Home Automation Torn between Caseta and Zwave |
- Torn between Caseta and Zwave
- Turn bathroom fan off 30 minutes after it is turned on. Kasa tp-link / Alexa.
- simulate a press on a capacitive switch?
- Smart plug that integrates with Alexa's energy dashboard?
- Good but affordable window / door sensors for SmartThings?
- Help? Wemo plugs turning off and on randomly
- Roborock S6 maxV or Deebot Omzo 950?
- Using smart plug for TV without sleep timer, is or safe to do it daily?
- Favorite smart home purchase ever?
- Best option for wired smoke detector?
- Interior French door locks
- Google Home and Plex Control
- Looking for a zwave smart bulb
- Worth using smart plug to optimise battery of rarely used devices?
- Zigbee USB device that lets my computer receiver commands?
- Is there a neural here?
- Automation to stop cats from fighting outside at night?
- I'm looking for a replacement for Plex Cloud. Can I use Kodi?
- Are there any good home automation for loading items on the top of the shelf
- Just got into smart devices last month, now my wifi is unstable
| Posted: 16 May 2021 02:16 PM PDT Hey folks - If you've recently made a similar decision I'd like to hear what you chose and why (between the two). Bought a new (to me) house; I'm transitioning from a rental, so starting from scratch (wifi/plugs). I've done plenty of homework, but am still torn between a Caseta or Z-Wave fan/switch/dimmer implementation. Two story home, built in late 90's so I have all neutrals throughout; a few 2/3/4-way switches. My plan is Hubitat short term, while I get up to speed with HA. The main reason I like the Caseta is the PICO remotes. Huge WAF here. She hates voice control, so the ability to have a remote at the couch, on the bedside table, will win her over. The main reason I hate Caseta (she's voice a similar concern) is the difficulty in hitting the wall buttons. I find myself often coming into a room and flipping the toggle with the back of my hand, or similar. Nice to be able to just fumble your way into the room and slide your hand upward to catch the switch (or paddle). Upshot is also undisputed reliability - not futzing around with zwave network/diag/etc... downside having to buy pro hub. Main reason I like Z-wave is the advanced control and indicator options (Inovelli, Homeseer). More switch options. Downside is I haven't seen a z-wave remote similar to the Caseta's form factor/quality/ability to control nodes directly. Thoughts? [link] [comments] | ||
| Turn bathroom fan off 30 minutes after it is turned on. Kasa tp-link / Alexa. Posted: 16 May 2021 10:31 AM PDT I have several bathroom fans controller by Kasa / tp-link wall switches. I want to set things up so that any time the fan is turned on, it will turn off after 30 minutes. I can't see any way to do that in Kasa app, Alexa app. Is there some way that I am missing? IFTTT? [link] [comments] | ||
| simulate a press on a capacitive switch? Posted: 16 May 2021 02:58 PM PDT Hi, (I also asked this question on r/AskElectronics) I'm working on automating the opening/closing of my apartment blinds. Some of the blinds I have use a system called Somfy IO, which unfortunately hasn't been reverse-engineered (unlike the brand's other system, Somfy RTS). So I bought myself a few second-hand remotes and I'll simulate button presses. At first I thought I'd have to actually solder stuff onto the board, like this project does. However the second-hand remotes I bought have capacitive switches instead of good old "pressure buttons", so perhaps that's even better for me. I'm thinking I might be able to simulate a button press without actually soldering anything onto the board, considering how sensitive these capacitive buttons seem to be? I might be able to just attach some "stuff" with sticky tape above the capacitive switch area and be done with it? Except... I'm not too sure how to go about doing that. Would you be so kind to give me some hints, please? Here's a photo of the board: https://imgur.com/a/bSwWwhv. The capacitive switches I'm after are the the three areas in lighter green colour. Thank you! [link] [comments] | ||
| Smart plug that integrates with Alexa's energy dashboard? Posted: 16 May 2021 11:51 PM PDT Has anyone found any smart plugs that can report energy usage to Alexa? Right now, I'm using some plugs that report energy usage in the Smart Life app without Alexa integration for the energy usage. [link] [comments] | ||
| Good but affordable window / door sensors for SmartThings? Posted: 16 May 2021 09:45 AM PDT Hi, I am after good but affordable door sensors that would work with my SmartThings v3 Hub. While my ST mesh is 100% Z-Wave, and therefore I would prefer Z-Wave, I am fine settings up ZigBee sensors if the best recommendations point to that direction. Currently, all the newer models I am seeing are $30,$40,$49 per piece. That's very steep considering I would need at least 8 to 10 units. Any suggestions are welcomed. Many thanks [link] [comments] | ||
