G and J Posted November 30 Share Posted November 30 38 minutes ago, Kelvin said: Me too but it is dear like any of the dedicated systems and arguably not worth it if it’s just lighting you are controlling. My favourite part of the lighting is this switch that controls the whole open plan area and its many lighting circuits. You can also tap through all the various moods as there are several of those. Oh my word my worst nightmare! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pocster Posted November 30 Share Posted November 30 (edited) 10 minutes ago, G and J said: Oh my word my worst nightmare! The best bit I think is the automation of things; specifically lighting . Whilst I haven’t developed mind reading mode I am on the cusp of ‘who’ is in the room and their specific lighting based on projector on etc etc etc . Obviously you need your phone with you to ‘identify’ you - we tend to carry our phones with us anyway . If a specific ‘mode’ is required I tend to do it via Alexa as physically walking to a switch is too much like hard work . Edited November 30 by Pocster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G and J Posted November 30 Share Posted November 30 4 minutes ago, Pocster said: The best bit I think is the automation of things; specifically lighting . Whilst I haven’t developed mind reading mode I am on the cusp of ‘who’ is in the room and their specific lighting based on projector on etc etc etc . Obviously you need your phone with you to ‘identify’ you - we tend to carry our phones with us anyway . If a specific ‘mode’ is required I tend to do it via Alexa as physically walking to a switch is too much like hard work . I am sooooo 20th century. Sigh. I guess the best representation of my ideal level of automation is the kind of clockwork plug mounted timer that turns the fairy lights on just outside our rear kitchen doors…. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelvin Posted November 30 Share Posted November 30 (edited) 26 minutes ago, Pocster said: The best bit I think is the automation of things; specifically lighting . Whilst I haven’t developed mind reading mode I am on the cusp of ‘who’ is in the room and their specific lighting based on projector on etc etc etc . Obviously you need your phone with you to ‘identify’ you - we tend to carry our phones with us anyway . If a specific ‘mode’ is required I tend to do it via Alexa as physically walking to a switch is too much like hard work . Open plan rooms with multiple lighting circuits are harder to control that way though. I’ve set it up with different automations light night mode that just switches on one row of dimmed downlights, or if we come home it’s all the downlights plus a few other automations. I don’t want to be controlling the house from an app as that’s hopeless for the other folk that live in the house that aren’t interested or when you have visitors plus I don’t carry my phone with me constantly. If I ever find myself needing to use an app to change something I try and figure out a way to automate it. Voice control isn’t nearly good enough yet and generally no one else in the house uses it (in my experience anyway) We have a lot of visitors/house sitters to stay and that switch allows them to control the main lights without needing a manual or instruction. I also don’t want any reliance on cloud services. The main issue I’ve found is making it easy for other folk in the house. It’s fine for me as I know how it all works. Edited November 30 by Kelvin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pocster Posted November 30 Share Posted November 30 (edited) 22 minutes ago, Kelvin said: Open plan rooms with multiple lighting circuits are harder to control that way though. I’ve set it up with different automations light night mode that just switches on one row of dimmed downlights, or if we come home it’s all the downlights plus a few other automations. I don’t want to be controlling the house from an app as that’s hopeless for the other folk that live in the house that aren’t interested or when you have visitors plus I don’t carry my phone with me constantly. If I ever find myself needing to use an app to change something I try and figure out a way to automate it. Voice control isn’t nearly good enough yet and generally no one else in the house uses it (in my experience anyway) We have a lot of visitors/house sitters to stay and that switch allows them to control the main lights without needing a manual or instruction. I also don’t want any reliance on cloud services. The main issue I’ve found is making it easy for other folk in the house. It’s fine for me as I know how it all works. Agree I’m open plan also and use aqara fp2 to zone for lighting . The phone with you is just to test the ‘who’ stuff ( currently experimenting! ) . So having your phone with you not a requirement. Other than that lights all come on automatically depending on time of day , luminosity , projector on ,; same with music - doorbell pushed , music pauses , Alexa make announcement , I determine to open the door or not , music continues. All good fun ! Edited November 30 by Pocster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelvin Posted November 30 Share Posted November 30 The Aqara FP2 Zone sensors are very flexible and really move presence on. However I found it to be too unreliable and needing too much intervention to keep working reliably. But this was just after it was released and I was just playing with it and Home Assistant while I was deciding whether to do HA at all and which to use. I like Home Assistant because it’s so open and works with just about everything plus I was familiar with it but I felt it would end up being a bit lashed together with a mish mash of devices making it even harder for anyone other than me to deal with it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pocster Posted November 30 Share Posted November 30 8 minutes ago, Kelvin said: it even harder for anyone other than me to deal with it. 