All right, let’s hear YOUR opinion… does my home automation go overboard? Is that even possible?! 🙃 How I set up the automations: smarthomesolver.com/reviews/insane-automations/
Great video! For my robot vacuums, I have an automation set up such that in any room/hallway, you can double click the primary light switch (flashed with ESPHome), and the vacuum will come clean that room. I also have smart switches near trash cans on both of my floors, and when you double click either of those switches, the vacuum will head over to the trash can to be emptied. (One day I'll get vacuums that empty themselves!)
I use SmartThings multi purpose sensors (incl. vibrations) on all windows and doors. On the doors it will ring my doorbell and activate doorbell features if people simply knock on the door. Intuitive and practical.
I guess it is never overboard 😄 Is it possible to create a trigger from the distance remaining between me and my home ? say my map is on and I am 'x' kilometres away from home and it triggers an automation at my home . Sorry lf it sounds stupid 😬
We're using NFC tags behind switches as well, but it's designed to bring up the documentation for that switch, so at a glance you can see: - a reminder of what that switch controls - under what circumstances the switch fails ("unavailable if ZigBee repeater on 1st floor is down", etc.) - how to get the desired action done if the switch does fail ("alternatively, press and hold XY switch") Approval Factor is pretty good!
I have a label on all my wall plates (they're two part, so it's hidden) with a breaker number on them. This makes it easy to determine which breaker I need to turn off to work on a given light switch. (When I do my outlets, I will do the same.) Something like this might be another good bit of information to store in your documentation!
Reed I'm really enjoying this series where you show different home automation examples. I don't care how crazy they seem keep it up because all of them are great for getting my creative juices flowing!
i have a similar automation to turn on the lights when someone knocks at the door. it is better than motion sensor as it doesn't get triggered by everyone.
My best vacuum hack is making an area called "movie night" which covers under and front of the sofa so when we take kids to sleep, Roomba takes care of the popcorn bits AND this made me think of programming Roomba not only for areas but also - scenarios. Makes perfect sense for us.
I have a routine similar to your "Kids Out Of Bed" one but when their room doors open any time after their normal bed time, it turns on our lights under our bed to gently get our attention in case we need to help. If you're in a deep sleep, you can maybe miss it but being the light sleeper I am, I rarely don't react and it's been incredibly convenient.
I've done the wall switch NFC tag idea. I did it by cutting up a oversize NFC tag and using masking tape, but it works. I'll have to consider adding some more for guest mode and that kind of thing.
it's easier to connect your vacuum to your voice assistant and just say "Hey Google, clean the bathroom". Assuming you have a voice assistant. This is more practical because you don't need buttons in every room and you can even start cleaning a room no matter where you are. So you don't have to walk to the kitchen to start cleaning the kitchen 😎
I ended up getting rid of all the remotes with the CEC via HDMI that turns everything on from one remote control. I know some brands have issues with CEC, but I am lucky that all of my stuff is from the same brand so it works well. But the old hit the TV to make it work better - I can see the fun value in that.
Vacuum was awesome, but, for me, the fun factor biased the practicality score for the the nfc tags and vibration sensors. Both seem to be more involved than my current automations.
apart from guiding the kid back to bed everything else is great automation and not taking too farrrrrr. I love the way you have shown the spouse approval rating which is the most important bit in any automation
I have a simple shortcut called "Hodor" that locks the front door. Also when going to bed my wife likes the fan on and thunderstorm noises and would always tell me to "do the thing." Well now the bedroom Google *cough* Nest Mini listens for "Hey Google, do the thing." Many of my automation triggers are based around how to get that wonderful first time eye roll from the wife. "Hodor" was one of the best eye rolls yet.
It's not just in films 😁 One winter, a professor turned on a heater in the classroom. It's one of those old ones with the tubes. Only one of the tubes was working so the heating was minimal. A friend gave the heater a careful slap and one more tube came back to life! 😁 We were all thankful to him.
We have presence detectors under all of our beds. You can activate a special mode that gives some attention in the bedroom when the detector in the kid room triggers. It's for the special moments the parents may have during the night. From triggering to entering the bedroom is enough time to get everything child friendly. :)
The vitamins example would also be good for pets to not over feed them or for those caring for others who have to take tablets. It can be easy to forget if they've taken them, or if there's multiple people caring for them, making sure each other knows what they've done... this could definitely help that process.
Would love to see a weekly or monthly video edition of crazy automations that you and your subscribers from around the world do. Unique things that we can all use if we need to.
Thanks for making me start my journey of home automation. I was able to create a automation of “clean everywhere” using a tag but now with same tag i would like to send it home. Thanks in advance.
The NFC stuff would be great if it was possible to scan them without having to unlock the phone first. That is the only thing that prevents me from using more NFC tags for my automations. Because if I have to unlock the phone anyway I can open the device controls shortcut and select the stuff I want in there.