| Help? Wemo plugs turning off and on randomly Posted: 16 May 2021 09:25 PM PDT As the title says, tonight our wemo plugs have been throwing a very lazy disco party. Can anyone shed some light on how to stop this or why it's happening? They are connected via Homebridge to Apple HomeKit. HB and it's wemo plugin are up-to-date, the wemo's are on current firmware. There are only two rules 1) turn all lights off when the last person leaves 2) turn one light on when the first person gets home after dark. Simple right? Also we don't have asshole kids (or any spawn, really), and no one else is on our network. I did factory reset all these and re-added them, but keeps happening. Honestly, I haven't touched any of the home automation stuff in weeks/months and this started tonight like an hour-hour and a half ago. The time the lights are on and how long they stay off are random as well. Not all lights come on together, they are independent in this randomness. Thanks ahead of time. [link] [comments] | ||
| Roborock S6 maxV or Deebot Omzo 950? Posted: 16 May 2021 01:12 PM PDT Hi guys, I came to terms that the times of manual vacuuming are over. After reading up on the subject a bit, I think either the Roborock S6 maxV or Deebot Omzo 950 would be best for my use. Now I'm leaning more towards the Roborock, but the Omzo is over 130€ cheaper in my country (500 for the roborock, 360 for the deebot). Is the price difference worth it for the Roborock? Thank you! [link] [comments] | ||
| Using smart plug for TV without sleep timer, is or safe to do it daily? Posted: 16 May 2021 09:23 PM PDT I have a TV with no sleep timer feature, and as far as I know there isn't a streaming device that does it either so CEC is out of the question. I was thinking of using a TPLink smart plug with its timer feature to accomplish it. Question is would cutting power when the screen is on damage the TV, if it's used like this daily or multiple times daily? [link] [comments] | ||
| Favorite smart home purchase ever? Posted: 16 May 2021 04:17 PM PDT Saw a post earlier about favorite automation, so that's making me curious 🤣.. What's your favorite (1) smart home purchase you ever made? [link] [comments] | ||
| Best option for wired smoke detector? Posted: 16 May 2021 05:25 AM PDT My house has wired smoke detectors. Is it possible to buy a single wired smoke detector for my kitchen that will connect to WiFi, Alexa or a hub and send me an alert on my phone if it receives the wired alert signal from one of the detectors on the other floors? It seems like most of the products in this niche, like Nest, want you to replace all your detectors with new ones that use a proprietary wireless connection instead of just using the OG wired network. I remember before when I researched this people have built their own "broadcast boxes" with Raspberry Pi but that's more hassle than I want to get into. I'm looking for something prebuilt and ready to go. Unless it's suuper easy to set up.... Any recommendations are appreciated. I started searching on Amazon but didn't immediately find one. UPDATE: So a bit more info on backstory. I have about 7 or 8 smoke detectors in my house. When I moved in 7 years ago, I didn't want to put Nest Protects in the entire house cuz of the cost. So I put in 3 Nests and the rest were wired. Cuz Nests don't support interconnection with non-Nests it was basically 2 different networks. But things were placed so if there was a fire, eventually both networks would be triggered and I'd get a text from Nest. Since then, the Nests have started failing early and also generally approaching their end-of-life date. So I can opt to maintain this split network to save cost or try something else. I've decided to pull out all the Nests. They're just too expensive over the long term. I've opted to replace my last 2 Nests (one of which is broken) with $45 wired photoelectric smoke/CO detectors off Amazon. For now, I think I'm going to just forego the option to get text alerts. All the solutions seem too expensive or too involved to set up. I know I'm on a home automation forum so the "too involved to set up" sounds ridiculous to many here. But I really want something plug and play. The Z-Wave-enabled detectors require a separate bridge to reach the Internet so I don't want to go that route. One post below mentions a Roost battery which comes close to being all-in-one, but Amazon doesn't carry them anymore and, more importantly, I don't think I even have any 9-volt detectors since most modern ones take AA's. Smoke alarm sound sensors seem like the best bet. But again, I don't think these are all-in-one and would also require the purchase of a separate hub. This will probably be the solution I go with if I later decide to buy a hub for something else, but until then, I'm just going to gamble and lose the ability to get texts when my alarms go off. Let's hope I don't look back on this decision with massive amounts of regret... :-) [link] [comments] | ||
