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    Home Unlabelled Home Automation In case you wanted to know what a smart home is like during a brownout...

    Home Automation In case you wanted to know what a smart home is like during a brownout...

    November 23, 2020

    Home Automation In case you wanted to know what a smart home is like during a brownout...

    In case you wanted to know what a smart home is like during a brownout...

    Posted: 22 Nov 2020 06:51 PM PST

    Our lights were intermittently flickering at our house today, so I called the utility company who sent somebody out at record speed to investigate. After finding no issues with our house or meter, he started looking upstream at the various taps in our neighborhood.

    The utility worker found a tap that needed to be replaced because a rubber sheath had melted (likely because of a poor connection) and he let us know that we should not lose power during the replacement process because they were wired in parallel (whatever that means in the context of power distribution).

    Unfortunately, in the process of replacing equipment, we ended up with a rare brownout. For those unfamiliar, this is where you get only a portion of the voltage to your house. All sorts of weird shit happens with electronics, and lightbulbs will operate at a reduced brightness.

    I'm speculating we only had 1 hot leg of 2 and some electricity was going to neutral, but I'm not super well versed on household circuits.

    But to get to the point... I have about 10 smart dimmers and smart outlets and I can confidently report they do not tolerate brownouts well. At least half of them started spazzing out, clicking on and off rapidly. Some of them have an air gap you can pull, and some of them do not. I was really confused, because some of the LEDs in my house were working just fine but other stuff was not. So, I ran out to my breaker panel and shut off the main service disconnect to the house.

    Fortunately, every piece of decent electronics and every computer in my house had already been shut off and unplugged earlier when I noticed the lights flickering. That said, I was keeping my fingers crossed that none of my smart switches were fried from all of the power flickering and subsequent brownout.

    When the lineman was done, he came and turned our service back on at the panel and everything resumed working like normal. I thoroughly tested out every device in the house and was relieved that nothing was bricked.

    Moral of the story: always know where your main service disconnect is, and only buy smart switches that have air gap breakers. And, I suppose, don't hesitate to call the utility company when things are fishy with your service.

    submitted by /u/FlyingPhotog
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    DIY Home Security Alarm System with Home Assistant

    Posted: 22 Nov 2020 06:27 AM PST

    What kind of solution/adaptor do I need to automate this radiator ?

    Posted: 22 Nov 2020 03:01 AM PST

    Two factor authentication for the drive way?

    Posted: 23 Nov 2020 12:00 AM PST

    Hello,

    We have a drive way which is about 20m. At the end there is a gate which lets you enter our garage/parking spots. Now I am thinking about installing the gate clntroller in a way that a motion detector will open the gate. But I only want it to open when its part of a selected group (me, brother, etc.) Without having to manually click a button (because then I could just use a radio opener). Do you know any options? Something like a tag which I would put in my car or that a phone connects to something. If the phone or car is connected and the motion detector detects movement it will open.

    submitted by /u/Finanzenstudent
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    What are your favorite Z-wave outlets, switches, and dimmers?

    Posted: 22 Nov 2020 07:09 PM PST

    Thermostat to trigger underfloor heating waterflow pump

    Posted: 22 Nov 2020 12:33 PM PST

    I have underfloor heating, and the pump that secures the water flow on the underfloor heating is running 24x7.

    I have a Nest Thermostat V3 and was wondering if there is any way to get the pump to turn on, only when the Nest gives a trigger to start heating. This would have to be somehow wireless because the pump and the Nest thermostat are on different rooms, so I was thinking that maybe I could use a Shelly relay.

    Anyone has any idea how to pull this off?

    submitted by /u/ToniDasFarturas
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    Ring floodlight camera vs separate motion sensor lights and an outdoor camera

    Posted: 22 Nov 2020 12:12 PM PST

    I am looking to add a floodlight security camera to my front porch. I found a ring floodlight camera, but it seems like a pain to install (since I don't have wiring going to the location).

    So, I was wondering if it would work to the same effect if I get a solar powered motion sensor floodlight (LEPOWER 1600LM LED Solar Security Lights Motion Outdoor, Super Bright Solar Motion Sensor Light, 5500K White Light, IP65 Waterproof Flood Light with 3 Adjustable Head for Yard, Garage https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XB6R89T/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fabt1_WtSUFbE3K5TDS) and a separate outdoor camera which is solar/battery operated. Will I compromise on any features of ring floodlight camera if I go with such a setup?

