Home Automation - Your Real World Experiences

ZLTFUL

Frankly, if the NSA wants to know what you are doing, home assistant devices aren’t even in their top 10 list of devices to extract information from.

My wife was a cyber terrorism analyst for the CIA as both a government agent and a civilian contractor for well over a decade and if they want to hear what is going on in your house, they don’t need to hack your Echo Dot to do it.

EndersShadow

My parents bought my another Google Mini and a Ring Video doorbell for Christmas....

Ring doorwell was to easy to install I COULD DO IT (and did). Says something for ease of use for sure.

Google Mini went into my kids room to replace one of the two squeezebox radio's I have.

It will let me play music for her off Pandora, and also set alarms for her weekly, which she can turn off herself.

So far liking all the google home mini stuff.

Now I need a few smart outlets for the lamps and whatnot, and then I need to figure out my security systems needs and if I want to integrate that or not.

We have ADT, but I'm wanting more video surveillance than I have now, and not sure if I want it on its own network, working off my existing network, etc.

Ironically enough my parents also bought me some RFID blocking sleeve's for cards.....

Something I'm sure Tony, Jesse and John all have lol.....

joecoulson

I will say that ignorance is bliss for the privacy concerns about smart devices listening in. We are a boring family and don’t do or say anything that could be used against us or embarrass us.
That being said, we have the following (and love it!)
Every zone has Amazon Alexa. Mostly echo dots and one echo spot. All rooms have at least one lamp with a LIFX bulb. Nest thermostat, and nest Ring. Also have SimpliSafe talking to all that and of course the Harmony Elite talking to it too. Sonos in two rooms. All of the above talks to each other and makes for a very enjoyable home in my op.

EndersShadow

Thanks @joecoulson

Lights are next for us too. I’m hoping to save more by ensuring they go off when we are not home, and my nest thermostat has saved us tons while allowing us to make sure it stays warm enough for us when we are home.

Then security, and door locks, and lastly some water sensors at the water heater (on the second floor), the laundry room (first floor) and one at each faucet (had a cold water supply disconnect at an apartment once, prefer to not have that happen at my house EVER).

afterburnt

the NSA is on my payroll, like it or not

maximillian

Universal Devices ISY994i is my automation hub. It's Insteon/Z-wave with a flexible scripting language for scenes. It's older tech but still works well, and still supported.

The Insteon portion has been giving me issues of late but the Z-wave is fine and reliable. I am able to turn on the outside Christmas decorations from my phone. It also has Alexa skills.

I only really use the system for motion sensing and turning on multiple outdoor lights when something is detected. I can do more interesting lighting instead of the simple one sensor per light fixture. I also have the landscape lighting go on at dusk and turn off at a user defined time.

Multi-room audio for casual listening is done using Bose Soundtouch speakers and wireless-link adapters. Getting an employee discount made this selection easy. I also linked Echo dots to the speakers. It's been nice to simply say "Alexa, play Christmas music" for a steady stream of festive goodness.

Home security is more DIY but with a professional panel (encrypted wireless sensors with interruption detection) and wireless cameras. It's a separate system so a single hub failure doesn't bring everything down.

Biggest downside to all this is the maintenance. Setting all of this up is fun and I learned a lot. But as I get older, family priorities kick in and it's a pain having to monitor and keep the system up and running. Especially with Internet enabled devices, security issues found in FW can render devices obsolete or insecure if the manufacturer has moved on to a new model of camera/sensors/devices and refuses to upgrade the FW.

But overall I like it. It's more of a hobby than something serious.

EndersShadow

Semi related and surprising.....

California got something right for once.....

The state's Information Privacy: Connected Devices Act goes into effect January 1, 2020, banning default and pre-loaded passwords.

"The new regulation mandates device manufacturers to either create a unique password for each device at the time of production or require the user to create one when they interact with the device for the first time," we reported. "According to the bill, it applies to any connected device, which is defined as a 'physical object that is capable of connecting to the internet, directly or indirectly, and that is assigned an Internet Protocol address or Bluetooth address."

joecoulson

Yeah. Funny story about “default” passwords:
I had purchased two projector smart lights for Christmas decorations this year. Work great. However the neighbor got one and didn’t change his password. My app picked his up as another one in my chain and changed his display to mimic mine. I can only imagine with devices that secure personal info or have the ability to purchase things without changing the default password that hackers are always trying that on open networks.

tonyb

F1nut wrote: »

It's not being paranoid, it's being smart about limiting the high probability that ones privacy is being violated. In addition to that, I'm not lazy. I'm very capable of turning my lights on or off, of locking or unlocking my doors, etc.

Holy Bingo...give the man a cigar !!

No offense Dan, but your description of what you want it to do would suggest everyone in the house is handicapped.

There is a difference between using technology to help those less fortunate to live productive lives, to enhance the normal lives, but not to take away mundane tasks that will make us even more lazy than we already are.

joecoulson

Hmmm. Says super automatica....

tonyb

joecoulson wrote: »

Hmmm. Says super automatica....

LMAO....has more to do with quantity Joe and time obviously. You start making 10-20 espresso's/cappuccino's on your manual, an hour, you may come to the dark side.

joecoulson

Nothing but love @tonyb

tonyb

I'd be willing to bet, Dan had a clapper at some point.

Just bustin' your stones Dan....

You still have stones....right ?

Just never know these days is all.

….put the wine down Tony and walk away......

joecoulson

Poor Dan. Takes weeks to get rid of that

EndersShadow

No worries @tonyb. Nothing but love.

We may not see eye to eye but that’s ok. Won’t keep either of us up at night .

Regarding “stones”.... well my wife has mine

To be completely honest tony my goal would be to make the house totally automated where lights went on and off as people entered and exited rooms, automatically run sequences of events at given times based on our google calendar, and previous commands etc.

It would be so automatic you wouldn’t even notice it after a bit. I can’t get there yet, but I’m darn sure trying.

PS I’m sure someone once told Alexander Bell, why do you need to talk to someone across the state in real time? Or asked Martin Cooper, why do you need to talk to someone on a phone without wires, or a phone in your car?

Then after time and adoption by the masses it became a totally inconspicuous thing you needed to use all the time.