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enraged_camel posted:Is there a way to have a regular (dumb) switch along with a smart switch in a 3-way setup? Or do both switches have to be smart switches? You need a smart add-on switch. They’re cheap compared to a full smart switch since they don’t have all the radio components and such of the full smart switch. They literally just signal back to the main switch what to do. I went with the GE models, and they are ~$20 a piece. They can be used with smart switches, dimmers and fan controls. Note that you need to likely get one of the same brand you’re using for a smart switch and that the wiring connections are different than a normal three way but use the same wires (you only use one traveler for connecting back with the GEs, the other traveler wire gets hooked up to the load if I recall correctly). I just hooked up a ceiling fan with a separate fan speed smart switch and a smart dimmer both with three way configs using add-ons at the secondary site. Work like a charm and I love having the option to use the switches as well as voice and automation. housefly fucked around with this message at 03:22 on Jul 8, 2018 |
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Jul 8, 2018 03:18
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I've had an original model Ring Doorbell for the last year and have been extremely unimpressed. The two biggest issues are the lag between action and record time and the inconsistent low-battery warnings that often don't show up at all. (The Ring app is also a large steaming pile) Any recommendations for its replacement? Skybell, Nest Hello, Blink, etc? I'd simply like something that captures decent video without the action/record lag. If it's extensible to add a driveway cam, etc. that would be a huge bonus. Thanks thread!
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Jul 8, 2018 17:49
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Fireside Nut posted:I've had an original model Ring Doorbell for the last year and have been extremely unimpressed. The two biggest issues are the lag between action and record time and the inconsistent low-battery warnings that often don't show up at all. (The Ring app is also a large steaming pile) I've had the Canary Flex outdoor cameras and I hated them because of the lag time between action and notification. I replaced the one at my front door with a Nest Hello, and the lag time between action and notification is probably less than a second. Very happy with it. Of course, you can add the other Nest cameras as needed.
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Jul 8, 2018 18:02
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Housefly, in addition to advice you’ve been given, I’d like to add that I recently had a four-way dumb switch setup (3 locations with old rockers, 2x 4T8 luminaires) that’s been upgraded to a smart-smart-dumb setup (Leviton Lumina RFs). Existing wiring was such that the last remaining dumb rocker was never touched. Thrown, it totally turns off the two overhead fixtures, while in the on position it just lets the radios in the smart switches function normally. /recent anecdote
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Jul 8, 2018 18:13
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Fireside Nut posted:I've had an original model Ring Doorbell for the last year and have been extremely unimpressed. The two biggest issues are the lag between action and record time and the inconsistent low-battery warnings that often don't show up at all. (The Ring app is also a large steaming pile) The regular nest cameras have no real lag between someone being in your front yard and you getting a notification. I have 3 outdoor and 1 indoor and they are flawless.
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Jul 8, 2018 18:13
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Thanks for the recommendations, Thermopyle and Piggy Smalls! To clarify further, the big lag issue I have with Ring is that it's always capturing video many seconds after someone walks up to the door. I often get alerts pretty quickly on Ring but when I go to review the video it's missing a big chunk of time from when the person first approached the door. Is Nest good at capturing the whole sequence of movement from start to finish?
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Jul 8, 2018 18:36
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Best Buy has a lot of Google Chromecast and Home products on sale this week, if anyone's interested.
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Jul 8, 2018 18:48
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Nest is wired in and has continuous capture, so you won’t be missing anything unless the wifi connection drops.
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Jul 8, 2018 21:31
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Fireside Nut posted:Thanks for the recommendations, Thermopyle and Piggy Smalls! It is continuous and you can go back to before the person got to the door.
