Home Automation

[hernandito]

Hi Guys. I am a complete newbie when it comes to Home Automation. I have been trying to learn about it but the info is all over the place.

 

I have already ordered all from from DLink, a wifi 180 degree camera, a wifi outlet, a wifi motion detector and their basic NVR (network video recorder. 4 channels I supply USB hard drive). From what I understand, all of these work WITHOUT a hub over wifi.

 

I believe hubs are required when one uses Zwave or zigbee protocols. I was hoping to stick only to wifi. For home automation,, I want to use some things like if there is motion detection, it will turn on some lights, send my phone a notification if camera detects movement, view camera feed remotely. Possibly send phone alerts when I go away and motion detectors are triggered.

 

I have a few questions. What is this whole UniFi thing? I know there are Dockers. Will these Dockers work with non-Ubiquiti products like the ones from DLink? Even though I bought the NVR, will the UniFi Video socker act as an NVR within my unRAID?

 

Dlink's web site states that:

 

"Our products are Wi-Fi based so they work with any home automation solution products that don't require a hub. D-Link developed a comprehensive app that connects our smart plugs, motion sensors, cameras."

 

Will other wifi only devices indeed work with their app? Or will other apps work with Dlink's wifi only products? Is this a wifi protocol or language something that all these devices to interact with each other?

 

I would love to hear from other users who are using this technology and what apps or real world things you can do with it.

 

Many thanks.

 

H.

 

 

[niietzshe]

Have a look at OpenHab.

 

Also if you go ZWave you don't need a separate hub, you can just use a USB transmitter/receiver in your UnRaid machine.

[hernandito]

Have a look at OpenHab.

 

Also if you go ZWave you don't need a separate hub, you can just use a USB transmitter/receiver in your UnRaid machine.

 

I did look at OpenHab and it looked way over my head. For this, I am hoping for an easy out of the box experience, where I can hopefully mix and match. It seems like the trend is away from zwave with Wemo and DLink doing hubless; but I am not an expert.

 

I am curious as to UniFy and Ubiquiti stuff.

[theone]

There are also Domoticz and HomeGenie - They are simpler than OpenHAB.

 

[kris.mccreight]

Look into the Piper. It is a plug and play Camera that also serves as a z wave controller. You can add multiple cameras and devices at your leisure.  It also has a if this then that function that anyone can follow.

[spants]

i use Imperihome client http://www.evertygo.com/imperihome on ios and android (free but about £5 to use the api) and node red for the intelligence talks via the api (free - see my docker).

[CrashnBrn]

Have a look at OpenHab.

 

Also if you go ZWave you don't need a separate hub, you can just use a USB transmitter/receiver in your UnRaid machine.

 

Just want to point out that openhab doesn't support the zwave security class so a bunch of smart door locks do not work with it.

[meep]

This is a timely thread.

 

I'm getting back in to automation after a 10 year hiatus.

 

I have lot of X10 devices wired throughout my home and a Comfort alarm system that integrates with X10.

 

I'm thinking of migrating to z-wave but will be retaining X10 in parallel for a while. As such, I'm looking for PC software that will allow be manage both standards, and perhaps others, with android tablet based controllers around the house.

 

Initial reviews of the options point to HomeSeer as the most flexible and mature solution. Would that be fair or do any of the others have really good support for a hybrid X10 / ZWave installation?

 

(I'll be running all this from an unRAID VM, of course )

[Jomp]

Simple Control (formerly Roomie Remote) on iOS has been awesome for me over the last year. It ties together my lights, outlets, AV gear, HVAC, etc.  I really like it because it allows me to use the best of  x automation piece and not having to tie everything to a certain manufacturer or system.

[JonathanM]

Initial reviews of the options point to HomeSeer as the most flexible and mature solution. Would that be fair or do any of the others have really good support for a hybrid X10 / ZWave installation?

