Philips Hue lighting systems

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

Please tell me you made that bit up!!!! Funny as f**k. Surprised that wasn't in the Daily Wail with a glum looking kid complaining about the neighbour hacking his fart machine.

I'm afraid to say I did not make it up. It runs on the same common frequency and they had it stored in a cupboard near the party wall so it was being triggered every time we used the remote.

Of course, once I figured it out I had a bit of fun with it. It played one of about 12 different fart sounds. I did eventually own up. They took it in good humour.

[IRMe]

If you want to go a step further than Hue or don't want to be tied in to a particular device vendor then look at using a home automation hub that speaks Z-Wave/Zigbee/WiFi, or all of them i.e. SmartThings.

Fibaro make Z-Wave modules that sit inline with the lighting circuit, they fit in a deep back box or up behind a fitting and mean you can keep the existing on\off switches without impacting connectivity, or use retractive (momentary push or hold) switches for brighten\dim\on\off. Cheaper and more useful than HUE where a circuit has than one bulb e.g. rows of down lighters, or spotlight sets. A standard dimmer won't help though.

You can then tie it in with motion sensors, door\window contacts and other bulbs such as WeMo and Lightify (or roll your own using if you're handy at coding and electronics) as well as use data such as time of day, who is at home, is the heating on, etc to trigger various routines. My humble manor house is feels like a large programmable toy (and now voice activated thanks to Echo).

[original PM]

If you want to go a step further than Hue or don't want to be tied in to a particular device vendor then look at using a home automation hub that speaks Z-Wave/Zigbee/WiFi, or all of them i.e. SmartThings.

Fibaro make Z-Wave modules that sit inline with the lighting circuit, they fit in a deep back box or up behind a fitting and mean you can keep the existing on\off switches without impacting connectivity, or use retractive (momentary push or hold) switches for brighten\dim\on\off. Cheaper and more useful than HUE where a circuit has than one bulb e.g. rows of down lighters, or spotlight sets. A standard dimmer won't help though.

You can then tie it in with motion sensors, door\window contacts and other bulbs such as WeMo and Lightify (or roll your own using if you're handy at coding and electronics) as well as use data such as time of day, who is at home, is the heating on, etc to trigger various routines. My humble manor house is feels like a large programmable toy (and now voice activated thanks to Echo).

All of this sounds really good but why does it matter?

Is using a light switch not acceptable?

I suppose I can see how it would be great but in reality is it really worth the amount of time and effort you are going to spend getting it up and running and maintaining it?

Am i just a luddite?

[filthy1980]

If you want to go a step further than Hue or don't want to be tied in to a particular device vendor then look at using a home automation hub that speaks Z-Wave/Zigbee/WiFi, or all of them i.e. SmartThings.

Fibaro make Z-Wave modules that sit inline with the lighting circuit, they fit in a deep back box or up behind a fitting and mean you can keep the existing on\off switches without impacting connectivity, or use retractive (momentary push or hold) switches for brighten\dim\on\off. Cheaper and more useful than HUE where a circuit has than one bulb e.g. rows of down lighters, or spotlight sets. A standard dimmer won't help though.

You can then tie it in with motion sensors, door\window contacts and other bulbs such as WeMo and Lightify (or roll your own using if you're handy at coding and electronics) as well as use data such as time of day, who is at home, is the heating on, etc to trigger various routines. My humble manor house is feels like a large programmable toy (and now voice activated thanks to Echo).

I saw the Fibaro stand at Gadget Show earlier this year and their stuff did look impressive, but I'm pretty sure I remember them pricing each unit at £50, their might be a slight discount for bundles that are offered by distributors / resellers

[vetran]

All of this sounds really good but why does it matter?

Is using a light switch not acceptable?

I suppose I can see how it would be great but in reality is it really worth the amount of time and effort you are going to spend getting it up and running and maintaining it?

Am i just a luddite?

Because its there?

seriously there are plenty of reasons.

