Don't pay much attention to what is on the TV, that isn't really what this post is about. Instead, you should be focusing on the Christmas tree and my lighted railing. Just about a year ago, I took the dive into home automation buy buying some wireless plugs.
@mrsbozz was quite skeptical at first calling me lazy and saying she didn't understand the point. She has since changed her tune, and the other day she admitted that she loves the wireless plugs now.
I started with two GoSund smart plugs and later picked up a couple more. I was only using three of them, so when we put the Christmas lights up I used the fourth one to make those easier to turn off and on.
I don't use any fancy software for the GoSund plugs. In fact I only used the GoSund app to get them setup and then I have them connected to my Google Home app and that is how I turn things off an on. We don't have an Alexa or any of that voice activated stuff. I have some serious concerns about privacy with those devices.
I am using a Ubiquiti Dream Machine as my home router. This allows me to have a separate wireless SSID setup for my IoT things and I also have that SSID on a separate VLAN from the rest of the traffic on my network.
About a week before Christmas, I noticed that the controller with a photo sensor for my outdoor lights had died. I decided to take the leap and swap that out for a smart plug.
I swapped it out for this wireless controller from Feit Electric.
With the Feit app, install was pretty easy and I was also able to set up a timer so that the lights came on each night at 5:00 PM and went off at 10:30 PM. It also tied into my Google Home app so I could turn them off and on manually if I wanted to.
Given how well the Feit plug was working out for me, I got thinking about the light we have outside near our garage. After a couple of reported vehicle break-ins around our area, I started leaving that light on all the time several months ago.
It was an LED bulb, but it still bugged me a little that it was on during the daytime. The smarter move probably would have been a motion sensing floodlight, but our neighbors have one of those and it is really annoying. They don't have the sensitivity set right, so it goes on every time a car goes down the road.
Anyway, I got thinking that I had seen bulbs with the wireless built into them, and since I like the Feit plug so much, I decided to pick up a couple of these smart bulbs from Feit.
I actually got them a couple dollar cheaper than what the going price is right now. I was easily able to add them with the Feit app and get a schedule set up so that now the light comes on at 5 each night and goes off at 7 each morning. I will likely change those times when summer comes and the days start getting longer.
Part of what we love about the smart lights/plugs is the fact that we can turn lights on for our dog when we are running late. It is also nice to be able to make it look like someone is at the house when we are out of town.
I installed the other bulb in the lamp on my side of the bed and it has been fun playing around with the dimming and colorful LED options the Feit bulbs give you.
No doubt when the next Holiday comes around I will be changing the color on our outdoor one to match the occasion!
Finally, as one last project, I decided to change over some of our outdoor decorations from incandescent string lights to LED string lights. I picked up a couple strings on Amazon and made the modifications to my wire frame that I had been wanting to do for a while. I attached the new lights and fired them up only to find out that I had overlooked something.
Apparently, these LED light controllers have eight different modes. From what I can see online, it sounds like the chip shortage is impacting things like this as well. You can switch through the different light modes, but you can't get it to save one of them as a default. I guess they produced a bunch of these without the memory chip due to the shortage.
It isn't a huge deal except for the fact that I am using these lights in conjunction with my Feit outdoor smart plug. Each night when the lights come on, they are in demo mode and they cycle through all eight of the modes before starting over again. It is a huge pain in the butt!
I am on the lookout for a new 29 volt 6 watt plug that doesn't have all the extra modes, but so far I haven't been very lucky. Apparently that 29V is not very common.
I apologize I don't have more pictures. I didn't realize I was going to write this post until I got to work this morning.
If you have the hookup for me on a 29V 6W indoor/outdoor LED controller let me know! You might have better luck outside the US than me!
Sports Talk Social - @bozz.sports
I haven't done much with automation lately. I have my Nest heating control and Ikea smart light with sensor in the hall. I have used a X10 switch for the Xmas lights before that was linked to Alexa. I honestly think Amazon and Google are not that bothered about listening to us. If they were actually proved to be doing it they would be in serious trouble. I have one of each of their gadgets, but have not used them lately.
I did fit a new outside light with PIR, but it is not connected to anything else. That can just make things more complicated, especially if I am not there to fix it. It all has to be family friendly.
I still like the idea of more automation, but it is something I need to revisit. I expect there are lots more gadgets available now. When we built our house the options were very limited.
That Dream Machine router is fairly expensive. Is it worth it for home use? I have heard people talk about putting IoT devices on a separate network.
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For most people the Dream Machine is probably not the smartest play. Especially now that the mesh systems have started to come down in price a bit. I can add modules to the Dream Machine if I want, but I haven't yet. Our signal is a little dodgy in the kitchen upstairs, but not unmanageable. Being a tech guy I feel a lot of the routers out there are limited on how much you can configure them. I wanted to be able to create separate SSID's for my data/streaming/IoT so that is why I looked at the Dream Machine. Being able to add vLans on top of that was an added bonus.
You are doing a great job 👏 it’s good to change the look of your house some times, it makes it look new.
Thanks, I appreciate it.
Uwc
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