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#nest

Dabbling in Home Automation and The Internet of Things

https://beau.blog/2017/04/dabbling-in-home-automation-and-the-internet-of-things/
  • #amazon echo
  • #automatic
  • #automation
  • #caseta
  • #google home
  • #home automation
  • #ifttt
  • #ihome
  • #lifx
  • #lutron
  • #nest
  • #nest camera
  • #schlage
  • #security
  • #wink

Now that I own my own house, and some of the technologies involved are a bit more stable, I’ve gotten into the idea of home automation a bit more. Here’s a quick run down of my current configuration.

At the center of most things, I have a wink hub (first generation). I configure as much as possible through that, since it simplifies interacting with them if they’re all available in one place.

BE468CAM716.jpg

From there, I have 2 Schlage Connect deadbolts (house and garage doors), which are both programmed with the same set of user codes (has to be done manually). It’s nice to be able to control codes from within the wink app, vs using the on-pad controls.

41s8w2udgiL.jpg

To control lights, we have 3 rooms converted over to Lutron Caseta light switches (so far, I’d like to do a few more). This makes it easy to control an entire circuit (all 3 rooms are controlling either 3 or 6 bulbs, so they’d be expensive to convert using individual smart bulbs). They’re super easy to install, and you don’t need their hub thing if you have the wink, which is compatible. I also have 3 iHome Smartplugs, which plug into an outlet, and then let you plug in any standard lamp/appliance, and control it. I don’t love the Smartplugs, and have had some trouble with them dropping their connections, but when they work they’re fine.

Separately, I also have 2 LIFX bulbs, which can be controlled directly, so they are in a couple of lamps that could otherwise be controlled via Smartplugs (I got these bulbs from their Kickstarter way back).

To control all of the above, I actually have everything configured in both an Amazon Echo, and a Google Home. Redundancy FTW, and it’s fun to experiment with each platform.

Technically, also connected to the wink hub, we have some Nest Outdoor security cameras, which have been really fun to play with. I’ve even hooked up a system to automatically take snapshots, which is interesting for comparing seasonal shade profiles for gardening purposes.

Apart from those power/control/security devices, we’ve also current got an Apple TV, a Chromecast (integrates really nicely with the Google Home), and I use Automatic in my truck.

I’ve played around a bit with configuring shortcuts and “robots” (automations), but really haven’t found many that are that useful to be honest. Probably the best one is one that just turns on our kitchen light when we open the back door (which opens basically into the kitchen). I think one of the biggest problems is that I don’t have a great system for handling “presence”, which needs to take me and Erika into account. Without that, anything I automate based on my presence is likely to just be an annoyance for her if she happens to be at home when I’m not (or vice versa).

Areas that I’d be curious to look into automating would be thermostat control (long story as to why I haven’t done this already), external temperature/precipitation, combined with irrigation, and possibly window coverings.

11:30 am, April 12, 2017

Recent Social Importer Updates

https://beau.blog/2017/03/recent-social-importer-updates/
  • #instagram
  • #keyring
  • #keyring social importers
  • #nest
  • #nest camera
  • #people
  • #places
  • #rest api
  • #tripit
  • #twitter
  • #wordpress

I’ve been trying to make small improvements to the Keyring Social Importers package (and People & Places) that I maintain, and have made a number of them over the last few weeks. Here are some details of recent updates which you may have missed:

People & Places

  • Improved the labels being used for each taxonomy, so that you don’t get random mentions of “tags” in the WordPress UI.
  • Improved the add_place_to_post() method so that you can add multiple Places to a single Post.
  • Now exposing both the people and places taxonomies via the REST API.

Keyring Social Importers

  • Added a filter so that you can easily (and globally) disable downloading of full content for Instapaper articles.
  • Made it easy to inject custom CSS for a specific importer.
  • Added a Nest Camera service and importer. Including recent updates, it will download a snapshot from the specified camera(s) during the hour indicated, auto-tag it using the location of the camera, and also associate it with a Place if People & Places is co-installed.
  • The Instagram importer now handles video posts properly, and will download the full video and embed it into your posts. Bundled a reprocessor to fix old posts, which would have previously been handled as image posts.
  • Also made the Instagram importer link up People mentioned in captions (not just those who are properly tagged as being in a post).
  • Fixed a bug in the Twitter importer which was mangling newlines. Added a reprocessor to fix it in old posts as well.
  • Now exposing where a post was imported from in the REST API.
  • Added Places support to the TripIt importer, which associates each post with Places for each airport flown through on that trip.

Keyring Social Importers has been updated in the WordPress.org plugin directory (version 1.7, or get it from Github) and you can get the latest version of People & Places from Github (still not an “official” plugin yet).

You can see most of them in action on my site, Dented Reality, which uses them to aggregate most of my online social activity. The People & Places data is not directly exposed yet, but you can see it in the REST API output.

Recent Social Importer Updates
Places support added to TripIt importer.
Recent Social Importer Updates
Added a Nest Camera importer.
Recent Social Importer Updates
Current list of data reprocessors.
1:43 pm, March 4, 2017

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