Home Automation Mega "getting started" thread |
- Mega "getting started" thread
- Mother with Alzheimers can't start her TV program, almost fixed but need ideas to perfect it.
- IoT ISBN Verifier w/ Nano 33 IoT and Nokia 5110 Screen: I am fond of reading books and collecting them in my library and needed a simple way to verify whether I have a particular book when searching for an edition via ISBN and thus created this electronics project and the associated web application.
- Electrical power monitoring - seeking useful analytics and inspiration
- Savant vs Control4. I need help deciding.
- Cable Modem/Router change automation horror story: Arris DG3450
- I made a thing to detect if an outlet is powered and report it to home assistant
- Looking for some input on Halloween idea
- What's a better, albeit more expensive, alternative to a Wyze Cam with RTSP?
- Can anyone recommend a water leak sensor or door sensor that is around or under $10 each?
- Any recommendations for a smart key lockbox
- Smallest Z-Wave Contact Sensor?
- Occupied / vacant indicator for restrooms
- UnionCam c2/c5/q5 etc AP mode setup?
- Recommendation on led strip light with RGBW control for color, wifi/Alexa control, and adjustable Kelvin (min range 5000k-6500k) ? (assuming I need rgbw for good white kelvin balance?)
- Comprehensive Room Presence Detection: Linking it all up! - My first Home Assistant project writeup. How to combine lots of indicators of presence like GPS, BLE, bed presence, motion sensors and more.
- Help w/ wiring & trigger for Projector Lift
- New(er) robovac brushes + longer dog hair -- thoughts? Solutions?
- Pair Xiaomi Aqara Sonoff Zigbee devices using Smartthings in Apple HomeKit
- DIY energy monitoring - understanding split phase, electrical question
- Are Air Quality sensors appropriate for dust?
- Can anyone tell me if these LED's will work with this controller?
- Recommendation for a humidity sensor - bonus if does temperature too
- Problems with the August Smart Lock Pro + Connect...
- fully keyless door?
| Posted: 19 Sep 2020 01:44 PM PDT [Updated repost from here and here] See my mega review post. It's getting time for me to update it, but still worth looking through. First off, I wanna just get out of the way that there are as many approaches to doing "smart home" as there are people doing it... So I welcome comments! The idea is to create a single post/thread I (or anyone else) can just link for people asking the basic question of "where do I start", and... I started where I started, not where everyone else started :-) [What do you want ?] My first suggestion to all those starting out or barely in.... At a minimum, consider EVERYTHING you might want to do. Let your imagination run wild. If you can think it, there's a good chance someone else has done it - and if not, you can be the first. I think the biggest and most common mistake people make when starting out - for me as well - is a lack of imagination. There's nothing wrong starting out with "I just want to do X" (especially if you mean it) but it's also a good way to get boxed in. I recommend everyone, including automation veterans, write out all your dream projects and goals... actually write them down. Write out what and how many devices (lights, sensors, etc.) it will take. Then, put in ball park prices. If you're really just starting out, you might need to pencil in just wild guesses. That's fine. Doesn't need to be exact, and prices change (and can vary wildly by brand/model). The idea is to just have a rough estimate of what's feasible and what isn't... What's worth it and what isn't... What to do sooner and what to put off. [What do you already have?] If you're serious about home automation... Make a detailed floor plan of your house. A floor-plan is pretty useful in general, but especially useful for setting up and maintaining a smart home. Mark where all the outlets, switches, and light fixtures are at, and go through the house mapping circuit breakers just the one time. As smart devices are installed, notate on the floor plan which devices are smart, their capabilities (ie if lights are color), what protocol they use (ZigBee, Z-Wave, or WiFi), what circuit breaker they're on and/or what type of battery they use (and you can note last battery installation date). (I use Sweet Home 3D - free, pretty powerful, and pretty easy.) Obviously, what you already have for automation devices should be taken into account in any smart home plan. However, in general don't let that influence you too much. Every home automation veteran has box(s) full of old stuff. Plan carefully to minimize waste, but home automation is constantly evolving, so be willing to occasionally rethink your approach. If you do switch to a different platform/protocol/etc, do it slowly. Don't try to transition everything at once. At the same time, I personally feel it's important to maintain consistency throughout a house. Having a