Everything that can be Invented has been Invented Attributed to Charles H. Duell, the Commissioner of US patent office in 1899, this apocryphal quote seems apropos to the ubiquitous smart plug. Every introductory blog, video, or online article about starting a smart home seems to start with smart plugs. Is there really anyone left in the modern world that /doesn’t/ have their coffee maker automatically turning on with a swipe on their mobile phone or a command to their voice tube in the kitchen? Smartplugs are available from just about every major home automation device company and tons of smaller ones you may never had heard of. Online shopping or offline browsing the brick and mortar aisles of Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and even Ikea will turn up a selection of these “must have” gadgets. (My apologies to my European and Asian friends for name-dropping only US big box retail store names). Perhaps not surprising, but innovation in smart plugs seemed to grind to a halt. I’ve used a variety of different products and they all are pretty similar. Compared to security systems, video cameras, and even multi-room audio systems, smartplugs are downright pedestrian. And Now For Something Different I just completed testing a new smart plug and I’m very impressed. This product is not just a me-to device vying for my attention with a low price, well-known brand name, or just gimmicky useless bell and whistles. Instead of competing head-on with all the …
Control Systems
Can You Solve SmartHome Automation Challenges With A Proxy?
Proxy-Powered Home Automation The dictionary defines the word proxy as “the authority to represent someone else” which is close to what it means in software programming too. In a nutshell, a proxy is when one thing stands in for another. You manipulate one thing, and the results are applied to the second. You might think of it as a mirror image or a clone; that’s another way to describe the important concept of two things that are kept in lock-step synchronization with each other. One of the most powerful techniques to solving home automation problems is the use of a proxy device. This is both a basic and an advanced technique and there are many different ways it can be used. I realize this may not be applicable to everyone, and you may never want to implement an advanced proxy solution yourself, but it worthwhile to understand the basic concepts and why it can be useful. The Basics: At Some Level, Everything Is A Proxy I don’t want to play semantic games, but many aspects of a smart home system use proxies without us even thinking about it. A great example is the common motion detector. You might have a few of these that are part of a self-contained simple device like an outdoor floodlight or part of a large smart home system. A dumb or regular floodlight works with a manual switch. Switch it on - the lights turns on, switch it off, the light turns off. With a motion detector, the floodlight turns on or off automatically as the sensor …
Did You Hear The One About Goldilocks and The Three Remotes?
With No Apologies To The Three BearsIn the famous children’s fairy tale, Goldilocks proclaims “This chair is too small” and “This chair is too big” before declaring “This chair is just right”. As I looked over the latest crop of new remote controls at the CEDIA Expo conference in Denver, I couldn’t help thinking the same thing. “This remote control is too limited”, “This remote control is too advanced”, or “This remote control is just right”! Which one is right for me and my clients? But then it hit me - I work with a wide range of clients, and none of them would agree which one was which. There really isn’t a single right solution; every person, every home, and every need is different. The right solution for one person is completely the wrong solution for another. Even the right solution might be too expensive, so choosing an alternate becomes the pragmatic, if not optimal choice. Beauty, Or The Right Choice, Is In The Eye Of The BeholderThree systems caught my attention and are worthy of consideration by anyone looking for a better remote control. It is totally up to you to decide which one, if any, is right for you. Full disclosure - I have already narrowed my choice down to these three systems and have been working with them. I have tested all of them extensively to understand their capabilities and have installed all of them (or earlier versions) for some of my clients. Each of the three companies were happy to show their “new and …
Secrets Of Voice Controlled Lighting