Reed, I'm impressed with all the possibilities you're showing here! It's so much more than the standard light bulb and scenes stuff. I'm still pretty new to this stuff, so excuse my possibly silly question... But can a ConBee 2 handle all these extra buttons and sensors? Since I wouldn't need a gateway for every brand it would seem like a good solution, wouldn't it? Thank you!
I would have a reminder to drink water first thing in the morning, take my vitamins, have my coffee start automatically and a reminder to eat my overnight oats...oh, morning music.
I have to agree with the Roomba button because by the time I’ve said “Alexa, ask Roomba to vacuum the bathroom” I could have just swept it myself. These long drawn out conversations with smart devices is getting old. It’s the with my weather station. By the time I’m finished asking if it’s going to rain at my location it’s already raining. I also like the idea of the vibration sensors because they could possibly alert me when the washing machine is finished or starting a different cycle so I don’t need to stand over it waiting.
but you have to buy buttons for each room and you have to physically go into the room to start the cleaning. With a voice assistant you save money and don't have to get up 😂
@@VPSmartTech where are you when you see dirt in the bathroom? Already in the bathroom. Also the entire concept of Smart Homes is generally not to save money because Smart homes literally are: You pay more money to live a more comfortable life.
As much as I love the idea of whacking the TV stand to start the media stuff, it’d never work in my house. Given said unit is also used for putting post down, or as a coffee table or an impromptu “just dump it here” surface, it’d probably trigger every few minutes!
Any recommendations to organize the automations and devices? Name patterns for instance, a video on how to keep everything under control would be great.
I have a wake alarm going based on when I went to bed. Been using that well over a year. Maybe even a couple years. Currently it looks to see if my phone is in the bedroom and charging. Pressure sensor does not work because my wife will roll to my side of the bed sometimes. The alarm turns off if my phone leaves the bedroom to another place for more then 10 minutes. I also have a (preemptive?) "snooze" alarm button I can hit to extend the sleep time when I can't get to sleep.
Reed, thanks for another great video. I love all those ideas, particularly using vibration sensors - you don’t need to have your phone on hand to read an NFC tag, and it’s an easy action to remember. But maybe I’d use the term “knock” as in knock on the cabinet, instead of “hit”. 😏
Knocking works too but it’s fun to hit things. It’s more of a node to all the times it’s used in movies/tv shows ruclips.net/video/insM7oUYNOE/видео.html
Not too far! I have an automation that when I "knock on wood" (the table next to my chair), some fairy lights twinkle in response. It's fun when someone who's never seen it before comes over :)
THANK YOU! Your channel is awesome. I have been automating my home since windows 95 using some Radio Shack light controls. Look forward to adapting your ideas!!!!
Not really an automation, but I have two cameras in a room that I want to make sure I know when they are active. So I have a plasma globe turned on when the cameras are on, and turned off when the cameras are off. It's a great way to see if I'm recording at a glance. Since that room is public, and the cameras are hidden, its pretty convenient.
For the vitamins, would a force sensing resistor pad work for detecting when you pick up the vitamins? I think it would cool to detect when vitamins are taken without any user input. Could pair the sensor with a Fibaro Implant if one doesn't already exist
These are the kind of things that sound great in theory but fail spectacularly in practice. Just think the amount of times you move stuff in your cabinets while just trying to get something from them. Too error prone. Also, what happens when you finish a bottle and get a new one? Now you need a way to distinguish if you grabbed those by accident, for replacement or to give it to your kids. Sure, you can then use a scale instead of a FSR to figure out weight differences, but how far down the line are you willing to go? Sometimes simple is best.
@@areks4397 moving stuff in your cabinet will not affect it in any way 🤷 You just place the original pill dose inside something that has the contact sensor attached to it's lid. You can buy a new pill dose and replace the old one, without changing anything on your setup. When you do the replacement you already gave your kids their vitamins, so no problem here at all.
I think it'd be cool to be able to just like walk into the room and knock on the door frame to turn on all the lights and then to knock twice if I want to put my living room into Media mode. Would be a cooler alternative for motion sensors. Are you able to set the motion sensors to detect whether or not they've been knocked twice or three times?
Normally the vibration sensors just detect vibration and not a number of knocks. There could be one out there that does it but I think it takes the sensor a few seconds to reset to no vibration again so it might be kind of difficult to detect multiple knocks. You could do that with buttons though using multiple types of presses.
most of these were pretty clever. the two that got me laughing the most were the two that involved the kids: "go to bed, the monsters are awake" and "i need help....go jump on daddy." LOL.
Love the vitamins idea. My wife often forgets if she drank a pill that she needs to drink twice a day. I think I will copy that one. Thanks for the idea!!! Quick question. Is the automation in Home Assitant or is it directly in the Echo? I don’t have hime assitant yet since I am starting to put my home smart.