mish-mash of different products and designs can hinder every-day living. [What can you do?] See below for a quick list of the most common device types. Following that is a list of automation ideas. Use these to assist in making the list. Although they are perhaps a bit overwhelmingly long, it's more to prompt you to think about what you want. Come up with your own dream list! (Then share it.) Before skipping to those, there's a two things you need to decide early on. (Or skip, but come back.) Honestly, I'm split on which is more important. They may very well be equally important. [Pause for dramatic cliff-hanger....] [How are you going to control everything?] The first is the "automation controller". You know about Google Home and Alexa - maybe know about IFTTT - and you're wondering if you really need a separate controller. If you're going to do more than couple of simple things... you're going to want a controller. It's just that simple. There's quite a few out there (literally thousands), from those that barely qualify as an automation controller (like Google Home), to easy to use but limited SmartThings, to DIY systems like HomeAssistant. It depends in large part on end goals and user preference (and mon-ay!). Few people have extensively used all of the major ones, so take all suggestions - including mine - with a grain of salt, unless they can directly compare and contrast from experience. So, you're on your own. For what it's worth, my quick-pick short list would be either Hubitat or Home Assistant, but it really does depend on your tech level, budget, goals, and other preferences. Personally, I use a Hubitat Elevation, and I love it. Note: My understanding is that SmartThings is still the go-to platform for beginners. However, it's limited, and does not have a stable user experience or functionality. I have long since stopped using SmartThings, so only passingly familiar with recent developments, but my opinion continues to be to avoid it unless you willing to buy it as a learning tool. [How are you going to control everything??] The second major decision is how you want to control the lighting. Sounds simple, but it's really not. It really deserves a mega-thread of it's own. At least for me, it was a choice that was far more difficult, far more costly, and far harder to reverse than which controller to get (though I'm proud to say I'm sure I did make the right choice for my goals). There's smart switches,1 smart bulbs, smart switches with smart bulbs, control/touch screen panels, remote controls, and voice. And, each one can have varying features and styling. Also consider how they will work together, not just on the technical side (which is addressed by picking an automation controller), but in actual practical use. Before picking products, actually imagine using them... For instance, would you want a glossy touch-screen light dimmer next to a click-button fan controller? Rather than immediately falling in love with a new glitter product, picture yourself using it to turn the lights on and off or whatever on a daily basis while half-asleep in the dark, or in a rush out the door. Many people answer "I'll just use voice". Wrong answer. Just take my word for it. Voice is an add-on feature; not a replacement for physical controls. I have at least 10 Google Homes scattered throughout the house, and will be expanding on that - so it's not that they aren't useful, but yelling "Hey Google, turn on kitchen light one" ("I've turned on kitchen light two" -- "I SAID ONE!!") at 3am just doesn't actually work. As much as I and hopefully you love the idea of home automation, old dumb light switches really are about as good you can get for simple, practical, intuitive use. My ultimate answer is that... I don't want to control lights! I want them to control themselves - hence being home automation. Unfortunately, it's just not achievable. 1) Motion sensors can be finicky and you'll want a backup, 2) Motion sensors aren't appropriate for all circumstances, and 3) Motion sensors throughout the entire house (and setting up the automation logic) is a large undertaking, and will take much time, effort and expense. I give a pro/con of some of the basic methods on my "review thread", but... First, ask YOURSELF questions. Where will the switches be? What will they do? What are you going to do with the existing switches? Will you want switches where there aren't any built-in? Will they work for the entire family? Consider what you'll gain over "dumb" switches, and what you'll lose. Then do research and ask everyone else how to get there. [What protocol are you going to use?] One other thing that's suggested be decided early on is protocol. If you've done any research at all or spent anytime in the forums, you'll see ZigBee and Z-Wave mentioned a lot. First, WiFi is conspicuously absent in that sentence. Despite the massive number of "smart" products on the market that use