Nice video. Thanks Shane. I’m hoping that iOS 13 will add some other options to the ‘notifications’ for individual devices. - I’d like to be able to see when specific lights are left on. Daughter’s bedroom & our master bathroom seem to be the major problem areas within my home...being notified when they’ve been on for more than, say 45-minutes, would be nice. I know that I could grab some motion sensors, but a built-in, time based notifier would be slick. Might also work well for the garage door ‘open’ status.
Bradley Reece Yes I’m sure you will be able to do similar things like that with shortcuts and automations. I’ve played with some of the new features a little bit. You can get the status of specific devices in your home and do all kinds of things with shortcuts. I’m sure I’ll be making some videos around this type of stuff so keep the ideas coming! And thanks for watching!
Shane: I know this video is a year old now. And, I don't know if you'll see and/or respond to an inquiry here. But, one of the things I've been trying to improve on is my own setup is naming convention within HomeKit. And, this video seems to be the one where it is most appropriate to ask. I've been poking through your videos just looking for any new information that I can add to what I already know, or think I do, to help me continue automating my home with HomeKit. There is always something interesting and, I either confirm what I think I already know or learn something new. For instance, I've been pretty much avoiding anything with hubs because I viewed that as an unnecessary additional expense, complication and electricity draw. But you did make a good point about them taking a load off one's wifi. I now have 30 to 40 devices on my home automation and wondered if any residential wifi router/system would be capable of dependably handling much more than that as I can see that number doubling over the next year or two. You're right. A couple of hubs should solve that issue. My Arlo cameras and video doorbell already have a hub and it has been much more stable than my eight, individually connected Wemo minis for instance. What can you share about effective naming conventions for one's automation to help it work with Siri? Or, can you point me to something that does address naming conventions for use with HomeKit/Siri? Being a finance guy by trade and having done a lot of work with databases and database reporting systems, I assumed (yes, I know) that a consistent naming convention will allow more control options for all automated devices and systems within my house that will be easier to remember and use with voice control (Siri) for my wife and I. I installed everything in rooms that either used the Apple default room names or custom names that avoided duplication. We only have one "Family Room" and one "Living Room" so the HomeKit defaults are fine. But, I couldn't use "Bedroom" because we have four of them here and adding an "A" or "B" would lead to confusion over which is which. So, I went with Master Bedroom, Erica's Bedroom, etc.that are really easy for us to remember and relate to. I used a consistent name for each type of device so that we didn't have to remember different names for a lamp if I wanted to say "Siri, all table lamps off". Or, Hey Siri, all Kitchen off". Thus, we have table lamps, floor lamps and overhead lights for device names. And yes, I realize that groups and scenes can cover some of this. But, outside of an automation, that means more unique name combinations we need to remember to effectively use our voice command capabilities. As it is, instead of using Siri, I often just open HomeKit on my iPhone X and send commands from there, so I can be sure what I am telling HomeKit to do. That sort of defeats the ease of using voice. And I was planning to upgrade our gen 3 Apple TV device to a gen 4, just to get the Siri voice control on HomeKit. At least in our main living area. Well, that and my always plugged in old iPad Air in the main living area seems to be "not responding" as often as it is connected and working. ;-( dilemma
Hey. It sounds like you are on the right track in my opinion. I don't think there is a right/wrong way in regards to naming conventions. I think each setup should reflect what makes the most sense to that person and that family. I like to name rooms and devices so that it is natural and easy if I need to access them via siri. I do the same as you as far as bedroom names go. And you can also use zones for higher level grouping of rooms if you want (i.e. upstairs, main level, outside, etc.). And yes, I don't mind hubs. I know some people don't agree with this, but personally it's not a huge deal to me, as long as I have space. And if I use hubs, I prefer to find something I want to stick with and have lots of...for example one hub for two light bulbs doesn't make much sense, but one hub for a house full of light bulbs does. I really like hubs for things like sensors (motion, door/window, etc) and light switches. Regarding your wifi router, I think you will be fine with most decent routers (I prefer mesh wifi for most smart home setups). I heard of people having upwards of 100 accessories on their networks, but I've also heard of people starting to have issues once they get over 100. I cannot say for sure since I am not quite there yet. And lastly, for me personally, I use my phone very little to control my devices. I love automations and try to take advantage of them whenever possible. For example MANY lights in my house just come on and off (when I snooze morning alarm, when the first person arrives home, when a door opens between 6 and 8am, when the last person leaves home, when "movie night" starts, etc.). I tend to control many of my main lights with voice, but lamps, light strips, all accent lights are almost always a part of an automation or scene therefore I rarely need to control them individually. In my opinion, automation is the key. Hope this helps some, and thanks for watching!