Glad to hear you like it! The automation is in Home Assistant but it just makes the Echo speak. What you could do if you wanted a simple way to do it would be to turn on a smart light bulb when it’s time to take the pill. Then the button turns it off when taking the pill. You could just set up a routine in Alexa or where ever to turn on that light twice a day and you would know if the pill hadn’t been taken if the light is still on.
I like the NFC tags for Spotify on the Echos. I've been considering doing something similar. Spotify connect can be iffy on whether or not it wants to let me connect to an Echo group, but asking Alexa to start playing on that group always works. I've got an automation in Shortcuts now where I can just tap it and it automatically asks Alexa to start playing music on the appropriate group for where I am. By using NFC stickers to trigger it, I hope to mimic the AirPlay handoff from HomePods
I have a 4 section sliding mirrored doors built in wardrobe. The middle two sections slide open and I have a TV inside for viewing from bed at night. I use Alexa for the rest of my home automations. What would you suggest that I could use to attach to the mirrored doors to automate them when I command from bed. Great Channel thank you :)
I find vibration sensors challenging. Inevitably things get hit by other things - your kids at the end is a great example, but our cats, our robot vacuum, even us accidentally when manually vacuuming. Asking for trouble!
Off Topic … Your garage is huge. I live in the Atlanta area, and around here, two-car garages accommodate two cars … and essentially nothing else. In fact, when two cars are in the garage at the same time, opening car doors is difficult. It’s helpful if your car has a sunroof so you can climb out that way.
Reed, great channel, it's really inspiring me to automate my home. I have a question not related to this video. I use the echo 4th generation with zigbee hub, a zigbee door sensor and a smart switch to turn on may garage lights every time I open the door to the garage. I set a routine on alexa to wait 20 min and turn off the lights. The question is: is there a form to interrupt a running routine on alexa? I don't want the light to turn off in 1 minute if I open that door for a second time 19 minutes after the first time 🙃.. thank you
One of my automations uses a button mounted above the hot water pot that will after 4 minutes pause either the dish hopper or FireTV stick if they are running and tell me my tea is ready, then resume the program. If it’s later at night it instead sends a message to my iPad and iPhone so I don’t wake the wife if she has gone to bed. Another tracks the current level of ink in our 3 printers and alerts when I need to order a cartridge, I can select ordered from the actionable message and I am no longer messaged. It resets after the cartridge has been replaced. The fun part of automation is finding what you can make it do. WAF is a huge factor.
I absolutely love this channel. I have gotten a lot of issues solved by watching it. I do wonder if there's an automation that'll keep the wife from complaining about the automations. 🤣 Also not one automation in this video has gone to far, they're perfect.
Love all of these ideas! For your Withings Sleep mat, how quickly does it detect your presence getting into and out of bed? From what I've read, it can be delayed up to 20-30 seconds.
sounds great, but how exactly do you know if you taking out a pan for cooking or putting it back in the drawer after cleaning? Both times you have to open the drawer which will then trigger the lights
@@VPSmartTech it’s def not perfect. Unfortunately the lights will turn on still. But either way, you’re in the kitchen so you’ll need lights. You can just turn em off with a button press on your way out
@@VPSmartTech because there are different lights for different tasks. I don’t want the lights I use for cooking to turn on whenever I walk into the room.
With the price of switches being an issue why waste one just to vacuum a room? I see you have an Echo device there so a simple verbal "Vacuum bathroom #" would suffice. NFC tags are great but once again a bit too much when a simple voice command would work and there is no need to take your phone out. I use them for owner's manual and for sharing guest wi-fi. As for grocery assist it can be a bit tricky as you need to know if the spouse is coming home from grocery or just coming home. In our case we always say if we will be doing grocery so when arriving home, it's a known issue so notification that garage door opens is enough to know. I like what you did with the timing thing but would switch to using a camera in the garage along with a whole house notification "Come help with the groceries". What if its only one bag or the person doesn't need any assistance? How about using a button? Find a good placement and it will be up to the shopper to press the button that announces, "I need help in the garage"?
It's very interesting but how much it costs having all these sensors h24 connected and up and running? I would be interested also to the energy side, how much energy they use/or battery. The cost of each sensor and so on.
I’m seeking the ultimate theater automation but have no clue how to trigger: I want the lights to do when turning the tv on but completely go out when starting a show/movie, then come back up to dim when the credits roll
I already had the idea and was planning to add hidden NFC tags in lieu of smart switches. Besides the expense and bother of switching out switches for smart switches, I rent in an older building and I don’t believe there are grounding wires everywhere, which means that many of them wouldn’t work anyway. Thanks for confirming that it’s a good idea! I sometimes have the same issue with bedtime. I may have to explore your solution at some point. I like how you involve your wife and kids with the jokes. If you keep it up I may even be able to get my wife to watch your videos with me on shared watch time, so I don’t have to carve out the time separately and get more of them watched! Haha (Edited to remove extra paragraph spacing.)