The Challenge with Big Lighting Systems Having recently completed a major project for a client (installing a lighting automation system with a large number of dimmers and switches), I was confronted with figuring out an optimal configuration for voice control options. Sure it’s exciting to work on a large multi-room installation but when you get into a system of this size, there are a lot of things that you can’t ignore or sweep under the rug. There’s several key “lessons learned” and tips from different aspects of this particular installation, but I want to focus on voice control - it’s one of my favorite features and very popular with the explosion in smart speakers from Amazon, Google, and Apple. The challenge is as follows: With so many rooms and individual lights / light fixtures, how do you architect a voice control solution that preserves simplicity and ease-of-use? Voice control is very convenient, but lacks the physical, tactile and visual feedback we expect to guide our interactions. If you have worked with voice control, even in a single room, you probably know that naming all the lights and keeping things straight can be a real problem. Current voice control technology is fairly primitive and requires strict or structured voice commands and a lot of memorization to identify the correct room and desired light. Divide And Conquer The first thing I did was to set the right objectives. Since this project has other means of lighting control, the …
Caavo Control Center Universal Remote Control – This One’s A Game Changer
New Product Quick LookA break with tradition, this week I’m going to highlight a new product that I have been testing. This will be a quick look, not a full evaluation or analysis. I usually don’t like to write product reviews. The Internet, and YouTube especially, is full of reviews, demos, and product overviews that you don’t need in successful attempts to mine clicks for cash. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have the patience to watch someone unpack a product, and then twirl it around showing me all the physical connections and accessories while they mutter on about how it is the greatest thing since sliced bread! I know how to read! Data sheets or spec sheets give me all the same information a lot quicker. But as I was chatting online with some of my peers, I realized that not everyone is plugged in to knowing the ’latest and greatest’ products that have appeared, especially when they are more specialized and not mass-market devices like smartphones or tablets. And even my techie integrator friends were not aware of some of the unusual features in this particular new product. For Your ConsiderationNo, I’m not producing an indie movie and asking for your Oscar nomination. I want to introduce you to a new AV remote control that has some very innovative capabilities. Please understand this is a preliminary “first look”. YMMV, as they say, so do your own homework to determine whether this will work for you. What Is This Thing?The product that …
Back To Basics: DIY 3-Way Lights
Da Ya Think I'm Sexy? With apologies to Rod Stewart, this week I am not writing about cool new gadgets or control systems. I’m going back to basics to describe one of the most common smart home projects. This solves a real problem and is easy to implement. A great starter DIY first project or a nice add-on to your existing home automation. What is a 3-Way Light? By definition, a 3-way light, is where you have more than one switch controlling a light. The typical example is a hallway or staircase where you want to be able to control the light from either end of the hallway or from either floor of the staircase. Electricians have solved this problem for years using a wiring scheme involving a third wire, often called a traveller, which runs between two light switches connected to the same light fixture. If you have two switches that control one light, then you have a 3-way light installation. Note that this is completely different from older 3-way bulbs. Usually installed in a table or desk lamp, a 3-way bulb has two filaments inside and special wiring in the bulb base and the light bulb socket giving you three different light levels. Most 3-way bulbs have been phased out with the wider use of dimmers and modern LED lighting, but many are still installed. Trivia tip: Because of the unique wiring in 3-way lights, you cannot rely on “On” being “Up” and “Off” being “Down” on the switch paddle. Depending upon how each switch was last …
Out With The Old; In With The New
Spring has Sprung! Now that we have swung full speed into Spring, it’s time to plan for re-planting the smart home garden of controllers, devices, and appliances. Every Spring I take an inventory of where things stand, what needs to be fixed or changed, and what I would like to do. It’s not necessary to change your home automation equipment frequently, but once a year it is worth a look. Technology improves, prices change (usually downward), and new capabilities that were not even a glimmer in your eye become feasible. You don’t have to wait for an actual sale to upgrade or grow your smart home. With careful selection of products and planned upgrades and migrations in a timely fashion you will save lots of money in the long run. I know it may be cheesy, but the adage “time is money” also applies. If you speed up your home network and automate more functions in your home, you can give yourself the luxury of more time for other things and we all know time is the most precious commodity. Is Your Crystal Ball Rusty? A video doorbell? Nobody was even thinking about that before they were created. An industrial grade mesh Wi-Fi network for great coverage everywhere in your home that doesn’t cost thousands of dollars? Nobody knew that was coming. A control system built into your smart phone and free with an operating system upgrade? Nobody saw Apple HomeKit or Google Home Assistant coming before it did! Not All Fun And Games It’s not all exciting new tech (or toys) to …