WiFi, it's not a good base protocol to use. Buying WiFi products is a great place to start out. There are a lot of great WiFi products, and they don't generally require any "hub", allowing you to just jump in without out this bothersome planning and research, and using WiFi products isn't a death sentence for home automation setups. But there are many - too many - drawbacks from security issues to signal interference, so be careful not to get sucked too far into WiFi. Feel free to postpone making these really hard choices by buying a couple WiFi devices, but don't ignore them just because WiFi seems to work well to start with. Some of the pro/cons for WiFi like security issues just make WiFi less of bargain, but many of the issues grow exponentially with the number of WiFi devices you have. As to Zigbee or Z-Wave - I started out with a mix, and have settled on one based on stability of my personal setup - not naming which is giving me troubles, because it's probably solvable, I'm just too lazy to bother. Although there are differences between the two - some of which may be quite important to smart-home veterans - it typically doesn't matter which is used, and there's certainly not one that's "better" for beginners. Pretty much every product type can be found in either, but specific brands usually do one or the other, so I'd recommend getting a controller that supports both, learn as you go, and use what works best. Just as a bit of a primer, ZigBee and Z-Wave are both what are known as "mesh networks". You know about "mesh WiFi". It's like that, but completely different. In a true mesh network, each device can act as a repeater for other devices, which isn't true for WiFi. So each device that is a repeater strengthens and extends the network, and can become more efficient with routing. Not all will be repeaters, particularly battery powered devices. Hue and other ZigBee bulbs won't either, because they're technically a substandard (Zigbee Light Link rather than Zigbee Home Automation). However, bulbs in general are reportedly a mixed bag, and not being a repeater can be better than being a bad repeater. [Do you really need a "hub"?] A note on hubs. Many people (including myself) started out with "But I don't wanna hub!" (or "But I don't wannanother hub!") Get over it. Although there's something to be said for simplicity, don't get hung up on whether something requires a hub! They don't build them just to make money... well, I mean, they do, but no one would buy them if they didn't have value. Personally, I actively use six hubs (Hubitat Elevation, Lutron Caseta, Hue, Pi 3B+, Arlo, and Fing) with plans for another, and have yet more that I've managed to phase out. That's not to say those hubs are right for everyone (again, see my review thread), and I'm definitely not saying to buy any hub without researching what features it adds, but do not cut your nose off to spite your face by avoiding product lines just because there's a hub! [Where are you going to use it?] (At home! It's home automation! Duh!!) Presence... It's a huge issue for home automation. Maybe even the most important issue. So, just going to define a few concepts for your consideration. The Holy Grail of a smart home is being able to customize the environment to suit the specific people in the room/area, and specifically to suit their activity. For instance, you may want different lighting or sound settings if you are watching tv rather than your child, or have different things occur if your child is leaving the house rather than when you arrive, etc., etc. The only way to do that in a practical way within a home environment is through facial recognition cameras. Although it's technically feasible, at this time it's simply not practical for the vast majority of home owners. But there are ways to get pretty close. There's geopresense (aka "geofencing"). You know what it is, but there's a lot more to it when applied inside a house. It can be used to determine, within some margin of error, if you're at home, but useless in saying which part of the home. And it can only track other people if they're willing to install an app (and have their phone with them). It can also be used for things like having left work, leaving an area (eg having home automation just know that you've gone on vacation, visiting your family/side b***h, etc.). To determine if someone actually entered the house, or entered a specific room, you can use contact sensors, which indicates a door or window has been opened or closed. Obviously, this can't say who it was, or even if they're entering or exiting. They also require opening doors, which obviously often doesn't apply inside. Motion detectors... well, you know what they do. There are some issues with them, such as sensitivity, polling rate, and false alarms (the vast majority of sensors see infrared changes, so heat sources will tend to throw them off). Still, they make