 

(I'll be running all this from an unRAID VM, of course )

I've been running Homeseer for over 11 years, first on a standalone mini-itx embedded XP based system with X10, then migrating to zwave, and a couple years ago I switched over to a Windows 7 VM, first hosted on unraid under a virtualbox plugin, then migrating that same VM over to unraid's native KVM in the past year. I would have liked to use the Linux port of Homeseer, but several of the plugins that I paid for and use on a daily basis are windows only.

 

It's been a fairly solid home automation setup, zwave has matured greatly in the last 2 years.

[kris.mccreight]

Hi Guys. I am a complete newbie when it comes to Home Automation. I have been trying to learn about it but the info is all over the place.

 

I have already ordered all from from DLink, a wifi 180 degree camera, a wifi outlet, a wifi motion detector and their basic NVR (network video recorder. 4 channels I supply USB hard drive). From what I understand, all of these work WITHOUT a hub over wifi.

 

I believe hubs are required when one uses Zwave or zigbee protocols. I was hoping to stick only to wifi. For home automation,, I want to use some things like if there is motion detection, it will turn on some lights, send my phone a notification if camera detects movement, view camera feed remotely. Possibly send phone alerts when I go away and motion detectors are triggered.

 

I have a few questions. What is this whole UniFi thing? I know there are Dockers. Will these Dockers work with non-Ubiquiti products like the ones from DLink? Even though I bought the NVR, will the UniFi Video socker act as an NVR within my unRAID?

 

Dlink's web site states that:

 

"Our products are Wi-Fi based so they work with any home automation solution products that don't require a hub. D-Link developed a comprehensive app that connects our smart plugs, motion sensors, cameras."

 

Will other wifi only devices indeed work with their app? Or will other apps work with Dlink's wifi only products? Is this a wifi protocol or language something that all these devices to interact with each other?

 

I would love to hear from other users who are using this technology and what apps or real world things you can do with it.

 

Many thanks.

 

H.

Micasa Verde has just recently released the Vera edge which supports almost all of the automation protocols.

This is a timely thread.

 

I'm getting back in to automation after a 10 year hiatus.

 

I have lot of X10 devices wired throughout my home and a Comfort alarm system that integrates with X10.

 

I'm thinking of migrating to z-wave but will be retaining X10 in parallel for a while. As such, I'm looking for PC software that will allow be manage both standards, and perhaps others, with android tablet based controllers around the house.

 

Initial reviews of the options point to HomeSeer as the most flexible and mature solution. Would that be fair or do any of the others have really good support for a hybrid X10 / ZWave installation?

 

(I'll be running all this from an unRAID VM, of course )

 

[aptalca]

I used to use x10 years ago and I was never happy with the reliability. I was constantly tinkering to get it to work right.

 

I now use a vera lite that I bought for $99 a couple of years ago.

 

I paired that with a bunch of cheap ge zwave light switches (lowe's carries them cheap and you can use the coupons easily found online)

 

I also have a couple of zwave thermostats that are just awesome.

 

Best thing about the vera is that the community is amazing and there are a ton of plug-ins written by the community devs.  Plugins for harmony, kodi, advanced programming etc.

 

I also set up an amazon echo with my ha bridge container so I can issue voice commands for all the automated devices. It's glorious.

 

As I'm walking down the steps into the basement I shout "Alexa turn the basement lights on" and the lights come on before I get to the bottom of the steps. Then I say "Alexa, turn the media center on", the receiver and the projector turn on and switch to the right inputs. When I fire up cinemavision (creates a movie theater experience with trivia slides and trailers on kodi) the lights dim to 30% and before the movie starts they turn off.

 

Whenever I pause the movie, the lights brighten to 30% (if they were off previously) and turn off once I resume.

 

If I want to play video games, I say "Alexa, turn the PS4 on" and all the inputs change to the Playstation.

 

I also have other lights around the house that come on 20min before sundown so my dogs aren't scared if we're not home.

 

On Android I tried openremote a while back and created a custom remote app with an awesome design and actual photos from my house, but after I moved to a new place I was feeling lazy to start over again and set up a new remote. I now use imperihome which has a nice interface and does most of what I need.

 

I have my garage door set up for remote control and it let's me know via email if someone accidentally leaves it on.