Close the curtains at dusk automatically to conserve heat.
Lights coming on triggered by PIR save energy and stubbed toes.
coordinate actions using rules. e.g. put a Blu ray in the home theatre, press the theatre play button and it drops the projection screen, closes the curtains & dims the lights.
I work in the manshack(log cabin at the bottom of the garden.) I can see the front door via cctv when the doorbell rings the controller will switch to the cctv and one day when I sort it out the Audio will open up so I can talk with them (please put it over the fence if I'm on a conf call).

Heating we will be able to control that, it will sense the window open and turn the radiator off in that room. It can adjust so the heating is efficient.

Just playing with Veraedge controller its fairly programmable & extendable so if you can write LUA then you can add all kinds of things.

[MrMarkyMark]

Because its there?

seriously there are plenty of reasons.

Close the curtains at dusk automatically to conserve heat.
Lights coming on triggered by PIR save energy and stubbed toes.
coordinate actions using rules. e.g. put a Blu ray in the home theatre, press the theatre play button and it drops the projection screen, closes the curtains & dims the lights.
I work in the manshack(log cabin at the bottom of the garden.) I can see the front door via cctv when the doorbell rings the controller will switch to the cctv and one day when I sort it out the Audio will open up so I can talk with them (please put it over the fence if I'm on a conf call).

Heating we will be able to control that, it will sense the window open and turn the radiator off in that room. It can adjust so the heating is efficient.

Just playing with Veraedge controller its fairly programmable & extendable so if you can write LUA then you can add all kinds of things.

But my Butler does all those things and he doesn't know LUA either

[vetran]

But my Butler does all those things and he doesn't know LUA either

you haven't educated your butler properly?

[MrMarkyMark]

you haven't educated your butler properly?

I have tried, he seems to have real problems with me trying to attempt to automate any tasks he currently covers

[IRMe]

All of this sounds really good but why does it matter?

Is using a light switch not acceptable?

I suppose I can see how it would be great but in reality is it really worth the amount of time and effort you are going to spend getting it up and running and maintaining it?

Am i just a luddite?

Partly because I could. The practical reasons started out for night lights for people wandering to the bathroom. Movement on the landing after x and before y o'clock then turn on landing light to 10% of power. During day then if movement and lumens < whatever then turn on at 100%. Bathroom cord was noisy, lights dazzling and sometimes they got left on. Now bathroom door opens and it is after x but before y then turn on bulbs at 10%, warm colour, turn off after z minutes. If during day and bathroom door opens and lumens < something then turn on at full on a cool colour. They also go through the RGBW spectrum so you can pretend you're in a posh spa with purple lights etc.

It got a bit silly after that, sitting on the sofa and wanting to adjust the lights at first needed a slave to turn the dial. Then it was an app. Now I just say 'alexa, set living room lights to 5/50/100 off or on' or 'turn on lamp'. Saves on feeding the slaves really. If the front door is left open for x mins I get a text telling me so, and a push notification if it opens when I am not home, could set a light to red to tell me visually if something happened while away. Various lights can be set on random timers to appear occupied, as can the multiroom audio and electric heaters. Realistically it enables a lot of things to follow If Then ElseIf While.

A lot of it was plug and play to be honest and fairly low maintenance. I've had some issues with a faulty bulb that'll be replaced. The more advanced bits have quite a learning curve, which was interesting to me, both from domestic electrics and programming devices (or more using code published the community) but that's what I enjoy.

[bobspud]

All of this sounds really good but why does it matter?

Because the only person in the house that ever cares about lights being left on or windows left open while the heating struggles to heat the house is the idiot that pays the bills.

Personally I like the idea that a home could put itself into hibernate or raised defence mode as soon as the last family member left the driveway.

I also think there is value in a home being able to use things like mobile phone EMEI data to identify who walked up the drive. The Principal is the same as a firewall just log the presence to a central DB. If a person wanders around several high value cars or homes its clear they are not just walking past on their way to a mates as is the standard defence of thieves today.

Most thieves are fairly dumb but its hard to catch them nicking stuff. knowing their phone was present when an alarm tripped and which properties were also looked at would be very handy. (not for them though)