Internet Of Things / IoT / Connected Home / Smart Houses

Although, beware the dangers.

The coffee machine turned on this morning and it seems the group head is blocked. So it vented all the water into the drip tray and buggered the pump as it was dry...

We have had our coffee machine and lights in SmartThings for ages. Thankfully coffee machine is plumbed in.

Of course it's plumbed in. I'd be surprised if it wasn't.

To be honest it's my fault because I haven't cleaned the damn thing for ages.

Really impressed with google home mini. Up until now half the time I get ordered by my partner to adjust the SmartThings lighting as they can’t find their phone. Now they can just tell the little device to do it.

And being able to add to Tesco order is sweet too

Have you ladies and chaps seen that Fossasat1 has been launched and is operational?

It's a satellite communications relay that can be operated by a cheap Lora board. In addition to relay services it transmits temperature, light and other data about its current orbit. It'll be used to create a proper global IoT mesh network eventually.

It's not fully operational yet as the main antennas haven't deployed but I should be able to bounce a message off it using a custom high gain antenna. Going to build one tonight and try tomorrow.

You won't need special hardware to do it in a few weeks. I have reached peak nerd.

I managed to get a handshake from the ISS earlier this year but that was with expensive kit and some gnarly Doppler calculations. To bring this geekery to the unlicensed public with low cost is superb news.

Can it turn my Hue lights on?

The latency will be longer than via the internet but why not?

I mean apart from a dozen practical complications, such as only being able to do so while the satelite is above the horizon and the ionosphere is behaving a certain way...

I am an IoT idiot .
I don't have an in home voice control device (Alexa or google whatever) but I do have the google home app to control my chromecast and nest cam.

I was some smart plug things so I can control all the lamps and christmas tree while we are home and away, but I don't want:

• to have to download another app to control them alone
  
• to have to buy Alexa or whatever to control them
  
  

Question.
What smart plug can be administered through the google home android app?

Almost all of them.

use smarthome ones, i think they are linked to up thead.

Smashing.
Thank you.

Just bought some of these lads - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07ZCSTT4G/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Most of them. I've got a few of the TP link ones and a few others which all work fine. You often have to install their app to initially set it up though.

If you are looking to change Elec / Gas supplier and fancy a Smarthings Hub and two sockets for £1 then Bulb is doing an offer at the moment.

https://join.bulb.co.uk/?partner=smartthings

Received a packet from fossasat today, wasn't able to get a handshake though....need to dig out my antenna tuner I think.

Pretty amazing what you can do with Arduino.

There’s a lot more to come from them too.

My favourite so far is a IoT enabled hamster wheel that uses a hall effect sensor to measure speed and distance run and transmits it to mathlab for analysis. 3d printed of course.

But sure, some pretty cool serious applications will be along soon enough.

I'm still struggling to comprehend the potential of Lorawan. Exciting times to be a techie.

Anyone using Chromecast as the sole form of TV/Netflix/Prime? Any good?
Want to rid myself from the oppressive shackles of Virgin!

I was until I got a smart telly. Works well.

Still do in my to actually.

I'd probably favour a firestick or similar rather than a Chromecast unless you're planning on a dedicated phone/tablet for it. Having to always have your phone is a bit of a faff and personally I favour a real remote.

Unless you watch very little TV though I'd use Freeview for TV. Channel hopping over multiple apps is a ballache.

Conversely. Had both connected to the telly.
Firestick pissed me off with its crap UI. Found it much easier to search through phone.

But then I always have a phone on me.

I hated the Firestick UI too but the latest models have really sorted that out imo.

Ah, great thanks everyone. We've pretty much got everything else on Google so have opted for the Chromecast Ultra!
Pretty excited as I hate Virgin.

Chromecast Ultra is wonderful!
Only had it for a day or so but it plugs directly into the back of my AV receiver, seamless setup and having to go into the individual aps isn't a proplem at all.
Sky and Virgin really aren't relevant anymore.

They are great.

That said, I also love our latest generation Firestick. The Chromecast doesn't do so well if you take it travelling. It doesn't work with hotel WiFi.

Tackling the final part of dumbing down my house so have the following I'd like to move on:

Philips hue plain white b22 bulb x3
Philips hue plain white e27 bulb x2
Smartlife wifi led strip
Raspberry pi 3b+
Cc2531 usb flashed with zigbee2mqtt
Xiaomi button x3
Xiaomi door sensor
Xiaomi motion sensor
Xiaomi temperature sensor
Xiaomi vibration sensor
Xiaomi plant sensors
Google home mini

I also have the debugger used to flash the cc2531 that I'll include in case you need to flash it again.

How does £150 sound? I'll include an ethernet cable and 128mb sd card also.

This is basically a home assistant starter kit. With the above (and an asus router and ring doorbell, both of which I'm keeping), I set up the following:

Google announce when plants need water
Presence detection for mine and mrs colm89's phone
Notify phone via telegram if the door opened when we're both out
Google announce if someone pushed doorbell
Downstairs lights on 1.5hrs before sunset
Upstairs lights on at sunset
Notify phone if downstairs lights still on when we're both out at 10.30pm with actionable buttons in the text to switch off or ignore
Notify phone if upstairs lights still on when we're both out at 11pm with actionable buttons in the text to switch off or ignore
Use xiaomi buttons to switch lights on/off (each button can do up to 5 different actions)

I think that's it...

Why am I getting rid? This is the first step in a life declutter/simplification, partially in prep for advertising our house and moving home to Ireland.