Home automation with SmartThings

I am on a camping trip this week with the kids, so I am throwing some reviews on here while I am away.
As the title says, I am going to address using the SmartThings hub for home automation and security. I would say that SmartThings is one of the better systems out there for automation for a couple of reasons.

• It is compatible with both Z-wave and ZigBee home automation systems giving you a wide selection of devices.
• There is a large customer community providing drivers and programming assistance.
• It can be user programmed if you want to take the time to learn it.

I don't have as much faith in it for home security as I would in a wired system, but that's just my opinion. It works well enough for me in that regard. 

Here are some examples of home automation that I use on a regular basis:

• Notification of my mail arriving at the mailbox.
• Front yard post light on before sunset until a set time in the evening, also when arriving home later.
• Some interior lights on before dusk, turning off at a random time in the evening if nobody is home.
• When I turn on the entertainment system, the room lighting changes for better viewing.
• Turn on the lights in the attic stairs and garage when presence is detected.

For most of these tasks I use a SmartThings app called WebCoRE. WebCoRE is a web based Community Rules Engine, hence the name. Your rules, known as "Pistons" in the app, are easily created using an interactive if-then rule set. Here is an example piston that I use:

You should be able to see how the piston works. The "IF" statement waits for the conditions to occur, either of the motion sensors sensing movement or the garage door closing. After that, the "THEN" statements checking the time and setting lights to a level depending on the time of day. Building the piston consists of choosing items from a drop down list and applying rules to them.

There is another piston for turning them off when motion is no longer detected.

There are other apps available within the SmartThings app that can:

• Notify you if rain is forecast and selected windows are open.
• Turn your thermostat off if doors are left open.
• Notify you when the laundry has finished.

The actions performed by the system are not limited to your smart devices, for example, a SMS can be sent based on the weather forecast.

The SmartThings system also integrates with Amazon's Alexa voice interface for voice control of lights and other settings. I can ask Alexa what the thermostat temperature is at the moment, or ask for her to turn off all of the lights. More on my Alexa experience in a later post.

As far as security goes, it primarily notifies me if there is a door opening when nobody is supposed to be in the house. For me, setting the "Away" mode is manual, as I have not been able to get the kids to use their phones in a way to disable it when they arrive. But for vacations it is very useful. I get the notification and I can remotely check my cameras to see if it is just a family member checking on the cats or something more serious. I will also get a notification whenever the safe door is opened so that I may make a similar check. It would be easy to place an alarm siren on a switched outlet if I wanted a local indication of a door or window opening when we have the system armed. I also have a connected smoke and CO2 detector that can alert me remotely if there is an issue. 

My main issue with SmartThings as a security system is that it is mostly cloud based and a loss of power or internet service would disable the system unless provisions were made.

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Living in a Voice Activated World.

My name is Glenn and I am a technology addict.
This is one reason I am taking a month off of Facebook.
Back to the story.

In January of 2015, I had the opportunity to get in early for an Amazon Echo. So, I can rightfully say I have been with it from the start. I now have 5 Echo devices in my home, pretty much one per room, all but the original are the Dot versions, more on the difference later. I could say that it has changed my life, but I won't. What it has done is made life easier in several ways and I still do not use it to it's fullest potential.

Lets get some terminology out of the way first. The device is called the Echo, there are several variants from original, compact, wireless, and 2 new video variants. The voice interface is referred to as Alexa and you can choose between several "Wake words" for addressing the device.

Yes, there is potential for abuse of the device, but I weighed the benefits against the risks and have decided that I have nothing to worry about.

Of all of the devices, the Dot is the most affordable and often drops to $35. The sound with the Dot is passable but it can be connected to either a $10 pair of wired speakers or a set of Bluetooth speakers and the results are terrific.

Let me just get what I think of as the big shortcoming out of the way first:
You cannot get it to announce anything without giving it a command.
I would love for it to be able to announce when the mail arrives at the mailbox, or that the greenhouse is in danger of freezing, but that is not yet supported.

Now, on to what I use it for:

• Turn on or off lighting in my house, with the assistance of smart lighting.
• Play music from:
• Pandora.
• I Heart Radio.
• Amazon Prime, requires a subscription, more later.
• Timed alarms.
• Kitchen timer.
• Morning news briefings.
• Weather forecast.
• Drive time report for my commute.
• Simple information lookup, more on this later.
• Jokes.
• Sleep sounds with timer.
• Interactive games.
• Calling family members.

There are more uses that I have not mentioned, these are just the ones I have experience with.

Of the music skills, I have found I Heart Radio to be the most useful, I can ask "Alexa, play KNDD in Living room", or "Play KING FM everywhere." Pandora is almost as good, with deeper wanderings into a genre of your choice, but you can tailor it as you listen. 

Prime music is different. First, it requires a membership with Amazon Prime to be used at all, and then only one device at a time may be using it. The basic Prime music package, included with your Amazon Prime annual fee, is one device at a time with a limited music selection. There are higher tiers for Prime music allowing for a larger selection of music. Known as Prime Music Unlimited, you can subscribe to the larger collection of music for one device at $4/month, one player at a time for $8/Month or up to 6 players at a time for $15/month. Note that this is on top of the price for your Amazon Prime. There is good music to be listened to in the basic Prime list, plus any that you have purchased through Amazon.

The Morning Briefing is configurable, but I find a lot of stories repeated when going from global to national. I prefer to read my news anyhow.

The search function is limited by two factors; it only reports the first found item, and it uses Bing as the search engine. For many things it works well enough, such as "What is the proper temperature for a medium rare steak?" or "What is the cube root of 125?" If you wanted a funny answer, ask her the value of pi, or ask her to open the pod bay doors.

The jokes can range from bad to worse. But it can be fun to ask for them.

The calling feature is an interesting newer addition, you can call another person from your contacts list, if they have the option turned on. The difficulty I have with it is that it can be difficult to turn off the connection. It will also act as an answering machine for Echo to Echo calls.

Other skills I have not explored include:

• Calling an Uber or taxi.
• Ordering a pizza.
• Finding your phone.
• 7 minute workout.
• Cooking recipe reference.
• Shopping list.
• Amazon ordering.

While these appear useful, I have not had the inclination or need to try them yet. I do, on occasion ask her for her deals and sometimes you can get some good values around the holidays.

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