I had my Remington 1100 stolen in a home burglary about 35 years ago. For years it bothered me to know that my stolen gun could or might be used with bad intentions. I miss that gun, it was a good shotgun. I quit hunting after that and never got around to replacing it. I keep a loaded 22 rifle in my home, but it’s for varmints not protection. Although I could unload 10 shots pretty quick it necessary.
Added two more smart switches (non-dimmers) and I’m pretty proud of myself. There was some screwy wiring on one of the switches I was replacing, but I figured it out (it’s on a circuit so two hot wires) and got everything working.
I also replaced gramdma’s wall sconces with something more me.
I now have my first conditional automation, such that the sconces and floor lamps come on just before sunset unless I have the “Evening TV” scene running, in which case it skips it. This uses a Shortcut, which is a very powerful tool but - like any programming language - you have to learn its quirks and workarounds.
Next job is to figure out how to get the lights to turn off at a certain time when I’m not here. Thinking of using the alarm status - if it’s set to “Away” then turn the lights off late at night.
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For those not yet on the smart home train, but thinking about it and haven’t picked an ecosystem…some news.
Apple has dropped the price of its Apple TV 4K, which acts as a hub for its Home system. A WiFi only model is $130 bucks and a gigabit ethernet-capable model is $150. It’s a slick home hub because it hides away behind/under your TV. It’s also got a faster chip than the older model.
Further, the ethernet-capable unit has Thread. If you’re not familiar with Thread, it’s a self-maintaining, self-healing, low power wireless network that can be used to connect smart devices together while keeping them off your WiFi. Apple’s HomePod Minis already have Thread, but this is the first time it’s been included in an Apple TV, which is handy if you don’t want to invest in the speaker/assistant.
Do you get free AppleTV?
Currently offering 3 months service free.
As an aside, Amazon is currently selling the previous-gen Apple TV 4K for $99. That’s almost half off, and is a damn good deal.
As another aside, when did Amazon start selling any smart home devices that directly competed with their own ecosystems (Echo/Alexa/Fire TV)? For the longest time you had to go elsewhere to buy Apple TVs, Rokus, Chromecasts, etc.
The new Apple TV has twice the memory and a faster, more efficient chip such that they’ve nixed the fan so the box is now smaller. For the sake of $30, I’m not sure it’s such a good deal to buy the old one.
I bought a Roku from Amazon 4 or 5 years ago, so it’s been a while.
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For a doorbell, my WeMo doesn’t like being outside. It was always going offline during the summer, was rock solid for a few weeks when the temps initially dropped, and is now going offline again in the cold. It still works as a doorbell when it goes offline, but the camera, motion sensor and mic/speaker aren’t accessible, and they’re kind of the point.
I need another one for the back door, but I’m holding off to see if this one settles down, or if a more robust alternative comes out (the WeMo is one of two models that works directly with iCloud for video monitoring/storage).
I’m probably gonna use the eufy outdoor cameras and maybe the doorbell.
My monitoring company doesn’t actually monitor the cameras, just their sensors and eufy offers on site storage and their outdoor cameras have built in solar chargers so no wires/lines.
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I only need doorbell cams to cover my outside spaces, but I am looking at getting some indoor cameras and other sensors. I am waiting to see how the Matter roll out goes because I think/hope the landscape for a HomeKit user is going to open up dramatically.
Verizon has HomePod Minis at $20 off currently, at $80. Deal open to everyone, not just Verizon customers.
https://www.verizon.com/products/apple-homepod-mini/
The sound from one of these things is decent, without being earth shattering. Good for regular listening, but not for blasting out. They are also a HomeKit smart home hub, and are compatible with the new Matter industrywide standard, so you can use one of these as the hub if you are thinking about smartening your home.
They run off wifi, but require mains power to work. You can, however, get a battery base to make them portable.
What kind of cameras are you using in your “jungle room”?
POV
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We absolutely love our eufy security. We have the T8200 doorbell, T8520 front door lock, 2 SoloCam E40 with front door and walkway views, Outdoor Cam Pro mounted to the front of our garage for driveway/street view, a Floodlight Cam Pro 360 degree pan&tilt and lock&track for our back door/yard, and an Indoor Cam pan&tilt in our garage. Zero blind spots and excellent night vision. Our old system had difficulty with a delay in recording in the “handoff” from camera to camera. Eufy system is overlapping and seamless and hd picture quality is great.
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Hi, I’m Astrojo! You may remember me from such movies as Today We Kill, Tomorrow We Die and Gladys: The Groovy Mule! Today I’m here to talk to you about Eufy Outdoor Camera Systems!
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Haha I can only regurgitate all that because it’s all in the app on my phone. My husband is the tech and home automation guru and easily influenced by a coworker who is a master adviser when it comes to this stuff.
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I cannot think of anything less sexy than watching myself have sex.
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Nominated if there were such a thing.
They should’ve called it the “Echo Chamber”.
It’s not like Alexa plays ad breaks after you use it, so the hope was that people would buy things on Amazon via their voice. Not many people want to trust an AI with spending their money or buying an item without seeing a picture or reading reviews. The report says that by year four of the Alexa experiment, “Alexa was getting a billion interactions a week, but most of those conversations were trivial commands to play music or ask about the weather.” Those questions aren’t monetizable.
I’m starting to think that billionaires may not be geniuses after all.