure long lasting support of the products, minimize the cost as much as possible, and keep it as easy to implement as possible. My main goal is to utilize voice activation for products as well as motion sensitive features when feasible. Below is a breakdown of the choices I'm working with.
Both of these devices are voice activated and work with both Android and Apple devices.
Google Home -
Search: It's powered by the Google search engine
Assistant: It uses Google Assistant. It's similar to Siri but stronger in it's search and command capabilities
Age: It's new having only been released in the last 3 months.
Music: You can use several different music streaming services including Youtube Music, Spotify, Pandora, Google PLay Music, and TuneIn.
Sound: The built in speaker is decent. It plays low sounds well but seems to focus on those lows more than anything else. You're not going to buy this and use it to play music for a social event or party. For a room or your office though, this will do just fine.
Home Automation Options: It's fairly limited at this time. Currently it works with Next, Philips Hue, IFTTT, and Samsung SmartThings. They are adding things quite regularly and I expect this to grow.
Streaming options: It can stream to items that have chromecast built in. These include TVs and Speakers. Brands include Vizio, Toshiba, Philips, Sony, Bang & Olufsen, B&O Play, and many others. Using these features you can stream anything you would normally stream to a Chromecast.
Setup: Very easy. Download the app, start the app, select your new device, follow the voice prompts and you're done.
Cost: $130
Amazon Echo Dot -
Search: It's powered by Bing search
Assistant: Echo voice activated personal assistant. Does essentially the same thing as Google/Siri.
Age: 1.5 years (June 2015)
Music: Like with Google, you can use several services. Amazon Music, Spotify, Pandora, iHeart Radio, and TuneIn.
Sound: the dot isn't an apples to apples comparison to the Google Home because the Dot is built to be compact. The speaker is more in line with a cell phone speaker. The full Echo is more in line with the Google Home and it's sound is similar.
Streaming options: At this time, the echo does not support direct streaming video content to the Firestick.
Setup: Easy. The app is a little more convoluted than the Google Home app, but most novice users can eventually figure out what they are looking at.
Cost: Amazon dot is $50. Amazon Echo is $180
Pros and Cons:
Each device has their pros and Cons. I'll outline those below. As expected, there is a level of subjectivity to this. Granted I like both companies equally, my preferences may differ from yours. It should be noted that at the time of writing this, I own 2 Amazon dots and 2 Google Homes. All my interactions are conducted equally to both devices.
Google Home Pros
1. Powered by Google. When it comes to search, Google is just too good to overlook. While on a day to day use in my browser I use Bing because I like the layout better, when talking to the Home, I felt I received better answers than from the Dot.
2. Music. I pay for a Google Music subscription and I have Amazon prime. When it comes to selection, Google's selection is far better than Amazon by a long shot. I don't use my Home to listen to music though as the speaker just isn't good enough for me to bypass my system in the house.
3. Assistant. Google Assistant uses a continuity of thought process which is really nice. If you were to say "Hey Google, who was the 13th president of the United States?" it would reply back with an answer. If you follow that up by saying "How old was he when he died?" Google would then answer that relative to the question before. This can continue till you stop or ask it to change the subject. If you ask Google to tell you about your day, it'll pull from your calendar and tell you what you have going on that day. It'll then give you a news briefing which you can select the source the news comes from.
Google Home Cons
1. Still too new. Home's support of products is very limited because it's only been around for a couple months. This is in direct comparison to Echo. Google's supported products are tied down to specific technologies as well. For instance, when it comes to lighting, you can't go buy a Cree bulb, put it in the socket and the Home app recognizes it. Home REQUIRES a hub based system. This is due to Googles current apparent fascination with ZigBee. This is a communication protocol which currently is not available natively via home networks and cell phones. So you have to have a device plugged into your network which can translate for your cell phone. This limits the ability to shop cheaper prices (which right now isn't impactful as prices tend to be the same no matter the provider) but more importantly it limits your ability to use brands outside of what Google has programed their device for.
2. Possible longevity. Google has a history of taking products, making them better and then selling them off (See the Moto360). There's a concern that Google may lose interest in this and you'll have your support and products sold off to someone you may not like (Lenovo for the Moto360). This is a long term investment and until Google can prove that they are emphatically going to stick around with this it's something to be aware of. The market growth expectation for smart home devices is expected to balloon, so there's definitely incentive for Google to stick around, but Google doesn't do things for the money. They just keep making money and making decisions on what the company wants to do instead of what is the best for the bottom line. Great company to work for, but makes buying their products a slight risk.
Amazon Echo Dot Pros
1. Size. It's the size of a tuna can. Can hear you just as good as Google Home even when tucked away. To some this may be a concern.
2. Integration with many products. Echo has been around 1.5 years. This means they have more products available. They are also not limited to Zigbee protocols. This means you can buy a dot, buy a Cree bulb, plug it in and then control that Cree bulb with your voice (After doing the setup obviously). This opens the range of products immensely. it also allows for the mixing of products. You don't feel obligated to continue to only buy Smart Things or Hue because you have the hub. You can buy any of the many supported products and mix and match at your pleasure. Just will require an app on your smart device (Phone or tablet) to set it up.
