DIY Home Automation with Apple Homekit

[rage2]

Originally posted by killramos
As a note do you know if there is option to do fireplace controls with this system? Probably just a low voltage switch with dimming disabled ( on-off fireplace ).

No homekit fireplace controls yet from either Lutron or Insteon. The Insteon setup has a low voltage IO Module but is non homekit only. Of course, all this stuff can be homekitted using homebridge if you're tech savvy enough.

Originally posted by killramos
Dammit looks like they have pulled the 150 dollar kit from their website ( perhaps a pricing error as you mentioned its cheap). I notice they have a Calgary branch, did you go directly there to buy or did you order online?

The website still shows it on search but the product page is inaccessible.

Got immediately forwarded to a supervisor when i inquired about product availability on their support chat. mentioned that i would like to buy it at advertised price

It's not a pricing error, it's in their monthly sales flyer/pdf. Just go to Gescan (by Toma's old shop) and pick it up. They had a bunch there last week.

[killramos]

Originally posted by rage2

It's not a pricing error, it's in their monthly sales flyer/pdf. Just go to Gescan (by Toma's old shop) and pick it up. They had a bunch there last week.

When i spoke to their customer service guys online they wouldn't even guarantee they would honor the price TODAY. Told me that i better hurry in ( implied it was changing), the supervisor had to consult with his boss and even then no concrete answer.

Regardless I'm gonna take off work a few minutes early and pop in. No sweat. Either they sell it to me or they don't.

[rage2]

Gave Philips Hue a try, probably returning it tomorrow. HomeKit integration works well, Siri and scenes kick in perfectly. The problem is the $200 price tag for 3 bulbs and bridge, as well as colored lights being completely gimmicky. I couldn't get the room to look as vibrant as the Philips ads. So the only neat thing was setting the lights to the color of a photo.


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Presto, RC-F shitter!


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[killramos]

My god turning lights on and off with Siri is fun. My wife is already fully irritated.

Picked up the kit yesterday and was an easy install. Ran into some non standard wiring that I didn't want to risk so I had my brother take a look. Just some sloppy work by my builder so easy go forward. Took longer flipping breakers to turn off the power than to swap the switch.

Spent a bit of time playing with HomeBridge as well, need to do some more reading but the goal is nest integration as well to go with automated shades on my top floor skylights.

Works great with my harmony as well I have just left it in home automation mode on my elite (dedicated bottom buttons that are not activity specific) so nothing as automatic as "movie mode" or anything. Which is the way I like it tbh. Press a button to turn lights on, press longer to turn off. Has a dimming toggle as well if I so chose.

Time to count how many dimmers, IO, faceplates (I really like the Clara screwless faceplate looks), and remote mounts I'm going to need. Then I'll get my some quotes from some distributors that my brother will price for a "client request" lol

Should be able to beat retail by a bunch by his guess.

Thanks for pointing out this system Rage. It's exactly what I have been wanting. Didn't even know it know existed.

[rage2]

Since homebridge doesn't have the required encryption to connect to iCloud, your devices mapped to HomeKit through homebridge only works locally. For thermostats, ecobee is nicer than nest, can have tons of remote temperature monitoring through the house, and is fully HomeKit compliant. In the future, when you can get automated heat vent registers that are HomeKit compliant, you'll be able to control temperature evenly through the house.

When you're specing out parts to purchase, remember that the dimmer + pico package plus the pico wall mount is significantly cheaper than buying a dimmer and pico separately. It adds up when you buy for the entire house.

Playing with the hue lights last night, I mapped my shitter color to a picture of my poop as a joke. Mibz suggested a sensor to detect toilet usage and to trigger the poop colored lights for 10 mins to warn people not to use the bathroom. Discussed this with some engineers at work, and we think we can use an eve room sensor to detect actual shit smell, trigger hue light color as well as fan, so that it can quickly clear out the air as well as warn users that the shitter stinks. So ya, that's a project on the roadmap lol.

[never]

Originally posted by rage2
Playing with the hue lights last night, I mapped my shitter color to a picture of my poop as a joke. Mibz suggested a sensor to detect toilet usage and to trigger the poop colored lights for 10 mins to warn people not to use the bathroom. Discussed this with some engineers at work, and we think we can use an eve room sensor to detect actual shit smell, trigger hue light color as well as fan, so that it can quickly clear out the air as well as warn users that the shitter stinks. So ya, that's a project on the roadmap lol.

Hahahahaha, that's some creative shit!

