Browse Forums Home Theatre & Automation 1 May 27, 2016 3:43 pm Hi, Did a bit of searching but couldn't find any thread in relation to DIY Home Automation. Does anyone have experience with DIY HA or currently trying something? Appreciate it if you could share any useful information and we can build this thread with DIY HA information. Please feel free to link if there are any other sites that has information in relation to this topic. Cheers, Re: DIY Home Automation 2May 28, 2016 12:07 pm I'm at the very early stages with my build but will be doing a home automation once there .. I've done my research and have a good idea of what I want to automate as there are some many things that can be done . My suggestion would be to find decide what things u want to automate and work backwards ... What I have factored. Samsung smart Hub - that will become the automation hub. Amazon Echo - that will be the audio interface connected to smart hub so u can do voice commands to control e.g Amazon turn TV On , Amazon turn lights on etc .... Now the hub is setup, you can start adding accessories for automation - Philips hue or Osram lights - to control lights , dimmer and color by the app or Amazon echo voice - TV added to S. smart hub to control TV. Has to be a compatible Smart TV - Samsung - motion sensor to control as a security sensor when I'm away - CCTV - I'm thinking of adding one outside only that connects to the hub. I haven't found the right product yet. - Heating and Cooling - again would depend on the model and if compactible would be able to control thermostats to control heating and cooling -not having a theatre room so not doing much there however you can find a Boss System that can be interfered easily to this if you want audio. Amazon echo has a built in speaker as well so can easily talk to it to play track etc . This is a high level of what I'm planning, I'll start buying kits later and configuring etc so I haven't configured this yet . Share more details of what you would like to do and hopefully I can give more info .. Hope this is something to start with .. Cheers Re: DIY Home Automation 3May 28, 2016 7:59 pm Hi Sizz, Good luck with your build. Nice to see you have very clear view on what you would like to achieve with home automation. I am more in "Testing the waters" state and would like to start with some lighting controls and see whether HA is something for me or not.. I believe the initial investment on the hub will be costly and adding more accessories over time might be cheaper. I am thinking of some automated lighting controls... Cheers, Re: DIY Home Automation 4May 28, 2016 9:50 pm You might be suprized with the pricing .. As they aren't too expensive vs if you went to a company doing this for you ... Samsung hub starter kit is around 300 including a few sensors and connector plugs .. If you want lights on then don't need a hub .you can either opt for Philips hue for Osram .. Both similar although Osram is slightly cheaper ... And gives u control via the app... Let me know if you do go down this path and how the products perform .... Re: DIY Home Automation 5May 29, 2016 11:22 am You'd be surprised at the different apps available for smart phones that can do this. Having the unit controlling the appliance in question ie lights, Air-con, CCTV etc is the biggest hurdle or rather having an appliance that can be controlled by a smart phone. I recently saw a gas fire controlled by an app. As technology gets better more companies are going down this route. Having one app that controls all these rather than multiple apps for your HA may be another issue. Stewie Re: DIY Home Automation 6May 30, 2016 3:37 pm Hi Sizz, I have ordered a LiFX. I will keep you posted. Cheers, Re: DIY Home Automation 7Jun 02, 2016 9:17 am RegVic Hi Sizz, I have ordered a LiFX. I will keep you posted. Cheers, Hi RegVic that LiFX looks great! let us know how you go with it. I am in the same boat, wanting to do some HA when we build, lights are the priority. I was thinking motion sensor ones also in hallways and bathrooms. Also a Schlage Century Touchscreen Deadbolt. Cheers Re: DIY Home Automation 8Jun 02, 2016 9:29 am The issue I see with bulbs like the LiFX and the Hue is that the most common task you want to do with a light is turn it on/off as you enter/exit the room. You want to do this via the wall switch, not have to pull out your phone and mess around with an app. If the light is turned off at the wall switch then you can't turn it on with the app anyway. I can't really think of a time when I wanted to change the colour of my lights. I have C-Bus and while I can control my lights with an app, 99% of the time we just use the button on the wall. Re: DIY Home Automation 9Jun 03, 2016 9:54 am Landy9 RegVic Hi Sizz, I have ordered a LiFX. I will keep you posted. Cheers, Hi RegVic that LiFX looks great! let us know how you go with it. I am in the same boat, wanting to do some HA when we build, lights are the priority. I was thinking motion sensor ones also in hallways and bathrooms. Also a Schlage Century Touchscreen Deadbolt. Cheers Ordered on Tuesday and got it this morning. First impression..I am really happy with it..Yet to try schedules and other functions. Schlage Deadbolt looks good and employs Z-wave. cheers, Re: DIY Home Automation 10Jun 03, 2016 10:04 am paulw11 The issue I see with bulbs like the LiFX and the Hue is that the most common task you want to do with a light is turn it on/off as you enter/exit the room. You want to do this via the wall switch, not have to pull out your phone and mess around with an app. If the light is turned off at the wall switch then you can't turn it on with the app anyway. I can't really think of a time when I wanted to change the colour of my lights. I have C-Bus and while I can control my lights with an app, 99% of the time we just use the button on the wall. Hi Paul, I guess it depends.... In my case: - I am thinking of creating schedules so I don't need to turn it on/off - I hate walking to the kitchen to turn the light off when I am watching TV in the living room - Will be convenient once I start integrating lights with other Internet Of Things like automated roller blinds or even integrate with something simple like Logitech harmony hub and you can program to switch the lights off when you start a movie - Also, I am trying Google now so I can give voice commands to operate the lights Cheers, Re: DIY Home Automation 11Jun 10, 2016 1:44 pm Been a week and I really enjoy using LiFX.. Learnt to do the schedules and integrated with Imprihome and IFTTT... Lots of interesting recipes in IFTTT Cheers, Re: DIY Home Automation 12Jun 12, 2016 9:34 am That is cool RegVic, I've started looking at this