Smart Home

[WeezyBengal]

I just joined the smart home revolution. I bought a google home, 2 chromecasts, some smart light bulbs, and a NEST.

I was at my friends house over the weekend and he had all of the above products. It was too cool to see him be able to turn off/dim his lights, change the temp of his house, and control his TV and play music with his voice. He could even do it from his phone when hes not home.

Does anyone else have any smart home products? Im pretty excited to get them all setup this week.

[Au165]

(07-10-2017, 11:17 AM)WeezyBengal Wrote: I just joined the smart home revolution. I bought a google home, 2 chromecasts, some smart light bulbs, and a NEST.

I was at my friends house over the weekend and he had all of the above products. It was too cool to see him be able to turn off/dim his lights, change the temp of his house, and control his TV and play music with his voice. He could even do it from his phone when hes not home.

Does anyone else have any smart home products? Im pretty excited to get them all setup this week.

Make sure you have the wireless infrastructure to handle the load. Dual band routers with good throughput are suggested for those kinds of setups.

[XenoMorph]

It will be fun to take over peoples smart houses and control them from your phone and drive them nuts

[*bfine32*]

(07-10-2017, 11:17 AM)WeezyBengal Wrote: I just joined the smart home revolution. I bought a google home, 2 chromecasts, some smart light bulbs, and a NEST.

I was at my friends house over the weekend and he had all of the above products. It was too cool to see him be able to turn off/dim his lights, change the temp of his house, and control his TV and play music with his voice. He could even do it from his phone when hes not home.

Does anyone else have any smart home products? Im pretty excited to get them all setup this week.

I have the echo dot and absolutely love it. Today is Amazon Prime day if anyone is looking to make the jump there are some great prices. 

[Benton]

Not a smart home, but I bought a Green Mountain Grill pellet grill a couple months ago. I usually just got the cheapo square ones from WalMart, use it for a couple years and then when the bottom rusts out, get a new one. But the pellet grill gives me a lot more temp control and I can use it as an additional smoker if I want to make several different things.

Anyway, the GMG's connect to your phone. I haven't done it yet, but I can use the app to check meat temp, make it hotter, turn it down, turn it off, etc.

My TV operates from an app on my phone, and so does a bluetooth speaker I can use to switch between calls, Pandora, the TV.

[BmorePat87]

I was thinking about getting a Nest, how is it? I have a Ring set up in the front and back, so it's awesome to be able to monitor the house while out.

[WeezyBengal]

(07-15-2017, 07:31 PM)BmorePat87 Wrote: I was thinking about getting a Nest, how is it? I have a Ring set up in the front and back, so it's awesome to be able to monitor the house while out.

I dont have a Nest but its on the list of future purchases. I love how you can change the temperature from your phone and it also adapts to you. Say you change the temperature every night at 9 pm to make it cooler, Next will eventually catch on to your patterns and change it automatically. Pretty cool. 

[Bengal Dude]

I've got a couple of Amazon Echo Dots right now. We have some Phillips Hue bulbs, and we're looking into more. I'm hoping to land some of the color changing bulbs with them.

[Vas Deferens]

I have 5 chromecast audio's set up across the house. Seemless music / audio as I walk around from room to room. Basically a cheaper version of a sonos system if you already have the speakers. Awesome stuff.

Had an amazon echo for a while but just didnt use it enough to justify the space on the counter. I did have that programed to do some pretty neat stuff via IFTTT. I would check that out for your google home.

[jfkbengals]

(07-10-2017, 11:17 AM)WeezyBengal Wrote: I just joined the smart home revolution. I bought a google home, 2 chromecasts, some smart light bulbs, and a NEST.

I was at my friends house over the weekend and he had all of the above products. It was too cool to see him be able to turn off/dim his lights, change the temp of his house, and control his TV and play music with his voice. He could even do it from his phone when hes not home.

Does anyone else have any smart home products? Im pretty excited to get them all setup this week.

I have an Echo on the main floor, an Echo in the bedroom, and a Tap all linked to a Smartthings Hub.

The Things I have installed are a Yale lock, Z-Wave lightswitches in the bedroom, living room, and dining room (dimming in the dining room), and 2 Z-wave outlets for two scented lights.  I also have a dozen or so appliance Z-Wave plug ins for table lamps, a digital photo frame, additional scented warmers, and Christmas stuff.  We just purchased two Arlo Q cameras to add to the system, but I haven't hooked them up yet.  I also have 2 additional Z-Wave replacement toggle switches that I haven't had the chance to install (probably the kitchen and guest bedroom will get those).

I have all of the standard Smartthings routines set up with "Goodbye" and "I'm Back" being triggered automatically by our cell phones when we leave and return (it's awesome to have the door unlocking on it's own as I jump out of the car and run to the door when it's raining!), and a random evening light sequence that I set up before a recent vacation that I still haven't turned off.

