Voice controlled home automation thingy

The Reverend

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Ah man I LOVE my Sonos! Got it cos @katykicker said how good they were and I've got the version 1 as well (Think it's £129 now!) but it's perfect for the Conservatory.

We've got a mishmash now with Amazon Echo downstairs Google Mini upstairs!

I personally wouldn't worry about the speakers 'listening' to you any more than I would worry about cookies from websites or your smartphone apps like Twitter and Facebook doing it! Heck half the people on here helped Appen with the dreaded OK GOOGLE task a few years back so if anyone is gonna hear what you say it will just be one of us anyway lol

With my newly installed Pi-Hole, I worry very little about data being collected from me, but I do want to keep it to a minimum. Next purchase may well be a homepod, if i manage to sell a kidney or something.
 

Jon

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The Reverend

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Got my homekit sockets and bulbs yesterday.

Now I have
Living Room Lamp (Cold/Warm light)​
Bedside lamps (dimmers)​
heated underblanket Bed.​
Heating​

All working from my phone. I need to set up the rest of the sockets to control various electric things but so far, so good.

Next step will be Hive Camera (or Homekit Camera) and perhaps a door opening sensor.

Still waiting on Hive to be updated to Homekit so it can all be controlled via 1 app.

Then will get an Apple TV 4k for the living room, a apple tv for the bedroom, and MAYBE a pair of homepods for the living room and move my hifi to the study.

My ceiling lights are all GU10 bulbs so I don't want to spend ££££ replacing them all with Homekit replacements.

tenor.gif

 

Jon

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Got my homekit sockets and bulbs yesterday.

Now I have
Living Room Lamp (Cold/Warm light)​
Bedside lamps (dimmers)​
heated underblanket Bed.​
Heating​

All working from my phone. I need to set up the rest of the sockets to control various electric things but so far, so good.

Next step will be Hive Camera (or Homekit Camera) and perhaps a door opening sensor.

Still waiting on Hive to be updated to Homekit so it can all be controlled via 1 app.

Then will get an Apple TV 4k for the living room, a apple tv for the bedroom, and MAYBE a pair of homepods for the living room and move my hifi to the study.

My ceiling lights are all GU10 bulbs so I don't want to spend ££££ replacing them all with Homekit replacements.

tenor.gif

I don’t believe hive are going to make their stuff HomeKit compatible. People have asked for years for it but they don’t budge
 

Jon

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Kiss my Chuddies!


:D
31st December it is then!

See for me it's not a major issue as both the Tado heating system and the Hive Bulbs / Light system work through the Amazon Echo and Google Mini so I can just say 'Turn the heating on' or 'set the living room light to 50%' and it does it regardless of which system I am using.

Keep an eye on ebay, I've picked up some GREAT batch boxes of hive bulbs from people who get them free for being with british gas and they put a pack of 4 on ebay having no clue of their worth so you can get them for £14 or something stupid

I do feel with all this 'smarthome' stuff we are at the same point we were with Blueray vs DVD-HD and it needs a big company to come along and say THIS is the standard now! Because I have both a hive AND Tado hub plugged in at home to operate both these systems while I guy I knew at work also had a Rhapsody hub to control yet MORE devices so you end up with all these hubs all needing power and all needing a network connection of some kind. It annoys me that the hubs also still need an ethernet cable going into them and can't work wirelessly but it is what it is.

The thing is I suppose that you set this stuff up and you just leave it the hell alone after that and it all just 'works'! The Tado / Boiler system is a godsend for when we are out of the house in January and heading home and it detects we are heading back based on our phones and stuff and then puts the heating on for us before we arrive!
 

The Reverend

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31st December it is then!

Wouldn't suprise me, but at least it is coming.

See for me it's not a major issue as both the Tado heating system and the Hive Bulbs / Light system work through the Amazon Echo and Google Mini so I can just say 'Turn the heating on' or 'set the living room light to 50%' and it does it regardless of which system I am using.

Keep an eye on ebay, I've picked up some GREAT batch boxes of hive bulbs from people who get them free for being with british gas and they put a pack of 4 on ebay having no clue of their worth so you can get them for £14 or something stupid

I've made it harder for myself by NOT using Hey Google/Alexa - this would have made it MUCH easier.

I do feel with all this 'smarthome' stuff we are at the same point we were with Blueray vs DVD-HD and it needs a big company to come along and say THIS is the standard now! Because I have both a hive AND Tado hub plugged in at home to operate both these systems while I guy I knew at work also had a Rhapsody hub to control yet MORE devices so you end up with all these hubs all needing power and all needing a network connection of some kind. It annoys me that the hubs also still need an ethernet cable going into them and can't work wirelessly but it is what it is.

Thats why I'm moving towards 'homekit' as I'm an Apple fanboy and hopefully it will be supported for the near future at least. I found out Ikea stuff could be run from homekit so I bought a box of all sorts of stuff new from Ikea for less than the price of 5 smart Hive plugs from Amazon.
The thing is I suppose that you set this stuff up and you just leave it the hell alone after that and it all just 'works'! The Tado / Boiler system is a godsend for when we are out of the house in January and heading home and it detects we are heading back based on our phones and stuff and then puts the heating on for us before we arrive!
This is the future plan for me. Get more stuff that works however, as I live in a flat, I can't go full CCTV/Automation but I think there are a couple of things I can do to both increase security and improve my life. I fancy a Homekit Kettle but I've not found one yet. I could just wack a smart-plug on my kettle but that feels too 'hack'.

I will need to make some reviews of what I've got so far.