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Jul 8, 2018 22:34
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I hope this is the correct place to ask about Google Home alone without any added smart home stuff. If not I can take it to the Android thread or something. I'd like to set up a Google Home for my grandfather as he moves into an assisted living facility. His vision is very poor (cannot see screens or books well enough to use/read them). He has some dementia issues. He'll be moving into a place where he has his own room and constant caregivers available. My goal is to have something he can interact with through voice alone. The more intuitive and easy to use, the better. If it's used for nothing but calling up music, that's just fine, as even that's something he has trouble doing now. I live a little ways away, so I'd like to have this just work after my initial in-person setup. I have a Google Home Mini myself, so I'm familiar with how they work. I could use some help or advice for some things:
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Jul 9, 2018 05:37
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Evis posted:Nest is wired in and has continuous capture, so you won’t be missing anything unless the wifi connection drops. Piggy Smalls posted:It is continuous and you can go back to before the person got to the door. Perfect - thanks so much!
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Jul 9, 2018 11:36
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incogneato posted:It seems like at a minimum it would be a problem if there is another Google Home out there on the network somewhere, right? I haven’t owned Homes, but I know many people who have multiple on the same network. What do you think would go wrong?
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Jul 9, 2018 11:53
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The biggest concern I'd have about being on a shared network is the Chromecast functionality. Anyone else on that network could cast media to it at any time of day or night. I really wish that Google had a better solution for cast functionality on semi-public networks.
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Jul 9, 2018 14:28
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Fireside Nut posted:Perfect - thanks so much! You can also listen with camera. And has night vision that is super clear. 
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Jul 9, 2018 15:45
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Subjunctive posted:I haven’t owned Homes, but I know many people who have multiple on the same network. What do you think would go wrong? Nothing in particular. I know multiple Homes work on the same network (god knows Google wants us all to own dozens), but I assume they're usually registered to the same Google account and users. As wolrah said, casting with multiple cast-capable devices can get weird. I didn't know if the same was true for Home devices generally. Will anyone with the Home app be able to muck with settings, etc?
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Jul 9, 2018 17:59
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You could put it on its own cellular hotspot, or if that's cost-prohibitive, put a wireless AP in the middle to firewall it off from other guests.
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Jul 9, 2018 18:14
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Configuration of a Home or Mini requires authentication except when doing initial setup, by my recollection (and hope).
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Jul 9, 2018 18:15
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Wibla posted:A dedicated AP with a sector/beam antenna could help? So looking around, these are really pricey, 400-1,200 bucks, and they look like they're meant for getting your wifi connection across town. I was hoping for a router just a bit more powerful then what I got to extend the wifi by a few extra feet, namely being able to penetrate the stucco walls that make up my garage. I was looking up meshes, and saw this... https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N75V1P6/ref=ask_ql_qh_dp_hza If I'm to understand, I can have one plugged to my modem and then set the second one wherever, without being hardwired, to extend the signal? I can place the second one right smack in the corner of the house and ideally with its supposed 1,500 ft radius it can get a signal going past the stucco walls, no? Also a two pack is only 60 bucks for some reason, half the price of a single. E: Google wifi also looks interesting, but it looks like I have to daisy chain additional routers with an ethernet cable? Leal fucked around with this message at 23:42 on Jul 9, 2018 |
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Jul 9, 2018 23:37
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Installing my first smart switch today. I'll probably gently caress it up somehow and burn down the house. Should be fun.
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Jul 9, 2018 23:46
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Leal posted:So looking around, these are really pricey, 400-1,200 bucks, and they look like they're meant for getting your wifi connection across town. I was hoping for a router just a bit more powerful then what I got to extend the wifi by a few extra feet, namely being able to penetrate the stucco walls that make up my garage. IIRC If it's just a repeater every one you add will reduce your available bandwidth by half. Mesh networks need some back channel, either hardwired or something of a different wavelength.
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Jul 10, 2018 01:53
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Leal posted:So looking around, these are really pricey, 400-1,200 bucks, and they look like they're meant for getting your wifi connection across town. I was hoping for a router just a bit more powerful then what I got to extend the wifi by a few extra feet, namely being able to penetrate the stucco walls that make up my garage. Seriously just run a cat6 into the garage and be done with it. Anything else you consider is a waste of time.
