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 …
Smart Lighting
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 …
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 …
(Almost Free) Voice Remote
The Amazon Echo Dot is a general purpose “personal assistant” that listens to your voice and can provide information on the weather, news, sports, and many other kinds of information with add-on apps called “skills”. A huge feature of the Dot (and all the Amazon Echo devices) is that with the appropriate add-on hardware from other companies it can control lights, door locks, security cameras, thermostats, and many other smart home devices with just your voice. (It is really awesome and I encourage everyone to actually try it out in person.) The most popular products in the Amazon Echo family are the Echo (the tall cylinder) and the Dot (the small hockey puck). The Dot is very affordable (retail price is $49), but the bigger difference is that although the Dot only has a tiny internal speaker (not so great for playing music), it has an AUX output stereo cable and can be plugged into your media center or family room full-blown stereo receiver / surround-sound setup for high-quality music. The Dot is great for voice-controlled home automation because the internal speaker is just right for feedback to confirm your control commands. When you say, “Alexa, turn on the bedroom lights” the Dot can reply by saying “Ok” letting you know it heard the command was able to comply. This is so convenient that many of my clients have purchased multiple Dots and sprinkled them throughout their home in different rooms and locations. Anywhere they walk around they are within “voice …