for good lighting controls and such. A few other "presence" types... There are pressure plates, vibration sensors, and beam sensors. Some of these are pretty uncommon, but if you're not adverse to DIY, they could be handy. For instance, a pressure sensor could tell if your car is parked, and a beam sensor can tell if the car has arrived. That is, a pressure plate can tell the difference between a car and a person, but is specific to only one specific location. A beam sensor can see between any two points, but can't tell the difference between a car and your grandmother's corpse. Another option is BlueTooth. Using keychain fobs, specific people can be identified, and hypothetically located within a small-ish area, but still not good enough to pin-point a room/area. When combined with motion sensors, if people aren't in groups, you could get pretty close, for instance if only one person is in one part of the house, and a motion sensor is triggered for a specific room in that area, the system can know who is in what room. Carefully combining these together - typically GPS, contact sensors, and/or motion sensors - you can get a good idea of where people are in a house. The closer you can get to the Holy Grail of knowing where people are, who they are, and what they are doing, the more automation can be fined-tuned to customize a house for them. Here's a post showing what creativity, planning, time, and pure stubbornness can accomplish. [How are you going to stop using it?] Shit happens. Plan for it. Example one... My kid's dog likes to chew on my MagicCube and Pico remotes, which only control lights so no big deal, but if turning on a light while no one was home acted as a security alarm trigger, it'd be a big problem. Example two... a minor bug in my automation code prevented lights from turning on or off - at all - and I couldn't stop right then to fix it. But I had an override in place. It's too easy to make a mistake, like having lights come on at 2am instead of 2pm, so put in overrides. Have options to disable routines. And use multi-point authentication systems for critical systems like alarms and locks. A couple mistakes can tank the SAF (Spouse Approval Factor), if not actually put you in physical danger. Now on to the lists, but first a warning. Don't let them overwhelm you. The options with smart homes is long, but only the Devices:
(Note: There are multi-purpose sensors that combine various of the above into one device)
Not a device in the same way as those above, but there are also hubs that mimic remote controls for ceiling fans, tvs, window ACs, gas fireplaces, etc. Automation ideas.... Note: The true wonder and power of home automation is being able to join together multiple triggers with multiple events for multiple devices, such as creating whole-house scenes, combining lighting, alerts, tv/movie player, fireplace, water features, etc., etc. It's impossible to list every combination, but... please share what you've done :-) These are sorted roughly by category. The leading number in brackets is my opinion/guess on general difficulty (scale of 10, with 10 hardest), but that could drastically vary by specifics of the goal, how it's implemented, the platform, specific products, and how wrong my opinion is, so only use them if you don't know any better. "?" indicates it depends entirely on the platform.
If you've made it all the way here, lemme know if you want something closer to a step-by-step instructions of getting a "smart home" using a Hubitat. I don't like telling people "do this" when there are so many different ways, and I'm nowhere near done with my way, but with enough interest I might be convinced. 1 Disclaimer: Just FYI, "switch", "remote" and "controller" can have varying meanings that differ between general usage, electrical devices, and in home automation. I'm using a generic, non-technical, meanings. [link] [comments] | ||
| Mother with Alzheimers can't start her TV program, almost fixed but need ideas to perfect it. Posted: 19 Sep 2020 12:02 PM PDT TLDR: I need a single button to start playing a TV show, no matter the current state of the TV. Must be an actual single button device, not a button on a remote with other buttons. I've been working on this a for a while and I almost have it perfect. We moved my mother in with us last year. She's never alone for more than 3-4 hours or so, but not often. She likes to watch Monk on Prime Video, but it will always time out after a while. I've gone through every setting I can find related to sleep, screensaver etc and maxed everything out. If nobody is home, or she decides not to ask for help, she can get very anxious, bored and lonely. The current setup is a Fire TV Cube, which has Alexa built in. It works awesome because Alexa can turn on the TV, switch inputs, and start playing the show with a single command, something my Harmony can't even do. I thought it was the perfect solution, but