[Chandler_Racing]

Rage, interested in doing something similar in my house.

What do you think of this: http://www.smarthome.com/insteon-who...bathrooms.html

[A2VR6]

Originally posted by Chandler_Racing
Rage, interested in doing something similar in my house.

What do you think of this: http://www.smarthome.com/insteon-who...bathrooms.html

Currently have that system in my place. I like it a lot. Been too lazy to set up port forwarding on my router so I can access it remotely but while im in my home it's been great.

I do have a few issues with the outdoor motion sensor. Right now I have it set so it only turns on the exterior lights after sunset and then turns off after 30 secs. However sometimes after sunset the exterior lights switch on and wont turn off until i physically turn off the exterior lights (via switch or app).

[Chandler_Racing]

Did you have an electrician wire it or do it yourself?

[A2VR6]

Originally posted by Chandler_Racing
Did you have an electrician wire it or do it yourself?

Not too sure since the previous owner of the house put it in. I'm pretty sure it was a DIY

[rage2]

Oh ya this is gonna be awesome haha.

[Buster]

You can get Insteon at both Amazon.ca and Costco now.

[HiSpec]

Originally posted by rage2
Oh ya this is gonna be awesome haha.

How do you select which blinds to open/close around the house?

Definitely cool!!

[rage2]

Originally posted by HiSpec
How do you select which blinds to open/close around the house?

Definitely cool!!

You have to uniquely name each shade during setup, so you can ask siri to open xxxxxx shade and it'll do it. The shades are grouped by room (ie living room, dining room) as well as zones (ie downstairs, upstairs) so you can just say open living room shades, or open downstairs shades for controlling multiple ones at once. You can also setup scenes (what I did in the demo) to manage things by a more customized group. You can't really see it, but that open shade command opens the shades and turns down the light there. Close shade would close and turn on the lights there to 30%. That's all homekit/siri, and how each compatible device is managed.

[nzwasp]

Rage have you tried to control anything outside with the hub? ie outdoor lights or a camera mounted outside?

[JustinMCS]

I have a wink system and they finally have local wifi to make it faster when youre on the same network as the hub. doesnt have to go through the cloud. i have all lutron caseta and clara wallplates

[rage2]

Originally posted by nzwasp
Rage have you tried to control anything outside with the hub? ie outdoor lights or a camera mounted outside?

My outdoor lights are controlled this way. They're tied to a switch inside the house. Same with my Xmas lights, turn 'em on and off that way.

Not sure what there is to control for camera. It's always recording.

[rage2]

Originally posted by rage2
Gave Philips Hue a try, probably returning it tomorrow. HomeKit integration works well, Siri and scenes kick in perfectly. The problem is the $200 price tag for 3 bulbs and bridge, as well as colored lights being completely gimmicky. I couldn't get the room to look as vibrant as the Philips ads. So the only neat thing was setting the lights to the color of a photo.

Update. While I still think the Hue setup is gimmicky, the kids absolutely love it. We've created several scenes from photos that look great, from the default deep sea for an aquarium look, to a beach/ocean look from a photo of our trip to Hawaii. There's reading/homework scenes, as well as bedtime story scenes.

I ended up installing 2 bulbs on the ceiling, one on a desk lamp, one in a clip on lamp for the top bunk bed, and an LED strip for the lower bunk. Each kid has their own switch on the wall that controls their individual lights as well (on/off/dim), and installed a master switch on the wall that turns all on/off + dim control.

Because Philips Hue needs constant power, I had to rewire things up to be constant on. From a user perspective, it's the same, from a wiring perspective, it's completely different.

There's apps for Hue that does stupid stuff like this:



Excuse the song, it was a joke video for Earth day or whatever. Anyways, the kids use this app, play their music and have their own little club lights in their bedroom. Hope they don't get seizures haha.

[FLARE]

I've updated my house with the Lutron Caseta (thanks for the push Rage... I really needed to spend a grand right now LOL) hardware and it works flawlessly. With 3rd generation Apple TV it works well for remote access... as long as your wi-fi provider doesn't suck (and lets be honest... they all suck).

I'm an electrician with great reviews on beyond. I can do this for very low cost if anybody is interested.

All in All - this is a fantastic product for people who don't require SERIOUS home automation... your getting into 5-15K no problem with that kind of stuff.

[lilmira]

Used my gift card to buy the Schlage sense lock. Works pretty good with Siri. Looked into the Chamberlain MyQ as well but it's not Homekit ready yet, no one knows if a software update will make it work. I'll hold off on that for now.