I have the Smartthings Smart App "The Big Switch" set up in multiple ways, with "Christmas" being my favorite.  It has the main tree, mini bedroom tree, 2 mini trees on either side of the entertainment center, and a string of white lights that we run through an alcove all triggered by it.  It's tied into the Goodbye, Goodnight, and I'm Back routines, so when the decorations are up, I walk in the door and they are all on.  I say "Alexa, Goodnight" and they shut off with the rest of the house.  When I wake up on the weekends, I just say "Alexa, turn on Christmas" and it all lights up.

Have fun with the stuff, and beware it is very addicting, which can take a bunch of money from your wallet.  I now allow myself one or two GE Z-wave toggle switches every few months at roughly $40 each so I'm not just throwing money at it like crazy.  Next time it will probably be a pair of three way switches so my hall light can be integrated.  Then I plan to do the master bath fan switch and dimming light switch, followed closely by a motion and humidity sensor.  The humidity sensor will pair with the switch to turn the fan on and off from shower humidity, and the motion sensor I plan to run during our sleep hours paired to the light switch and cutting it on at 20% brightness when we go into the bathroom during the night. 

The only thing I can't do is a thermostat, as the 10 year warranty on my Carrier system requires utilizing the programmable one that came with the system.  7 years to go, then that puppy is getting switched out too!

[WeezyBengal]

(07-18-2017, 07:49 PM)jfkbengals Wrote: I have an Echo on the main floor, an Echo in the bedroom, and a Tap all linked to a Smartthings Hub.

The Things I have installed are a Yale lock, Z-Wave lightswitches in the bedroom, living room, and dining room (dimming in the dining room), and 2 Z-wave outlets for two scented lights.  I also have a dozen or so appliance Z-Wave plug ins for table lamps, a digital photo frame, additional scented warmers, and Christmas stuff.  We just purchased two Arlo Q cameras to add to the system, but I haven't hooked them up yet.  I also have 2 additional Z-Wave replacement toggle switches that I haven't had the chance to install (probably the kitchen and guest bedroom will get those).

I have all of the standard Smartthings routines set up with "Goodbye" and "I'm Back" being triggered automatically by our cell phones when we leave and return (it's awesome to have the door unlocking on it's own as I jump out of the car and run to the door when it's raining!), and a random evening light sequence that I set up before a recent vacation that I still haven't turned off.

I have the Smartthings Smart App "The Big Switch" set up in multiple ways, with "Christmas" being my favorite.  It has the main tree, mini bedroom tree, 2 mini trees on either side of the entertainment center, and a string of white lights that we run through an alcove all triggered by it.  It's tied into the Goodbye, Goodnight, and I'm Back routines, so when the decorations are up, I walk in the door and they are all on.  I say "Alexa, Goodnight" and they shut off with the rest of the house.  When I wake up on the weekends, I just say "Alexa, turn on Christmas" and it all lights up.

Have fun with the stuff, and beware it is very addicting, which can take a bunch of money from your wallet.  I now allow myself one or two GE Z-wave toggle switches every few months at roughly $40 each so I'm not just throwing money at it like crazy.  Next time it will probably be a pair of three way switches so my hall light can be integrated.  Then I plan to do the master bath fan switch and dimming light switch, followed closely by a motion and humidity sensor.  The humidity sensor will pair with the switch to turn the fan on and off from shower humidity, and the motion sensor I plan to run during our sleep hours paired to the light switch and cutting it on at 20% brightness when we go into the bathroom during the night. 

The only thing I can't do is a thermostat, as the 10 year warranty on my Carrier system requires utilizing the programmable one that came with the system.  7 years to go, then that puppy is getting switched out too!

Dude....your home is basically Cyberdyne. 

[grampahol]

I have an automated system which is my woman automatically yelling at me to close the door and turn off lights among other things that I am loath to pay one iota of attention to. lol

[BengalHawk62]

Back in the day, I was that generations version of a smart tv.  Dad told me to run up to the tv and turn the channel.  Channels 4-9-11 and 17 were the only channels we had back then.

[jfkbengals]

(07-19-2017, 12:28 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: Dude....your home is basically Cyberdyne. 

Well that would explain why the ceiling fan tried to kill me and the toaster has been laughing at me!

[grampahol]

(07-19-2017, 03:01 PM)BengalHawk62 Wrote: Back in the day, I was that generations version of a smart tv.  Dad told me to run up to the tv and turn the channel.  Channels 4-9-11 and 17 were the only channels we had back then.

I can remember just two channels in Dayton as a kid. WHIO and WLWD which later changed to WDTN. When the moon was in the 7th house and Jupiter aligned with Mars we could occasionally get Al Schotocotti in Cincinnati saying "It's 11 o'clock. Do you know where your children are?"  lol
Later we got to watch The Cool Ghoul on 17.. His counterpart in Dayton of course was Doctor Creep.. All those great old really crappy movies..gee wiz..