Smart home tech

[Alli]

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.

We got a Wyze since we already had the cameras and were happy with them. The mapping is great. If only my cats didn’t love the little brushes….

 

[Herdfan]

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.

I ordered a Lutron Serena blind about a month ago for our bathroom. The window is on the other side of the tub and is a PITA to open and close it.

I have a full Lutron Homeworks lighting system, but the Serena works off the Caseta system. Should be fine for one shade. You can program times and use the Pico remote.

Hopefully it will be in by the end of the month.

 

[Eric]

I ordered a Lutron Serena blind about a month ago for our bathroom. The window is on the other side of the tub and is a PITA to open and close it.

I have a full Lutron Homeworks lighting system, but the Serena works off the Caseta system. Should be fine for one shade. You can program times and use the Pico remote.

Hopefully it will be in by the end of the month.

I got MySmartBlinds for my office, where the window is behind all my computer equipment so I get the PIA aspect of it. I just installed it into the head piece and it works great.

 

[User.45]

So Homekit turns out to be still ridiculously buggy, and I think I sabotaged myself by allowing betas on my Hub, which is my AppleTV.

I bought some Trådfri motion sensors from Ikea. It's $10 a piece, so I got 4 for the price of the Hue Sensor. Hue sensor is actually superb as it has both a light sensor and a thermometer. Hue Sensor went to the patio so I can tell what the actual temp is outside and in the summer it will give me UV alarms based on luminosity (my wife burns very easily).

Here's the issue, any automation I set most recently, Home registers the motion but fails to trigger the automations. Triggers work for the ecobee sensors, but not anymore if changed them now. So i suspect it all boils down to a HomeHub bug. Fucking annoying. At this point I've spent more time and brain power figuring it out that I ever will save by having sensor controlled lights.

 

[Eric]

So Homekit turns out to be still ridiculously buggy, and I think I sabotaged myself by allowing betas on my Hub, which is my AppleTV.

I bought some Trådfri motion sensors from Ikea. It's $10 a piece, so I got 4 for the price of the Hue Sensor. Hue sensor is actually superb as it has both a light sensor and a thermometer. Hue Sensor went to the patio so I can tell what the actual temp is outside and in the summer it will give me UV alarms based on luminosity (my wife burns very easily).

Here's the issue, any automation I set most recently, Home registers the motion but fails to trigger the automations. Triggers work for the ecobee sensors, but not anymore if changed them now. So i suspect it all boils down to a HomeHub bug. Fucking annoying. At this point I've spent more time and brain power figuring it out that I ever will save by having sensor controlled lights.

Not to take away from the compatibility issue you're having here but I'm wondering how well these sensors will work with SmartThings, looks like it supports Zigbee(?) their site does not give much for details here. Not interested in adding another hub or forced compatibility with other Ikea products but if I can incorporate I totally would, that is a great price and includes a thermometer. I also have a Hue sensor but don't want to pay $35 a pop for more.

 

[fooferdoggie]

So Homekit turns out to be still ridiculously buggy, and I think I sabotaged myself by allowing betas on my Hub, which is my AppleTV.

I bought some Trådfri motion sensors from Ikea. It's $10 a piece, so I got 4 for the price of the Hue Sensor. Hue sensor is actually superb as it has both a light sensor and a thermometer. Hue Sensor went to the patio so I can tell what the actual temp is outside and in the summer it will give me UV alarms based on luminosity (my wife burns very easily).

Here's the issue, any automation I set most recently, Home registers the motion but fails to trigger the automations. Triggers work for the ecobee sensors, but not anymore if changed them now. So i suspect it all boils down to a HomeHub bug. Fucking annoying. At this point I've spent more time and brain power figuring it out that I ever will save by having sensor controlled lights.

have not had luck with the hue outdoor motion sensor. it would not trigger anything in HomeKit and it would turn off lights when not scheduled too. worse it effected lights it wasn't to set to effect. 3 times it turned al the lights on in the middle of the night.

 

[User.45]

Not to take away from the compatibility issue you're having here but I'm wondering how well these sensors will work with SmartThings, looks like it supports Zigbee(?) their site does not give much for details here. Not interested in adding another hub or forced compatibility with other Ikea products but if I can incorporate I totally would, that is a great price and includes a thermometer. I also have a Hue sensor but don't want to pay $35 a pop for more.

have not had luck with the hue outdoor motion sensor. it would not trigger anything in HomeKit and it would turn off lights when not scheduled too. worse it effected lights it wasn't to set to effect. 3 times it turned al the lights on in the middle of the night.