| Posted: 16 May 2021 03:44 PM PDT I'm looking for French door locks that I can remotely lock and unlock. My current doors do not have locks or latches. I remember seeing something recently but I cannot find it now. Thanks for the help! [link] [comments] | ||
| Posted: 16 May 2021 02:30 PM PDT Is there a way to control Plex via voice control as fluidly as other services via Google home/nest? I'd love to be able to eliminate a few subscription services, but voice control is a major component of the WAF (believe it or not). I have been doing a fair bit of Google research, but I have no programming ability, so anything that technical might be too high a barrier of entry (although I'd be willing to give it a try). I would love to be able to just say "okay google, play..." And for it to pull up the song, artist, playlist, tv show, or movie appropriately. Any guidance, suggestion, and of course questions are welcome. Thank you! [link] [comments] | ||
| Looking for a zwave smart bulb Posted: 16 May 2021 08:15 AM PDT So I have quite a few gocontrol zwave smart bulbs and wanted to buy another but I can't seem to find them any longer. In fact, I can't find any zwave bulbs on Amazon or ebay. Does anyone know of any? Also was wondering if someone made a screw in zwave adapter. That would actually be better as once the bulb dies I'd still have the functionality. [link] [comments] | ||
| Worth using smart plug to optimise battery of rarely used devices? Posted: 16 May 2021 12:26 AM PDT I've accumulated a number of (predominately micro-usb powered) devices that are useful but only used a few times a year (e.g. a UE mega boom taken on trips, waterproof headphones, camera batteries, rechargeable AA / AAA batteries etc) I've basically got a mini charging centre where these devices are plugged in to the same power board so that they are fully charged when they are needed next. Only thing is that they are continuously plugged into power / charging. Would this be bad for the batteries in these devices? or is there a risk of long term damage if they are conencted to power for months at at time? I'm wondering if it would be worthwhile putting a smart plug into this charging centre that turns off the powerboard from time to time (eg only on for 12 hours a day)? would this be help preserve battery life (or help avoid long term damage)? if so what would be a good time on and off - 12 hours on / 12 hours off? 80% on / 20% off? [link] [comments] | ||
| Zigbee USB device that lets my computer receiver commands? Posted: 16 May 2021 10:14 AM PDT My alarm system can also control Zigbee lights but doesn't allow for complex trigger/actions. For this I use another controller/hub. However, I would like to be able to receive events from the alarm system in my main controller. One way could be to somehow let my controller appear as a zigbee node (=light) in my alarm system - and then act on the events in my controller. Does anyone know of a USB device that you can plug into a computer and then process events - possibly configure the device to appear as a light? I have found various Arduino projects etc where you basically create your own device - but that seems a bit overkill for my usecase. [link] [comments] | ||
| Posted: 16 May 2021 12:51 AM PDT Does my light switch have a neutral? I'm asking, as I want to add a smart switch here. I think there is a neural here, as there seems to be an extra wire than other switches In the home: https://u.cubeupload.com/Hzjakdkxnnn/IMG20210515184631.jpg I should add that this light switch has another switch on the other side of the room that controls one of the lights (which I think it also has a neutral there): https://u.cubeupload.com/Hzjakdkxnnn/IMG20210515184643.jpg The reason I ask, is because I tried adding a switch that doesn't require a neutral, and wired the capacitor in to one of the sockets, and the lights just flickered - which wasn't an issue in the other rooms I did which didn't have a neutral and in which I'd wired a capacitor. Thank you! [link] [comments] | ||