    Other alternative is to get a ring spotlight camera (battery/solar). But, it seems to have low lumens.

    Thanks in advance.

    submitted by /u/niharsarangi
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    Door sensors as water leak sensors

    Posted: 22 Nov 2020 10:44 PM PST

    Need Advice on LED project and more

    Posted: 22 Nov 2020 10:28 PM PST

    Hey guys, first of all, I don't know much about home automation and LED, although I do have some very basic knowledge in electronic. I'm not even sure I'm in the right place but I saw a few posts here about LEDs so I guess you guys can help me a little bit. Sorry for the wall of text, I'm not sure what info I should provide.

    I'm currently trying to build my own living room furniture. It's composed of 3 pieces: a multimedia cabinet with 6 shelves for my gaming consoles (ps4 & ps5, XB1 and XBX and a switch), a TV stand with 3 shelves, where the bottom shelf will be a giant cable box with a built-in rackmount and the middle shelf will host my A/V receiver and finally a table with those nice looking epoxy "river" in the center.

    I want to wire some LED in there. I plan on having 5 different setup:

    1. Each shelf of the multimedia cabinet will be lit up according to the console it host (red for nintendo, blue for playstation and green for xbox). Each shelf is 24"x24" so a little less than 60 inch of LED per shelf, times 5 (the top shelf won't have any) for a total of approx 300" inch of LED.
    2. The central post of the multimedia cabinet (aka the cable hider) will contains 2 strips of 60" LED, for a total of 120". These LED will light up according to which HDMI source is selected
    3. Another strip of LED behind the TV, hooked to the HDMI source so they light up according to the TV image. I plan on buying a 65" TV sometime in the future so approximately 250" of LED
    4. Another strip of LED on the 2nd shelf of the TV stand where the A/V receiver will be. The TV stand is 24" x 60" so I'll need 150" of LED
    5. Finally, some LED in the epoxy "river" of the table. I'm still unsure of the dimension of the table, but I guess 100" of LED would be enough

    So for the multimedia cabinet, we're looking at 420" of LED, for the TV stand it should be around 400" and 100" for the table, for a total of 920" of LED. Is that too much?

    Not that being said, I want to be able to control those LED remotely and change the color at will. Even more, I want to be able to program light show and stuff like that, even on the LED behind the TV and in the table. I have a strong programming background so this shouldn't be too much of an issue.

    I made a lot of research in the past few days and I'm not not quite sure if I got everything right. I will probably have a different power supply per piece of furniture (so 3 total).

    For the multimedia cabinet, I will put a 5V-300W power supply and hook each shelf and the central post independently as to never exceed the limit of 200" LED strip. I guess I will need something similar for the TV stand. For the table, a smaller power supply should be enough.

    To control all those LEDs, I plan on hooking them to an ESP32 with a Raspberry Pi 4 as the central computer, so that I can easily switch mode with my phone (I'll probably build some website or an app to do it). I guess I would need 3 ESP32, one for each furniture.

    The Pi4 will also be used to switch HDMI source (will should allow me to light the central post according to which HDMI source is selected) as well as probably a bunch of undefined stuff

    Here's the list of material I plan to buy:

    LED Setup:

    Cable box & rackmount:

    I'm not sure the Philips Hue sync box is compatible with the LED I choose. I wouldn't mind having a different set of LED for that and not hook them on the Pi4 like the other one.

    Does that make sense? Is it possible? Am I missing something?

    Thanks for your help !

    submitted by /u/JohnyFive128
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    Inexpensive portable Temperature Sensors w or w/o own Displays? Looking at Govee BT (10-15 USD ea) vs BT WiFi - Anything better? Open to ideas/ suggestions.

    Posted: 22 Nov 2020 10:22 PM PST

    Inexpensive portable Temperature Sensors w or w/o own Displays? Looking at Govee BT (10-15 USD ea) vs BT WiFi - Anything better? Open to ideas/ suggestions.

    submitted by /u/alexaxl
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    EnLighting: An Indoor Visible Light Communication System based on Networked Light Bulbs | Disney Research

    Posted: 22 Nov 2020 10:38 AM PST

    Premium vs Mid range vaccum

    Posted: 22 Nov 2020 04:24 PM PST

    Hey guys, I was looking for a vaccum cleaner that can memorize multiple floors, do edge cleaning well and is a good value for money. A lot of the premium vaccums, that I know of, don't seem to be worth the extra 300 or so dollars. Which premium robot vaccum cleaners are worth the price?