Eureka!!! I fixed it and it was largely human error. So I have a HomeKit router, and I also created a guest network to compartmentalize my untrusted devices to, which are my IoT devices. Turns out that my AppleTV was on the guest network (as preferred), but since my Trådfri and Hue hubs are wired in, those were partially isolated from my AppleTV. So Motion was detected, but triggers didn't go thru. Then when I noticed that my other devices worked consistently, I switched my ATV to the main network and voilà, it works. In fact now I have to go and remove all the redundant automations.

 

[User.45]

Turns out, the Apple Watch is the best smart home accessory. The crown allows ultra precise adjustments of light intensity, trigger automations quickly, etc. It's really fantastic, especially when reading bedtime stories and I want to set the lowest light levels at which I can still read. (I couldn't automate it because it depends on the book and how tired we are).

Now shopping for a homekit ceiling fan. I have ceiling fans at home and on the lowest setting in reverse direction, they are absolutely phenomenal for evening out the living room temp. It's annoying tho if it's running continuously. A smart fan could run for a minute every 0.5-1H or if there's significant temp differential sensed across rooms.

 

[Huntn]

Turns out, the Apple Watch is the best smart home accessory. The crown allows ultra precise adjustments of light intensity, trigger automations quickly, etc. It's really fantastic, especially when reading bedtime stories and I want to set the lowest light levels at which I can still read. (I couldn't automate it because it depends on the book and how tired we are).

Now shopping for a homekit ceiling fan. I have ceiling fans at home and on the lowest setting in reverse direction, they are absolutely phenomenal for evening out the living room temp. It's annoying tho if it's running continuously. A smart fan could run for a minute every 0.5-1H or if there's significant temp differential sensed across rooms.

My understanding is that fans don’t cool a room, just make the occupants feel cooler. Not trying to start a fight.

 

[User.45]

My understanding is that fans don’t cool a room, just make the occupants feel cooler. Not trying to start a fight.

Correct. But it helps you evaporate sweat, i.e. facilitate heat exchange.

But for winter, in reverse, it pulls cold air up and pushed warm air down and the real purpose is to eliminate cold/hot spots. E.g. the kitchen tile gets warmed up by the fan running, so it subjectively feels much warmer without using more heat.

 

[User.45]

Just got a Hunter Homekit fan. The cheapest one for the bedroom. Works well enough, I have yet to program it to circulate the air for a few minutes every hour. Got two fancier ones for the living room and kitchen. Will set them to autoturn on to circulate the air if the oven is on, a prime cause of cold spots on weekends.

Got a Eufy robot vac this BF too. It's hilarious, the app has now a remote control, and I can use it to chase the toddler out of our rooms (she really enjoys it).

I'll say the Ikea smart blinds are a homerun but the Trådfri motion sensors are just way to slow in a homekit network (~10 sec delay) to be useful.

 

[Eric]

Just got a Hunter Homekit fan. The cheapest one for the bedroom. Works well enough, I have yet to program it to circulate the air for a few minutes every hour. Got two fancier ones for the living room and kitchen. Will set them to autoturn on to circulate the air if the oven is on, a prime cause of cold spots on weekends.

Got a Eufy robot vac this BF too. It's hilarious, the app has now a remote control, and I can use it to chase the toddler out of our rooms (she really enjoys it).

I'll say the Ikea smart blinds are a homerun but the Trådfri motion sensors are just way to slow in a homekit network (~10 sec delay) to be useful.

Nice! Do you install your own as well? I've always done it myself but after this last one I think I'm done and will have to hire someone in the future, I'm just getting too old now.

 

[User.45]

Nice! Do you install your own as well? I've always done it myself but after this last one I think I'm done and will have to hire someone in the future, I'm just getting too old now.

The house came with ceiling fans preinstalled so it doesn’t take much effort to exchange them. Otherwise I’d consider pro install. Im also considering a tv panel too, but im concerned about it getting resonated by my speakers and becoming a source of distortion.

The final tech touch i want is solar panels with storage (powerwall is appealing).

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Looking to conserve water in our backyard drip system I got an Orbit B-hyve hose faucet timer. Our drip system is very basic, just one hose run off a faucet split. Before this we had a basic timer connection that just went off at the same time every day.

This thing is pretty slick. It connects to wifi and uses an app. When setting it up it asks you what type plants are being watered, the type of soil, and if the ground is flat or sloped. It also connects to the nearest weather data center and makes adjustments based on conditions. If rain is in the forecast or it is too cold at the normal watering time it will delay watering. Since weather predictions are often inaccurate it also reviews the previous day's actual data. So maybe it was predicted it was going to rain but it didn’t actually rain. It will adjust the watering schedule based on that. It also sends you notifications if there was a situation that it needed to delay watering and what the reason was.

