how smart has your home gone?

[ElliotHand]

Considering you've mentioned homepods is it fair to assume you're in the Apple Ecosystem?
I think your fear may stem from homekit support which is poor. Google, Amazon and Samsung are all pretty universal and agnostic so they'll work well with Apple, the nly challenge would be if you wanted multi room apple music because due to their stupid ecosystem lock in you're stuck with homepods.. lovely as they are, they're still £300 speakers.

I have an iphone & ipad but don't have any homepods and wouldn't say I've bought into the apple eco-system. I don't use apple music as have spotify and have no particular desire to get the homepods but was more interested in how well the devices work together. For example my Alexa show in theory can control my Sonos but the reality is it's far easier to just use the sonos / spotify apps. I'd assumed the main thing about the smart devices is the ability to operate them all from a hub and have certain actions trigger in grouped manners across devices?

I don't have any experience of it but I imagine I could select party on a hub device and then my home could automatically close the blinds, dim the lights, switch other lights to colours and turn up the music etc but perhaps that's not really the way they are designed to be used? I also expect that my imagination is pretty limited and there could be loads of other activities the devices could do. Does anyone have a list of these types of things?

 

[Martynt74]

I have a question of my own actually.

My house is full of Echos and I'm getting a bit tired with how dumb they are, I'm also deep into the google ecosystem so considering a switch to all google home product.

My questions are:

• Can I mix brands and retain spotify multiroom (within the google ecosystem, like a google home and for example a JBL whatever with Google assistant built in.. can they be in the same group)?
• If I went fully 3rd party can I retain spotify multiroom?
• Am i able to set devices into different groups for multiroom? For example something which irritates me with my echos doing this is I can have either all which is the group I've created or single speakers.. I can't have for example my top floor echos in one group that ALSO sit in an "everywhere" group so if I don't want the music all over I have to have a single speaker

Anything else I should know moving from Echo to Home? I have Nest, Ring, Smartthings, Hue etc. Nothing especially niche.

I'm looking at doing the same, The Echos are stupid and the fact my Nest cameras should work better with the new Google Hub and the fact they can announce things which the echos can't is a big plus.

 

[matt100]

I have an iphone & ipad but don't have any homepods and wouldn't say I've bought into the apple eco-system. I don't use apple music as have spotify and have no particular desire to get the homepods but was more interested in how well the devices work together. For example my Alexa show in theory can control my Sonos but the reality is it's far easier to just use the sonos / spotify apps. I'd assumed the main thing about the smart devices is the ability to operate them all from a hub and have certain actions trigger in grouped manners across devices?

I don't have any experience of it but I imagine I could select party on a hub device and then my home could automatically close the blinds, dim the lights, switch other lights to colours and turn up the music etc but perhaps that's not really the way they are designed to be used? I also expect that my imagination is pretty limited and there could be loads of other activities the devices could do. Does anyone have a list of these types of things?

Ok well don't go homepods and apple then, google or amazon will likely work best for you.

Expand on the difficulty you're having with the Sonos? I personally find my echos on spotify are good for "resume", "stop" and "shuffle XYZ artist" being any more specific than that by voice is pointless because it's not natural langue so they always make mistakes. So then I fall back to the spotify app which works great.

The "party" thing you're describing is more a function of the backbone ie either amazon or google and the scenes you've created with them. It's also quite a speciality of smartthings.. you can say to an echo "alexa, ask smartthings to put the house in party mode" and you could have configured smartthings to know what that is and as it's device agnostic it can talk to your hue lights, your blinds, your plugs etc etc.

But broadly you're talking about a configuration thing, they will all do several actions together. For example if I say "alexa, goodnight" everything gets turned off. It can just be more complicated than you'd like to put all these things together.

I'm looking at doing the same, The Echos are stupid and the fact my Nest cameras should work better with the new Google Hub and the fact they can announce things which the echos can't is a big plus.

Yeah I just don't like firstly how closed the ecosystem is.. 3rd party alexa speakers for example can't be included in a multiroom setup and they don't "know" much where I suspect google would know too much

 

[Squid Vicious]

2 Echo Dots and 2 Echo placed strategically around the house to provide voice control for the following...

Harmony Elite to control TV, soundbar, V6 box and XBox One

Hue Hub controlling lights in...
Hall lamp
Living room lamp
Home Office ceiling light
Bedroom ceiling light
Bedside lamp
Conservatory wall lights
Patio light

Couple of kasa smart plugs for Xmas tree and other fairy lights.

Just installed Smartthings hub controlling a Fibaro dimmer 2 connected to living room ceiling lights as Hue wasn't suitable - Kitchen and hall lights next and that'll be the lighting finished.

Now looking at replacing the old wired thermostat and installing a Honeywell Evohome setup with smart TRVs for zoned heating.

 

[utajoker]

think this thread could get a poll on which you are using? amazon alexa or google home?

 

[Awahwah]

Slowly building up my 'Smart Home'. So far:

Google Mini x 2
Google Home Hub
Tradfri Gateway controlling three Tradfri plugs - (Fish tank Lights and Christmas related stuff)
Hue Hub - Controlling one Tradfri light and soon 2 Innr B22's for the Hall.

Edit - waiting for Nest to send out the Thermostat purchased during Black Friday - they have delays by all accounts.

Waiting for the Jan sales to see what deals I can pick up on Hue lights.

 

[Terminal_Boy]

My home is as smart as Diane Abbott and that’s the way I like it.

 

[Salty22]

My home is as smart as Diane Abbott and that’s the way I like it.

Surprised it hasnt fallen down and thats from a labour voter haha

 

[NickK]

I think the only smart home tech we have will be the new oven - Bosch Serie 8 - which connects to WiFi and can be app controlled.

