What other 'smart' tech are you using in your homes?

Having multiple Alexa devices across two locations is really nice.
@RyanAtSense, you would really enjoy the music quality out of two echos in the same room.

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I haven’t had great luck with any of the wireless speaker options out there that I’ve tried. I have a single Echo Dot near my TV that I use for Spotify occasionally, but it’s hooked up to some wired bookshelf speakers. Eventually, I want to give Sonos a shot, but I just worry about getting weird phasing or latency effects from multiple BT speakers.

Sonos doesn’t use Bluetooth.

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I haven’t tried any of the products that are supposed to be Alexa compatible because I’ve read about the problems you mentioned. I’m using two first generation echos in my living room and also using the same setup at my wife’s retail store, both setups mainly for Spotify. We started with one in each location and it was pretty good, two is a huge difference with zero problems. I’ve been able to pick up the first generation echo for $25 each on ebay.
I also have a couple echo dots that I use just for communication with Alexa. I don’t have Spotify play through the dots because if the volume is up too high, Alexa won’t hear me as well. So I have as many as three Alexa devices in the same room or area without any trouble

I started back in 2013 with a Nexia Thermostat for my new Trane AC/Heater. Ingersol Rand was really bad back then and wanted you to buy their z wave products with their z wave bridge for a monthly fee. Without their paid service, I cannot link via z wave. This first experience got me looking into what was out there. I found a lot of protocols (z wave, ecobee, zigbee, etc) with little or no interoperability. I settled with z wave. It had the best plan and track record. I did not want to get stuck with a Betamax! There is a Z wave business alliance that sets the z wave standards and help insure device compatibility. Z wave is a lower frequency than wifi and will not compete with other wifi users. With the lower frequency, it is better penetrating walls but does not transmit as far. Z wave devices daisy chain or relay data to over come the distance. Not transmitting as far different home systems will not interfere with each other.
My home system I chose a Fibaro Home Center 2. It is a Linux based z wave hub. It is expensive ~$700 but there are no monthly fees. The main reason I went with Fibaro is that it has the capability of writing your own code to control your z wave devices. It uses the LUA language. Fibaro has a few downsides. With no monthly fees tech support and troubleshooting is limited and updates are not that frequent. Its an European company. Most compatible cameras, heating systems, and TVs are European.
Fibaro has some good devices. Their motion, temperature, light sensor works very well on a battery. I am sampling temperature every 15 minutes and the battery lasts about a year. They have just released their Smart Implant. With the Smart Implant, you can make your own smart z wave devices from an analog or digital device.
For lighting I went with the wall z wave switch route. It didn’t make sense spend the money on a light bulb when a switch makes everything z wave. I am using both GE (Jasco) Smart Switch and Leviton Smart Switch. The GE wires easier like a regular switch. But both will require a fourth wire feeding power constant power to the switch electronics. These switches will also serve as a signal repeater for the Z wave system.

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Old, but good, convo…

This is only kinda smart home related but I finally upgraded my aging Netgear Nighthawk to one of the new Unifi Dream Machines, and wow…now I know what all the Unifi fans have been raving about. The control and insights are just absolutely bonkers. So, big thank you to those here who occasionally post about their Unifi setups. It definitely helped me take the plunge!

Now, I shall try and justify getting an additional access point and a POE hub for my tiny apartment.

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You HAVE to get that POE switch setup … nothing more satisfying than the mA readings except maybe Sense! … hold on, what a con, where’s the Wh? :wink:

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Hah, I didn’t realize it was so detailed. Now, I probably need some stuff to power off of PoE first…

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Current setup in our new-build ranch:

  • Sense
  • A couple of TP-Link Kasa surge strips
  • An Ecobee3 Lite on it’s way, thanks to Black Friday sales
  • ILIFE A7 Robot Vacuum (setup last night)
  • A few Alexa devices
  • A Google Home Mini (free, thanks to Spotify)
  • Next purchase: Switchbot Hub Mini (IR Blaster)

We’ve had our Sense installed for about a month now, and it’s found 15 devices so far (plus the ones from the Kasa Plugs). We’re still getting some things settled-in from our move, so I haven’t setup many IFTTT formulas yet, but I figure that will change once I get the Ecobee setup. When we built the house, I had it wired for Cat 6e, with everything running to a PoE rackmounted switch in the basement which is also where our gigabit fiber gateway is. I’ve turned off the antennas on the gateway and mounted a PoE Ubiquiti WAP in the living room ceiling so it can service the whole house. I’d gotten a Kasa plug for the rack so that I could see how much power our network setup uses, but they turned out to be HS100’s and not HS110’s, so Sense doesn’t pick them up.

The ILIFE robot vacuum I got on sale this summer from Amazon, and it has an infrared remote and a clunk app with poor scheduling ability and no integrations. That’s why I’m considering the Switchbot Hub Mini so that it can mimic the vacuum’s remote (and any other device’s IR remote) and tie it into IFTTT (ie. If Ecobee switches to Away Mode, start the vacuum).

I’m using IFTTT and webcore to trigger a virtual switch that Alexa can see that triggers announcements and sms notifications that the dryer and dishwasher have completed their cycles. The dryer announcement has been key in keeping the laundry moving in our house. Still waiting on Sense to find my washing machine to complete it!

Makes me wonder why Alexa can’t listen directly for the usual beep (or even machine noise) when a dryer completes the cycle!

Or can it?

“Alexa, I’m leaving the laundry.”

https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=18021383011

That’s a new one to me. It certainly must’ve been fun to train Alexa to detect breaking glass sounds. CO and smoke alarms, not so much.

I just purchased a new LG washer and dryer. They come with their own app that alerts us to their cycles… Didn’t think that would be useful, but of course it is. I use an HS110 on the wash machine - cycles are very complex for detection…

I had not been in these forums much since before the pandemic. Got too busy with COVID research.

So what new smart home tech are people using? On my end:

  • sense + 12 smart plugs (we are also using a sense + SP at a field site for work)
  • Phyn smart water valve + 8 phyn leak sensors
  • Ecobee thermostat with Beestat for plotting (love beestat!). I have ~8 temperature sensors, and use it also as a way to measure temperatures in the attic, crawl spaces, outdoors etc.
  • Smartthings Z-wave devices: relays for switching 3 different outdoor lights and a radon fan at a separate building, garage door sensors, and a 220 V relay to operate a baseboard heater remotely. I also have some automations in SmartThings, using the integrations with Ecobee temperature sensors and the Kasa smart plugs. The routines etc. are still a bit too limited though. But I haven’t found the time to learn a better (but more complex) system.
  • Eufy motion-triggered cameras and doorbell
  • Rachio irrigation controller
  • Nest smoke / CO detectors
  • Airthings radon + indoor air quality (CO2, VOC, PM, T, RH) detectors
  • Ecoqube fast radon detector (the best, see some details at https://twitter.com/jljcolorado/status/1595794713436725250)
  • Tempest weather station
  • And several Aranet4 CO2 meters
  • I have considered a Purple Air outdoor PM sensor, but there are many already in my area and I can just look on the web app
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