Home Automation - Smartkit

Dolby said:
... because people look at a product holistically and not one or features ?

On a serious note - that's a cool feature & something I've wanted with Alexa for years. How good is are the overlaps and if you have two HomePods too close to either other ? ie The furthest HomePods over hears you and switcheas on/off that light instead ?
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It’s something that has always worked very well and I’m not sure how they do it exactly because between three HomePods, multiple iPhones and MacBooks it just figures it out and the closest thing responds.

The only place I have a weird one I need to figure out is in my guest room if I say “turn off the light” meaning the main one it also turns off the bathroom light.

These two Echo Glows I got the kids for Christmas as annoying without a trigger for when they turn on, because I need a routine to have them turn themselves off after 30min if the kids turn them on somewhere in the night.
 
I thought Alexa was a dying breed, what’s the advantage of using their products?
Pundits are saying Amazon is probably going to close that division down in due course because it’s never made a profit, quite the opposite it’s cost them vast amounts of money.
 
airborne said:
Meaning?
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I have an old Samsung TV - and even that bee controlled with voice. But if I get an LG? That’ll be supported too.

Same with Shelly automation. And Sonoff. And Smart Life. And Ring. And TP Link. And Philips Hue. And Smartthings. And Wyze. And Google Nest. And EZVIZ.

It supports Iheartradio. TuneIn. Apple Music. Tidal. Spotify.

So when you get a gadget or something, you can be quite confident it’s supported.

The HomePod is pretty limited
 
Dolby said:
I have an old Samsung TV - and even that bee controlled with voice. But if I get an LG? That’ll be supported too.

Same with Shelly automation. And Sonoff. And Smart Life. And Ring. And TP Link. And Philips Hue. And Smartthings. And Wyze. And Google Nest. And EZVIZ.

It supports Iheartradio. TuneIn. Apple Music. Tidal. Spotify.

So when you get a gadget or something, you can be quite confident it’s supported.

The HomePod is pretty limited
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Considering it supports Zigbee hubs and the plethora of devices that supports it’s not that bad?
 
airborne said:
Considering it supports Zigbee hubs and the plethora of devices that supports it’s not that bad?
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What plethora of devices?

Alexa does Zigbee, Matter & Thread … as well as the common brands mentioned above.

Personally? I don’t even think HomePod is comparable in terms of functionality.

I’m not knocking Apple - but I was in the market & thought I’d try HomePod, but the lack of 3rd party support is a deal breaker
 
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airborne said:
I thought Alexa was a dying breed, what’s the advantage of using their products?
Pundits are saying Amazon is probably going to close that division down in due course because it’s never made a profit, quite the opposite it’s cost them vast amounts of money.
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Very unlikely.

Alexa is the best off the shelf solution as the “server” of a Smart Home and I agree fully with @Dolby that HomeKit is inferior as a solution within that context.

If you are however doing Home Assistant then HomeKit is a far better “frontend” for it and is actually fully open compared to Alexa so you can forward almost anything into it which isn’t the case for the Amazon system.

Only reason I got the Echo Dots for the kids is because they are virtually free with the Amazon Kids+ subscription I needed to buy anyway and in that context will be just fine for the Kids use case.

Also it does one very neat trick Apple really need to sort out by now and that’s “turn the geyser on in 1 hour for 30 minutes”. HomeKit isn’t time aware of anything other than setting an actual timer.
 
How can Alexa not have any form of presence detection as a condition?

I already thought it was dumb but this takes the cake.

My kids have bedtime and alarm routines in the morning and tonight they are staying at my mother so the routines run and my wife says well that’s a bit silly.

I say no worries I’ll just set a condition that their Fire tablets need to be present for it to run…nope simply not an option.

No other option either.

**** me, it’s dumb.

Of course HomeKit can do this, but you’d need to have Apple devices all round but at least the option is there.
 
SauRoNZA said:
How can Alexa not have any form of presence detection as a condition?

I already thought it was dumb but this takes the cake.

My kids have bedtime and alarm routines in the morning and tonight they are staying at my mother so the routines run and my wife says well that’s a bit silly.

I say no worries I’ll just set a condition that their Fire tablets need to be present for it to run…nope simply not an option.

No other option either.

**** me, it’s dumb.

Of course HomeKit can do this, but you’d need to have Apple devices all round but at least the option is there.
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That’s what I’ve come to notice about all these separate hubs/ecosystems. They all have something that the other is missing that should be available and basic… for tinkerers it makes the case for HomeAssistant but you’re kinda stuck if you’re not into it
 
SauRoNZA said:
I already thought it was dumb
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I think you must be one of the few people I’ve ever seen that prefers Siri over Alexa - and with so many issues.

