Smart home tech

Interested as well, I'd love a deadbolt that's HK, and NFC, __and__ has a physical backup.
 
DT said:
I finally picked up a camera solution: Eufy 2c kit with 2 cameras (Eufy is an Anker product, I didn't realize this from previous research)
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Oh, this was awesome, so the kit has been the same price for weeks, since I started my research, sitting at $239, then it dropped with a clickable coupon (Amazon) by $20, so I'm like yay, $219, I pull the trigger. Well, when I went to wrote the post above, I opened the product page and saw it had dropped $50! From the coupon price! $169, I was ready to order and return, I mean, $50 on a $219 item is pretty substantial, but instead I hit up Eufy through Amazon customer messaging and in < 24 hours, they had refunded me the difference in the new price ($53.xx with tax).

Excellent, and simple customer service, like I've come to expect with Anker products. :cool:
 
Got Ikea blinds. Quite the process. The blinds come with an Up/Down switch an signal repeater and the blind. You really need a Trådfri gateway to make it actually smart. And apparently you need the Switch to do a handshake with the gateway, then with the Signal repeater, and then with the blinds. It was a pain in the neck. But it's pretty neat now that I can prime my kids for getting up by pulling the blinds at 630AM. Ours come up at 545 in the bedroom. Overall, the system is worth the $330 I've spent on it.

Forgot to add, it's homekit compatible so now the blinds show in in Home:

1631403853806.png
 
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I guess I'm really old-fashioned. In the evening when it gets dark I step into my master bedroom and with a hand I grasp and pull the cord that shuts the blinds. In the morning once I am reasonably awake and functioning I use the hand again to pull the cord to open the blinds and let the daylight in.....
 
Clix Pix said:
I guess I'm really old-fashioned. In the evening when it gets dark I step into my master bedroom and with a hand I grasp and pull the cord that shuts the blinds. In the morning once I am reasonably awake and functioning I use the hand again to pull the cord to open the blinds and let the daylight in.....
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I get the snark, but the goal is not to save a trip to the blinds. It is to awaken the family to natural sunlight (when there is such at 545...or 630). We get plenty of exercise just by getting the kids presentable for school. It takes 2K steps on average.
 
Clix Pix said:
I guess I'm really old-fashioned. In the evening when it gets dark I step into my master bedroom and with a hand I grasp and pull the cord that shuts the blinds. In the morning once I am reasonably awake and functioning I use the hand again to pull the cord to open the blinds and let the daylight in.....
Click to expand...
I am even more and fashioned I never bother to open them (G)
 
No snark intended, I just really find it rather amusing when people have these automated controls these days for doing something which really isn't a huge thing to do manually.....

That said, I do not have a family which needs to be awakened by any means, natural sunlight or not, and gotten ready to head out for the day by a specific time. Here it it is just me. Since I am now retired and no longer working anyway, no one expects my presence anywhere at a certain time, I can get up at 7:00 AM or at 10: AM -- no big deal one way or the other. That said, I can relate to the concept of natural light awakening someone, and very often when I am staying in a hotel I will position the blinds so that they are not quite closed all the way and so that the gradual progression of dawn and light will come in and naturally awaken me......
 
fooferdoggie said:
I am even more and fashioned I never bother to open them (G)
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I have neighbors who never open their blinds, but I am someone who really, really thrives on light and my first actions in the morning are to open my blinds and all through the day I appreciate being able to look outside my windows and see whatever there is to see, whether it's the parking lot with my car and other cars or the lake with the wildlife..... I think that much of this is related to my hearing impairment and so I depend on visual cues from my environment and thrive on seeing lots of light in my environment...... For someone who is visually impaired but who has normal hearing or who lives with someone in this situation, the opposite would be more the case, though, and I can understand how in your home having lots of light pouring in all through the day isn't going to be as important.
 
Clix Pix said:
No snark intended, I just really find it rather amusing when people have these automated controls these days for doing something which really isn't a huge thing to do manually.....