:)

The Reverend
 

Jon

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Wouldn't suprise me, but at least it is coming.



I've made it harder for myself by NOT using Hey Google/Alexa - this would have made it MUCH easier.



Thats why I'm moving towards 'homekit' as I'm an Apple fanboy and hopefully it will be supported for the near future at least. I found out Ikea stuff could be run from homekit so I bought a box of all sorts of stuff new from Ikea for less than the price of 5 smart Hive plugs from Amazon.

This is the future plan for me. Get more stuff that works however, as I live in a flat, I can't go full CCTV/Automation but I think there are a couple of things I can do to both increase security and improve my life. I fancy a Homekit Kettle but I've not found one yet. I could just wack a smart-plug on my kettle but that feels too 'hack'.

I will need to make some reviews of what I've got so far.

:)

The Reverend

Those kettles are crazy money

I just ended up putting a hive smartplug into our kettle which then lets us boil it via saying to Alexa to 'turn kettle on' or via the app but you need to have 2 things for that to work

1) Water STILL in the kettle
2) A kettle that has a flip switch that can stay down even if it has no power so when it comes on at the mains it just automatically boils
 

The Reverend

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Those kettles are crazy money

I just ended up putting a hive smartplug into our kettle which then lets us boil it via saying to Alexa to 'turn kettle on' or via the app but you need to have 2 things for that to work

1) Water STILL in the kettle
2) A kettle that has a flip switch that can stay down even if it has no power so when it comes on at the mains it just automatically boils

Most kettles have anti-boil dry so they wont be on if there is no water to heat.

I don't know whether ours stay on with the power off - a test for me this evening I guess.

Benefit of being in a flat though, I've just been reading of homekit enabled Roombas....so that might be a thing! :D
 
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The Reverend

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Most kettles have anti-boil dry so they wont be on if there is no water to heat.

I don't know whether ours stay on with the power off - a test for me this evening I guess.

Benefit of being in a flat though, I've just been reading of homekit enabled Roombas....so that might be a thing! :D

Test Complete!

The Dualit Kettle does stay turned 'on' when the switch is in the 'on' position.
 

The Reverend

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Well look at that. I've just saved you £££ from buying a smart kettle!!
But I've got to remember to turn it 'off' on the app THEN turn it 'on' on the kettle before I go to bed.

And I am very, very lazy.

Talking of which, I've read some blogs where people use Geo-fencing and switches to turn Roombas on while people are out of the house. Excellent idea.
 

Jon

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But I've got to remember to turn it 'off' on the app THEN turn it 'on' on the kettle before I go to bed.

And I am very, very lazy.

Talking of which, I've read some blogs where people use Geo-fencing and switches to turn Roombas on while people are out of the house. Excellent idea.

But once you turn it on via the hive power plug. The Kettle would then boil and the flip switch would then go UP when done so you wouldn't have to remember to turn it all off unless I am going mad. Plus you said your kettle won't operate with no water in it anyway
 

The Reverend

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But once you turn it on via the hive power plug. The Kettle would then boil and the flip switch would then go UP when done so you wouldn't have to remember to turn it all off unless I am going mad. Plus you said your kettle won't operate with no water in it anyway
I meant when I'd finished boilign the kettle.

1) The kettle switch will be off.
2) The Smart Socket will be on.
3) I'll need to turn the smart socket off
4) I'll then need to turn the kettle switch on
5) THEN
6) I can use the app to turn the smart plug on to boil the water.

When I get a proper smart kettle the process will be.

1) Turn on kettle via app
2) Get alert to say water has boiled
3) Make tea.

Which is obviously the best way to do it.
 

homie

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I meant when I'd finished boilign the kettle.

1) The kettle switch will be off.
2) The Smart Socket will be on.
3) I'll need to turn the smart socket off
4) I'll then need to turn the kettle switch on
5) THEN
6) I can use the app to turn the smart plug on to boil the water.

When I get a proper smart kettle the process will be.

1) Turn on kettle via app
2) Get alert to say water has boiled
3) Make tea.

Which is obviously the best way to do it.

No offense but do you realise how utterly ridiculous that sounds.
Its a kettle. Fill it up when you want a cup of tea and switch it on.

Home automation aka 100 solutions to problems that don't exist.

(I do concede that smart heating and security are useful but apps to turn on the toaster or change the colour of the light are the height of pointlessness. IMHO)
 

Jon

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No offense but do you realise how utterly ridiculous that sounds.
Its a kettle. Fill it up when you want a cup of tea and switch it on.

Home automation aka 100 solutions to problems that don't exist.

(I do concede that smart heating and security are useful but apps to turn on the toaster or change the colour of the light are the height of pointlessness. IMHO)
imagine the scene

@The Reverend comes in from a hard day at work in the big smoke.

Weary but thirsty as he is nearly at home he pops onto his smartphone and tells the kettle to turn itself on so that he can have a refreshing cup of green tea to clear away the taste of smog that he had to endure on the way home!
 

The Reverend

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imagine the scene

@The Reverend comes in from a hard day at work in the big smoke.

Weary but thirsty as he is nearly at home he pops onto his smartphone and tells the kettle to turn itself on so that he can have a refreshing cup of green tea to clear away the taste of smog that he had to endure on the way home!

Its like you've hacked the cameras in my flat!
 
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Jon

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Its like you've hacked the cameras in my flat!
Don't forget to take advantage of the hive scheduling options on the bulbs. We have various room lights come on during the night as a security thing. Takes seconds to setup on the app and it's great when you are away!

No more of putting these in every room!

SMTS800.JPG
 

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