    submitted by /u/Firefoxsonlyfriend
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    Noob Question: Home Automation bs. Google Home

    Posted: 22 Nov 2020 08:09 PM PST

    So I just bought my first home and I'm looking into setting up some basic security stuff. In the past, in rentals, I've had some very entry level set ups, most recently A Wink/Link hub and I really liked the ability to run If/Then type statements. Now that I'm in a house that I own, I'd like to start to invest a bit more into a legit system. Now, the house had a Nest tstat when I bought it and my girlfriend bought me a Nest Hub Max for my birthday. I was thinking I was off to a nice start...but now I'm realizing that Google doesn't much get into the if/then stuff. That all said, I'm looking for a system (I guess a hub/app/program) that can say run "if the motion sensor detects motion in the yard, turn on flood lights", etc. bonus points if said system interfaces with The Googleverse. I've been reluctant to start purchasing stuff as I realize that everything needs to work together and with so many systems, I'm starting to get overwhelmed. One last thing, I do have some Raspberry Pi experience so I wouldn't be opposed to using that but I'm not sure if that would integrate with the Google/Nest stuff.

    Any help or direction would be greatly appreciated!

    submitted by /u/Engine-Builder
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    A LARGE number of sensors

    Posted: 22 Nov 2020 08:07 PM PST

    I was reading this book by Vernor Vinge, "A Deepness in the Sky" and I wonder what it would take to have a "smart dust" network. I had a Wally system with 6 sensors, and it was great, but what if I wanted 100 sensors? Is there any kind of solution for a lot of cheap sensors?

    submitted by /u/bark-carrot
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    New Home Build - Diving back into automation

    Posted: 22 Nov 2020 08:04 PM PST

    Hello all,

    The wife and I are building our first house and I want to dive deeper into home automation like I used to be a few years back in our current house. I used to have HomeSeer running on a server in my house tied to a GE Concord 4 Security system roughly 8 years ago. Currently, we have a bunch of smart wifi devices (smart bulbs, and receptacles) which are cloud based and also a bunch of Google Home speakers. Picked the majority of them up from a local wholesale/discount store.

    My primary automation objectives are as follows:

    1. Smart Dimmer/Switch rockers in most rooms. Zwave or Caseta. Concerned about reliability and quality. Lot's of mixed opinions regarding z-wave switches (GE, Honeywell, Homeseer, Zooz). Lutron's Caseta looks to be top notch.
    2. Smart Speakers. I see HomeSeer allows for direct voice control from Google Home. We'll reuse the ones we currently have.
    3. Security System integration. Looking at the Qolsys IQ 2+. Found that the IQ and the HS server can be Primary/Secondary Zwave Controllers. May need to confirm/test this before diving in.
    4. I'm sure there will be receptacles that need integrated as well. Possibly Zwave.
    5. We are going to have a 1000ft long driveway. Plan on putting in a driveway sensor in the ground and tie that into HomeSeer to trigger lights to turn on. Google TTS/Push Notification HS4.
    6. Motion Devices for different light triggers.
    7. Flood light integration for outside. If security system is tripped (in alarm) turn on all outside lights.
    8. Some sort of HVAC integration. House will have a ClimateMaster or Bosch geothermal. Need to figure out the integration point. Modbus will be available.
    9. Future Sprinkler support via HomeSeer. Probably will do this via Modbus as well using a cheap PLC.
    10. Door locks on exterior doors will be Schlage FE599NX Z-Wave. Deadbolts where applicable to be Schlage Z-Wave.

    I need some help narrowing down a few items:

    1. Im 90% sure that I want HomeSeer to be the main automation engine. Highly considering purchasing the HomeTroller PRO for a standalone device. Any concerns with the HomeTroller handling the item's above.
    2. I am really nervous to purchase 20-30 zwave or caseta switches. Having no experience with them; I am worried about reliability. It seems there is a lot of failures of the zwave type shortly after the warranty expiration. I know the caseta switches require a pro hub. Thoughts regarding reliability and us leaning towards caseta??
    3. For flood lights. I like motion's, but also the ability to force them on/off. Is the best bet to use z-wave for this? I also like the flood lights that are always on but dim when no motion.
    submitted by /u/dpslusser
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    Looking to add (Nest) thermostat to Trane Unitrane system

