"Smart" lighting...Philips HUE etc.
- Thread starter GetFreshCrew
- Start date
I use a damn flip phone and light switches, can't help you.
The Google Home thingee (don't know what to call it) is actually pretty cool. My wife got it for me for xmas and it wasn't something on my radar but so far i really like it. Besides asking it questions etc., i can link it to my existing chromecasts (on two tvs) and order up youtube, netflix etc. songs from my google play account. All the articles i've read suggest integrating smart lighting so i'm sticking my toes in the water. At the end of the day, it's a TOY but it's a cool one.
How is the voice recognition? I effing hate Siri as it never understands a damn thing I'm saying. It makes we weary of anything that requires voice recognition.
It's about the same as Siri... The coolest part is that our 5 year old daughter constantly uses it and asks questions. She'll get the weather report and then relay it to me or my wife (daughter gets really excited about that), orders up her favorite songs etc. We went to see Moana the other night at the theatre and she came home and asked it to play the soundtrack (on her own). It was pretty cool.
The funny thing is that Siri totally understands my kids, but never understands me. Must be a me problem.
Now have the bridge installed (can control up to 50 lights per bridge) & 3 color/white smart bulbs... when I say "hey google turn living room lights green", it does. App allows me to turn on/off remotely for vacation security. Bulbs are LED & very efficient! Cool stuff.
Samsung smartthings. Check it out. But don't be upset later when you're hooked. I've now got a custom home security system, complete with window sensors, motion sensors and cameras inside and out. Plus, an automated Samsung vacuum cleaner, ring doorbell, nest thermostat, smart speakers, phone controlled garage door opener... you get the idea. Plus harmony remotes and Amazon dots (and a google home) to voice control just about everything. I love google home- but amazon is way ahead of it now in terms of this stuff.
And the cool thing is that as long as the technology in the product is z-wave compatible, it works with smartthings. And there's a TON of cool stuff out there now.
You can literally automate almost everything in your home. When we leave, certain things happen. When we come back, other things happen. And when we're gone, we get notifications on our phones of anything that is picked up by the system.
And hue lights are good. I've got an osram smart light- and it's really cool. And hue's are well reviewed. And the damn things are supposed to last for 15-20 years (assuming 3 hours use per day).
I feel like I read an article awhile back about some security concerns with Z-wave products. Something about their very easy to hack or something. Maybe somebody else knows what I'm talking about.
I'm gonna have to keep things relatively simply at our home... One important factor is WiFi sometimes is spotty and we don't have a smorgasbord of options there. Also, cost--those HUE lights are 50.00 a pop. We have can lighting in our basement and it'll cost around 600.00 to fill every lamp etc. That's big bucks for lighting. Our neighbors have a similar set up as yours and use Alexa/echo/dots etc. It's pretty bad ass!!! Wifey decided on Google Home because we subscribe to GooglePlayMusic and have 2 chromecasts throughout the house. Fairly seamless interactions with the Google products/subscriptions we already have in place... I like that I can say--Hey Google turn on netflix to Portlandia in the master bedroom & it's on by the time I have my head on the pillow.
Those have been fixed. I was concerned at first also, until I researched and found out that those issues have been fixed by Samsung.
Even if it's not smartthings, z-wave technology is the way to go.
I failed to mention this, but check out the completely wireless cameras made by blink. I have two five packs, and the normal non sale price is 349 for five. I got mine cheaper than that during the cyber week sales. Smartthings doesn't officially support blink, but there's code out there to integrate it with the smartthings hub. And the cameras can literally be placed anywhere, they're small, have one way audio and can record clips when motion is detected.
In addition to the outside cameras and sensors on every possible entry point in the house (and motion sensors right inside the "pinch" points in the house), all possible entry points are Monitored, tracked and recorded when triggered.
Hue makes some larger portable "mood" lighting options. You may want to consider those for your basement. And, when you use a STs presence Sensor, they can be auto triggered.
Basically, we've got a retrofitted smart house. All without running a bunch of wires.
And I'm looking forward to google home catching up to Alexa. Because we also use Google's music service, and we have android tv either natively or through nvidia shield devices. Right now, it's way behind Alexa in terms of capability. Hope that changes soon. I suspect it will. It's a google product, after all.
Similar threads