For the NFC thing you could build a frame, draw 3-4 phone shaped black boxes, put them in there, write what they do above them and then hang it up. Could look really nice, imo.. sorta a hacky switch
I use a landing automation to tell my daughter to go back to bed in the night, it makes her think about whether she should go out without scaring her, but mine isn't as fun as urs
I use a flex with the night light plugged into the USB bottom and the flex has a light detector so it only comes on if that hallways dark I love it & its good for the kids to have to navigate in the hallway at night without having to turn the big bright light, it's a nice light that comes from the floor rather than the ceiling and I keep it on red at night and you can change the brightness very simple but 1 of my favorite devices I have two more of the flexes that I use in my house ones right next to my back door it has a motion detector in the USB and I have one in my basement with a motion detector too and I put an Old Dot next to it so that if that motion detector is triggered the dot tells people to get the F out of the basement 🤷🏻♂️✌🏼
Trigger: 730 &745 everyday, Conditions: google cal says "WORK" today, weather temp below 10c, Action: Start FordPass Vehicle Starter Trigger: front door opens, Conditions: Fordpass Location is HOME, Remote Starter is Running or has not been off for over 10 minutes, Trigger: Unlock Fordpass Doors
It's got some pretty great sleep tracking capabilities too, I watched a video of a guy who really knew his stuff testing it, and it had seriously impressive accuracy. If you're on a budget, I regularly see them in used/like new condition available for about $50 online
The sleep thing should be easier with just a little programm on your phone. Could be something like "have not touched your phone for 6h between 22:00 and 06:00 he is sleeping" Set the alarm to the appropriate time" or something like that But the sensor is awesome for the get out of bed motivation with kids :D
![Eminem - Fuel (feat. JID) [Official Lyric Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/t5H_CewqpKA/mqdefault.jpg)
All right, let’s hear YOUR opinion… does my home automation go overboard? Is that even possible?! 🙃
How I set up the automations: smarthomesolver.com/reviews/insane-automations/
Never thought about the possibility to just hit/slap something to start an automation. This opens a new world for me :D
Great video! For my robot vacuums, I have an automation set up such that in any room/hallway, you can double click the primary light switch (flashed with ESPHome), and the vacuum will come clean that room. I also have smart switches near trash cans on both of my floors, and when you double click either of those switches, the vacuum will head over to the trash can to be emptied. (One day I'll get vacuums that empty themselves!)
@@adarlington I actually have the same, only with separate light switches/buttons for these functions.
I use SmartThings multi purpose sensors (incl. vibrations) on all windows and doors. On the doors it will ring my doorbell and activate doorbell features if people simply knock on the door. Intuitive and practical.
I guess it is never overboard 😄 Is it possible to create a trigger from the distance remaining between me and my home ? say my map is on and I am 'x' kilometres away from home and it triggers an automation at my home . Sorry lf it sounds stupid 😬
We're using NFC tags behind switches as well, but it's designed to bring up the documentation for that switch, so at a glance you can see:
- a reminder of what that switch controls
- under what circumstances the switch fails ("unavailable if ZigBee repeater on 1st floor is down", etc.)
- how to get the desired action done if the switch does fail ("alternatively, press and hold XY switch")
Approval Factor is pretty good!
This is better than most companies run their networks
Wow that’s extremely useful! I could improve my documentation and that could be a fun way to do it!
Amazing!
I have a label on all my wall plates (they're two part, so it's hidden) with a breaker number on them. This makes it easy to determine which breaker I need to turn off to work on a given light switch. (When I do my outlets, I will do the same.) Something like this might be another good bit of information to store in your documentation!
That's actually really cool, we should definitely use those!
LOVE The robot vacuum specific room cleaning button idea! It’s so incredibly practical!
Reed I'm really enjoying this series where you show different home automation examples. I don't care how crazy they seem keep it up because all of them are great for getting my creative juices flowing!
Glad to hear! Thanks!
i have a similar automation to turn on the lights when someone knocks at the door. it is better than motion sensor as it doesn't get triggered by everyone.
That’s a good idea!
I've got the same. Vibration sensor on the back of the door.
And opening and closing the door doesn’t set it off?
Guess you don't have a video door bell! lol
@@morells09 it does but I want that. Like when I open the door lights turn on and then when I lock the door manually the lights turn off.
My best vacuum hack is making an area called "movie night" which covers under and front of the sofa so when we take kids to sleep, Roomba takes care of the popcorn bits AND this made me think of programming Roomba not only for areas but also - scenarios. Makes perfect sense for us.
I like it!
I have a routine similar to your "Kids Out Of Bed" one but when their room doors open any time after their normal bed time, it turns on our lights under our bed to gently get our attention in case we need to help. If you're in a deep sleep, you can maybe miss it but being the light sleeper I am, I rarely don't react and it's been incredibly convenient.
I have mine google a list of excuses why mommys naked so im always prepared for when the children come our way!
You should do a day in the life showing all you automations that you use
That would be a fun video! Thanks for the suggestion!