@@ShaneCreates 0 I love automations too. Have been using them since X10. Probably before you were born. :-) The Active Home Pro two-way computer interface was the bomb when it came out. The first time ability to have flexible automation programs at an affordable price. X10 was "the budget" set up back then. And I dove right in and had lots of fun. Today's HomeKit and the available automation devices, are light years beyond that though. But, my spouse is not so keen on my automations. Never has been. She calls me a "control freak" when some front room light goes off on time and she is only aware because we stayed up to watch a movie beyond our normal bedtime. Thus, the use of Siri on an iPhone to get it right back on and avoid her wrath. I just tell her to tell Siri to turn that light back on. :-) Hey, maybe that's a topic for a future video for you. How to set up home automations that work for the entire family. Probably get a boatload of comments on that topic based on my own experience. It would also be interesting if anyone knows of any weather or outdoor ambient light related input devices. It's the one measurement that seems to be missing from home automation. Well, my Rachio irrigation controller has a weather interface. But I can't integrate that into HomeKit automation AFAIK. In my own case, I have the under cabinet lights in the kitchen set to go off at 9:00 AM which is fine on any normal, sunny day. But, when it's foggy or cloudy, we leave them on all day and I can't set up that algorithm without a weather or outside light level input. There could be lots of other uses for that same data. "If it's daytime and it's raining heavily, then turn on the outside lights." And so on. Keep up the great work!
How can I change ON/OFF labels in HomeKit to what I want? I have a smart HDMI switch.. 2 in 1 out.. I want to be able to say “hey siri, turn on Apple TV” and it’ll turn on the Apple TV and switch the HDMI switch to Apple TV instead of ON and if I say “Hey Siri, Turn on PlayStation” it’ll turn on my PlayStation and switch the HDMI to the PlayStation.. because as of right now I have to ask Siri to turn off the switch just to turn on my PlayStation and switch hdmi to PlayStation… and vise versa
![SUPERCHARGE Your Automations! ⚡️ [HomeKit Edition]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/I3HSXDnR2PY/mqdefault.jpg)
![SUPERCHARGE Your Automations! ⚡️ [HomeKit Edition]](/img/tr.png)
![Gunna - HIM ALL ALONG [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/w7Wf0h1Q8a4/mqdefault.jpg)
Wow…. I like the subdued vibe. No hat. Very authoritative.
Great video! I’m liking this getting started series.
Windy Tech thanks Eric!
Nice video. Thanks Shane.
I’m hoping that iOS 13 will add some other options to the ‘notifications’ for individual devices.
- I’d like to be able to see when specific lights are left on. Daughter’s bedroom & our master bathroom seem to be the major problem areas within my home...being notified when they’ve been on for more than, say 45-minutes, would be nice.
I know that I could grab some motion sensors, but a built-in, time based notifier would be slick. Might also work well for the garage door ‘open’ status.
Bradley Reece Yes I’m sure you will be able to do similar things like that with shortcuts and automations. I’ve played with some of the new features a little bit. You can get the status of specific devices in your home and do all kinds of things with shortcuts. I’m sure I’ll be making some videos around this type of stuff so keep the ideas coming! And thanks for watching!
Shane:
I know this video is a year old now. And, I don't know if you'll see and/or respond to an inquiry here. But, one of the things I've been trying to improve on is my own setup is naming convention within HomeKit. And, this video seems to be the one where it is most appropriate to ask.
I've been poking through your videos just looking for any new information that I can add to what I already know, or think I do, to help me continue automating my home with HomeKit. There is always something interesting and, I either confirm what I think I already know or learn something new.
For instance, I've been pretty much avoiding anything with hubs because I viewed that as an unnecessary additional expense, complication and electricity draw. But you did make a good point about them taking a load off one's wifi. I now have 30 to 40 devices on my home automation and wondered if any residential wifi router/system would be capable of dependably handling much more than that as I can see that number doubling over the next year or two. You're right. A couple of hubs should solve that issue. My Arlo cameras and video doorbell already have a hub and it has been much more stable than my eight, individually connected Wemo minis for instance.
What can you share about effective naming conventions for one's automation to help it work with Siri? Or, can you point me to something that does address naming conventions for use with HomeKit/Siri?
Being a finance guy by trade and having done a lot of work with databases and database reporting systems, I assumed (yes, I know) that a consistent naming convention will allow more control options for all automated devices and systems within my house that will be easier to remember and use with voice control (Siri) for my wife and I.
I installed everything in rooms that either used the Apple default room names or custom names that avoided duplication. We only have one "Family Room" and one "Living Room" so the HomeKit defaults are fine. But, I couldn't use "Bedroom" because we have four of them here and adding an "A" or "B" would lead to confusion over which is which. So, I went with Master Bedroom, Erica's Bedroom, etc.that are really easy for us to remember and relate to.
