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Hard/expensive is relative. The Samsung SmartThings hub[1] is $99. GE Link[2] and Phillips Hue[3] Zigbee light bulbs are $15 at Home Depot. Z-Wave replaceme

Hard/expensive is relative. The Samsung SmartThings hub[1] is $99. GE Link[2] and Phillips Hue[3] Zigbee light bulbs are $15 at Home Depot. Z-Wave replacement outlets[4] and switches[5] are less than $50. And there are a ton of other Z-Wave and Zigbee compatible devices available. Alexa has been an awesome addition to my home automation. Instead of reaching for a remote control or a smartphone app I can just say "Alexa, turn on the <insert name here> light". [1]: https://shop.smartthings.com/#!/products/samsung-smartthings-hub https://shop.smartthings.com/#!/products/samsung-smartthings... [2]: http://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-Link-60W-Equivalent-Soft-White-2700K-A19-Connected-Home-LED-Light-Bulb-PSB19-SW27/205404345 http://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-Link-60W-Equivalent-Soft-White... [3]: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Philips-60W-Equivalent-Soft-White-A19-Hue-Connected-Home-LED-Light-Bulb-455295/206633282 http://www.homedepot.com/p/Philips-60W-Equivalent-Soft-White... [4]: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-Z-Wave-Enabled-15-Amp-Scene-Capable-Receptacle-with-LED-Locator-White-Ivory-Lite-Almond-R02-DZR15-1LZ/205298666 http://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-Z-Wave-Enabled-15-Amp-Sce... [5]: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-Decora-Z-Wave-Controls-15-Amp-Scene-Capable-Switch-White-Ivory-Light-Almond-R02-DZS15-1LZ/205298583 http://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-Decora-Z-Wave-Controls-15...

manyxcxi 10y ago
You've basically just given a link for 90% of the HA in my house. I don't have the SmartThings hub, I have the Wink hub (for better or worse- I'd give it a B+). I slowly replaced most of the switches in my house room by room as the fancy struck me by just being bored on a Saturday and driving down to Lowe's/Home Depot and picking up a Z-Wave switch or two. I replaced a few outlets here and there with Z-Wave outlets so that I could have a lamp come on w/ the overhead light because we have a couple of big rooms with crappy overhead lights. Also because it was interesting. The garage door status/opener is a hodgepodge of my own making (basically an Arduino plugged into an NRF chip to talk w/ my RPi that is plugged into a vpn into AWS to get Lambda comms from Alexa events and Wink API events). Excluding the hardware and code I built, it was as simple as replacing outlets and switches in the house- which are probably pages 5 and 6 of the things you should know if you live in a house that you have to take care of.
- _JamesA_ 10y ago
  That garage door solution sounds interesting if not overly complex. I automated the garage door using a MIMOLite[1] Z-Wave dry contact bridge wired to an extra remote control. [1]: http://amzn.com/B00B6RZ7MM http://amzn.com/B00B6RZ7MM
  - manyxcxi 10y ago
    Oh yeah, it'd make Rube Goldberg proud. At the time it was actually my very first piece of home automation. It was built before the zero, Edison, or other dual system devices came around, and I got frustrated with timing issues trying to set up a two wire serial between the 1st gen Pi and the Arduino- so I looked about my shelves for something else and decided on using the 2.4Ghz NRF modules I had [0]. The Pi went from being VPNed into my VPS so that I could have an app on my phone to integrated to Alexa, and a bunch of steps in between over the last half decade. I went from Arduino from the store to building my own using a flashed chip so I could drastically reduce power and make it coin cell operated, just to see if I could. Stuff like that. I've actually just ordered an off the shelf Z-Wave garage door interface. My bundle of wires sitting on the garage door opener in a 3D printed case has always just been an excuse to play with something new when I didn't want to really spend all that much time figuring out what my next gadget should be. Thanks for the link though! I've been wondering what kind of Z-Wave interfaces are out there that I could use in micro controller projects. Most of my experience has just been 2.4Ghz and Zigbee. [0] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E594ZX0 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E594ZX0 (mine originally wasn't the + model)

manyxcxi 10y ago

You've basically just given a link for 90% of the HA in my house. I don't have the SmartThings hub, I have the Wink hub (for better or worse- I'd give it a B+). I slowly replaced most of the switches in my house room by room as the fancy struck me by just being bored on a Saturday and driving down to Lowe's/Home Depot and picking up a Z-Wave switch or two. I replaced a few outlets here and there with Z-Wave outlets so that I could have a lamp come on w/ the overhead light because we have a couple of big rooms with crappy overhead lights. Also because it was interesting. The garage door status/opener is a hodgepodge of my own making (basically an Arduino plugged into an NRF chip to talk w/ my RPi that is plugged into a vpn into AWS to get Lambda comms from Alexa events and Wink API events). Excluding the hardware and code I built, it was as simple as replacing outlets and switches in the house- which are probably pages 5 and 6 of the things you should know if you live in a house that you have to take care of.

_JamesA_ 10y ago
That garage door solution sounds interesting if not overly complex. I automated the garage door using a MIMOLite[1] Z-Wave dry contact bridge wired to an extra remote control. [1]: http://amzn.com/B00B6RZ7MM http://amzn.com/B00B6RZ7MM
- manyxcxi 10y ago
  Oh yeah, it'd make Rube Goldberg proud. At the time it was actually my very first piece of home automation. It was built before the zero, Edison, or other dual system devices came around, and I got frustrated with timing issues trying to set up a two wire serial between the 1st gen Pi and the Arduino- so I looked about my shelves for something else and decided on using the 2.4Ghz NRF modules I had [0]. The Pi went from being VPNed into my VPS so that I could have an app on my phone to integrated to Alexa, and a bunch of steps in between over the last half decade. I went from Arduino from the store to building my own using a flashed chip so I could drastically reduce power and make it coin cell operated, just to see if I could. Stuff like that. I've actually just ordered an off the shelf Z-Wave garage door interface. My bundle of wires sitting on the garage door opener in a 3D printed case has always just been an excuse to play with something new when I didn't want to really spend all that much time figuring out what my next gadget should be. Thanks for the link though! I've been wondering what kind of Z-Wave interfaces are out there that I could use in micro controller projects. Most of my experience has just been 2.4Ghz and Zigbee. [0] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E594ZX0 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E594ZX0 (mine originally wasn't the + model)