@@SmartHomeSolver did you do it?
Love your automaton ideas bro, sometimes you inspire me and give me ideas, so thank you
yes, automations are the best thing in a smart home and sharing automation ideas on the internet is amazing 😊👍
I've done the wall switch NFC tag idea. I did it by cutting up a oversize NFC tag and using masking tape, but it works. I'll have to consider adding some more for guest mode and that kind of thing.
It' almos lik i yo coul actuall spel an punctuat properl thi scam migh b believabl..
That vacuum button is insane. I really hope i remember to implement this when i get my HA lol
it's easier to connect your vacuum to your voice assistant and just say "Hey Google, clean the bathroom". Assuming you have a voice assistant. This is more practical because you don't need buttons in every room and you can even start cleaning a room no matter where you are. So you don't have to walk to the kitchen to start cleaning the kitchen 😎
I ended up getting rid of all the remotes with the CEC via HDMI that turns everything on from one remote control. I know some brands have issues with CEC, but I am lucky that all of my stuff is from the same brand so it works well. But the old hit the TV to make it work better - I can see the fun value in that.
Wow, this is my favorite automation video yet. I need to get some of these setup, awesome!
Thanks Ethan! Yes set some of these up and I’m always down to help!
The scare the kids back to bed was amazing
Vacuum was awesome, but, for me, the fun factor biased the practicality score for the the nfc tags and vibration sensors. Both seem to be more involved than my current automations.
apart from guiding the kid back to bed everything else is great automation and not taking too farrrrrr. I love the way you have shown the spouse approval rating which is the most important bit in any automation
The first automation is genius! I'm going to set this up right away!
Edit: The watch list reminder automation.
I have a simple shortcut called "Hodor" that locks the front door. Also when going to bed my wife likes the fan on and thunderstorm noises and would always tell me to "do the thing." Well now the bedroom Google *cough* Nest Mini listens for "Hey Google, do the thing." Many of my automation triggers are based around how to get that wonderful first time eye roll from the wife. "Hodor" was one of the best eye rolls yet.
It's not just in films 😁 One winter, a professor turned on a heater in the classroom. It's one of those old ones with the tubes. Only one of the tubes was working so the heating was minimal. A friend gave the heater a careful slap and one more tube came back to life! 😁 We were all thankful to him.
The Flex whispering at the kids had me 😂
We have presence detectors under all of our beds. You can activate a special mode that gives some attention in the bedroom when the detector in the kid room triggers. It's for the special moments the parents may have during the night. From triggering to entering the bedroom is enough time to get everything child friendly. :)
The vitamins example would also be good for pets to not over feed them or for those caring for others who have to take tablets. It can be easy to forget if they've taken them, or if there's multiple people caring for them, making sure each other knows what they've done... this could definitely help that process.
Would love to see a weekly or monthly video edition of crazy automations that you and your subscribers from around the world do. Unique things that we can all use if we need to.
Reed you spoil us, ANOTHER reference for the Ferris nerds, glorious. When Cameron was in Egypt's land... let my Cameron go!
We can have all the automations but it takes a human to put them to good use. Loved it , Pushing things too far is how innovation takes place.
I dig the first one. And good call on Ted Lasso. Brilliant show.
One of your best video's, make me smile all the way trough.
Wow that makes me really happy to hear! Thank you for the kind words!
I think the NFC tag idea is genius!
Thanks for making me start my journey of home automation. I was able to create a automation of “clean everywhere” using a tag but now with same tag i would like to send it home. Thanks in advance.
These are generally great idea, you’ll have a yield to them, but they. Are entertaining at a minimum, awesome unique idea for some! Keep them coming!
Great Video…. Never thought about putting nfc tags under light plates. Going to start doing that. :)
Glad to hear you like the idea!
Imagine banging a random part of a table and a gun shelf opens up
😀
The Echo Flex whispering the monsters are awake, made me literally laugh out loud 😂
Are the kids the monsters who are awake? 🤔
@@VPSmartTech now I'm not sure anymore 😂. At first I just thought it was something to scare his daughter back to her room. Maybe even both
It’s just to scare them, no double meaning. Maybe more like angry parent getting woken up in the middle of the night could be a monster.
The NFC stuff would be great if it was possible to scan them without having to unlock the phone first. That is the only thing that prevents me from using more NFC tags for my automations. Because if I have to unlock the phone anyway I can open the device controls shortcut and select the stuff I want in there.
Reed, I'm impressed with all the possibilities you're showing here! It's so much more than the standard light bulb and scenes stuff. I'm still pretty new to this stuff, so excuse my possibly silly question... But can a ConBee 2 handle all these extra buttons and sensors? Since I wouldn't need a gateway for every brand it would seem like a good solution, wouldn't it? Thank you!
For the vitamin reminder/counter button, maybe better application will be with an NFC tag below the container?
'Spouse' approval went down on the NFC idea as it meant having her phone to hand. He said that in the video.