I used a consistent name for each type of device so that we didn't have to remember different names for a lamp if I wanted to say "Siri, all table lamps off". Or, Hey Siri, all Kitchen off". Thus, we have table lamps, floor lamps and overhead lights for device names. And yes, I realize that groups and scenes can cover some of this. But, outside of an automation, that means more unique name combinations we need to remember to effectively use our voice command capabilities. As it is, instead of using Siri, I often just open HomeKit on my iPhone X and send commands from there, so I can be sure what I am telling HomeKit to do. That sort of defeats the ease of using voice. And I was planning to upgrade our gen 3 Apple TV device to a gen 4, just to get the Siri voice control on HomeKit. At least in our main living area. Well, that and my always plugged in old iPad Air in the main living area seems to be "not responding" as often as it is connected and working. ;-(
dilemma
Hey. It sounds like you are on the right track in my opinion. I don't think there is a right/wrong way in regards to naming conventions. I think each setup should reflect what makes the most sense to that person and that family. I like to name rooms and devices so that it is natural and easy if I need to access them via siri. I do the same as you as far as bedroom names go. And you can also use zones for higher level grouping of rooms if you want (i.e. upstairs, main level, outside, etc.).
And yes, I don't mind hubs. I know some people don't agree with this, but personally it's not a huge deal to me, as long as I have space. And if I use hubs, I prefer to find something I want to stick with and have lots of...for example one hub for two light bulbs doesn't make much sense, but one hub for a house full of light bulbs does. I really like hubs for things like sensors (motion, door/window, etc) and light switches.
Regarding your wifi router, I think you will be fine with most decent routers (I prefer mesh wifi for most smart home setups). I heard of people having upwards of 100 accessories on their networks, but I've also heard of people starting to have issues once they get over 100. I cannot say for sure since I am not quite there yet.
And lastly, for me personally, I use my phone very little to control my devices. I love automations and try to take advantage of them whenever possible. For example MANY lights in my house just come on and off (when I snooze morning alarm, when the first person arrives home, when a door opens between 6 and 8am, when the last person leaves home, when "movie night" starts, etc.). I tend to control many of my main lights with voice, but lamps, light strips, all accent lights are almost always a part of an automation or scene therefore I rarely need to control them individually. In my opinion, automation is the key.
Hope this helps some, and thanks for watching!
@@ShaneCreates 0
I love automations too. Have been using them since X10. Probably before you were born. :-) The Active Home Pro two-way computer interface was the bomb when it came out. The first time ability to have flexible automation programs at an affordable price. X10 was "the budget" set up back then. And I dove right in and had lots of fun. Today's HomeKit and the available automation devices, are light years beyond that though.
But, my spouse is not so keen on my automations. Never has been. She calls me a "control freak" when some front room light goes off on time and she is only aware because we stayed up to watch a movie beyond our normal bedtime. Thus, the use of Siri on an iPhone to get it right back on and avoid her wrath. I just tell her to tell Siri to turn that light back on. :-)
Hey, maybe that's a topic for a future video for you. How to set up home automations that work for the entire family. Probably get a boatload of comments on that topic based on my own experience.
It would also be interesting if anyone knows of any weather or outdoor ambient light related input devices. It's the one measurement that seems to be missing from home automation. Well, my Rachio irrigation controller has a weather interface. But I can't integrate that into HomeKit automation AFAIK.
In my own case, I have the under cabinet lights in the kitchen set to go off at 9:00 AM which is fine on any normal, sunny day. But, when it's foggy or cloudy, we leave them on all day and I can't set up that algorithm without a weather or outside light level input. There could be lots of other uses for that same data. "If it's daytime and it's raining heavily, then turn on the outside lights." And so on.
Keep up the great work!
How can I change ON/OFF labels in HomeKit to what I want? I have a smart HDMI switch.. 2 in 1 out.. I want to be able to say “hey siri, turn on Apple TV” and it’ll turn on the Apple TV and switch the HDMI switch to Apple TV instead of ON and if I say “Hey Siri, Turn on PlayStation” it’ll turn on my PlayStation and switch the HDMI to the PlayStation.. because as of right now I have to ask Siri to turn off the switch just to turn on my PlayStation and switch hdmi to PlayStation… and vise versa
Great video, Shane! Keep it up!
myHomeKithome thanks Dustin!
Nice.
How to move a hue light strip from default room to an empty room in HomeKit???? This hue to
HomeKit is a train wreck
In HomeKit just go to the light strip settings and you can change the room there.
How can I delete rooms?
Tap the little home icon in the upper left, then tap "room settings." Choose the room you want to delete and choose "remove room."
Nikl