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Jul 10, 2018 04:57
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uPen posted:Seriously just run a cat6 into the garage and be done with it. Anything else you consider is a waste of time. I'm all for the lazy "smart" solution, but this is the answer.
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Jul 10, 2018 05:02
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I am expressly forbidden by the guy who can decide to make me homeless to drill holes into the house. The camera is wireless only. The garage gets extremely hot during the day, well above 105. Wireless is my only option
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Jul 10, 2018 11:41
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You can get cheaper sector/beam ap's, ubiquity has some. They're like <150 for a pair.
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Jul 10, 2018 11:48
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Google WiFi is a mesh system, wires are NOT required between units. They will establish a wireless backhaul,I believe the upper limit on units is 9.
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Jul 10, 2018 12:31
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incogneato posted:I hope this is the correct place to ask about Google Home alone without any added smart home stuff. If not I can take it to the Android thread or something. Does it have to be a Google Home? This might not be a bad application for an Echo or even an Echo show. There's easy drop in calling and no worries about the casting stuff, etc.
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Jul 10, 2018 20:00
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Maneki Neko posted:Does it have to be a Google Home? This might not be a bad application for an Echo or even an Echo show. There's easy drop in calling and no worries about the casting stuff, etc. No, I just went that direction because it's what I'm familiar with. Good point, I'll take a look at the Echo to see if it does what I want better. Is Amazon's voice recognition up to par with Google's? My grandfather doesn't always speak very clearly these days. My understanding was that the Echo calling was only between other Echos. Is that still true?
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Jul 10, 2018 20:10
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Drop in is between echo devices, calls can go to cell phones with (I’m pretty sure it’s needed) the Alexa app installed. E: this may help. https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=16713667011
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Jul 10, 2018 20:17
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The Google Assistant is also built into Android phones, for what it's worth.
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Jul 10, 2018 22:52
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This talk reminds me that I just recently found out that I can go "hey google, broadcast I'll be home in 15 minutes" and Assistant on my phone will broadcast that to the Home's in my house.
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Jul 10, 2018 23:39
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Thermopyle posted:This talk reminds me that I just recently found out that I can go "hey google, broadcast I'll be home in 15 minutes" and Assistant on my phone will broadcast that to the Home's in my house. Certain broadcasts will also trigger sound effects, like saying "broadcast dinner time".
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Jul 11, 2018 00:11
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I have a Dropcam (now Nest) and the support and reliability for it absolutely sucks hard. It seems like Nest just fired all their technical support people and got a bunch of super-overworked, really bottom-of-the-barrel people to replace them. I've been on phone support hell with them for the past hour. With that said, I am looking for a basic online camera that can detect motion and send me a text, email, or an app alert. I was stoked at the cost of Amazon's Cloud Cam (both for the product and monthly costs, and it's free for the most basic cloud monitoring), but not having email or SMS support is a real potential dealbreaker, unfortunately. However Nest has gone so far down the tubes that I might be able to deal with just the app alerts if they work, versus Nest's alerts that seem to work whenever they feel like it. I just need something that's reliable, if it costs a little more, so be it.
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Jul 12, 2018 00:10
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Three-Phase posted:I have a Dropcam (now Nest) and the support and reliability for it absolutely sucks hard. It seems like Nest just fired all their technical support people and got a bunch of super-overworked, really bottom-of-the-barrel people to replace them. I've been on phone support hell with them for the past hour. Wow, that sucks. I had a problem yesterday where the web portal had a corrupted video stream and Nest support got me ironed out in like 5 minutes. Seems like maybe their support is not consistent... The absolute best thing about the Nest cameras (at least the current gen) to me is how fast and reliable the app notifications are compared to the Logitech, Canary, and Arlo cameras I've used in the past. edit: Oh yeah, the reason I came into this thread. I mentioned a few days ago that I was moving away from my smartthings+HA-in-docker setup to a zwave-usb-stick+HA-in-docker setup. Today I started on that and it was very simple if you have any amount of experience with linux and docker or even if not but you can follow basic instructions. Here's my brief tutorial: 1. Plug the Aeotec Zwave Gen5 USB stick into linux box. 2. Add this to to /etc/udev/rules.d/10-zwave-static.rules so the USB stick can always be found at /dev/zwave ACTION=="add", ATTRS{idVendor}=="0658", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0200", SYMLINK+="zwave" 3. Reboot and make sure /dev/zwave points to your USB device. 3. Add --device=/dev/zwave:/dev/zwave:rwm to your docker command that starts HA (or the equivalent to your docker-compose.yml). 5. Follow the HA instructions to add the zwave component and then start pairing your zwave devices. Thermopyle fucked around with this message at 00:34 on Jul 12, 2018 |
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Jul 12, 2018 00:21
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I'm trying to setup my Nest doorbell but keep getting a NC008 error, support has taken multiple days now and I've literally tried everything including connecting via a hotspot and they now want me to take my doorbell off the house and try it somewhere else... I wish I hadn't just bought a nest doorbell, cameras and thermostat...