Cool automations, I love the Ferris Bueller quote!
Great video. Backfire proof automations are tricky!! I miss Luna!
I would have a reminder to drink water first thing in the morning, take my vitamins, have my coffee start automatically and a reminder to eat my overnight oats...oh, morning music.
That pressure sensor is genius! I'm gonna look for it immediately!
I have to agree with the Roomba button because by the time I’ve said “Alexa, ask Roomba to vacuum the bathroom” I could have just swept it myself. These long drawn out conversations with smart devices is getting old. It’s the with my weather station. By the time I’m finished asking if it’s going to rain at my location it’s already raining. I also like the idea of the vibration sensors because they could possibly alert me when the washing machine is finished or starting a different cycle so I don’t need to stand over it waiting.
but you have to buy buttons for each room and you have to physically go into the room to start the cleaning. With a voice assistant you save money and don't have to get up 😂
@@VPSmartTech buttons are cheaper.
@@VPSmartTech where are you when you see dirt in the bathroom? Already in the bathroom.
Also the entire concept of Smart Homes is generally not to save money because Smart homes literally are: You pay more money to live a more comfortable life.
@@thenamen935 I am in the bathroom room and that's why I tell my Smart Speaker in the bathroom to clean it 😀
I like the Fonzi style media center activation feature. Something I should add to my setup.
Haha 😂. Luv it. That’s seriously the best idea I’ve heard of, hitting the tv cabinet.
I think these automations are just right Reed. Thanks. 😊
I appreciate it Ron!
'percussive maintenance', nice lol 😁
I’m so grateful I found your channel 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼
I love your videos with automation ideas, no matter how crazy they might be 😄😄😄👏👏👏
Love these ideas, especially the one that scares the kids to go back to their room! My wife would hate me hahaha
As much as I love the idea of whacking the TV stand to start the media stuff, it’d never work in my house. Given said unit is also used for putting post down, or as a coffee table or an impromptu “just dump it here” surface, it’d probably trigger every few minutes!
Just like Fonzie hitting the Jukebox to get it to play. I like it!
Any recommendations to organize the automations and devices?
Name patterns for instance, a video on how to keep everything under control would be great.
I have a wake alarm going based on when I went to bed. Been using that well over a year. Maybe even a couple years. Currently it looks to see if my phone is in the bedroom and charging. Pressure sensor does not work because my wife will roll to my side of the bed sometimes. The alarm turns off if my phone leaves the bedroom to another place for more then 10 minutes. I also have a (preemptive?) "snooze" alarm button I can hit to extend the sleep time when I can't get to sleep.
As always super video👍🏼
just great to see how your family is participating. Adds a lot of fun 👌🏼😁
Reed, thanks for another great video. I love all those ideas, particularly using vibration sensors - you don’t need to have your phone on hand to read an NFC tag, and it’s an easy action to remember. But maybe I’d use the term “knock” as in knock on the cabinet, instead of “hit”. 😏
Knocking works too but it’s fun to hit things. It’s more of a node to all the times it’s used in movies/tv shows ruclips.net/video/insM7oUYNOE/видео.html
Not too far! I have an automation that when I "knock on wood" (the table next to my chair), some fairy lights twinkle in response. It's fun when someone who's never seen it before comes over :)
Awesome! Those fun automations can be the best!
THANK YOU! Your channel is awesome. I have been automating my home since windows 95 using some Radio Shack light controls. Look forward to adapting your ideas!!!!
Not really an automation, but I have two cameras in a room that I want to make sure I know when they are active. So I have a plasma globe turned on when the cameras are on, and turned off when the cameras are off. It's a great way to see if I'm recording at a glance. Since that room is public, and the cameras are hidden, its pretty convenient.
cool 👏
For the vitamins, would a force sensing resistor pad work for detecting when you pick up the vitamins? I think it would cool to detect when vitamins are taken without any user input. Could pair the sensor with a Fibaro Implant if one doesn't already exist
That would be pretty sweet. I need to look into those more.
That would be awesome!
or a contact sensor mounted to the lid of the vitamins box, so every time you remove the lid, it will be noticed by your smart home 🙂
These are the kind of things that sound great in theory but fail spectacularly in practice. Just think the amount of times you move stuff in your cabinets while just trying to get something from them. Too error prone. Also, what happens when you finish a bottle and get a new one? Now you need a way to distinguish if you grabbed those by accident, for replacement or to give it to your kids. Sure, you can then use a scale instead of a FSR to figure out weight differences, but how far down the line are you willing to go? Sometimes simple is best.
@@areks4397 moving stuff in your cabinet will not affect it in any way 🤷 You just place the original pill dose inside something that has the contact sensor attached to it's lid. You can buy a new pill dose and replace the old one, without changing anything on your setup. When you do the replacement you already gave your kids their vitamins, so no problem here at all.
To get up, i have a cat, smart bulbs mimicking natural sunrise, and alarms.
