Category: Home Automation

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Homeworks Internet Controllable Radio Thermostat

Programmable thermostats are certainly not a new thing. I’ve had one in my home for several years. They allow you to lower your energy costs by turning the temperature up/down automatically at times throughout the day/night where you’re either not home or wouldn’t notice as much because you’re asleep. You can set these times and days of the week to match your daily routine/schedule. While that’s all well and good, it doesn’t help much in a situation where you don’t have a daily routine. For example, in my studio I’m not there on any kind of regular schedule. Some days I could be there every day for several days in a row and other times I could be gone for weeks at a time. In the past I would simply put the thermostat on the lowest setting before I leave and turn it back up when I arrive. There have also been times where I’ve forgotten to turn it down and the heat was going for no reason for a day or two with no one there. I started looking for a better solution.

The Homeworks Radio Thermostat was the answer

This thermostat is programmable like all the others, but it also allows you to control it via an App on your smartphone or tablet over the internet or locally via WiFi! With the App I can see the current temperature of the studio AND adjust the thermostat remotely at any time. If I forget to adjust it when I leave, no problem as I can now adjust it from anywhere in the world. If I want to turn the air conditioning on to cool it down before I arrive, I just pull out my iPhone and adjust the thermostat on my way in. So far this device and App have worked really well.

Installation – While I have installed thermostats myself in the past, I decided to let my electrician do it since I had him out working on other things anyway. It didn’t take him long to wire it up. Once It was installed all I had to do was set it up via the iOS App (works on Android too) and connect it to my WiFi network and pair to my account. From that point I could control it from my iPhone or iPad inside the building or via the internet from anywhere. The only thing that I can’t seem to figure out how to do is to switch it from Heat to Cool or to Auto from the App. I can do this from the panel itself, but not remotely. Otherwise, I have the control I need from the App.

You can get the Homeworks Radio Thermostat here for about $107.

You can get the App for free here from the iTunes

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Logitech Harmony Link Turns Your Mobile Device Into A Universal Remote

I've been a fan of the Harmony One for some time now. It's actually my favorite off the shelf universal remote. While it's not perfect, it offers the best universal, multiple device experience I've seen to date (aside from the Bose Lifestyle T20 RF remote). Recently I stumbled upon the Harmony Link. This small module connects to your WiFi network and basically serves as an wireless IR repeater to send commands from the Harmony Link App running on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or Android device to your audio and video equipment. In essence with the Harmony Link, your mobile device because your touch screen universal remote that does NOT require line of sight.

 

Straightforward setup

The Harmony Link comes with an AC adapter and USB cable. Dont' worry about the USB cable being short because you only need it for the initial setup and you can plug in the Harmony Link to any AC plug near your computer long enough to set it up and then relocate it near your TV when you're done. Since Harmony prides themselves on having a large database of remote codes, you merely need to collect all the Make and Model Numbers of your gear. Then you simply download the Harmony Link setup app on your Mac or PC. The 1st step is to join the Harmony Link to your WiFi network. Then walk through the setup by entering plain English to identify each device you want to control. If there is a device that you have that Logitech doesn't know about, it will prompt you to get the original remote so that you can teach the Harmony Link the commands it needs to know. 

 

The Harmony Link App for iOS

The next step is to grab the App for your mobile platform. I downloaded the Harmony Link App for iOS (see my review here). Once you have the App and your mobile device is on the same network as the Harmony Link module it will see it. Then just log in with the same user name and password that you used during the initial setup.

iTunes

 

How does it work?

Once I got the device setup and the App installed on my iPhone 4s and iPad 2 I took the Harmony Link for a spin. I configured three "activities", "Watch TV", "Watch DVD/BD" and "Watch Apple TV" my only challenge is that my Sony Google TV has the worst input switching implementation ever. Unlike most TVs that either have a direct Input button (ie. HDMI 2) or the ones that simply go "Input Next", mine brings up an on screen menu and while that's not the end of the world, after choosing the Input you have to click "OK". This isn't a standard thing and therefore it threw my Harmony One and of course the Harmony Link for a loop. To make matters worse each time the menu comes up on screen it doesn't highlight the current input, instead it starts at the top. I was able to get it to kinda work but I need to put a call into their tech support to get the best setting.  Outside of my weird Input problem on this one TV, everything else worked perfectly. I was able to easily control my Sony Google TV, TiVo Premiere XL, Sony Blu-ray player and Apple TV. When I done watching tapping a single button on my iPad or iPhone turns everything off. Since this is working via WiFi you don't have to worry about pointing your phone or tablet at your screen (great for turning off the stuff that was left on upstairs or downstairs without having to make the trip. There goes that little bit of exercise you were getting 🙂 ). Also the Harmony Link works in cabinets and has two ports for IR blasters to get to hard to see IR ports. 

