Home Automation

[ohmman]

Creating this thread as a place to move some posts from the Homelink thread as well as create discussion about general home automation.

- - - Updated - - -

What software do you use to control your events? I run Homeseer, and find it robust and flexible.

Didn't know they could be hosted on a Mac instead of on the phone. There is a leftover Mini here which is too early-model to be of use as a MYTH recorder or a file-server. Oh boy here we go.

I use Indigo for Mac. I have migrated from using a large collection of personally maintained scripts to Indigo, and it's been a much better solution. I still have my Python tie-ins, but Indigo centralizes everything nicely, and it is very well extended (Sonos, Hue, Jandy Pool connector, etc.).

I have an Aeon Labs Z-Stick to control my Z-Wave items from Indigo. I also have some leftover RadioRA from a long time ago, which I've integrated.

If you have a Mini that's capable of running Indigo, you could also install node and the teslams project detailed in this thread. Once you have that installed, I could give you my script that updates Indigo with the latest MongoDB information and you can trigger based off of events (car in Drive, location, etc.).

 

[SW2Fiddler]

Any way to determine if This LED RF Remote Control unit would work with Homelink, short of ordering it and testing?
"LE 5000054 Mini Wireless Remote Controller for Single Color LED Strip Lights, RF Dimmer for 12 V DC LED Light Strips, 12A"
For that matter, how does one find out Homelinkyness for a given Remote Control device?

 

[Kbra]

I use the SmartThings V2 Hub. In general it has worked out very well and is easy to program from your phone. It has the capability to get complex or leave it very simple. Its compatible with a ton of devices and sensors.

 

[beeeerock]

Any way to determine if This LED RF Remote Control unit would work with Homelink, short of ordering it and testing?
"LE 5000054 Mini Wireless Remote Controller for Single Color LED Strip Lights, RF Dimmer for 12 V DC LED Light Strips, 12A"
For that matter, how does one find out Homelinkyness for a given Remote Control device?

I suspect anything that would work with Homelink will be clearly advertised as such. Homelink will use a set frequency range and *most importantly*, include some sort of code in the transmission that ensures remotes won't randomly open other doors on your street. Or, stated another way, so that you don't have to worry about your door being opened by someone else!

Remotes like what are included with that quoted light strip would be crude at best, because security isn't a big concern. Think digital cellular transmission vs. a kids analog walkie-talkie.

 

[Andyw2100]

I suspect anything that would work with Homelink will be clearly advertised as such. Homelink will use a set frequency range and *most importantly*, include some sort of code in the transmission that ensures remotes won't randomly open other doors on your street. Or, stated another way, so that you don't have to worry about your door being opened by someone else!

Remotes like what are included with that quoted light strip would be crude at best, because security isn't a big concern. Think digital cellular transmission vs. a kids analog walkie-talkie.

I think you have that a bit backwards.

You garage door opener is responsible for making sure other remotes can't randomly open it. Homelink just has to be sophisticated enough to mimic whatever it is your garage door opener is saying. That doesn't mean Homelink can't also relay a much simpler signal.

As an example of a device that probably has a simple signal, take a look at the remote control for Artsci's front camera switch. I believe the remote was probably made in China, and it looks like a pretty inexpensively made, simple remote. Homelink learned the code it uses, and I now control my front camera switch with Homelink instead of with the remote.

 

[Cyclone]

One of my garage doors is of the dip-switch variety. The car's Homelink learned that without any issue. Now, someday I just need to get around to changing that to a rolling code garage door opening. Side bonus, I have the replacement opener and its belt-driven vs. chain-driven, so it should be much quieter.

 

[beeeerock]

I think you have that a bit backwards.

I may. I base my comments on what I saw on the Homelink site:

Through a simple training process, HomeLink duplicates the codes of the original transmitter through our relationships within the Access Control Industry. HomeLink is capable of learning both fixed and rolling (encrypted) codes.

That suggests to me that there is some intelligence in the Homelink system and it's not just the RF equivalent of a telephone answering machine recording device. I expect it has been pre-configured to recognize and imitate a variety of coded transmitters from various manufacturers. Whether that means it can simply record and replay the transmission from any RF device transmitting within Homelink's frequency range, I admit I don't know.

However, if the comment about their relationship with the 'Access Control Industry' is any indication, it would seem that Homelink is designed to actually read the content of a transmission and use the data to form future transmissions - fixed code or rolling code... i.e., not just record and replay the signal. But that's must my interpretation.

 

[SpiceWare]

I'm using Indigo as well, set it up back in October on the Mac mini that drives my HDTV. At the moment it works with a bunch of Insteon switches and a handful of X10 switches that I plan to replace next month.

I have some old Insteon devices from about 10 years ago that didn't want to talk to new ones I picked up back in October. A friend's using Indigo and suggested I try it - I was able to use it in demo mode to establish connections between the old & new devices, so I registered it. Only issue I've had is one of the Mini Remotes I picked up in October has newer firmware than Indigo knows about it, so it won't let me add that remote to its database. The box for the remote was labeled Rev 1.5, while the remote itself is labeled 1.7.

I've not done much with it yet beyond adding a couple schedules to make my porch lights turn on/off at sunset/daybreak, and creating a half dozen triggers for things like "all on/all off" buttons by the front door and garage door.

I do like how you can access Indigo from other devices. I use my Mac Pro to edit the triggers and such as it's easier to work on it than the mini. I also connect to it from my iPad and iPhone to remotely turn lights on/off.

The teslams project looks pretty interesting, will have to remember that for when I get my Tesla.

 

[cgiGuy]

Another Indigo user here. Been using it for a year or so, now, and I'm only upset that it took me so long to find it.

I have Insteon, Hue, Sonos, Plex, Amazon Echo, and of course the Tesla integrated into it.

Love that you can create your own control pages as well.

 

[jayman]

I use homeseer. I then use hjespers/teslams · GitHub to control my car. I have integrated it with siri and alexa. Alexa heats my car for me using iftt if my alarm goes off in the am.

 

[beeeerock]

I see that BMW is now supporting IFTTT, and their functions are on the THIS side of the equation as well as the THAT side, which is something I'd like to see offered by Tesla!

Connect BMW Labs to hundreds of apps - IFTTT