she has a hard time giving the voice command. Even when she does get it right, the Fire TV will usually give her two options, (a movie called The Monk, and the Monk TV show), so she has to give a second command. Now I have a big recordable talking button that plays a recording of my wife saying the alexa command. It works about 80% of the time. About half of the time when it doesn't work, it buries itself so deep into other apps that no amount pressing the button again will work. Other times it takes 2-3 more presses and it'll go. I'm looking at the Samsung Smart Things Button, but I can't find much on how it works. If I got a Samsung TV, could a single button press start a show no matter the current state of the TV? I'm also looking at the Echo Button, which could trigger an Echo Dot to speak the command to the Fire TV Cube. This actually should work, but it's a very cumbersome workaround. The nice thing about this setup though is that I could use Drop-In to do it for her from anywhere, if that should become necessary. I'm very open to back out of this and start fresh with new ideas. Anyone have any thoughts? I have tried using an IR macro, but Prime changes their home screen layout too often for this to work well. [link] [comments] | ||
| Posted: 19 Sep 2020 05:53 AM PDT
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| Electrical power monitoring - seeking useful analytics and inspiration Posted: 19 Sep 2020 09:12 PM PDT I'm looking for some good examples of electrical power monitoring that does more than show charts of power usage and power conditions. It's nice to see monthly power usage and power consumption throughout the day, but that often doesn't add a lot of insight. My setup is fairly granular, I'm monitoring the two incoming phases as well as ten other circuits using a couple of circuitsetup boards. Data going to influxDB/Grafana setup. But I'd like to do more than just display power usage. For example, one of the circuits is my dishwasher. I can collect a few days of data to figure out the power usage pattern and extract runtime from the power data. Then generate meta data about run time and alarm/notify if it seems to stop too soon. I might be able to do that also for washer/dryer, which I've run into weird runtime issues in the past. I've seen people use the power consumption to alert when a load is complete, but maybe it can also alert if a load ends prematurely because of a problem with the washer. I'm also looking for inspiration on ways to visualize the data to make it more useful. Or maybe some explanation of why certain visualizations are useful. I've seen charts of, for example, line frequency and line voltage. But it's not very interesting other than seeing your typical power conditions. Is there a better way to represent frequency/voltage excursions that isn't just raw time-series chart that requires me to grasp the patterns. How do you quickly see that every Wednesday at 10AM you get a voltage drop? What kind of tools need to be incorporated for this kind of analytics? Edit: Another idea is monitoring AC power consumption w/ Xcel Energy's Saver switch. I have a connected thermostat, so I know when the thermostat is calling for cooling. If I don't see the typical current consumption from the condenser when thermostat is calling for it, it's an indication the saver switch has kicked in, and it'd be useful to generate data on how often this happens and for how long and maybe let me know so I'm not left wondering. What's a good architecture for doing this? Python scripts? Do it all in Node-Red? Does furnace fan back pressure show up in the furnace electrical usage? [link] [comments] | ||
| Savant vs Control4. I need help deciding. Posted: 19 Sep 2020 09:06 PM PDT I am working on a building a new home and don't know which home automation system to go with. I've heard Control4 is the largest home automation provider and integrates with the most devices. I've also heard that Savant is an up and coming home automation provider. I've looked at countless demo videos online and still don't know which direction to go. I know a lot of these things hinge on personal preference. But which of these two companies have the better product and will be the better investment for the long run? [link] [comments] | ||