"Kids, I need some help, go jump on dad and wake him up." That one cracked me up!
Just right for all! Can't wait to set up. Thank you.
Thanks Marie!
Another Saturday, another smart home solve video!! Love the vids, keep it up ;)
Thanks Jacob! Will do!
Dynamic alarm clock is really good idea!
Media Center Vibration Sensor idea is awesome fun!!!
I think it'd be cool to be able to just like walk into the room and knock on the door frame to turn on all the lights and then to knock twice if I want to put my living room into Media mode. Would be a cooler alternative for motion sensors.
Are you able to set the motion sensors to detect whether or not they've been knocked twice or three times?
Lol. Kinda like the clapper?
@@jamesbizs yeah
Normally the vibration sensors just detect vibration and not a number of knocks. There could be one out there that does it but I think it takes the sensor a few seconds to reset to no vibration again so it might be kind of difficult to detect multiple knocks. You could do that with buttons though using multiple types of presses.
@@SmartHomeSolver maybe a sound sensor?(cheap mic)
@@zsoltpeterdaniel8413 yeah agreed. A contact microphone seems like a reasonable choice.
most of these were pretty clever. the two that got me laughing the most were the two that involved the kids: "go to bed, the monsters are awake"
and "i need help....go jump on daddy." LOL.
Love the vitamins idea. My wife often forgets if she drank a pill that she needs to drink twice a day. I think I will copy that one. Thanks for the idea!!!
Quick question. Is the automation in Home Assitant or is it directly in the Echo? I don’t have hime assitant yet since I am starting to put my home smart.
Glad to hear you like it! The automation is in Home Assistant but it just makes the Echo speak. What you could do if you wanted a simple way to do it would be to turn on a smart light bulb when it’s time to take the pill. Then the button turns it off when taking the pill. You could just set up a routine in Alexa or where ever to turn on that light twice a day and you would know if the pill hadn’t been taken if the light is still on.
I like the NFC tags for Spotify on the Echos. I've been considering doing something similar. Spotify connect can be iffy on whether or not it wants to let me connect to an Echo group, but asking Alexa to start playing on that group always works. I've got an automation in Shortcuts now where I can just tap it and it automatically asks Alexa to start playing music on the appropriate group for where I am. By using NFC stickers to trigger it, I hope to mimic the AirPlay handoff from HomePods
I have a 4 section sliding mirrored doors built in wardrobe. The middle two sections slide open and I have a TV inside for viewing from bed at night. I use Alexa for the rest of my home automations. What would you suggest that I could use to attach to the mirrored doors to automate them when I command from bed. Great Channel thank you :)
I find vibration sensors challenging. Inevitably things get hit by other things - your kids at the end is a great example, but our cats, our robot vacuum, even us accidentally when manually vacuuming. Asking for trouble!
yes, I also think a button is more practical without that much of false positives.
Off Topic … Your garage is huge. I live in the Atlanta area, and around here, two-car garages accommodate two cars … and essentially nothing else. In fact, when two cars are in the garage at the same time, opening car doors is difficult. It’s helpful if your car has a sunroof so you can climb out that way.
Reed, great channel, it's really inspiring me to automate my home. I have a question not related to this video. I use the echo 4th generation with zigbee hub, a zigbee door sensor and a smart switch to turn on may garage lights every time I open the door to the garage. I set a routine on alexa to wait 20 min and turn off the lights. The question is: is there a form to interrupt a running routine on alexa? I don't want the light to turn off in 1 minute if I open that door for a second time 19 minutes after the first time 🙃.. thank you
Love these automations! Nice showcase on Inception! It's my favorite movie!
I love that movie and basically every Christopher Nolan movie for me.
NFC tag in the light switch... the only thing I can think of is quagmire mode for when you get home after a date. Lmao 🤣
Clever and a breath of fresh air from the mundane everyday normal routines. Entertaining and fun especially for party tricks in my opinion.
Thanks Arthur! Glad to hear you liked it!
One of my automations uses a button mounted above the hot water pot that will after 4 minutes pause either the dish hopper or FireTV stick if they are running and tell me my tea is ready, then resume the program. If it’s later at night it instead sends a message to my iPad and iPhone so I don’t wake the wife if she has gone to bed. Another tracks the current level of ink in our 3 printers and alerts when I need to order a cartridge, I can select ordered from the actionable message and I am no longer messaged. It resets after the cartridge has been replaced. The fun part of automation is finding what you can make it do. WAF is a huge factor.
Wow those are really good ones!
I absolutely love this channel. I have gotten a lot of issues solved by watching it. I do wonder if there's an automation that'll keep the wife from complaining about the automations. 🤣 Also not one automation in this video has gone to far, they're perfect.
Your channel is fantastic! Keep it up man!
Love all of these ideas! For your Withings Sleep mat, how quickly does it detect your presence getting into and out of bed? From what I've read, it can be delayed up to 20-30 seconds.
