Internet Of Things / IoT / Connected Home / Smart Houses

I thought about Den a while back but I couldn't really think of much that I needed to remote control, other than lights which I already do through Hue, and passthrough plug sockets are much cheaper for the one-off.

Yes, I can't really use hue in my house, too many spot lights, would cost a fortune... I like the fact that they just look like normal switches, so don't have to explain to people how to use them, they can just use them like normal switches but with the added bonus of smart control for me...

Just spotted this thread. Have been interested in smart home stuff since we had the offer accepted on our now house and have dabbled a bit to-date. Have been talking to Alexa for a couple of weeks and just fitted a ring doorbell. Keen to try Philips hue next.

Hue will work with Ring via IFTTT, our kitchen goes disco whenever anyone rings the Ring.

If you do get hue, get the dimmer switches and look at apps like iConnectHue to customise your settings.

Having Hue flash when your kitchen timer on Alexa has hit zero is pretty good plus various others.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jun/01/uk-homes-vulnerable-to-staggering-level-of-corporate-surveillance

Just because some are horrendous does not mean all are. Philips is quite well behaved, ring is amazon so I expect them to start trying to sell me stuff based on my shirt colour but not passing it on since they want to control the data and advertising themselves.

Any recommendations for connected plug sockets? Want something to control a fan at night but a lot of the cheaper ones look a bit sketchy, no certification, etc

I have been keeping an eye on https://getden.co.uk/ not available yet, but should be in next month or so.

I like the fact that they are fully integrated, and do not take away the physical functionality, my issue with current smart bulbs and the plug in switches is that if someone touches the physical switch then the smart functionality is gone, these get rid of that issue, if you turn a socket on with the app, then the physical button actually moves on the plug socket, simple but important I think.

Also you can tag plug sockets, so that rather than telling the app to turn off plug socket 7 in the bedroom, you can say turn off fan, and it will turn it off, no matter which socket it is plugged in to.

Anyway, just rambling! Anyone else seen these and got any thoughts?

Lightwave have plug sockets and 2 gang wall plates that are CE stamped

Cheers but stupidly I didn't actually mean plug sockets (I didn't even realise they were a thing, I'm quite tempted to consider some in the future) but pass-through sockets like this:

Lightwave has both

Looking at the specs, though, lightwaverf is an odd protocol, so suitability may depend on the rest of your setup

I've been going through a similar thought process (don't want to spend loads, but don't want dodgy electrical kit) and think I'm going to get a couple of TP-Link HS100 smart plugs.

It's a relatively big brand that I've heard of, good reviews, are about 18 quid each, don't require a hub for out-of-home remote access (I think), and can be hooked up to other systems when I get round to it - in my case potentially HomeAssistant running on my home server.

@TW, as far as I can see the Lightwave stuff needs a £130 hub before you can control anything from outside the home. And isn't anything that requires a proprietary hub going to use a proprietary protocol from hub to devices? The hub provides the bridge to other protocols.

PS my uninformed hope is that the price of a lot of this kit is unsustainable - Philips Hue pricing seems ridiculous to me for example.

Yep, I ended up with this https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07CKVZFGX and it's fine.

Hue seems to be doing better than most at getting itself out there. They've been quite clever with leaving the interface pretty open so lots of alternative control options have appeared (and reduce reliance on the app if Philips decide to retire it). I imagine the prices will drop as they sell more, you can get Hue bulbs for a tenner now https://www.amazon.co.uk/Philips-Equivalent-Dimmable-Compatible-Assistant/dp/B0152WXI0E which doesn't seem too different from other LED bulbs.

At the moment I'm really just playing until protocols get a bit more standardised. I won't be spending that much until things can integrate a bit better.

Wait until Amazon have a sale on for Phillips Hue stuff. There are significant discounts.

The Samsung Smarthings Hub is a good hub to buy. It talks to pretty much everything else and has some good accessories of its own. Again, wait for Amazon sales.

I've gone full Ikea Tradfri for our bits. Mostly happy with them, but have found a couple of oddities like the kitchen lighting strips, which don't come on with a switch flick like the bulbs do.

They seem to be a Hue based product.

I've been poking a little at https://www.home-assistant.io/ to see if I can create a unified touch screen control panel to go by the front door that also has a load of other info on it (train/bus times, weather, etc)

I've been playing with this a bit. Seems pretty decent but I've been having a few issues. Main issue seems to be that the config file keeps disappearing which is a bit weird (as it seems to keep the config so the file must be somewhere); suspect this is just due to my lack of familiarity with docker so I may just install it onto a spare raspberry pi.

Also seems a bit awkward that all the various passwords are stored in plain text, doesn't seem an easy way round that (and still having it auto-start).

Homeassistant is great.

I've got it controlling (or at least able to control) everything at moment

The plan is to put together a few automation scripts at some point, so that I don't have to worry about turning off lights etc... when I'm out.

I have HA running in a docker, with heating, energy monitor and a lamp hooked up so far.

Also a couple of train departures (in fact just had first ever GitHub pull request accepted to add a bit to UK Transport module docs).

There's not really a practical way to do a proper departure board with next n trains though, given free API limits. May try Google Maps module instead.

Server is running unRAID which simplifies docker management... not opened up to remote access yet though..

What is the most straightforward route to building a smart home without knowledge of writing programs? Will raspberry pi be a bit complicated? Should I buy a Samsung hub?

My brief play with homeassistant made it seem pretty easy. There's a bit of editing config files but it seemed quite straightforward.

@aggi

You mentioned DIY CCTV - what you got?

It was a bit of a faff. I got some cheap network cameras from AliExpress or the like (possibly these https://www.gearbest.com/ip-cameras/pp_312964.html ). They did motion detection and could upload images to an FTP site (I hosted this on my home server and had it upload to Onedrive).

They could be controlled through network commands (this took a bit of digging as there was nothing in the camera documentation about it but it had the same firmware as a more popular camera) so I used Tasker on my phone to send a message to turn off when I got home (triggered by my phone connecting to my home wi-fi) and another when I disconnected from wi-fi to turn it on (seem to remember that was more complicated as I wasn't connected to the network, an email that triggered something on my server I think).

Remote viewing was just done by using a VPN to connect to my home network and just going to the relevant IP address.

It worked fine albeit a bit of a hassle to work out the commands and set up.

Looks like using home-assistant and IFTTT may be an easier way of controlling the on/off https://www.home-assistant.io/components/camera/

Bought a broadlink rm pro to have a play around with but am a little disappointed.

First downside was that it only works with 2.4ghz Wi-Fi, which means my fire stick has stopped working.

Once I got it all set up with alexa, t.v. and virgin box, I realised alexa can only control tv. I've seen people control all sorts of things with alexa by using the tv option when programming but that didn't work with virgin.

Had plans to get broadlink light switches and IR plugs but now I cba.

Was worth a try but might go down the sonoff and home assistant route instead.

I have voice control for TV, Virgin box, etc via Alexa and Logitech Harmony.

It's not very useful, almost everything it's quicker to just pick up the remote and press a button. Only real exceptions are turning everything on/off.