Automation and AI in our Homes

Chew Toy McCoy said:
First let me say I have plenty of "smart" home tech but don't rely on Siri or Alexa for any of it. HomeKit may connect but mostly I just use the proprietary apps.

Having said that, I was going to post this in the pet peeves thread. It seems plenty of my "smart" tech isn't smart enough to handle a power outage. When the power comes back on it can't seem to reconnect to wifi or remember a schedule and I have fuss around with apps to reconnect.

On the dumber end of smart tech I have some tech that works on an internal timer and doesn't connect to anything outside itself. When there's a power out half of it just forgets everything and I have to set it back up. The other half remembers time intervals but not actual time. So when there is a power outage it resets the interval clock from when the power goes back on. I have a mister setup in my bedroom set to go off for 10 seconds every 12 hours, normally 7 AM and 7 PM. The motor is pretty loud. So if there is a power outage and the power goes back on at 2 PM, at 2 AM it scares the shit out of me when it goes on. The only way to fix it is to physically reset it at 7 AM or PM.

Annoyed.
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We had a blackout in my house yesterday, and everything came back and remembered all its settings. Since automations (like timers, and one switch controlling multiple things, and motion sensing triggers) all live in homekit, it’s all persistent across power outages.

The only problem I have is that sometimes things can’t connect to the network after a power outage; this has more to do with my network than with homekit, I suspect. I have a mesh system, and stuff comes up in random order, so a switch connects to the first mesh point it sees, even if the mesh point is far away, and then trouble ensues. And I have a bunch of HomePods and Apple TVs, and the one that homekit selected as the ”hub” after the black out was a terrible idea - it’s in a remote room and not connected by Ethernet cable. As a result, even when everything was connected to the network, homekit still had troubles (I just unplugged the Apple TV for a second and homekit picked a better choice and all was well).
 
Nov 2023- Alexa or Siri?
I’ve been visting my son who has Alexa, and uses it for setting timers, turning on lights, and playing Amazon music. I’ve become enamored with this device, but I got a lot of iOS stuff back home. Which is superior?

One thing, I’d like some personality. Alexa is all busines. I asked her if she enjoys teaching, and I got “not in catalog”. Come on, you can do better than that… The other thing noticible, as a basic Alexa unit, the sound is crappy. 😐

How long before something ChatGPT appears on this scene?

From 2020: https://www.lifewire.com/siri-vs-alexa-4800418
 
Well, I just told Siri on my phone to set a timer which it did. 🫣 I have this old Bose speaker iPod setup, I may configure for music with a new iPod via an updated cable and I like the idea of telling it to play music, which I assume I could do via the iPod, Siri, and Apple Music.

My question is with Alexa it appears you have wide access to Amazon music for free. Is this the case with Siri and Apple Music?

Also can your iPhone, iPad, and iPod be linked together to relay music play commands to the iPod with Apple Music?
 
Bumping an old thread, I was interested in some Home Automation chit chat, but had a Siri specific scenario that come up the other day.

In the car, Car Play, message comes through, Siri reads it (from the wife), and it's her text and a map/directions (Siri reads the text, indicates the latter as "Directions to <the_directions>".

So I say, "Siri, navigate to that address" and well, goddam as I would expect - but was really not going to be shocked if it didn't - Maps opens with those embedded directions from a message as the destination.
 
I set routines so lights dim at night and brighten in the morning, which helps with sleep. Voice control for cooking timers has been a surprise win while multitasking.
 
DT said:
Bumping an old thread, I was interested in some Home Automation chit chat, but had a Siri specific scenario that come up the other day.

In the car, Car Play, message comes through, Siri reads it (from the wife), and it's her text and a map/directions (Siri reads the text, indicates the latter as "Directions to <the_directions>".

So I say, "Siri, navigate to that address" and well, goddam as I would expect - but was really not going to be shocked if it didn't - Maps opens with those embedded directions from a message as the destination.
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This is what it's going to take, something with a brain that understands basic human language. In most cases, and cars are a great example, YOU have to learn how to speak just the right exact commands and until they get over that hurdle it's just not practical for day to day use.

The Amazon Echo is another example, even something as basic as "repeat the last message" results in "I didn't understand, please try again" type of thing which happens enough that we pretty much don't use it other than to play delivery alert notifications.
 
Anybody using Homebridge? It's pretty fantastic, running it native on our Mac Mini (it's available in a container too).

It creates a HomeKit bridge/interface between HK and non-HK devices (sets up a hub by scanning a QR code in the web UI). The plug-ins for various products are all open sourced developed, and they cover pretty much everything.

So we've got a bunch of non-HK devices, that I was using either the native app or Google Home, and now, they're all completely managed under HK, including automations.

Very cool, runs great, covers 99% of non-HK devices, runs as a service with a web front end, all the non-HL devices are even accessible via Siri.
 
DT said:
Anybody using Homebridge? It's pretty fantastic, running it native on our Mac Mini (it's available in a container too).

It creates a HomeKit bridge/interface between HK and non-HK devices (sets up a hub by scanning a QR code in the web UI). The plug-ins for various products are all open sourced developed, and they cover pretty much everything.

So we've got a bunch of non-HK devices, that I was using either the native app or Google Home, and now, they're all completely managed under HK, including automations.

Very cool, runs great, covers 99% of non-HK devices, runs as a service with a web front end, all the non-HL devices are even accessible via Siri.
Click to expand...
I use homebridge for a bunch of stuff. Mostly to bridge ring cameras, but I also have a “dummy switch” in homebridge that I use to automate my garage so that the lights turn on and stay on until the later of 10 minutes after motion in the garage stops or 10 minutes after the lights are turned on by the switch or opening of the garage door.

It’s running on one of my synology boxes.
 
I used to also use homebridge for my garage door, but Chamberlain disabled that action. I also had some dopey “fun” homebridge stuff set up. Like i can see if my washing machine’s door is open (LG smart washer) and I was able to control a few things in my tesla that way. No practical use, though, so I ditched most of those sorts of things.

I keep threatening to automate the house to murder my wife. for some reason she doesn’t see the humor in that joke.
 
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