Smart Home

[Sith Happens]

On 06/12/2019 at 19:02, FindernRam said:

Humans will evolve into a giant blob (slob?)with a mouth, no legs no arms required.

[Tamworthram]

On 06/12/2019 at 19:02, FindernRam said:

Humans will evolve into a giant blob (slob?)with a mouth, no legs no arms required.

No need to bring Kenny Burns into this conversation.

[Mostyn6]

what happens if your broadband goes down?

[Wolfie]

On 06/12/2019 at 19:02, FindernRam said:

Humans will evolve into a giant blob (slob?)with a mouth, no legs no arms required.

[Bubbles]

19 minutes ago, Mostyn6 said:

what happens if your broadband goes down?

you have to... wait for it.... actually get off your backside and manually work everything! ? 

[ThePrisoner]

21 minutes ago, Mostyn6 said:

what happens if your broadband goes down?

Still works on the local network, just not while you're away from it.

[Bubbles]

I enjoy all this smart home stuff,

I got an amazon echo for 99p and to be fair the only reason I use it is for switching my lights on and off.

Best.. Investment... Ever.

[TigerTedd]

1 hour ago, Squid said:

you have to... wait for it.... actually get off your backside and manually work everything! ? 

Actually, the Ikea stuff comes with little remote controls that attach to the wall with magnets. I’d just pick one of them off the walls and then sit back down and not move for the rest of the day. 

[Ghost of Clough]

On 07/12/2019 at 15:52, Boycie said:

Don’t get the Yale smart lock, I had one, absolutely unreliable, took it back.

Good job you mentioned this, as I was going to get one. Any alternatives which you'd recommend? Although, @TigerTedd doesn't seem to have any problems with his.

 

Which are the best doorbells on the market (at a reasonable price?

[Bubbles]

2 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

Good job you mentioned this, as I was going to get one. Any alternatives which you'd recommend? Although, @TigerTedd doesn't seem to have any problems with his.

 

Which are the best doorbells on the market (at a reasonable price?

The ring doorbell.

90 quid i think, works really well

[TigerTedd]

4 hours ago, Ghost of Clough said:

Good job you mentioned this, as I was going to get one. Any alternatives which you'd recommend? Although, @TigerTedd doesn't seem to have any problems with his.

 

Which are the best doorbells on the market (at a reasonable price?

I’ve got the ring. It’s only as good as your internet though. But I’ve sorted the internet now, so the connection is pretty much on all the time. I’m going to buy the solar power backing for it too, so I don’t have to keep charging it (although that’s only every couple of weeks). 

I’ve not had no problems with the Conexis. I had to get Anglian to come out and have a look at it, and they did some fiddling about with it. To be honest, I’m not sure what they did though. What fixed the issue I was having was simply accepting that you’ve got to hold the door handle up longer than normal to wait for the mechanism to lock, otherwise it gets stuck in a bit of a loop, and that the app was a bit crap, left me locked out once, but seems to be behaving itself now after an update.  

Not had any issue with it since. 

I’ve not tried it with the additional module that is supposed to make it compatible with Samsung’s eco system so you can lock / unlock it remotely though. I’m waiting for a home kit enabled module. Apparently it’s on it’s way. 

A bit of a surprise was that I thought I’d be able to share temporary keys with anyone, like the lady that feeds the cat when we’re away. She should only be able to u lock the door during certain times, so she can’t just come in at any time and have a party. The surprise was that you’ve got to pay every time you want to set up one of these temporary keys, which was a bit annoying. Not that I’ve actually had to use it yet though. 

[Rev]

I went the smart home route a while back, with a Samsung Smartthings hub, controlling light's, door contacts, a siren, the Sonos speakers and a smoke alarm.

Complete and utter waste of time, and especially money. From reading forums, it seems to be the case that Samsung have pretty much given up the ghost on it.

Sensors, especially Samsung's own but also 3rd party ones like Fibaro, either register as different devices altogether, work intermittently if at all, or operate in ways they've not been told to.

The Geo-Fencing is totally crap, the key tags don't work, I could go on.

Gave it up as a bad idea, but undeterred have plunged into the Ring Alarm system and Ring2 doorbell.

Will report back when set up.

Btw, if anyone fancies a Ring2 doorbell, they normally sell for £179 I think across all channels, but Argos are doing a bundle including the optional Chime for £124.

[TigerTedd]

19 minutes ago, reverendo de duivel said:

I went the smart home route a while back, with a Samsung Smartthings hub, controlling light's, door contacts, a siren, the Sonos speakers and a smoke alarm.

Complete and utter waste of time, and especially money. From reading forums, it seems to be the case that Samsung have pretty much given up the ghost on it.

Sensors, especially Samsung's own but also 3rd party ones like Fibaro, either register as different devices altogether, work intermittently if at all, or operate in ways they've not been told to.

The Geo-Fencing is totally crap, the key tags don't work, I could go on.

Gave it up as a bad idea, but undeterred have plunged into the Ring Alarm system and Ring2 doorbell.

Will report back when set up.

Btw, if anyone fancies a Ring2 doorbell, they normally sell for £179 I think across all channels, but Argos are doing a bundle including the optional Chime for £124.

That’s a good deal. Bit gutted I’ve got them both now. Got the doorbell at first thinking I could just rely on the phone going when the doorbell rang, but I always leave my phone on silent, so kept missing people at the door, and out internet was a bit crap (it’s a bit better now), so by the time it had alerted me and I’d picked up and connected, they’d usually gone. 

Also, you wouldn’t believe how many people just knock anyway. That really pisses me off. It’s got the instructions right on it: ‘ring’. 

A new estate near me has had them all installed in all the new homes. So hopefully people will get a bit more used to them now. 

I like scaring the crap out of kids on Halloween with it, while I’m out trick or treating with my own kids. 

I find that the geofencing on my set up is a bit weird. 

everything is supposed to turn off when we all leave, but that never seems to happen. But then the home pod is supposed to turn on when one of us comes home, as long as no one else is already home, but I always know when my wife is coming home, cos the home pod turns on. And everything seems to randomly turn off at around the same time (but not exactly the same) every day (although, now I think about it, that’s not happened recently, since I had to reset the system (which is the biggest pain in the arse when it’s necessary)). 

So a few teething problems, and I don’t know if it’s really saving electricity, cos things tend to get left on all day when the geo fencing doesn’t work. But at least everything switches off when we go to bed now. Definitely more advantages than disadvantages at the minute.