 

What could be better?

While the Harmony Link does work as advertised, there is room for improvement. The first thing is that if you have more than one mobile device or other Harmony remotes, those other remotes/mobile devices don't know that your gear is on if you started with a different remote. For example, let's say I turn everything on with my iPhone 4s and then later pick up my iPad. The iPad doesn't know what activity I'm using or which gear is on or off. It would great if each remote/device could read from the Harmony Link to see the current status/activity. Also if you've got any AV gear that uses RF instead of IR you're out of luck. Another drawback in general is that since it's using your phone or tablet this means that it's 100% touch screen and that's not a good thing because it means always having to look at your display to see the button you want to use. On the Harmony one, there are physical buttons that you can use without looking. Lastly can we kill the green LED that's always on?

 

The Bottom Line

I'm one step closer to having the perfect universal remote. I would actually like to see an upgraded Harmony One that allows for the button customizations of the Harmony Link App and offer WiFi connectivity. If you're in Remote Control Hell and you have a smartphone or tablet, then you should take at the Harmony Link.

You can get the Harmony Link for $99.89 here.

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A Robot Cleans My Pool

It's not quite the Jetsons, but close enough for me. Yesterday, I did a post about my generator, so I thought I'd finish off the week with another piece on home automation and that's my iRobot Verro 300 pool cleaning robot. This is definitely one of my other favorite pieces of gear. Drop it in, let it sink to the bottom and turn it on. Walk away and in about two hours your pool is cleaned! It's a robotic pool vacuum and it works GREAT! I was amazed the first time I saw it climb the walls. I've had mine for about two years now and this is one of those things that if it died today, I'd be ordering a new one immediately. It's easy to use and maintain and takes one more chore out of my life.

Here's a short video of it in action (though it's not very exciting to watch 🙂 )

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5-YzK7EauQ

 

You can get the iRobot Verro 300 here. 

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Being on backup generator power for over 24 hours

Back in the spring of 2007 I had a whole house natural gas backup generator installed. After the big black out of 2003 that took out the whole East Coast, I knew that I never wanted to be without power for an extended period of time again. Like many preventative measures, you sometimes never have the problem you're trying to prevent. I used to joke all the time that buying that generator was the best (and most expensive) insurance I've ever bought. Since I had the generator installed the power never went off for more than 5 minutes in 3 years. Well that was until last week. I had gone out to run a couple of errands and just as I was wrapping up my last stop the sky had turned very dark (should have taken a picture) and I could tell that it was about to pour down raining any minute. I made it to the car right before the big rain hit and drove home. I noticed that it seemed a little darker than usual, but just figured it was the very heavy rain. When I got home I noticed a huge tree had fallen on my lawn. Although I knew that I was going to have to pay someone to clear that thing, I was very thankful that it didn't hit anything like the house or a car.

 

I hit the button for the garage door and pulled into my garage. As soon as I stepped out of the car I could hear the generator running on the opposite side of the rear wall. I walked into the house and all was fine. The house was cool, the lights were on and it was like any other time. However, the entire street was without power. That's when I said, "I'm finally getting some use out of that generator!" The beauty of it is, if the power is out more than a few seconds, it fires up and switches over automatically. When the power returns, the generator switches back and turns off. I love this type of automation. Most of my important gear is on UPS backups (see below), so for the most part the batteries in those units handle the switch overs quite nicely.

The next day, the generator was still running. As a matter of fact the power wasn't restored until that next evening. Although I don't wish for power outages because as a gadget junkie, they suck big time, I gotta say this was the first one that I actually enjoyed 🙂

My generator was installed by these guys.

 

For minor power disruptions I still highly recommend APC Battery Backup Units. These are not designed to power your electronics for extended periods of time. However, for your computers they will generally give you time to properly save your work and shut down. For other gadgets in your world (DVRs, Cable Modems, Routers, etc.), they'll preserve your settings and continue recording if the power is restored before the APC's battery dies. 

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Guest Blog Spot: Benefits of Home Automation

 

remote
 
by Richard Moyle
 
Making your home into a smart home can mean a lot of things depending on how far you decide to take it. Some just implement home automation for their lighting; others may utilize it for security. Still others may automate their home entertainment systems or their heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. But, regardless of what you decide to automate in your house, there are definitely some big advantages.
 
Convenience is probably the most obvious advantage of automating your home. Having your home automatically perform routine functions saves you time and effort. Just push one button and you can shut off all of your lights, set the thermostat to economy mode and arm your security system for the night. You can automate your home theater system and push one button to have the lights dim, curtains close, TV and DVD player turn on, phone mute and popcorn popper start making a snack for you to enjoy during the movie.