Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Hilton]

Hi All

Well after years of just using a Logitech Harmony Elite and my airplay tuneblade kludge with MediaCenter..... I've started a thorough proper home automation journey. 

The last time I had full home automation was back around the year 2000 with Slink-e, homeseer, cinemar, multiple 400CD changers, X10 controllers and switches and touch screens around the house. 

Now the market has started taking shape I've decided to take my first steps and am already hugely impressed by what Google are doing.
I recently picked up 4 Google mini's for $79 per pair to add to my multiple Chromecast audios around the house.

As a first stage I've linked Google Home with my Harmony Ultimate Hub and can already do anything that's programmed into the Harmony via Google Assistant. 

I've used the voice shortcut features of Google Home to create really simple commands to activate scenes.  Such as " Hey Google - lets watch a movie" that will "Tell Harmony" to turn the receiver on, set to correct input, turn projector on, set my theatre strip lights on at a low setting, open up MediaCenter in movies. or "Hey Google turn everything off" to shutdown everything. 

I can control my strip lights via Google assistant, and start casting audio to individual casting devices or groups throughout the whole home with audio in sync.
I haven't played around much with MediaCenter casting yet but that's next on the list.

The next bits to add to the system will be a VeraPlus hub that does ZigBee, Z-wave and bluetooth all from one hub. I'll also be adding a couple of chromecast ultras in, and multiple Fibaro smart light switches, and smart powerpoints instead of smart globes. I may still do some smart light strips in the media room but I'm happy with a smart dimming light switch with dimmable LED lights as opposed to really expensive smart globes. Most of the lights in my house are down lights which makes it pretty darn expensive to go the smart globe route.

Off to play with MediaCenter casting....

[Hilton]

Here's some great progress tonight..

Setting up Media Center with Google Mini's, and chrome casts as zones including Google Grouped devices as zones.
This supports full DLNA including volume control of the group or individual zones.

Google Home on the Tablet.
JRiver group cast zone by Hilton, on Flickr

JRemote on the tablet playing to the Google Media Group Zone (in 96/24 bit FLAC with 2 Google mini's linked - Also tested as working with linked Chromecast audios)

JRiver group cast zone by Hilton, on Flickr


BubbleUPnP server setup to create the Google DLNA zones. (with Media Center playing in the background showing all the zones)

JRiver group cast zone by Hilton, on Flickr

[Hilton]

I added some LIFX RGB LED light strips to the media room and now have some IFTTT recipes to do some cool things with scenes and triggers.  I also Integrated my RING doorbell so the google homes will say "someones outside" if the doorbell detects motion.  If the doorbell is pressed the LIFX lights flash blue a couple times and google homes all say "someones at the door".

The Google Wifi 3 point Mesh network has also been so much more stable and faster than the old Netgear with 2 extenders I used to have.

Nathan, not quite intercom, but you can broadcast messages to all google home devices and CCAs. "Hey Google broadcast that dinner is ready" etc.  (2-way will surely come soon though)
(Yes I know Amazon Echo have had that feature for a long time including 2way  but Amazon wont launched in Australia till Feb 2018)

A lot of fun this stuff... Now to just get Google Assistant working with MC.

[Hilton]

I've taken a quick video of the latest work in progress.

I've started playing with ImperiHome automation scene and dashboard controller software for Android, so far I really like it. 

I had another look at homeseer with the HS3 touch designer app but I'm not sold on it yet. So far I prefer ImperiHome but I know I can do a lot more with Homeseer so I'll see how far I can get with ImperiHome first.

Video of new work in progress... to follow...


I've started repairing the old irrigation system that was installed by previous owners. I bought the house a couple years ago and the old irrigation system needed nearly all the sprayers replaced and some sections of polypipe. 

I've built a protoype irrigation system for the crown of my fern trees.  There's about 30 of them around the house and I've lost 3 or 4 of them in the last 2 years from dry hot summers and not enough water.   

Here's all the bits for the garden irrigation and the software running on a tablet.
Irrigation controller bits by Hilton, on Flickr

The prototype I built for the first fern tree worked really well and I have an 8 Zone bluetooth controller and my first few solenoids to start to automate the watering of the garden and fern trees.

In the video below it's not very clear but there's a 360 degree adjustable spray head at the top with upto 3M range to give the fern fronds a good soak, and an adjustable 180 degree sprayer mounted in the side of the polypipe that faces down into the crown of the fern. I used a plastic stake attached to the polypipe to mount it in the fern crown that i maneuvered into the top of the crown with a long attachment that's designed to open and shut a ceiling blind in the garage.  Now only about 30 more to go.....  and another 50M of polypipe to run and also a couple hundred meters of solenoid wiring.

Fern tree crown irrigation by Hilton, on Flickr

[Hilton]

Video of the work in progress home automation.

https://youtu.be/4K0MrCxI2kI