Smart home

[Led_Zep]

I picked up an Amazon Echo dot, which is awesome in itself. Just bought one of the smart outlets and 2 smart bulbs. Skynet will be fully operational soon! Anyone else been doing this at all?

 

[Blown 89]

We're slowly automating our house too. It's nice to set everything on a schedule. I haven't had to turn on or dim a light in the house in weeks. I'm working on getting the Echo to control my home theater pc right now.

 

[KevSher20]

How does the echo work? I haven't seen this. Maybe I live under a rock or something.


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[Led_Zep]

20 min video review, I got the dot. $50, great deal.

 

[Blown 89]

How does the echo work? I haven't seen this. Maybe I live under a rock or something.


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You talk to it and it answers questions, as things to shopping lists, read recipes, reads the news, plays music, etc.

You can also either manually tell it to control smart home features (lights, temperature, TVs, etc) or you can program them to perform functions on their own. For instance, it's raining in Phoenix today so my indoor lights automatically turn on low at a cookie that matches the light outside so that you don't notice the lights are barely on but the room isn't too dark to do things. At sunset my lights automatically turn on with a rose hue that makes the sunset feel like it's filling out house and then brightens to a cool temperature until dinner time when they go warm for a while then fade out around bedtime and kick on the accessory lights in a nightlight mode. If I want to deviate from the schedule I give it a verbal consent from any room in the house.

It sounds retarded but it's quite useful. The possibilities for these things are limited to your creativity.

 

[KevSher20]

You talk to it and it answers questions, as things to shopping lists, read recipes, reads the news, plays music, etc.

You can also either manually tell it to control smart home features (lights, temperature, TVs, etc) or you can program them to perform functions on their own. For instance, it's raining in Phoenix today so my indoor lights automatically turn on low at a cookie that matches the light outside so that you don't notice the lights are barely on but the room isn't too dark to do things. At sunset my lights automatically turn on with a rose hue that makes the sunset feel like it's filling out house and then brightens to a cool temperature until dinner time when they go warm for a while then fade out around bedtime and kick on the accessory lights in a nightlight mode. If I want to deviate from the schedule I give it a verbal consent from any room in the house.

It sounds retarded but it's quite useful. The possibilities for these things are limited to your creativity.

That sounds actually pretty cool. I forget a lot of stuff sometimes lol I like what you have done with the lights and such. Might have to get one of these


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[ur bittn]

So it's not a Chinese spy? lol I've been thinking about it, I got my daughter that ring doorbell for xmas. That thing is very cool.

 

[nxhappy]

I was not impressed at all by Alexa. Most of the time it could not understand commands. Plus they can hear everything you say.....**** that!

 

[Blown 89]

I was not impressed at all by Alexa. Most of the time it could not understand commands. Plus they can hear everything you say.....**** that!

So can your phone. If you don't like a device hearing everything you say you should get an old flip phone. Siri and Google both actively listen as well.

 

[nxhappy]

So can your phone. If you don't like a device hearing everything you say you should get an old flip phone. Siri and Google both actively listen as well.

true

 

[Led_Zep]

Speak english, it understands all. Lol

 

[carrrnuttt]

I was an Alexa early adopter. Got an early Prime invite. Now it can control all my themostats (I use the ecobee smart thermostat systems), a couple of smart bulbs, and my home alarm system.

As we remodel our house little by little, we plan to make it a little bit smarter, including full on smart lighting throughout the house, and smart locks as well. We already talk to our TVs/sound systems to turn them on/off as well as volume using Xbox Ones w/ Kinect to control them.

 

[rotor_powerd]

We have a full size Echo that was given to us as a gift. It only gets used to play music in the kitchen. We also got an Ecobee thermostat a while back, I love being able to turn on the heat or AC from the couch or in bed in the middle of the night if it gets hot/cold. The remote sensor has really leveled out the temperature difference between upstairs and downstairs too, it was worth every penny just for that.

 

[Stanley]

You talk to it and it answers questions, as things to shopping lists, read recipes, reads the news, plays music, etc.

You can also either manually tell it to control smart home features (lights, temperature, TVs, etc) or you can program them to perform functions on their own. For instance, it's raining in Phoenix today so my indoor lights automatically turn on low at a cookie that matches the light outside so that you don't notice the lights are barely on but the room isn't too dark to do things. At sunset my lights automatically turn on with a rose hue that makes the sunset feel like it's filling out house and then brightens to a cool temperature until dinner time when they go warm for a while then fade out around bedtime and kick on the accessory lights in a nightlight mode. If I want to deviate from the schedule I give it a verbal consent from any room in the house.

It sounds retarded but it's quite useful. The possibilities for these things are limited to your creativity.

Can you post what items you have and how it's set up to control everything?

I'm about to close on a house and would like to add some smart features.

 

[DHG1078]

For you guys with smart devices, including thermostats, light bulbs, door bells, etc., some security experts recommend using multiple routers to separate the "smart" devices from your laptop/cell phones that you enter sensitive information such as credit card numbers on as every smart device is a potential "in." Its usually referred to as the "three dumb routers" method.

 

[rotor_powerd]

For you guys with smart devices, including thermostats, light bulbs, door bells, etc., some security experts recommend using multiple routers to separate the "smart" devices from your laptop/cell phones that you enter sensitive information such as credit card numbers on as every smart device is a potential "in." Its usually referred to as the "three dumb routers" method.

With "three dumb routers," the routers are still going to be on the same network as whatever their gateway is (Most likely the ISP modem/router), so that doesn't really do much. To be truly separate you would need two WiFi networks on seperate VLAN's with an ACL in place that doesn't allow them to be able to communicate with each other, only the internet. I don't mess with any residential grade equipment, but I don't think most off the shelf products from Best Buy will support that sort of configuration. I could be wrong.

 

[Blown 89]

Can you post what items you have and how it's set up to control everything?

I'm about to close on a house and would like to add some smart features.

I have the Philips Hue bulbs and string lights but I suggest looking at the Lifx bulbs. The only reason we didn't get them is because the Hue bulbs were dirt cheap on black Friday.

The FireTV stick and Plex will automate your TV although I'm going a different route with Kodi...one I wouldn't recommend. We also have Rind doorbells and Kevo locks. Kevos don't work out of the box with the Echo but I don't plan on doing anything to connect them. We have a Nest but I really don't like it.

Look into something called, "If This Then That." It's a way to program functionality into your smart devices. The sky is the limit with it. There are a bunch of forums out there that will give you ideas on what to use it for and how to program them.

A lot of people are worried about security or someone standing outside of your house yelling at Alexa and ordering things off Prime but let's be honest....nobody is going to stand outside your house and yell commands at your Echo.

 

[Stanley]

I will look into that.

Kodi/titanium is the shit.

 

[RDJ]

I will not willingly participate in the drive to the IOT. to much potential for hackable

 

[13COBRA]

I have 0 interest in making my home "smart".

I have cameras and a security system, but that's the extent of my smartness.