Control Your TV Your Way
Are You The Master Of Your (TV) Domain? Turn it on, turn it off, change the volume, change the channel, switch the input - these are all straightforward actions that we do frequently when watching TV. So why is it so hard to automate it properly? Controlling a TV used to be very simple - just a switch and two dials. The power switch turned the TV on or off, the channel dial selected the desired station by number (from 2 to 12 in the old days), and the volume knob raised or lowered the volume. Easy to do and everyone learned quickly without an instruction manual or complicated training. Somewhere along the way it has gotten out of control (pun intended). The single box TV with a built-in screen and speaker has become a collection of sleek boxes with a stereo receiver, amplifier, surround sound speakers, DVD player, streaming movie player, and more. We can operate this “home entertainment system” from the luxury of our armchair without getting up, but we have to juggle 3 or 4 remote control sticks with cryptic buttons, keypads, and confusing layouts. Where did it all go wrong? Why is it hard to control your TV? The common hand-held stick shaped remote control uses infrared (IR) light that is invisible to our eyes for remote control. Unfortunately, every company has chosen to use a different set of control codes to accomplish the same thing. To accommodate this “Tower of Babel” most of us have a collection of remote controls on …
Are Your Smart Bulbs Making Your Smart Home Dumb?
Smart Bulbs are dumb! Yeah, I just did the unthinkable for a tech consultant - I stated a clear-cut opinion that just might rub some people the wrong way. I don’t like to be confrontational, so I try to steer clear of controversial positions that might offend or bother people. It’s not that I’m afraid to give my opinion, but having been involved in technology or tech-related services for over 30 years, I know there are very few absolutes. What is the “best” or “right” way to do something can fall out of favor and actually be the “wrong” way in only a few months or a year or so. For many tech solutions, there really isn’t one best product or approach. It may sound lame, but more often than not the correct answer to “Should I use product XYZ ?” or “Is this the best way to accomplish ABC ?” is simply “It depends”. But I don’t think I’m going on a limb here this time. The easiest solution for automating your lights in your home is simply a bad choice - almost all of the time. What is a Smart Bulb? Let’s start with the basics. A smart bulb is a light bulb that includes additional electronics in the base to allow it to be remotely controlled. Since the standard incandescent light bulb has been replaced, for the most part, with the newer LED lights, all smart bulbs consist of an LED light source. Although it’s inaccurate to call it a “bulb”, most of us still call them “LED bulbs” so I’m going to keep using that description too. The …
The Light At The End Of The Tunnel
Is your house dark when you arrive home? If you have landscape lighting to make your home look more appealing and to light up the way to your front door in the evening, it doesn’t really work if the lights are off when you arrive. Landscape lighting may look sexy, but making it part of your smart home plans is not. You don’t have to live with old-school mechanical timers. They can turn the lights on and off at preset times or cycles, but they are dumb. Mechanical timers know nothing about the changing seasons or the exact times of sunrise and sunset. Right now there aren’t a lot of good options for automated landscape lighting systems from existing brand name manufacturers. The leaders in the low-voltage/outdoor lighting game have either completely ignored the smart home or are bolting-on poorly engineered, ugly, and hard-to-use proprietary systems as their answer. What kind of control do you want? The most basic control for outdoor lighting (and really anything) is to be able to remotely turn it on or off. Nowadays, that means using a convenient app on your smartphone, a voice assistant (like Amazon Alexa or Google Home), or just an actual switch - but conveniently located in your home and not in the far corner of the garage. That’s ok, but honestly if that is all you want, it’s probably not worth the effort. The exciting thing for me is to move from convenient control to full automation. With my own outdoor lighting, I want it to come on …