    Posted: 22 Nov 2020 07:16 PM PST

    I have these heating/AC units in our apartment but I'm not sure what model that are exactly other than the fact that they are Trane Unitrane with a motor switch: https://postimg.cc/gallery/GRGxz97

    Can I install thermostats to these units - or better yet a smart thermostat like Nest?

    submitted by /u/oyeeeeee
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    NucleusLife Replacement - Home Video Intercom

    Posted: 22 Nov 2020 08:37 AM PST

    Hey All, So Nucleuslife announced that existing customers who use their devices exclusively as a home intercom system in the future will stop working. So I'd like to replace it with something else, anyone knows of any self-hosted or Android/IOS type video intercom system? I need it to be wall-mounted, so an Echo Show just won't work for me. I was thinking of replacing all the Nucleus Intercoms with an Android Tablet if there was some Video Intercom App available. Does anyone have thoughts suggestions?

    Thanks,

    submitted by /u/Ramses26
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    Touchless faucets...worth it or not?

    Posted: 22 Nov 2020 08:46 AM PST

    anyone have any personal experience living with a touchless faucet, especially in the kitchen sink. Like the Moen motionsense stuff, etc.

    does it work when you need it? any unintended activations (getting too close, etc).

    submitted by /u/wwabc
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    Motion sensors (indoor)

    Posted: 22 Nov 2020 01:51 PM PST

    Hey there! I'm looking for motion sensors folks have used and recommended. My goal is to link them to actions (if motion sensor is triggered, the bathroom light turns on, for example).

    Any recs? Bonus if they have long lasting batteries and aren't that expensive.

    submitted by /u/thetorioreo
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    3 single pole smart switch gang plate

    Posted: 22 Nov 2020 04:47 PM PST

    I have a 3 switch wall plate that I am trying to turn into all 3 into smart switches. I can't envision a giant 3 switch plate that will fit all these fat paddle switches. Will it work without requiring any inside wall work? Do they make smart switches that are standard toggles?

    I'm planning on purchasing tp link kasa switches.

    submitted by /u/rugg3d
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    Options for "wire free" lighting new install using my own light switch?

    Posted: 22 Nov 2020 04:43 PM PST

    Options for "wire free" lighting new install using my own light switch?

    I'm trying to find out what my options in controlling lights remotely with relays to keep from having to run an extra set of wires around a room. I've found a couple of solutions out there that come with a dedicated switch that controls the relays the relays, but nothing that will allow me to us my own light switches. Any ideas?

    Here's an example of a setup that includes the controller built into the light switch.

    ​

    And a drawing of what I'd like to do

    Sorry if this has been already answered.

    https://preview.redd.it/ljzs460zxv061.jpg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2cbec7cd7ebfa6aeaaac9a41e75559e3ad5615fc

    submitted by /u/japanuslove
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    Need help converting smart light from Alexa to Siri

    Posted: 22 Nov 2020 04:40 PM PST

    My contractor installed these led recess lights that only work with Alexa and google when I specifically told contractor I want smart lights that work with SIRI.

    I've seen IFTT method but are there any other method? Would installing Lutron P-BDG-PKG2W-A Wireless Deluxe Dimmer Bridge Caseta Smart Start Kit do the trick? I see it works with Siri and it can control the led recess lights?

    submitted by /u/EricAndersonL
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    Looking for a Fridge / Stove / Dishwasher / Microwave / Washer / Dryer that I can control and monitor with Home Assistant

    Posted: 22 Nov 2020 03:56 PM PST

    Use cases:

    • Fridge: Being able to read temperature and when the door is open.

    • Stove: Being able to remotely pre-heat and set timers, as well as reading the temperature and timer.

    • Microwave: Being able to read timer.

    • Dishwasher: Being able to read timer.

    • Washer: Being able to read timer.

    • Dryer: Being able to read timer.

    Moving into my first home, so I have a chance to make this a smart home!

    submitted by /u/Afropenguinn
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    How can I make my light switch with the dimmer "smart"?

    Posted: 22 Nov 2020 09:02 AM PST

    Hi home automation!

    I just moved into a new apartment and have philips hue bulbs and lights. Unfortunately, I've noticed that my apartment has this a light switch with a dimmer (similar to this).

    When I tried to plugin my philips hue bulbs, the lights would flicker and it didn't work.

    Does anyone have a suggestion on how I can make the light switch smart or the bulbs to work?

    submitted by /u/henryisnotmyname
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