And if I have an issue with iPhone, you all feel that I bought it to moan / complain / tell me to sell the device and prefer not to hear anything wrong. Tsk tsk.

Anyway - don’t newer Alexa devices have a presence detector in them? Or are you saying that even with the detector, you cant use it within a routine ?
 
Mzezman said:
That’s what I’ve come to notice about all these separate hubs/ecosystems. They all have something that the other is missing that should be available and basic… for tinkerers it makes the case for HomeAssistant but you’re kinda stuck if you’re not into it
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Yeah the problem is you have to pay for Nabu Casa if you want to make Amazon things talk to Home Assistant or go do it all yourself and I’m not sure that will allow you to interact down to this level either.

Guess I’ll find out today or later this week.
 
Dolby said:
I think you must be one of the few people I’ve ever seen that prefers Siri over Alexa - and with so many issues.

And if I have an issue with iPhone, you all feel that I bought it to moan / complain / tell me to sell the device and prefer not to hear anything wrong. Tsk tsk.

Anyway - don’t newer Alexa devices have a presence detector in them? Or are you saying that even with the detector, you cant use it within a routine ?
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Yeah the issue is there’s no option to use it in any routine as a condition, whether it exists or not.

Ideally I would like it to be “trigger this alarm at 7:00 if fire tablet is at home” but there aren’t any such choices.

Don’t get me wrong, like I’ve said before Homekit isn’t a great stand alone solution either, but it works much better as a Home Assistant integrated front end.

I’m just very surprised Alexa is lacking what seems a pretty basic functionality as a stand alone tool.
 
SauRoNZA said:
Yeah the issue is there’s no option to use it in any routine as a condition, whether it exists or not.

Ideally I would like it to be “trigger this alarm at 7:00 if fire tablet is at home” but there aren’t any such choices.

Don’t get me wrong, like I’ve said before Homekit isn’t a great stand alone solution either, but it works much better as a Home Assistant integrated front end.

I’m just very surprised Alexa is lacking what seems a pretty basic functionality as a stand alone tool.
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So what’s the point of the presence detector in the newer devices?
 
Dolby said:
So what’s the point of the presence detector in the newer devices?
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I have no idea.

Also heard/read somewhere it’s a function only available in the US or some such, so maybe then you have more options.

Something else also lacking is the simple “skip tomorrow’s alarm” function. Instead you then it off permanently and need to remember to turn it back on yourself.
 
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I see it's an ultrasonic sensor that detects presense on a continual basis by sending / listening to the waves received .

I would be cool if you could take a map of the room before people and then it could work out if someone was standing very still - or actually in the room. Gut tells me it won't pick up a very still person - but I could be wrong
 
Dolby said:
I see it's an ultrasonic sensor that detects presense on a continual basis by sending / listening to the waves received .

I would be cool if you could take a map of the room before people and then it could work out if someone was standing very still - or actually in the room. Gut tells me it won't pick up a very still person - but I could be wrong
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You do get MMwave sensors that can detect people sitting very still and where they are in the room, would love to play with one of them but they are a bit expensive as something to just play with casually


 
R4ziel said:
You do get MMwave sensors that can detect people sitting very still and where they are in the room, would love to play with one of them but they are a bit expensive as something to just play with casually


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R2,000 ... ouch

But I like a few things :

The FP2 presence sensor uses state-of-the-art millimetre wave radar technology that can accurately detect the presence of people even when there is little movement. It also has a zone positioning feature that allows different conditions in different zones, such as beds and tables, to be automated. A room can now be divided up to 30 small zones and detect up to five targets (multi-person detection).

Key features:

- Ultra-high precision

- Built-in light sensor

- Local automation

- Zone positioning

- Multi-person detection
 
Dolby said:
R2,000 ... ouch

But I like a few things :

The FP2 presence sensor uses state-of-the-art millimetre wave radar technology that can accurately detect the presence of people even when there is little movement. It also has a zone positioning feature that allows different conditions in different zones, such as beds and tables, to be automated. A room can now be divided up to 30 small zones and detect up to five targets (multi-person detection).

Key features:

- Ultra-high precision

- Built-in light sensor

- Local automation

- Zone positioning

- Multi-person detection
Click to expand...

Yep they are amazing sensors for sure, but yes a bit rough to test out.

If you are looking for a proper light sensor, its much better to do it yourself through an esp8266 board and a luminance sensor, which can report at a certain interval.

I found with the aqara sensors it only reports the light level when it senses a state change, or every hour. I wanted to automate my lights around when it gets dark, but with the aqara sensor it was a bit unrealiable. Built my own sensor with Tasmota and it works better than I would ever have imagined. The light sensor I got also has a much larger range for luminance detection than these sensors do
 
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