 

And last but not the least, I have a zwave flood sensor in the basement just in case (luckily never had any alerts so far)

 

[hernandito]

Aptalca that sounds awesome... I am struggling w/ a SmarThings hub... Only got one bulb to work. And cannot do anything fancy.

 

What do you use for the Harmony? The Harmony Hub?

 

What is the "ha bridge container"?

 

Where/how do you program the things like "when pausing a movie, lights brighten 30%" or the setting of inputs on the harmony? Is this a docker, a phone app, something on a computer on your network? I only have iOS devices (no Android).

 

Going to read up about  Vera Lite right now.

 

Thanks,

 

H.

 

[aptalca]

Aptalca that sounds awesome... I am struggling w/ a SmarThings hub... Only got one bulb to work. And cannot do anything fancy.

 

What do you use for the Harmony? The Harmony Hub?

 

What is the "ha bridge container"?

 

Where/how do you program the things like "when pausing a movie, lights brighten 30%" or the setting of inputs on the harmony? Is this a docker, a phone app, something on a computer on your network? I only have iOS devices (no Android).

 

Going to read up about  Vera Lite right now.

 

Thanks,

 

H.

 

For the harmony, I have the hub with the basic remote. The hub is fantastic, it can control devices through ir, bluetooth and wifi(http). The remote is also great, battery lasts for over a year, it is rf, so no need to point to anything, etc. The only downside of the remote is the lack of backlighting.

 

ha bridge container is the "Home-Automation-Bridge" container in community applications. If you click on the newly updated, it is in the second row. It acts as a bridge between the Amazon echo and home automation controllers. It identifies itself to the Echo as a Philips Hue bridge (official Echo partner) and provides the list of controllable devices you set up. When you give commands to the echo to control devices, echo sends them to the home automation bridge thinking it is controlling hue lights. Pretty clever. You can set up the bridge so that a command for "dim the lights to 30%" is sent by the echo to the bridge, which forwards the request to the Vera as an http command. Vera then dims the lights to 30% through zwave.

 

"When pausing a movie" happens thanks to a Vera plugin called XBMCstate. It updates vera with the current kodi state (movie started, paused, stopped, etc.): http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php?topic=13697.0

 

CinemaVision addon for kodi also has capability to send http commands to Vera on certain triggers, like when trailers start, dim the lights, when movie starts, turn them off, etc.

 

Vera can easily accept all these http commands over the lan to trigger events or scenes (macros).

 

Other programming like, turning a light on before sundown and sending an e-mail when garage door is open for more than 15 minutes and such, they can be done on the Vera, with advanced programming through a community plugin called "PLEG".

 

Setting of inputs is all on the harmony. What I love best about the Harmony is that it remembers device states. So for instance, you create an activity called Kodi. You associate that with the following devices: htpc, projector and receiver, and you set the right inputs for each device for that activity. When you tell Harmony to start the Kodi activity, it will turn on all of those associated devices (only if they were off before) and it will switch them to the correct inputs. If you have another activity, say Roku, with the projector, roku and the receiver, but with different inputs selected, when you tell the Harmony to switch to Roku from Kodi, Harmony knows that those devices are already on, so it only switches the inputs. It works really well. You can set all that up through harmony's smart phone app which contacts the hub over wifi.

 

Vera has a Harmony plugin so you can include Harmony activities in your Vera programming if you like.

 

The home automation bridge container can directly send commands to the Harmony as well.

 

I know it sounds complicated but it is pretty simple once you figure out the different components and since I moved into my current place a year ago and set these up, I haven't had to tinker at all. Everything works very reliably and even our guests can use the devices with voice commands easily (no more bunches of remotes lying around where nobody knows which remote does what).

[hernandito]

Many thanks Aptalca... Indeed it sounds overwhelmingly complicated. But I will strive ahead. One thing I have discovered is that the Cree Connected LED bulbs are really lousy. I hate the color temperature (2700K) - I love old fashioned incandescent lighting. They also flicker and behave oddly.

