An Update on my Smart Home Automation
So a few years ago, I embarked on a journey to create a smart, but secure, home environment dubbed Extreme Makeover: Smart Edition. To say the least, I haven’t been very active here due to other commitments. However, I am now looking to get back on track to writing the tech news, reviews and videos that you love, starting with an update on my smart home automation project.
In the beginning, there was nothing. Fast forward to now, my investments into the smart home include devices that I can speak to, to get it to do something e.g turn on my office lights, as well as lots of little sensors and activators that gather all the data and in turn activate other devices based on a set of rules.
To bring it all together, this wouldn’t be possible without a central “brain”, also known as OpenHab. OpenHab is a free open source home automation software that connects to different devices and services in order to bring them all into a single solution for interaction. I have this installed locally, on an always-on server. Read also: I’ve Started Automating My Home Using openHAB2!
Amazon Echo
One of the first devices on the scene of my smart home automation journey has been my Amazon Echo and Amazon Echo Dot which I truly love. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever had such faithful servants in my life! They respond to my every command, question, remark… as long as I say the hot word “Alexa”. “Alexa, turn off the bathroom light.” “Alexa, turn on the vacuum”. “Alexa, play my music” which it then proceeds to play my liked songs on Spotify.
I think my laziness has gotten to a whole new level, since I can now ask for the bedroom lights to be turned off, rather than having to get out from underneath the warm sheets, walk across the room, and turn off the lights at the light switch!
Xiaomi Robot Vacuum Cleaner
As noted above, my use for Alexa has been to tell it to turn on/off, activate another device in my smart home devices collection. Which brings me to my next device on the list, the Xiaomi Robot Vacuum Cleaner. I cannot tell you how much time this has saved me in doing house work (a robot lawn mower such as one of these would be so handy!) Currently, I can ask Alexa to turn on the vacuum, or use its app to switch it on remotely. I am also working on getting the vacuum to automatically run once everyone has left the house, using OpenHab.
Xiaomi Mi Smart Home
Further down the Xiaomi foodchain, I have also invested in a few of their sockets and sensors. A few motion sensors, window and door sensors, smart power sockets and temperator & humidty sensors, you can really then start to get into the nitty gritty of smart home automation.
For example, you could create a rule in OpenHab to automatically turn on your Philips Hue lights when motion has been detected on one of the Xiaomi motion sensors placed around the house. You could create a rule in OpenHab to alert you whenever motion is detected in your house, when everyone is out. You could create a rule in OpenHab to automatically turn on your heat pump (through something such as a Sensibo) whenever the temperature recorded on the temp & humidity sensor is below a certain value. Or you could create a rule in OpenHab to alert you whenever a window or door has been left open too long through the Xiaomi window and door sensor.
I have incorporated a few of the above in my smart home automation setup and with a few tweaks, have been working well. Of course, Xiaomi are not the only company producing smart sensors, there are a few others as well such as Aeotec and Fibaro. What led me to go with Xiaomi was the value they brought to the table. They were cheaper than its competitors and I was willing to give them a go. They haven’t been without their issues though!
Philips Hue
Moving on, I have also added to my Philips Hue lighting collection. In order to be able to automatically turn on/off certain (or all) lights, I had to first make sure they were smart. So considering I had racked up a couple hundred Airpoints Dollars long before covid-19, I decided to spend most of them on new Philips Hue bulbs at Mitre 10. (I had also tried my luck at even cheaper WiFi-enabled light bulbs at AliExpress, but they were not good at all, and I had to forfeit all of them. Luckily I didn’t buy many!)
The beauty of OpenHab is that it can be very flexible. With the current lighting situation in my smart home automation, I have created rules in OpenHab that automatically turn on when the sun sets. I achieved this by downloading the Astro binding on OpenHab.
It is also set to automatically turn off all lights, if I leave the house, and likewise, automatically turn on certain lights in the house when I arrive back at home, and it is after dark.
OpenGarage
The OpenGarage door opener is designed based of the ESP8266 WiFi chip. It allows me to remotely open and close my garage door when connected securely to my OpenHab server. This was especially handy in the past when I hadn’t acquired a smart lock yet, that I could simply take my smartphone out for a walk and not have to bring any keys with me. I also have one of the above Xiaomi window and door sensors attached to the garage door to notify me through OpenHab after a certain period, if I’ve left the garage door open. Pretty handy for those ‘oh bugger, did I….’ moments after leaving the house!
Ring Doorbell
While I’ve had the Ring Doorbell for a while now, I thought I’d still mention it given how useful it has been since the beginning. It continues to reliably notify me on my mobile whenever someone rings the doorbell, or even walks up to it without pressing it, sensing through motion. This was especially handy when someone decided they wanted to play a bit of ding dong ditch!
A small niggle I have with this at the moment is the fact that I need to recharge it. While not the fault of the product (battery does still last around 3 months or so), I need to find a way to hardwire the Ring Doorbell, which it does support.
Smart Lock
One of the more recent devices I have invested into, is this fingerprint smart lock. Again, this is an attempt to hopefully get rid of the physical keys one has to carry when out and about in the future.
WiFi-Enabled BBQ
Some of you may remember the time when I reviewed the WiFi-enabled Daniel Boone Green Mountain Grill. I can tell you that this is still going strong after all these years, despite a control board malfunction the other week. I was surprised to find that the control board could be easily replaced by the user, and once replaced, everything was back smoking along nicely! It’s been great to be able to control the exact temperature of the smoker from the comfort of your couch (with a beer in hand of course!) while the smoker smokes away during the day.
Now after reading this article, you might be tempted to think that sounds like a huge security risk allowing all these IoT devices into your house! That is why for IoT security, I have either blocked most of their direct internet access (looking at the Xiaomi devices in particular), as well as have them all on a separate IoT VLAN on my network. So none of the personal devices are on the same network as the IoT devices, and are mostly controlled through the local OpenHab server.
As we come to the end of this article, you can see that there has been a few investments into my smart home automation project, and I can say that I am so far happy with the investment that has gone into this. And as always, there is definitely room for improvement, from more efficient automation rules in OpenHab, to new (and secured!) IoT devices entering the smart home.
I’d also be interested to hear what other gadgets you think could join my smart home automation project, down in the comments below.