That said, I do not have a family which needs to be awakened by any means, natural sunlight or not, and gotten ready to head out for the day by a specific time. Here it it is just me. Since I am now retired and no longer working anyway, no one expects my presence anywhere at a certain time, I can get up at 7:00 AM or at 10: AM -- no big deal one way or the other. That said, I can relate to the concept of natural light awakening someone, and very often when I am staying in a hotel I will position the blinds so that they are not quite closed all the way and so that the gradual progression of dawn and light will come in and naturally awaken me......
Click to expand...
While I worked from home, I let my natural circadian rhythm take over, which is waking up around 7AM. But now that I'm back in the office and kids take 75-90 min to get ready I needed an absolutely unambiguous indicator that it's time to get up, and well the sun (or the street lights are pretty good for that). But the key isn't even this, it's the kids. I can take a shower while the light gently wakes them up, so by the time I'm dressed I can just tell them to get up and they jump out of the bed.

I do enjoy that once it's dark outside I gradually remove the blue lights from my motion sensored bathroom lights (the purple turns red around 9). Then in the AM it turns purple again, and the bedroom lights bright white.

IMG_0891.jpeg
 
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Clix Pix said:
No snark intended, I just really find it rather amusing when people have these automated controls these days for doing something which really isn't a huge thing to do manually.....
Click to expand...
The typical real reason: It’s fun!
 
Clix Pix said:
I have neighbors who never open their blinds, but I am someone who really, really thrives on light and my first actions in the morning are to open my blinds and all through the day I appreciate being able to look outside my windows and see whatever there is to see, whether it's the parking lot with my car and other cars or the lake with the wildlife..... I think that much of this is related to my hearing impairment and so I depend on visual cues from my environment and thrive on seeing lots of light in my environment...... For someone who is visually impaired but who has normal hearing or who lives with someone in this situation, the opposite would be more the case, though, and I can understand how in your home having lots of light pouring in all through the day isn't going to be as important.
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we have shade and nothing but ivy to look at and my wife is blind.
 
fooferdoggie said:
we have shade and nothing but ivy to look at and my wife is blind.
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It's one of the things I have a hard time getting. People fixate on having huge bedroom suites. I do nothing in there that requires more space than a bed and a wardrobe. If it weren't for work/kids the shades would stay closed all day.
 
P_X said:
It's one of the things I have a hard time getting. People fixate on having huge bedroom suites. I do nothing in there that requires more space than a bed and a wardrobe. If it weren't for work/kids the shades would stay closed all day.
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Maybe they’re used to bad ventilation and therefore associate small bedrooms with stale air?

Or maybe they hope to fit a film crew in there some day. Who knows?
 
fooferdoggie said:
we have shade and nothing but ivy to look at and my wife is blind.
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Yes, I know your wife is visually impaired, which is why I wrote what I did in my earlier post. For those of us who hare hearing-impaired, things are different and we want lots of light..... It's all about what someone needs and wants in their environment that they think will benefit them in some way.......
 
Clix Pix said:
Yes, I know your wife is visually impaired, which is why I wrote what I did in my earlier post. For those of us who hare hearing-impaired, things are different and we want lots of light..... It's all about what someone needs and wants in their environment that they think will benefit them in some way.......
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I tend to not notice my surroundings when they never change.
 
We have ADT's security/smart home system. It's kinda cool. I don't do much with it myself. In my room the only thing controlled by the system is the ceiling light and I never use it anyway; I prefer my lamps. I was thinking of getting wi-fi bulbs but haven't done so yet. Being able to control the heating/AC from my phone is pretty neat, but my parents control it most of the time. I think my dad just wanted this because he's a geek. Back in the 80s, my dad had a primitive form of home automation system; it was a control console with plug modules for lightbulbs and outlets. So he's always been interested in this stuff. I actually found the console (it's meant to sit on your nightstand or desk and plugs into the wall) and the modules in a box in the garage and set it up at one point when I was a kid. I used it to control Christmas lights in my room. :)
 
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We just upgraded our robot vacuum from the Eufy one that Wirecutter recommends...maybe the 11s or the 30c or something, I'm not sure. We went with their upgrade pic this time – the Roborock – and this one is soooo much better. Granted, it should be, for twice the price, but the Eufy is worth nothing compared to this one. It picks up so much more, cleans "intelligently," has mapping ability, etc. I obviously don't know how long it will last, but with a dog and a cat at home, I love it so far.
 

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