 

On Monday, an electrician friend is going to install one of the GE in-wall z-wave dimmer switches. I will test the reliability/quality of those with my existing lighting. I spent the $100 on the smarttings hub but I am still in time to return it.

 

How do your program the Vera stuff... is it on a phone app, or is there a PC or Web interface?

 

Thanks again.

[aptalca]

 

 

Many thanks Aptalca... Indeed it sounds overwhelmingly complicated. But I will strive ahead. One thing I have discovered is that the Cree Connected LED bulbs are really lousy. I hate the color temperature (2700K) - I love old fashioned incandescent lighting. They also flicker and behave oddly.

 

On Monday, an electrician friend is going to install one of the GE in-wall z-wave dimmer switches. I will test the reliability/quality of those with my existing lighting. I spent the $100 on the smarttings hub but I am still in time to return it.

 

How do your program the Vera stuff... is it on a phone app, or is there a PC or Web interface?

 

Thanks again.

 

If you have a neutral wire in the wall, installing the dimmer switches is a piece of cake.

 

I never used smartthings but I hear it is getting better and better (it has the samsung support behind it). The community is getting larger too so I don't know, it might be a better option in the near future. Vera sure has its shortcomings as well. None of the hubs are perfect.

 

Vera has a web interface you can do all the programming through. It also has smartphone apps for both android and ios but the apps are mainly for devices control and not for programming. I personally use a third party app for mobile control. There are a bunch of those available.

[squirrellydw]

\ One thing I have discovered is that the Cree Connected LED bulbs are really lousy. I hate the color temperature (2700K) - I love old fashioned incandescent lighting. They also flicker and behave oddly.

Thanks again.

 

Are you sure you got soft white 2700K bulbs?  I have regular Cree LED bulbs and I think they look just as good as the old fashinon regular bulbs.

[kris.mccreight]

The Vera is programmed best through the Web interface. If you need help writing a scene let me know. I have been working with my Vera for 4 years now.  My favorite feature so far with my Vera is using the Google voice API to speak to my entire home and being able to tie all of it to the NFL tag system. If you can couple all of that with the Tasker app for android your possibilities are endless

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk

 

 

[wgstarks]

One thing I have discovered is that the Cree Connected LED bulbs are really lousy. I hate the color temperature (2700K) - I love old fashioned incandescent lighting. They also flicker and behave oddly.

We have had quite a few problems using the Cree lamps on the dimming systems at work. Often it helps to increase the circuit load by mixing incandescent and LED lamps. The dimmable LED lamps work well with some systems and not others. The technology is still relatively young and there are bugs to be worked out. You do need to make sure the led lamps you purchase are dimmable. Not all led's are.

 

As far as the color, 2700k is the same color as incandescent. Perhaps the led's were not labeled correctly.

[hernandito]

I am sure the bulbs are 2700k... But I am positive the color temperature is a psychosomatic thing for me. My wife (who is a lighting professional) says the important thing is the Color Rendering Index...? I simply feel the light has a touch of "green" in it and it bugs me a bit.

 

I do have a older Harmony 900 remote, that eliminates the need for all the IR remotes... I love the idea of voice controlling and it managing the lights, and Aptalca's "pausing Kodi brightens the room by 30%" is awesome!

 

If anyone knows of a video or a how-to guide, it would be great...

 

 

[interwebtech]

DISREGARD -- Harmony devices now showing )

 

 

Aptalca that sounds awesome... I am struggling w/ a SmarThings hub... Only got one bulb to work. And cannot do anything fancy.

 

What do you use for the Harmony? The Harmony Hub?

 

What is the "ha bridge container"?

 

Where/how do you program the things like "when pausing a movie, lights brighten 30%" or the setting of inputs on the harmony? Is this a docker, a phone app, something on a computer on your network? I only have iOS devices (no Android).

 

Going to read up about  Vera Lite right now.

 

Thanks,

 

H.

 

For the harmony, I have the hub with the basic remote. The hub is fantastic, it can control devices through ir, bluetooth and wifi(http). The remote is also great, battery lasts for over a year, it is rf, so no need to point to anything, etc. The only downside of the remote is the lack of backlighting.