Amazon Echo Dot Cons
1. Assistant. If you ask the assistant for an update on your day, it strictly gives you a report on the news. Doesn't tell you about your calendar even though you'll have a calendar synched to the device. I've not researched if this is expected behavior or if it should tell me about events in my calendar. I'll update this once I figure that out.
Stalker
I removed my teeth on purpose....if you catch my d
The choice
I've decided to go with the Amazon Dot as my voice activation device. The pros and cons for each are about even, but the cost differential and the worry about Google's long term investment swayed it over. The cost differential compared to the Google Home was a big contributor. While I could use IFTTT to setup chained skills to get other devices to work with Google, I wanted something as simple and easy as plug and play and to do that with Google required using Samsung Smartthings or Philips Hue. For me to automate my lights in my house, the cost to use those systems would have ran me about $1700. To do the same utilizing WeMo switches in the rooms and leaving the current lighting utilizing Amazon is a total cost of around $500. There are cons to the method I'm using. For instance, WeMo light switches don't support dimming. While not a big deal, it was nice with the Philips system to tell Google to set a rooms light to 20% and it happen. With this, it's all on, or all off. Some of the upsides with the WeMo kit is having a built in timer as well as the ability to turn the lights on without being in the house. The built in timer is nice. I travel for work enough that having it look like someone is home is essentially even if my wife and kids are the only ones home. I used to use a plug based timer that I had to jump through hoops to get to program right and usually a month or two later it was off and the lights ended up turning on in the middle of the day. With this, I can set this up to turn on a certain amount of time after sunset/sunrise and turn off at a certain time, or again, based off of sunrise/sunset.
I've decided to go with the Amazon Dot as my voice activation device. The pros and cons for each are about even, but the cost differential and the worry about Google's long term investment swayed it over. The cost differential compared to the Google Home was a big contributor. While I could use IFTTT to setup chained skills to get other devices to work with Google, I wanted something as simple and easy as plug and play and to do that with Google required using Samsung Smartthings or Philips Hue. For me to automate my lights in my house, the cost to use those systems would have ran me about $1700. To do the same utilizing WeMo switches in the rooms and leaving the current lighting utilizing Amazon is a total cost of around $500. There are cons to the method I'm using. For instance, WeMo light switches don't support dimming. While not a big deal, it was nice with the Philips system to tell Google to set a rooms light to 20% and it happen. With this, it's all on, or all off. Some of the upsides with the WeMo kit is having a built in timer as well as the ability to turn the lights on without being in the house. The built in timer is nice. I travel for work enough that having it look like someone is home is essentially even if my wife and kids are the only ones home. I used to use a plug based timer that I had to jump through hoops to get to program right and usually a month or two later it was off and the lights ended up turning on in the middle of the day. With this, I can set this up to turn on a certain amount of time after sunset/sunrise and turn off at a certain time, or again, based off of sunrise/sunset.
Stalker
I removed my teeth on purpose....if you catch my d
The equipment that I am using are linked here:
These are the light switches I'm using in each room. http://www.homedepot.com/p/Belkin-WeMo-Wireless-Light-Control-Switch-F7C030fc/204707637
These are the plugs I'm using for individual lamps. http://www.homedepot.com/p/Belkin-WeMo-Switch-White-F7C027fcAPL-W/203536127
I'm renting my home, so I'm limiting my changes to large impact, little effort items. Essentially I'm controlling the lights in my house and that's it. IF this was my house, and when we build in the next year and a half, I'll be implementing these devices:
Garage Door Opener: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Chamberl...p-and-Ultra-Quiet-Operation-HD950WF/205880822
Thermostat: Nest or Ecobee
Security: I'd need to do more research, but Scout integrates with Echo and would be something I'd research quite a bit. https://www.scoutalarm.com/
Front Door Lock: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Schlage-...Deadbolt-with-Alarm-BE469NX-CAM-716/203814066
The technology still has a long way to go. There's a lack of standardization and the range of features available varies wildly. Anyone looking to an investment into this tech should think about waiting unless they are doing a cheap easy implementation. The changes that are going to happen and the new tech which will come on in the next 2 to 5 years can make a huge difference in your experience and level of effort. I personally am happy with this minor implementation. It's not changing the world for me, but it does make things easier. Talking and having things react is nice. You can go much deeper than I have and have many more things controlled with your voice. I'll continue to research the Amazon Skills as well as the IFTTT integration to see what else can be done.