When I first set it up it ran a water pressure test to make adjustments based on that. It tracks how much water you’ve used over time and you can view the data. You can also manually turn the water on and off with the app. It cost less than $50 with the included wifi dongle. Once you have the dongle you can buy more hose times for about $25 - $35 each. They have hardware for more elaborate setups but this more than suits my needs.

It’s been pretty rain heavy the last couple weeks and for that reason the plants only got system watered a couple days. The old timer would have just continued to water daily regardless. When we start getting into summer I’ll be curious to see if it increases the length of time in a day that it waters.

 

[Herdfan]

Just got a Hunter Homekit fan. The cheapest one for the bedroom. Works well enough, I have yet to program it to circulate the air for a few minutes every hour. Got two fancier ones for the living room and kitchen. Will set them to autoturn on to circulate the air if the oven is on, a prime cause of cold spots on weekends.

Sounds useful for sure, but how do they know the over is on?

 

[fooferdoggie]

we have had an amazon microwave since they came out. makes it easy for my blind wife to use it. but it was dinky only 700 watts. popcorn bags would get stuck in it and not rotate it. one brand of popcorn took over 4.40 to pop. when I changed brands I was watching it but got distracted and the popcorn burned. since the bag got stuck it cracked the side of the microwave and stunk so bad. so time for a new one got a Toshiba microwave that works with Alexa. it has its own app that lets you run it and then you install a skill to run it on alexa. got it all setup but as usual alexa find it but when you tell it how long to run alexa tells us something went wrong. I redid it but nope. so either my wife can use the app and it works well with voiceover or just label the buttons with a paint that has texture. man talk about going back to before talking tools. but all she does is reheat so I only need to label that and start and stop button and the popcorn button for hte granddaughter.

 

[DT]

I was thinking something like the MeRoss homekit garage door opener.

Kind off topic, but I've had a Meross garage door opener in my cart for months, I'll eventually get it. One of our cameras is in the garage, so I can get a visual check of the door (though can't do anything about it, other than haul my ass out of bed, stumble down the stairs, close it, and wind up in my office, distracted by something online and drinking a beer ) Also got an LM883 opener switch, our door uses Security 2.0+, so you have to send the signal through something to decode it, just a couple of wires soldered onto that switch and you're good to go for ~$9.

We have several Meross (HK compatible) outlets, they work, well, exactly as expected, but that's not always the case

 

[Cmaier]

Kind off topic, but I've had a Meross garage door opener in my cart for months, I'll eventually get it. One of our cameras is in the garage, so I can get a visual check of the door (though can't do anything about it, other than haul my ass out of bed, stumble down the stairs, close it, and wind up in my office, distracted by something online and drinking a beer ) Also got an LM883 opener switch, our door uses Security 2.0+, so you have to send the signal through something to decode it, just a couple of wires soldered onto that switch and you're good to go for ~$9.

We have several Meross (HK compatible) outlets, they work, well, exactly as expected, but that's not always the case

I have BOTH a meross and the Best Buy (insignia) garage door openers hooked up to the same door. The meross works a LOT better, so I’ve disabled the insignia.

With the meross, it *always* stays connected in homekit, and it reacts instantly when I hit the button or tell siri what to do. The main problem with the insignia seems to be the wireless sensor for the door position keeps losing its connection or getting confused. The meross has a wired magnetic sensor which works a lot better.

 

[DT]

The main problem with the insignia seems to be the wireless sensor for the door position keeps losing its connection or getting confused. The meross has a wired magnetic sensor which works a lot better.

That's good to hear confirmed from a trusted source In reading reviews, some people suggest the install of a wired sensor is "more complicated" (I guess maybe the logistics of running wires, which is no biggie for me), but the wireless sensors can be a little finicky.

I was chuckling the other day that I still have extensions/strips and some pulleys ziptied to the door supports from last halloween (I was putting up new, beefier eyelets to store a SUP board).

 

[Cmaier]

That's good to hear confirmed from a trusted source In reading reviews, some people suggest the install of a wired sensor is "more complicated" (I guess maybe the logistics of running wires, which is no biggie for me), but the wireless sensors can be a little finicky.

I was chuckling the other day that I still have extensions/strips and some pulleys ziptied to the door supports from last halloween (I was putting up new, beefier eyelets to store a SUP board).

I guess it’s “more complicated” both because you have to hang the wire (I just used gaffers tape on the ceiling, since my garage is unfinished anyway), and because you need to line up the sensor and the magnet. That last part is pretty trivially easy, too, though I suppose somebody could have weird enough garage door geometry or something such that it takes a few minutes.