| Cable Modem/Router change automation horror story: Arris DG3450 Posted: 19 Sep 2020 08:06 PM PDT Just wanted to put this on the internet so it is findable in case some person has the same issue as I had. When I had the issue, I searched and saw many with the same issue, but nobody with a fix. Here is my story and the fix. So I changed my internet package and it bumped me up to 1GIG internet. They came out and changed my old Arris modem/router device for a brand spanking new one, the Arris DG3450. I setup my wifi to the same SSID and password and everything was working great. About 6 hours later, half my smart devices, Tuya outlets and SmartHome Light bulbs, went offline. The normal setup routine would fail on these devices, so I tried everything I could, researching the internet, checking every single setting in the modem/router. But nothing worked. So I added another standalone router to my network and put the Arris DF3450 in bridge mode... and now everything is working. Those devices I tried to fix, I had to re-setup.. but everything else just worked. So I just wanted to get the word out... if your having problems after getting the Arris DG3450.. don't waste hours, days, etc troubleshooting.. as it is seems impossible to fix.. just add a router and you will be good to go. I really wish I could get back those hours troubleshooting.. so that is why I am putting this out here for people to find. TL/DR Arris DG3450 is a horrible cable modem... you will most likely need to buy a standalone router to go with it to make your home automation stuff work again. [link] [comments] | ||
| I made a thing to detect if an outlet is powered and report it to home assistant Posted: 19 Sep 2020 03:57 PM PDT
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| Looking for some input on Halloween idea Posted: 19 Sep 2020 04:36 PM PDT Halloween is getting close, so I'm starting to prepare my setup. I have a pathway of about 3m / 9 feet to my front door. My idea is to put planks or a board on there, to create a walkway, and then put sensors under that walkway. So that with every step a light gets triggered, and/or a speaker lets out a scream. Likely I'll get a plastic skeleton partly buried under the walkway, so that it screams in pain at every step. Now, how do I do that? I have two ideas, and looking for your input on which one would work best.... Option 1: I have 4 of these weight sensors laying around for a project that never started. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33054534961.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.44494c4dUu2My4 I could put those under the board, hook them up to an ESP, and use ESPHome to send results to Home Assistant or Node Red to setup some screams/lights from there. I'll use a google home mini as the speaker, hidden somewhere in the yard. I'm concerned about the load rating being only 50kg, that should be fine for a kid, but kids come with parents, or in groups, so it will easily go over 50kg. So will it constantly trigger? or will it be a benefit as I can determine how many people are on the board, which I can't do with option 2? Option 2: put some kind of switch under the board and put a spring next to it so that it doesn't touch when it is only the board, but putting pressure on the board will cause the switch to connect (could be as easy as two wires touching, or tinfoil at the bottom and a wire at the top touching/not touching the wire, doesn't need to be a fancy switch). Hook that up to an ESP which then feeds back the signal to HA / Node red for processing. As that is only 5v I'm not concerned about the jankiness of the 'switch'. What are your thoughts? any other ideas? (and for the record, I live in QLD, Australia - there are very limited Covid restrictions here as the numbers are extremely low, so currently I assume that Halloween trick-or-treat is still on) [link] [comments] | ||
| What's a better, albeit more expensive, alternative to a Wyze Cam with RTSP? Posted: 19 Sep 2020 11:01 AM PDT I'm doing better off these days than when I started with his hobby and I've always hated the low-res and lack of native RTSP of the Wyze Cams. What's a good upgrade? Ideally something robust, with good HA integration or similar, that can maybe record to hard drives on a NAS. I've seen some comparisons here with the Eufy 2k and it looks like a great, RTSP-native camera. However, I've also read reviews on Amazon that mention the camera "calls home" to servers in China for some reason and users are concerned about their privacy. Thank you for your help! [link] [comments] | ||
| Can anyone recommend a water leak sensor or door sensor that is around or under $10 each? Posted: 19 Sep 2020 03:52 PM PDT | ||
| Any recommendations for a smart key lockbox Posted: 19 Sep 2020 03:27 PM PDT I'd like to see if anyone knows if the product I'm looking for even exists—I'd like a pin code lockbox for house key storage. I would not like this to be unlocked via phone/app or remotely, but I would like something that will send notifications when it is opened. To elaborate, I'm wary of a remotely controlled lock due to the possibility of security being bypassed. I'm also not a fan of the "unlock with Bluetooth" types I have seen because I don't trust lock manufacturers to have great digital security. They might actually be secure, but I'm not going to rely on that. I simply would like to receive some type of notification that the lockbox is used. I am pretty technically inclined, so am not opposed to even building something myself (maybe using mqtt and a pi, idk), but I'm not sure about how feasible this would be with the hardware that's out there. Can anyone share ideas or suggestions along these lines? [link] [comments] | ||