🤣 Exactly ! - SWMBO worries if I die and there’s an issue how will she get the lights on ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pocster Posted November 30 Share Posted November 30 1 hour ago, G and J said: I am sooooo 20th century. Sigh. I guess the best representation of my ideal level of automation is the kind of clockwork plug mounted timer that turns the fairy lights on just outside our rear kitchen doors…. I think what you need here is to experiment a bit and keep it simple . So cat5 everywhere for future possibilities. Then perhaps a room that is asking for automation . Bathroom lighting is a good one . Shelly do a battery motion / humidity / temperature ( it’s rechargeable ) sensor . I have this it seems really good tbf . Then ‘normal ‘ lighting wiring with a Shelly above the light fitting . No hub . Someone in bathroom lights on . Vacant for x seconds - lights off . That is very simple to setup ( but as said you wouldn’t do your entire house like that ! ) . You could extend it a tiny bit more by having temperature turn on/off ufh in bathroom . Thats just 3 components, all Shelly ; nice and easy - give you taste of HA . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pocster Posted November 30 Share Posted November 30 2 hours ago, Kelvin said: However I found it to be too unreliable and needing too much intervention to keep working reliably Mine go in phases of really good then ghosting . Got a presence everything one ( or what ever it’s called ! ) on the way - so will test that . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelvin Posted November 30 Share Posted November 30 1 hour ago, Pocster said: Mine go in phases of really good then ghosting . Got a presence everything one ( or what ever it’s called ! ) on the way - so will test that . I had that problem plus it not detecting you’d left the room. For me these things need to work or not with very little to no buggering about. It’s fine if it’s a hobby and the people that live with you accept it. I have neither of those 😂 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pocster Posted November 30 Share Posted November 30 2 minutes ago, Kelvin said: I had that problem plus it not detecting you’d left the room. For me these things need to work or not with very little to no buggering about. It’s fine if it’s a hobby and the people that live with you accept it. I have neither of those 😂 Yeah ! I’ve have it working super reliably maybe 90% of the time . Aq2 is good ! - sure aq3 is on its way . These detectors have advanced a lot in a short space on time . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pocster Posted November 30 Share Posted November 30 3 minutes ago, Kelvin said: buggering about. All HA is buggering around ! 🤣👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelvin Posted November 30 Share Posted November 30 1 minute ago, Pocster said: All HA is buggering around ! 🤣👍 I’ve found the Loxone system to be very reliable. It’s mostly wired for a start so that helps. Most of the issues I had early on were down to me and how I’d configured it which are all sorted now. I did have a very frustrating problem with the Audioserver and network connectivity that was a combination of a configuration problem with the Audioserver and some odd behaviour on my network. Both fixed now. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pocster Posted November 30 Share Posted November 30 2 minutes ago, Kelvin said: I’ve found the Loxone system to be very reliable. It’s mostly wired for a start so that helps. Most of the issues I had early on were down to me and how I’d configured it which are all sorted now. I did have a very frustrating problem with the Audioserver and network connectivity that was a combination of a configuration problem with the Audioserver and some odd behaviour on my network. Both fixed now. The problem I find is when an element starts working reliably ( like my lighting ) you then want to find something new to play with which of course requires buggering around . 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelvin Posted November 30 Share Posted November 30 13 hours ago, G and J said: Oh my word my worst nightmare! Could be worse 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pocster Posted December 1 Share Posted December 1 9 hours ago, Kelvin said: Could be worse And SWMBO flicks them all on because she cant remember which switch did what ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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