These are the light switches I'm using in each room. http://www.homedepot.com/p/Belkin-WeMo-Wireless-Light-Control-Switch-F7C030fc/204707637
These are the plugs I'm using for individual lamps. http://www.homedepot.com/p/Belkin-WeMo-Switch-White-F7C027fcAPL-W/203536127
I'm renting my home, so I'm limiting my changes to large impact, little effort items. Essentially I'm controlling the lights in my house and that's it. IF this was my house, and when we build in the next year and a half, I'll be implementing these devices:
Garage Door Opener: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Chamberl...p-and-Ultra-Quiet-Operation-HD950WF/205880822
Thermostat: Nest or Ecobee
Security: I'd need to do more research, but Scout integrates with Echo and would be something I'd research quite a bit. https://www.scoutalarm.com/
Front Door Lock: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Schlage-...Deadbolt-with-Alarm-BE469NX-CAM-716/203814066
The technology still has a long way to go. There's a lack of standardization and the range of features available varies wildly. Anyone looking to an investment into this tech should think about waiting unless they are doing a cheap easy implementation. The changes that are going to happen and the new tech which will come on in the next 2 to 5 years can make a huge difference in your experience and level of effort. I personally am happy with this minor implementation. It's not changing the world for me, but it does make things easier. Talking and having things react is nice. You can go much deeper than I have and have many more things controlled with your voice. I'll continue to research the Amazon Skills as well as the IFTTT integration to see what else can be done.
Tin
Club Member
script:
message_temperature:
sequence:
- service: notify.notify
data_template:
message: Current temperature is {{ states.sensor.temperature.state }}
# Turns on the bedroom lights and then the living room lights 1 minute later
wakeup:
alias: Wake Up
sequence:
# Home Assistant Script Syntax
- event: LOGBOOK_ENTRY
event_data:
name: Tin
message: is waking up
entity_id: device_tracker.paulus
domain: light
- alias: Bedroom lights on
service: light.turn_on
data:
entity_id: group.bedroom
brightness: 100
- delay:
# supports seconds, milliseconds, minutes, hours
minutes: 1
- alias: Living room lights on
service: light.turn_on
data:
entity_id: group.living_room
Learn some Python, you'll be able to do way neater things than you can with off-the-shelf things, plus Python is one of the easier languages to learn. You can use Python to control a whole swath of sensors, motors, relays, timers, switches, etc. Pretty cool stuff.
The big benefit of rolling your own is that you aren't subject to manufacturer installed backdoors and you have complete control over all software and updates such as kernel patches and additional features. Just a month or two ago a large portion of the internet screeched to a halt because of exploits in IoT devices like Nest, Amazon Echo, Prodigio. All of the DIY solutions have some sort of smartphone app and web GUI to complement their functionality.
message_temperature:
sequence:
- service: notify.notify
data_template:
message: Current temperature is {{ states.sensor.temperature.state }}
# Turns on the bedroom lights and then the living room lights 1 minute later
wakeup:
alias: Wake Up
sequence:
# Home Assistant Script Syntax
- event: LOGBOOK_ENTRY
event_data:
name: Tin
message: is waking up
entity_id: device_tracker.paulus
domain: light
- alias: Bedroom lights on
service: light.turn_on
data:
entity_id: group.bedroom
brightness: 100
- delay:
# supports seconds, milliseconds, minutes, hours
minutes: 1
- alias: Living room lights on
service: light.turn_on
data:
entity_id: group.living_room
Learn some Python, you'll be able to do way neater things than you can with off-the-shelf things, plus Python is one of the easier languages to learn. You can use Python to control a whole swath of sensors, motors, relays, timers, switches, etc. Pretty cool stuff.
The big benefit of rolling your own is that you aren't subject to manufacturer installed backdoors and you have complete control over all software and updates such as kernel patches and additional features. Just a month or two ago a large portion of the internet screeched to a halt because of exploits in IoT devices like Nest, Amazon Echo, Prodigio. All of the DIY solutions have some sort of smartphone app and web GUI to complement their functionality.
Last edited:
ultradriver10000
Forum Member
I'm at level -1, I don't want anything automated except my century gun.
I will however be extremely interested in what you do.
I will however be extremely interested in what you do.
mustangmike6996
Club Member
I'm interested in some ideas. I don't usually like automated home systems, but if it makes life easier, why not.
Birdie2000
Club Member
All I have is an Echo Dot and a wifi thermostat, but being able to say "Alexa, set apartment to XX degrees" when you want to change the temp is pretty fucking convenient. IMO voice control is mandatory if you're going to do this especially now that you can get an Echo Dot for $40-50.
Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk
Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk
1BADAIR
Club Member
Gotta have a talking bass
https://youtu.be/zBqiW1R5_JM
https://youtu.be/zBqiW1R5_JM
99TransAmWs6
Club Member
all this stuff is pretty cool. Do they make the light switches in more then just 1? For example i have a 3 light switch setup next to my front door.
Hall light, Garage light, porch light.
Hall light, Garage light, porch light.
Stalker
I removed my teeth on purpose....if you catch my d
Are you asking if a single switch can control multiple units? if so, no. They sell packs of the switches though I don't see much if any of a discount for buying them in bulk. You can buy multiple ones and then get a face plate with 3 holes. It's the same type of width you'd have for a sliding dimmer
Stalker
I removed my teeth on purpose....if you catch my d
I'm researching what current support there is for IFTTT with Alexa. There's a created connection already in existence here: https://ifttt.com/amazon_alexa