| Smallest Z-Wave Contact Sensor? Posted: 19 Sep 2020 02:17 PM PDT Did a quick Reddit/Google search and didn't find anything of note recently. Anyone have any suggestions for the smallest possible Z-wave contact sensor? Looking to use for windows, etc. without being too big/bulky/ugly. Thanks! [link] [comments] | ||
| Occupied / vacant indicator for restrooms Posted: 19 Sep 2020 02:13 PM PDT Our restaurant is currently open for outdoor dining. We have a restroom inside which may only be used by one person at a time. Waiters outside can't tell if it's currently busy so the interaction with diners around it is cumbersome. Worse, we have two sections around a corner so waiters need to keep going in to ask about it. What I'd like to do is set up a led bulb in the window that turns red when the bathroom door is closed, green otherwise. We currently have google nest wifi, but to the best of my understanding it doesn't support z wave or zigbee but another iot standard (Thread) which doesn't have much buy in. Do you think this buildout would work together with IFTTT automation? Z-Wave Door Sensor (DWZWAVE2.5-ECO) Samsung Smartthings hub Two smart bulbs (e.g. Sengled) Two bulb stands [link] [comments] | ||
| UnionCam c2/c5/q5 etc AP mode setup? Posted: 19 Sep 2020 05:50 PM PDT UnionCam sold a lot of cheap wifi cameras. The C2 explicitly supported AP mode setup, the other models did, as well, through the same mechanism the C2 did, but it was not documented. I need to reset one of these, and have forgotten the incantation to force these things back into AP setup mode. I believe it's some variation on waiting, holding the reset button for a period of time, then waiting and possibly hitting it again, but I've been unsuccessful in getting it to work on a camera I need to reset, and the company that made them seems to be gone. I believe I originally followed instructions for the Q2 at https://smartcamera.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002338293-Initial-Setup-by-AP-Mode which is now not available. If anyone can point me in the right direction, I would really appreciate it! Maddeningly I was able to get one briefly into AP setup mode, but haven't been able to replicate that by doing what I think are the same pattern of presses on the single button. [link] [comments] | ||
| Posted: 19 Sep 2020 05:00 PM PDT Hi! I'm a photographer/3D artist, looking to set up some LED strip lighting for my keyboard tray! Since I work in color, it can be pretty important to change between 5000k and 6500k (lower kelvin ranges like 3000k can be nice to match home lighting, but not necessary), and be able to set to low brightness levels to not distract from the monitor, or raise the brightness level when I want to look at something I've printed. It doesn't have to be perfect, since my monitor will be brighter (hopefully much brighter) than the keyboard light while working, it would just be really helpful when working with a 6500k calibration on the monitor, to not have a 3200k/5000k light over the keyboard being distracting, and likewise for a 5000k calibration. I was also thinking a fun added bonus would be (if possible) to have an RGBW strip so I can set it to fun colors when not doing color accurate work. If it's a lot cheaper, I can just use a separate RGB strip for the color, but I thought Reddit might be able to help to sort through all the options I'm seeing. thanks in advance! [link] [comments] | ||
| Posted: 19 Sep 2020 06:40 AM PDT
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| Help w/ wiring & trigger for Projector Lift Posted: 19 Sep 2020 10:09 AM PDT I posted here about a week ago for a different projector lift and got a ton of help, but unfortunately that model was too big and wouldn't fit. Lucky for me, I found an open box for a better slimmer model for cheaper :) Now I just gotta figure how to wire the damn thing :) The unit doesn't come with a plug, as it's designed to be hardwired. It also has a wall switch that I was hoping to convert to some type of trigger. This is the installation manual and Figure 5 on Page 6 shows the wiring setup, but I'm struggling to comprehend it. The way I read it is:
As far as trigger options, I'm open to it being tied to the projector or a separate setup where I would use some type of universal remote to create a sequence for the lift, screen and projector (the screen has a 12v trigger input as well). Ultimately what I want is to hit a single button on a remote which controls all 3. So my questions are:
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| New(er) robovac brushes + longer dog hair -- thoughts? Solutions? Posted: 19 Sep 2020 08:13 AM PDT
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| Pair Xiaomi Aqara Sonoff Zigbee devices using Smartthings in Apple HomeKit Posted: 19 Sep 2020 10:11 AM PDT