| Automation to stop cats from fighting outside at night? Posted: 16 May 2021 06:45 AM PDT A stray cat has been living on our porch for a few months and we've grown attached to her - she's extremely chill, but other neighborhood cats come up and try to fight with her at night (she is spayed). It's extremely loud and wakes us up and upsets the dog inside, it's a whole thing. Trying to think of something that: • Doesn't remove the existing cat (so, no constant sprays or sounds or anything that removes all animals) • Can ideally happen either as soon as another cat comes up or as soon as the LOUD noises happen • Only happens at night Half-baked ideas: • Eufy 2k indoor cam with pet detention, with some kind of waterproofed cover (the porch is covered, doesn't really get wet), that can identify when animals are on the porch • Maybe putting some kind of chip collar on the cat we do like and using a motion cam to do something to any other animal that comes up on the porch • Maybe some kind of controlled water spray I can do from my phone, I remember a pet cam that could also control a laser? Can I aim and spritz a hose at the offending animals? Please help, this might be the sleep deprivation talking. [link] [comments] | ||
| I'm looking for a replacement for Plex Cloud. Can I use Kodi? Posted: 16 May 2021 10:02 AM PDT I have a Plex server on my desktop computer and I often watch media on my TV using either my Roku or Chromecast through the Plex apps. I wish I didn't have to keep my computer with Plex running all the time when I want to watch stuff for several reasons: 1) my computer is a little loud, 2) my internet gets overwhelmed when things are uploading and downloading at the same time (despite me upgrading), and 3) I'd like to be able to watch media away from my house (even if I forgot to leave my computer running). With Kodi, will I be able to pay for a third-party service to host my media and access it anywhere? If not, what other plug-and-play options are there for this? I don't mind paying a monthly fee, but I also don't want to do a custom solution. I know some people rent servers or set up their own NAS for Plex, but I want something that will just work, and when I forget how it's set up in six months I can email customer support or read their easy to use support article to remind myself. [link] [comments] | ||
| Are there any good home automation for loading items on the top of the shelf Posted: 16 May 2021 02:22 AM PDT
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| Just got into smart devices last month, now my wifi is unstable Posted: 16 May 2021 12:47 AM PDT Like the title says, I've only had smart wifi devices on my network for less than a month, and they may be causing me issues. I already posted in /r/HomeNetworking but the few responses did not end up with a resolution, so I thought I'd try here since it happened not long after going down the home automation rabbit hole. I have a TP-Link Archer A20, and around 60 smart devices connected, mostly plugs (most of which are on 24/7 and just there for power monitoring), a handful of lights, a few air purifiers, a garage door opener and a door lock. Everything but the lock is controlled from the Smart Life App. A few days ago, the lock (Eufy) went offline and everything I tried failed to get it to connect again. Then I could no longer add devices to smart life, because my phone no longer could connect to the 2.4 band, it would say connecting for a few seconds then give up and switch to a 5ghz band. Every phone and tablet in the house had the same issue. After trying everything else, I finally bit the bullet today and bought a cheap router locally, a TP-Link Archer C80. Set it up, and was able to add the door lock to the Eufy app since I had tried fixing it with a factory reset earlier. I was also able to add more devices in the smart life app as well, everything was fine. Then when I went to plug in two recently added devices into their respective locations, they showed offline. Removed one and re added it, but had to do it through AP mode because easy mode failed. After that, I realized it had had reconnected to 5G so I switched back, and watched in horror as it failed and went right back to 5G. A reboot of the router was able to fix it, but only for a few minutes, the exact same behavior I had with the A20. Looking at the Smart Life app, I can see one device I added earlier today is offline again, though everything else is online. While I don't know how robust the C80 is, the A20 should have easily handled this many devices. I'm at a loss here. Am I just having bad luck with routers, and should I try another brand? The A20 is still in warranty so I do plan on RMA'ing it, but I would like to get a reliable inexpensive backup router in case my wifi goes to crap again. Oh, the A20's firmware was up to date, but the C80 as expected was grossly outdated. I updated it to the latest firmware, but after reboot it told me there was another new firmware update, and it indeed was newer than the one it had said was the latest and had just installed, which I find highly suspect. The interface is also a slow POS, it feels like I'm on a 56k connection logging into the config page and navigating it, something I never experienced with the A20, before or after these issues started. [link] [comments] |
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