I really like the alarm timing thing a lot.
I do this for my kitchen cabinet with the pots and pans to turn the lights on. If you’re getting a pot out, your obviously cooking and needs lights.
sounds great, but how exactly do you know if you taking out a pan for cooking or putting it back in the drawer after cleaning? Both times you have to open the drawer which will then trigger the lights
@@VPSmartTech it’s def not perfect. Unfortunately the lights will turn on still. But either way, you’re in the kitchen so you’ll need lights. You can just turn em off with a button press on your way out
@@RhinoNigel if you always need lights in the kitchen, why not using a motion sensor to turn them on and off automatically?
@@VPSmartTech because there are different lights for different tasks. I don’t want the lights I use for cooking to turn on whenever I walk into the room.
@@RhinoNigel ok, makes sense 👌
I think the kicking-for-snack automation is the coolest😁
My kids definitely think so!
@@SmartHomeSolver 😄
I need a Fonz way of making things work! Will def try that one!
With the price of switches being an issue why waste one just to vacuum a room? I see you have an Echo device there so a simple verbal "Vacuum bathroom #" would suffice.
NFC tags are great but once again a bit too much when a simple voice command would work and there is no need to take your phone out. I use them for owner's manual and for sharing guest wi-fi.
As for grocery assist it can be a bit tricky as you need to know if the spouse is coming home from grocery or just coming home. In our case we always say if we will be doing grocery so when arriving home, it's a known issue so notification that garage door opens is enough to know. I like what you did with the timing thing but would switch to using a camera in the garage along with a whole house notification "Come help with the groceries". What if its only one bag or the person doesn't need any assistance? How about using a button? Find a good placement and it will be up to the shopper to press the button that announces, "I need help in the garage"?
Those ideas are pretty sweet! Sweet video.
It's very interesting but how much it costs having all these sensors h24 connected and up and running? I would be interested also to the energy side, how much energy they use/or battery. The cost of each sensor and so on.
Improvement suggestion regarding the vitamins: put a the vitamins bottle with NFC tag on top of a NFC reader In the cabinet
The vitamins should be placed on some king of a button, so the vitramins action activates when you pick it up :D
I’m seeking the ultimate theater automation but have no clue how to trigger: I want the lights to do when turning the tv on but completely go out when starting a show/movie, then come back up to dim when the credits roll
Your taking it wayyyy to fair!!
I already had the idea and was planning to add hidden NFC tags in lieu of smart switches. Besides the expense and bother of switching out switches for smart switches, I rent in an older building and I don’t believe there are grounding wires everywhere, which means that many of them wouldn’t work anyway. Thanks for confirming that it’s a good idea!
I sometimes have the same issue with bedtime. I may have to explore your solution at some point.
I like how you involve your wife and kids with the jokes. If you keep it up I may even be able to get my wife to watch your videos with me on shared watch time, so I don’t have to carve out the time separately and get more of them watched! Haha
(Edited to remove extra paragraph spacing.)
For the NFC thing you could build a frame, draw 3-4 phone shaped black boxes, put them in there, write what they do above them and then hang it up. Could look really nice, imo.. sorta a hacky switch
Now I want to get a old school Jukebox, mount a vibration sensor and do a Fonzie impression every time I want to play some music
Your wife nailed the scary whispers lol.
I use a landing automation to tell my daughter to go back to bed in the night, it makes her think about whether she should go out without scaring her, but mine isn't as fun as urs
I use a flex with the night light plugged into the USB bottom and the flex has a light detector so it only comes on if that hallways dark I love it & its good for the kids to have to navigate in the hallway at night without having to turn the big bright light, it's a nice light that comes from the floor rather than the ceiling and I keep it on red at night and you can change the brightness very simple but 1 of my favorite devices I have two more of the flexes that I use in my house ones right next to my back door it has a motion detector in the USB and I have one in my basement with a motion detector too and I put an Old Dot next to it so that if that motion detector is triggered the dot tells people to get the F out of the basement 🤷🏻♂️✌🏼
Trigger: 730 &745 everyday, Conditions: google cal says "WORK" today, weather temp below 10c, Action: Start FordPass Vehicle Starter
Trigger: front door opens, Conditions: Fordpass Location is HOME, Remote Starter is Running or has not been off for over 10 minutes, Trigger: Unlock Fordpass Doors
i never knew there is a pressure sensitive device you can put under the mattress, thanks
It's got some pretty great sleep tracking capabilities too, I watched a video of a guy who really knew his stuff testing it, and it had seriously impressive accuracy. If you're on a budget, I regularly see them in used/like new condition available for about $50 online
Love the scare the kids one.. brilliant..
The sleep thing should be easier with just a little programm on your phone. Could be something like "have not touched your phone for 6h between 22:00 and 06:00 he is sleeping" Set the alarm to the appropriate time" or something like that
But the sensor is awesome for the get out of bed motivation with kids :D