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Jul 12, 2018 00:25
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That does sound like a firewall or maybe wifi issue based on the nest support pages.
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Jul 12, 2018 00:27
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Evis posted:That does sound like a firewall or maybe wifi issue based on the nest support pages. Yeah, I was going to say this as well. Not sure what Nest can do for you if your network is weird in some manner.
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Jul 12, 2018 00:32
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It's definitely not my firewall or wifi, they don't use any special protocols or require any special NAT or open ports. According to support they're just making a web request and I'm not blocking any ports or anything. Also the fact that I had it connect over my phone network and got the same error makes me think it has nothing to do with the network at all. I have an edgerouter and UAP from Ubiquiti, I know my way around networks, nothing is "weird" about it.
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Jul 12, 2018 00:44
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Added a Skybell Camera to my house. Works pretty drat good and it was way cheaper than the Ring Pro.
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Jul 12, 2018 00:47
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Thermopyle posted:Wow, that sucks. Yeah, that's what so weird, since they've been top-notch in the past. I thought they went and did one of those "fire your good support people" things. Scanning other places like Reddit make it sound like other people are getting extremely poor support for Nest, which in the past has really been top-notch. I know there have been outages that seem to be getting worse (check Nest on DownDetector http://downdetector.com/status/nest ). I've also been seeing some recent reports here and there (Reddit, Twitter, etc.) where people are claiming to have had their HVAC systems damaged and they are blaming the Nest thermostats, and there even was a HVAC guy who said their first step was generally "pull out the Nest thermostat". So this is basically what happened to me here after my camera stops providing notifications:
I also had a technical question about the camera that the support person logged a ticket for engineering with. That was a year or more ago. I was never contacted back about that.  Thermopyle posted:The absolute best thing about the Nest cameras (at least the current gen) to me is how fast and reliable the app notifications are compared to the Logitech, Canary, and Arlo cameras I've used in the past. This is amazing. Don't get me wrong, I'm really glad this is working for you, and hopefully it's working well for other people, but when I read that my jaw dropped open. Or maybe Nest is poor and the others are just so, so, so much worse. Definitely want to look for a new camera, but I definitely don't want it to be a Nest product based on my experiences here. Three-Phase fucked around with this message at 00:53 on Jul 12, 2018 |
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Jul 12, 2018 00:49
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Three-Phase posted:Or maybe Nest is poor and the others are just so, so, so much worse. No, for me the Nest isn't poor. The delay between activity and notification is less than 1 second. Probably less than 500ms. I have two outdoor cameras plus the Nest Hello. The cameras work well and the doorbell chime on my phone is barely behind the actual old-fashioned physical doorbell chime when someone presses the button. I'm not sure I would ding them for making you step through their support script. That's almost a given with any technical support. That's also why I usually don't call a support line. Support chat can often skip the script or at the very least it's easier to not waste your time on a chat then a phone call. With support you can often cut through the bullshit Ron Swanson style. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEhHEOIYgMY Of course, tier-two not helping you sounds pretty poo poo.
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Jul 12, 2018 01:10
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