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| DIY energy monitoring - understanding split phase, electrical question Posted: 19 Sep 2020 09:31 AM PDT I'm looking at these DIY electrical power monitoring kits that use current transformers (current clamps) to measure your power usage. I have a split phase home (typical for homes in the US, and typical for these types of systems). I'm having a hard time understanding why the AC transformer (the 120VAC to 9VDC black adapter) needs to be placed on the same phase as the CT's that are used to measure that phase? Doesn't the AC transformer just give you a nice even 9V direct current, how does the phase of the AC effect the 9VDC power? Why does it matter that the AC transformer be plugged into the the same phase that the CT's are measuring? What's the impact on the readings if the power adapter is on a different phase? I do have a power outlet near the circuit breaker box. It's not obvious which phase this outlet is on. How would I find out? I have a cheap multimeter as well as a two channel oscilloscope, but I only have two hands. Is there an easy way to figure out which side of the circuit breaker an outlet is connected to, without having both channels hooked up to the scope? Here's the text description from the site: https://github.com/CircuitSetup/Split-Single-Phase-Energy-Meter#plug-in-the-ac-transformer
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| Are Air Quality sensors appropriate for dust? Posted: 19 Sep 2020 01:03 PM PDT I'm cleaning up my unfinished basement to make a small office for myself. While I am covering up the exposed fiberglass insulation I'm still concerned about air quality down there. I am going to buy a decent HEPA filter air purifier but I'd rather not run it all the time. Would an air quality sensor be appropriate to judge the air quality in my basement office? If not, anything else I can use aside from my sinuses? [link] [comments] | ||
| Can anyone tell me if these LED's will work with this controller? Posted: 19 Sep 2020 09:13 AM PDT So i am buying this wifi controller off of AliExpress (https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000086534308.html?spm=a2g0o.cart.0.0.40823c00R6wH1w&mp=1) and it clearly says RGB+CCT Controller. So i also want to buy some LED's that go with it, these ones (https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000058680931.html?spm=a2g0o.cart.0.0.40823c00R6wH1w&mp=1) however after looking at the product photos on both the pages im not too sure if theyre going to work together or not? I'm slightly worried that the RGB lines on the controller and the led strip are different and they won't work together? Is anyone able to help? [link] [comments] | ||
| Recommendation for a humidity sensor - bonus if does temperature too Posted: 19 Sep 2020 09:03 AM PDT I was wondering if anyone could recommend a humidity sensor. I would like to find one that does both humidity and temperature but would be happy with separate items. I have an old stone cellar. If the humidity reaches a certain level I would like to trigger a fan to circulate air and perhaps some bring drier air in from outside. I realize this by definition is what an air exchange system does but for a number of reasons I don't think one of the "packages" ones will work. [link] [comments] | ||
| Problems with the August Smart Lock Pro + Connect... Posted: 19 Sep 2020 12:38 PM PDT Hello all! I have been trying to get the working today but it will not calibrate? I followed the instructions perfectly but when it gets to calibrate lock procedure it keeps failing every time). I must of tried it about 10+ times but it quickly fails on all of them. When turning the lock it (like it says in the instructions) it has quite a smooth/sliding movement until the ends of the turns where it feels like there is quite some resistance (as if it's turning a motor) to a point where I stop turning it before it hits a point where it feels mechanically not possible to turn it further at all. The point when says it's failed calibration is after I have pressed the button that I have locked it, It then just pops up with an error stating it's failed and would I try to calibrate it again, there is no sign/sound of movement from the lock. I have replaced battery's, re calibrated again and again, moved the phone around, moved the lock stating position round and even the door sends around (lock is not fitted yet (thankfully) as I wanted to make sure it's working first before fitting it full time. I have moved the little DoorSence around but still doesn't work. Many ideas? [link] [comments] | ||
| Posted: 19 Sep 2020 12:25 PM PDT anyone has dabbled with creating a fully keyless door? could be wifi, rfid(not sure if strong enough) or bluetooth. any projects investigating this? [link] [comments] |
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