product as an option as well after ur feedback . Also never had automated roller blinds in my list but that's another one to check out now .. Although don't have an idea of pricing yet !! IFTTT seems really good with expanding on what u can do with ur existing kits and a easy to use platform. Good to see ur automation is evolving .... Can't wait to start my automation but I need to build my house first Re: DIY Home Automation 14Jul 22, 2016 5:10 pm RegVic paulw11 The issue I see with bulbs like the LiFX and the Hue is that the most common task you want to do with a light is turn it on/off as you enter/exit the room. You want to do this via the wall switch, not have to pull out your phone and mess around with an app. If the light is turned off at the wall switch then you can't turn it on with the app anyway. I can't really think of a time when I wanted to change the colour of my lights. I have C-Bus and while I can control my lights with an app, 99% of the time we just use the button on the wall. Hi Paul, I guess it depends.... In my case: - I am thinking of creating schedules so I don't need to turn it on/off - I hate walking to the kitchen to turn the light off when I am watching TV in the living room - Will be convenient once I start integrating lights with other Internet Of Things like automated roller blinds or even integrate with something simple like Logitech harmony hub and you can program to switch the lights off when you start a movie - Also, I am trying Google now so I can give voice commands to operate the lights Cheers, We have lifx and love them. We also have a few Belkin wemo's and sonos throughout the house. Here are some examples of automations we have using IFTTT or Tasker: *Turn on bedside pendants and living room lamp at sunset (goes by bom sunset time so changes each for season rather than at a set time) - lifx *Turn on front facade lights at sunset - WeMo switch on facade lights circuit *Turn lamp in nursery to red (red light encourages sleep and makes checking in baby easier in middle of night when house is dark as your eyes don't need to adjust) and play white noise at babies bedtime *Kill switch to turn off all lights and music at 11pm on weeknights. *Cook mode: group kitchen sonos with TV playbar and set volume to be heard over the frypan As for colours with lifx, there are some practical uses rather than just disco lights for parties (visitors do find this entertaining mind you): *Fade on a bright light in bedroom if you need to wake pre dawn (stimulates sunlight and helps you wake up) *Red light for sleeping or night walking (bathroom/hallway lights at night) *Blue light keeps you awake if you need to stay up late for some reason (ie working!) My biggest bug bear with all these devices is being multiple apps, haven't found one good hub yet that works with everything which is a pain Re: DIY Home Automation 15Jul 28, 2016 9:29 pm nennles RegVic paulw11 The issue I see with bulbs like the LiFX and the Hue is that the most common task you want to do with a light is turn it on/off as you enter/exit the room. You want to do this via the wall switch, not have to pull out your phone and mess around with an app. If the light is turned off at the wall switch then you can't turn it on with the app anyway. I can't really think of a time when I wanted to change the colour of my lights. I have C-Bus and while I can control my lights with an app, 99% of the time we just use the button on the wall. Hi Paul, I guess it depends.... In my case: - I am thinking of creating schedules so I don't need to turn it on/off - I hate walking to the kitchen to turn the light off when I am watching TV in the living room - Will be convenient once I start integrating lights with other Internet Of Things like automated roller blinds or even integrate with something simple like Logitech harmony hub and you can program to switch the lights off when you start a movie - Also, I am trying Google now so I can give voice commands to operate the lights Cheers, We have lifx and love them. We also have a few Belkin wemo's and sonos throughout the house. Here are some examples of automations we have using IFTTT or Tasker: *Turn on bedside pendants and living room lamp at sunset (goes by bom sunset time so changes each for season rather than at a set time) - lifx *Turn on front facade lights at sunset - WeMo switch on facade lights circuit *Turn lamp in nursery to red (red light encourages sleep and makes checking in baby easier in middle of night when house is dark as your eyes don't need to adjust) and play white noise at babies bedtime *Kill switch to turn off all lights and music at 11pm on weeknights. *Cook mode: group kitchen sonos with TV playbar and set volume to be heard over the frypan As for colours with lifx, there are some practical uses rather than just disco lights for parties (visitors do find this entertaining mind you): *Fade on a bright light in bedroom if you need to wake pre dawn (stimulates sunlight and helps you wake up) *Red light for sleeping or night walking (bathroom/hallway lights at night) *Blue light keeps you awake if you need to stay up late for some reason (ie working!) My biggest bug bear with all these devices is being multiple apps, haven't found one good hub yet that works with everything which is a pain Some brilliant recipes and really like your customisations and how it's configure and forget . I've been so focussed on getting the selections and finalising contract , haven't looked much up on this topic. Can't wait for the build to start so I can start playing with these funky stuff. Re - having one platform for controlling everything,have you considered using Amazon echo .. Voice interface may be the common platform .. Don't know how practical it would be but worth bragging about Glendale 39 build viewtopic.php?f=31&t=83907 Re: DIY Home Automation 16Aug 07, 2016 7:39 pm nennles My biggest bug bear with all these devices is being multiple apps, haven't found one good hub yet that works with everything which is a pain You might be able to use ImperiHome to have all controls in one place, but personally I use a Vera Edge, which has Apps for my Sonos, Yamaha Amp and various other things. Then I just use Scenes to run things, such as every evening the indoor lights come on at sunset (according to location), then the garden lights come on 10 minutes later. If I have visitors, the lights outside the front door comes on, the garden uplights are switched on, shutters are raised if they were closed, the Yamaha is turned on, three of the Sonos are grouped (so they play the same music), and music starts playing. When they are gone, the process is reversed. 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