What's your "best" home automation feature?

#1

Curious to know if anyone has came up with clever ways to do things within home automation. Could be simple things, or more intricate systems. Whatever feature you think is the best in your smart home system :slight_smile:

For me its a simple rule that makes an alarm go off if i haven’t left the bedroom when i should be up. It have saved me countless times from oversleeping. It consist of a z-wave based motion sensor in my hallway outside the bedroom, and my scheduled wake-up time. If it doesen’t detect motion a certain time after the scheduled time, it activates the “overslept” alarm. Simple, yet effective.

#2

My favorite feature of my smart home are my blinds because it is one less thing I have to do everyday. This is a really good question and am curious what other people will say.

#3

I like my Irrigation system, now I can water and be setting and have a beer at the same time

#4

Aww… mine isn’t built yet, but I want to join in too!

(grain of salt)

The plan is to have a bar bot that will mix me drinks via voice command at my bar, but that’s a long way off.

A more realistic one will be to have all of the lights dim, blinds close, and curtains draw shut (which will be my favorite part) when Plex starts up a movie.

It’s all a pipe dream for now though, I just finished building the server :sweat:

#5

Don’t worry, ideas are welcome too :slight_smile: Sounds like a really cool project with the drink mixer. Check out the channel GreatScott, he has made one of those drinks machines in the past. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7GkGeZrb2Y&t=367s Really cool channel if you want to know more about electronics.

#6

That was pretty neat. I’ve seen a couple of these with the peristaltic pumps, but not one done by weight with high volume pumps like that. I might have to rethink how I want to do this. A lot of the off-the-shelf pumps are slow, or expensive, or both, and I’m not sure I want to have to build my own.

#7

Have a look here : http://deeplocal.com/mocktailsmixer/ Everything is opensource :wink:

As for me, if the door of the room with the cat litter is closed for more than 20 minutes, my speaker starts saying “Attention attention, the cat may want to go to the bathroom and she can’t”.
To achieve this, I am using OpenHab, an Aqara door sensor and a Google Home (openhab integration)
If anyone is interested, I can share the openhab rule ^^

#8

That is brilliant.

Thanks for the link too, definitely digging it.

#9

Thats absolutely brilliant!

I’m wondering a bit about the Google Home integration with Openhab. How is it to set up? Been looking into trying out Google Home, but haven’t had the time yet. Currently I’m using Amazon Alexa, but it doesn’t allow for audio notifications from scripts etc.

#10

Hi @kad,
For Google Home integration, I am using the binding, you can find more infos here : https://community.openhab.org/t/official-google-assistant-integration-for-openhab/40425

As for the litter cat, I am just using the Google Home as a speaker. To do so, I am using “VoiceRSS Text-to-Speech”. You can activate and configure it in Paper UI > Addons > Voice.
Then, in you rule, simply use the command :

say("Attention attention, the cat may want to go to the bathroom and she can’t")

and it will make your Google home to speak :slight_smile:

#11

I use the openhab’s LIRC binding to control the fan in my room, and the AC as well.

#12

I like the part of my OpenHAB system that will close south facing blinds during the day only if the living room gets above 24 degrees C. In the winter the sun can warm the room but in the summer, openhab keeps it from heating up too much.
Also Alexa voice commands are very useful every day. Some plug in dimmers and smart plugs are just more convenient to control by voice rather than a phone or computer.

#13

Awesome feature @SimtechBen ! Been thinking of doing something similar, mind if i could have a look at the script for this?

#14

Here is the simple rule:
I didn’t want all of the blinds on one power supply firing at once so hence the timers

var Timer timer = null
rule “Daylight! Too Hot”
when Item Temperature_FF_Living changed
then
if ((Temperature_FF_Living.state >=23) && (Daylight == ON))
{
OfficeBlind.sendCommand(0)

createTimer(now.plusSeconds(3)) [|
    blindeast.sendCommand(0)
    timer = null
]
createTimer(now.plusSeconds(6)) [|
    blindkitchen.sendCommand(0)
    timer = null
] 
createTimer(now.plusSeconds(9)) [|
	blindsouth.sendCommand(100)
    timer = null
]
createTimer(now.plusSeconds(12)) [|
	blindwest.sendCommand(100)
    timer = null
]
}

end

#15

This is a very interesting and useful topic how to make a smart home. Thank you all, I took for myself a few good thoughts on arranging a house.

#16

My favorite feature is my X-10 interface that I created. You can find more details about it here: https://hackaday.io/project/161271-x-10-firecracker-cm17a-controller

#17

Mine favorite is my integration of my X10 devices into the Alexa environment. Wrote a complete how to here:
http://coreyswrite.com/electronics/home-automation/amazon-echo-x10-home-control-updated/

#18

Thanks for the write up. I have plans to integrate a CM15a with Mochad, but my device has been working so well I haven’t placed a high priority on that. My new favorite home automation feature is my HDMI switch that I put an ESP8266 into as I had mentioned in chat on the livestream today. It has wires hoooked up to the LEDs to check the current status and simulates pressing the button to change the input. Everything fits in the original case and the built in controls still work as expected, so just looking at it, you could never tell it’s been modified.

#19

the most useful feature in mi home is best self cleaning litter box 2019.

#20

Another fun and motivating video series to watch are Naomi Wu’s Barbot build. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKa0YGDu1KI&list=PLzGeUG3dR0tLku8tKcVwC1GrTE-Kva3R9 There are 3 in the series.

I use those peristaltic pumps like in the GreatScott video linked above. I found them on Amazon by searching doser pumps and they were about $9 each. Alas, I use them for hydroponic use and not a barbot but i can report that they are very accurate dispensing pumps.