3 ms·

>I am still trying to grasp what it would improve to my life I mean yeah, once the novelty wears off of having Siri turn off your lights to impress your boomer

by nvy 3y ago

>I am still trying to grasp what it would improve to my life I mean yeah, once the novelty wears off of having Siri turn off your lights to impress your boomer neighbours, or whatever, there seems to be no real "killer app" for home automation. However there are a lot of small things I wouldn't mind having: - The aforementioned "hey your tree is too dry" push notifications on my phone - No need to get out of bed to check the downstairs deadbolt(s) - Automatic and/or manually-controlled activation of garden bed hoses with some kind of zigbee solenoid valve or something

lostlogin 3y ago
> Automatic and/or manually-controlled activation of garden bed hoses with some kind of zigbee solenoid valve or something A basic smart plug does this for me. I hooked one up to a cheap solenoid that opens a valve when powered up. It was very inexpensive and had been very reliable. It’s just on a TP-Link Kasa smart plug. It’s also in HA so that if I forget to turn it off, it turns itself off after 10 mins.
- kevstev 3y ago
  Do you know which solenoid you used? I am not sure if our definitions of cheap are different, but I looked at this about a month ago and the options I found were fairly pricey, but would hopefully be more robust than the rainbird system I had go bust on me after three years.
  - lostlogin 3y ago
    I think it was the below - note this is in New Zealand dollars (half the value of US dollars). https://www.bunnings.co.nz/k-rain-solenoid-valve_p3120237 https://www.bunnings.co.nz/k-rain-solenoid-valve_p3120237
    - kevstev 3y ago
      Appreciate this! I did see some plastic ones around this price range, I guess it was just a bit more than I expected to pay. I noticed that this one just has leads- did you wire it into a plug yourself? Any concerns around doing that in a waterproof way? I often find that "prototyping" these types of projects is fairly easy, but making them into a "product" that looks good and will be reliable is much much more difficult.
      - lostlogin 3y ago
        I found a transformer with bare wires that was the right voltage and wired it up. It was from a local electronics store (Jaycar). It’s in a dry area so getting wet isn’t an issue for me. I think I could make it quite tidy and waterproof if I needed too - the lower voltage makes me comfortable with that. It’s been in use for several years now and has been rock solid.

by nvy 3y ago

lostlogin 3y ago

> Automatic and/or manually-controlled activation of garden bed hoses with some kind of zigbee solenoid valve or something A basic smart plug does this for me. I hooked one up to a cheap solenoid that opens a valve when powered up. It was very inexpensive and had been very reliable. It’s just on a TP-Link Kasa smart plug. It’s also in HA so that if I forget to turn it off, it turns itself off after 10 mins.

kevstev 3y ago
Do you know which solenoid you used? I am not sure if our definitions of cheap are different, but I looked at this about a month ago and the options I found were fairly pricey, but would hopefully be more robust than the rainbird system I had go bust on me after three years.
- lostlogin 3y ago
  I think it was the below - note this is in New Zealand dollars (half the value of US dollars). https://www.bunnings.co.nz/k-rain-solenoid-valve_p3120237 https://www.bunnings.co.nz/k-rain-solenoid-valve_p3120237
  - kevstev 3y ago
    Appreciate this! I did see some plastic ones around this price range, I guess it was just a bit more than I expected to pay. I noticed that this one just has leads- did you wire it into a plug yourself? Any concerns around doing that in a waterproof way? I often find that "prototyping" these types of projects is fairly easy, but making them into a "product" that looks good and will be reliable is much much more difficult.
    - lostlogin 3y ago
      I found a transformer with bare wires that was the right voltage and wired it up. It was from a local electronics store (Jaycar). It’s in a dry area so getting wet isn’t an issue for me. I think I could make it quite tidy and waterproof if I needed too - the lower voltage makes me comfortable with that. It’s been in use for several years now and has been rock solid.