Topic Tuesday #157 2015/07/21 "Home Automation - Part 3 - Amazon Echo and Wink"

Topic Tuesday #157 2015/07/21 "Home Automation - Part 3 - Amazon Echo"

My quest for a Star Trek home experience has led me to Amazon.com. Amazon has released a fascinating device, the Echo. It is an amazing gadget! It is a black cylinder with two high quality speakers, seven microphones, wireless networking, and a brain in the cloud. You wake the device by calling a keyword. It is defaulted to "Alexa" and thanks to that cleverness and a pleasant feminine voice, it is a she, and she is pretty slick.  

Heavy on facts and the occasional dad joke sense of humor, Alexa doesn't have the personality of Apple's Siri, but it doesn't need to be snarky, I have enough of that within my walls. The microphones are pretty sensitive and can listen for the keyword (which can be changed from Alexa to Amazon - but why do that?!) even over music at high volume, and it is very loud when you want it to be. The Echo, just 'Alexa' from here on, has some other tricks up its sleeve- er.. cylinder...

Back in #148 2015/05/19 "Home Automation - Part 2" I wrongly said that Wink was limited to lighting. I was looking at only one of their products lines, the Wink Link, after getting that deal on their z-wave light bulbs. Now that I have been playing with Alexa, I found out that she can talk to the Wink Hub and also another product I am playing with from Wemo.

Wink is rather well equipped for all manner of devices. and has 1GB of storage and 512MB RAM to be ready for the future.

The Wink Hub can communicate with Z-Wave+ (version 4 of the standard) as well as ZigBee protocols, just like the SmartThings Hub. The Wink Hub is also half the price and about 4 times the size of the SmartThings hub. GE, the makers of Wink, are also actively promoting and advancing their product Wink line, with a focus on high end consumers. I am just getting my Wink Hub connected to devices but it promises similar functionality to SmartThings at half the cost with integration to Alexa.

From left to right: The Wink Hub, The SmartThings Hub, Amazon Echo (muted to show the red ring)

WeMo Insight Switch + Bunn Coffee Pot = GLORY

To give you an idea of what the end game is looking like, just imagine Star Trek or Iron Man. This morning I said, "Alexa, turn on the coffee pot." And she did. I had configured the WeMo Insight Switch to be named "Coffee Pot" and after Alexa scanned the network and found the little guy it was able to turn it on or off.

I am not going to lie, I felt like a badass. I was a technomage bending the will of technology to do my bidding by just offering a phrase! Magic. (see Clarke's 3 laws)

Below is a video I found that shows a teardown of the Wink Hub - SO WE DON'T HAVE TO. Crazy informative and in-depth.  Thanks to TheHouseBlog for the research and effort.

Topic Tuesday #148 2015/05/19 "Home Automation - Part 2"

Topic Tuesday #148 2015/05/19 "Home Automation - Part 2"

   Today I was thrust back into home automation with two things.

   The first was a bulb I was testing with SmartThings, the GE Link A19, Soft White (2700K), 60 Watt Equivalent. GE has an automation product line (www.wink.com), similar to SmartThings (but limited to lighting only), which they say is a MUST for the A19. The Link A19 and the entire Philips Hue collection (which I have not delved into, yet), are compatible with the SmartThings system and any controller capable of using ZigBee protocol that we discussed some of in Part 1. .  The A19 does not change colors, but is quite bright and can dim to a very cozy level. At this time, the GE Link A19 will set you back about $15 from either Amazon http://amzn.to/1Hry9Or or Home Depot. They have a long life (22+ years 3 hours a day),  and at 12 watts max, they sip the juice. Even if they weren't capable of being controlled wirelessly, they make a great incandescent and CFL replacement.  And that brings me to the woe of why this bulb got my attention again today.

   There was a power outage and for the second time, the bulb lost connection to the hub and had to be removed and added back to the system. This is only a big deal because SmartThings will not allow you to delete a device if there is an "app" linked to it. I had this bulb programmed to slowly come on at dawn and then to come on at sunset. BTW, having a bright light near you when you are trying to wake up, does help. So that was a bit of a pain, and with the power situation I have here in Florida, brown outs happen quite a lot. I moved it to a UPS next to my bed so I have my alarm, my device chargers, and this on backup so I will never be late waking up (due to minor technical failures).  But this is impractical if I wanted to use it in a location that I can't slap a backup on... Still, it's a great bulb when it works and when it's not smart, it's still pretty good for the price. I will be looking at other bulbs soon. 

   The second thing that snapped me to attention was a tremendous sale on an item that I had my eye on. Amazon was running this beauty at 83% off. Aeon Labs AEDSB09104ZWUS Aeotec Z-Wave Smart Energy Monitor http://amzn.to/1BaP1nQ

Aeon Labs Aeotec Smart Energy Monitor

"What does that do?" you might ask yourself, and that's a great question. It is an energy flow meter. It has two current transformer clamps the go around the AC mains in the house's breaker panel/load center to detect energy usage for the entire house. You could use the clamps around the hot and neutral power for other heavy equipment if you can separate them, but I will leave that hacking to your imaginations. For my use, it will be installed in the load center for my home, and will monitor and report the power habits of my household. I will be able to chart average usage, and them modify my behavior for greater energy savings. I will also be using it to figure out the exact amounts for when I install my generator transfer switch and can make the best use out of those watts in an emergency. This monitor is easy to install and will not require an electrician. From what I have found, it will operate on battery for about a year, but will provide rapid feedback if plugged into an external source. More on that and more in a later post. 

Topic Tuesday #134 2015/02/10 "To Clean Or Not Too Clean?"

Topic Tuesday #134 2015/02/10 "To Clean Or Not Too Clean?"

I'm sure I had a topic around here someplace... But I lost it when I had to start moving furniture in the living room. Last week, I told you about my drain problems. Today I was told the plumbers would be at my house tomorrow and would be trenching through my living room to fix the cast iron. 

So... I will leave you with the thought on my mind:
How much do you clean when the purpose of someones visit is to destroy part of your house?