 

[Housey]

7 x Arlo cameras
2 x Dyson fans

Ermmm

That's it.

 

[DrCheese]

I have...
28 x hue bulbs
2 x Tado smart thermostats
1 x Tado Radiator valve
4 x Chromecast Audio's
2 x Google Homes
4 x Google Home Minis
2 x Google Home hubs
2 x Nest Protects

Looking at getting a Nest Hello for the front door & to watch the gf's car with (Our area has had quite a bit of car crime so)

I've picked up as much as I can cheap on ebay or Amazon during sales, but I'd rather not try to add up all the spending...

I may have a problem....

 

[jpaul]

Did anyone catch the name of the new smart ecosystem/manufacturer on the gadget show C5 friday night ?
(catch up doesn't work for show .. I will record the repeat)

But they seemed to have some good ideas .. inbuilt smart in dedicated wall sockets, and app that would remind you if you left something on,
show host suggested using it for remote control of a kettle .. but many of those cannot be turned on without use of kettle switch, and it could be empty.

 

[jpaul]

these - https://getden.co.uk/how-it-works/ seem to be hubless, and if they are robust, might justify the price ...

it must be a trailing edge dimmer .. better than hue stick-over/portable solution (unless hue get those new products in gear)

 

[SimonR]

I guess I am well into my smart-home journey

Homeseer 3, running on an i3 Intel NUC as my smart home controller. Runs automated sequences and bridges between technologies (ZigBee, Zwave, WiFi) - I also have my Unifi controller running on the NUC
Lots of HUE bulbs and LED Ribbon, although am migrating to Z-Wave switches for main room lighting
Wemo plugs to control various lights (mainly Christmas and out door lights)
Nest Thermostst
Hikvision CCTV
Denon AVR X3400H (Cinema Room) and X2400H (Kitchen) Amps + HEOS Soundbar (Living Room) for distributed audio
Honeywell Security
2km of Cat6 cable running on 2 Netgear managed switches (24 Port Node 0 and 16 Port Node 1) with a 2Gb LAG between them
Plex server (music) running on a Synology NAS
Logitech Elite - Cinema Room
3 x Unifi Wifi access points (one on each floor)
4 Amazon Fire Sticks (Bedrooms)
1 x Amazon Fire TV (Living Room)
3 x Echo Dots (one on each floor)
1 x Nvidia Shield (Cinema Room)

The Echo Dots interface nicely with Homeseer, so tend to use them for voice control of devices

My next upgrades are a stand-alone router / firewall for my network
Silicon Dust Homerun for ipTV

I do like my Homeseer 3 smart controller. It allows me run a lot of automation in the background rather than having to use physical interfaces. Plus I have some security features such as saying 'Alexa Emergency' which turns on all of the smart lights in my house. This will allow for either safe evacuation during a fire or as a deterrent if we have unwanted visitors at night. Similarly if my security system activates and it is dark, it will activate my emergency lighting protocol.
At bed-time I say 'Alexa Good Night' and all of my ground floor internal lighting turns off except my hall side-light which drops to 30% until dawn, when it turns off.
I have dusk programs which turns on strategic house lights at dusk, including some external lighting. The external lights are dusk till dawn.
Homeseer also sends my texts when certain conditions have occurred.

I chose Homeseer 3 as it is not cloud dependent and allows me to control things inside my home network, unlike something like Samsung Smartthings (whose modules I can use still use).

Everything that I have installed is all wife and children compatible, which was my first and foremost specification. If they cant use it, or it causes them problems to perform daily tasks then it isn't fit for purpose.

 

[jpaul]

these - https://getden.co.uk/how-it-works/ seem to be hubless, and if they are robust, might justify the price ...

thread on Den - some scepticism about high prices and unknown reliability, and .... company financing
https://www.avforums.com/threads/den-automation.2159713/page-4

 

[Martynt74]

Anyone know of any smart plugs which also have a physical remote?

 

[Rilot]

Very smart. We have now:

5 Echos (Kitchen, Living room, shed, bedroom 1, bedroom 2
Ikea Tradfri lights in every room apart from the kitchen
Smart wall switches in the kitchen
Ring doorbell
Smart switches that control the kitchen extractors
Smart switches that control the heating in the shed

Next on the list is heating. Probably going to go with the Drayton setup as Hive isn't flexible enough for me and Tado is too expensive.

 

[skyripper]

Anyone know of any smart plugs which also have a physical remote?

LightwaveRF ones do, but you would need to have a LightwaveRF hub to make them smart.
Not worth it if you're not already invested in Lightwave kit.

 

[Martynt74]

Cheers

Don't have any other stuff of theirs yet, but have looked at some of their light sockets so will look into it and try and work out if it's worth it. Have like the look of their smart sockets to avoid the ballache of plugs into a plug!

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

Very smart. We have now:

5 Echos (Kitchen, Living room, shed, bedroom 1, bedroom 2
Ikea Tradfri lights in every room apart from the kitchen
Smart wall switches in the kitchen
Ring doorbell
Smart switches that control the kitchen extractors
Smart switches that control the heating in the shed

Next on the list is heating. Probably going to go with the Drayton setup as Hive isn't flexible enough for me and Tado is too expensive.

Worth digging up my thread on Wiser (the drayton system) just to spot a couple of issues you may face. A few others said similar.
Nothing impossible to get round bu a few early warnings in effect.

I still really like the system, and its in effect not fully implemented, I am still to be converted to the benefits of a fully smart home

Edit, found it https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/t...rt-controller-my-install-log-issues.18833451/ @Rilot