 

ha bridge container is the "Home-Automation-Bridge" container in community applications. If you click on the newly updated, it is in the second row. It acts as a bridge between the Amazon echo and home automation controllers. It identifies itself to the Echo as a Philips Hue bridge (official Echo partner) and provides the list of controllable devices you set up. When you give commands to the echo to control devices, echo sends them to the home automation bridge thinking it is controlling hue lights. Pretty clever. You can set up the bridge so that a command for "dim the lights to 30%" is sent by the echo to the bridge, which forwards the request to the Vera as an http command. Vera then dims the lights to 30% through zwave.

 

"When pausing a movie" happens thanks to a Vera plugin called XBMCstate. It updates vera with the current kodi state (movie started, paused, stopped, etc.): http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php?topic=13697.0

 

CinemaVision addon for kodi also has capability to send http commands to Vera on certain triggers, like when trailers start, dim the lights, when movie starts, turn them off, etc.

 

Vera can easily accept all these http commands over the lan to trigger events or scenes (macros).

 

Other programming like, turning a light on before sundown and sending an e-mail when garage door is open for more than 15 minutes and such, they can be done on the Vera, with advanced programming through a community plugin called "PLEG".

 

Setting of inputs is all on the harmony. What I love best about the Harmony is that it remembers device states. So for instance, you create an activity called Kodi. You associate that with the following devices: htpc, projector and receiver, and you set the right inputs for each device for that activity. When you tell Harmony to start the Kodi activity, it will turn on all of those associated devices (only if they were off before) and it will switch them to the correct inputs. If you have another activity, say Roku, with the projector, roku and the receiver, but with different inputs selected, when you tell the Harmony to switch to Roku from Kodi, Harmony knows that those devices are already on, so it only switches the inputs. It works really well. You can set all that up through harmony's smart phone app which contacts the hub over wifi.

 

Vera has a Harmony plugin so you can include Harmony activities in your Vera programming if you like.

 

The home automation bridge container can directly send commands to the Harmony as well.

 

I know it sounds complicated but it is pretty simple once you figure out the different components and since I moved into my current place a year ago and set these up, I haven't had to tinker at all. Everything works very reliably and even our guests can use the devices with voice commands easily (no more bunches of remotes lying around where nobody knows which remote does what).

 

really interested in getting this working. Does this require a USB device for communication? I have installed docker and webUI is working. But doesn't see devices in my home (AZ Echo, harmony hub, smartthings hub, various z-wave bulbs, switches, etc.). I entered the unRaid IP, Harmony hub IP (I have 2 actually, used the one my router has labeled correctly ) and Harmony U/P in advanced config.

[aptalca]

That was my bad, I forgot to update the template.

 

With the new versions, you only have to enter the unraid ip and the port under advanced settings. All other info is now entered in the webgui once installed.

 

I now removed all those unused entries for vera and harmony info from the template.

[Bugman1400]

Is the hardware required to use Vera? The advantage for HomeSeer is that I can use my UnRAID server since it stays on all the time anyways. Is there a software only version of Vera?

[aptalca]

Is the hardware required to use Vera? The advantage for HomeSeer is that I can use my UnRAID server since it stays on all the time anyways. Is there a software only version of Vera?

Vera is the zwave controller. You need a hardware zwave controller to talk to the zwave devices. Homeseer itself is software only, but still requires a separate hardware zwave controller. Do you have one?

 

If so, you can use this bridge to send http commands to any software including homeseer, then you don't need a vera

[dmacias]

+1 for Vera. I have used Home$eer, Mcontrol, harmony and dabbled with OpenHab which can integrate with Vera. I find my Vera lite very reliable and really don't touch it unless I'm playing with Arduino devices which work with Vera too. The only thing about Vera is the interface can be a bit slow but I'm hoping a vera edge will fix some of that. I also have a bunch of Nevo Q50 zwave remotes and Nevo connects that can be found cheap sometimes on eBay. I can send scenes to Vera or control zwave devices directly. I have scenes that send http commands to kodi also. Like reboot.