In my ongoing quest to open my house to hackers create the ultimate smarthome, I've added a new toy. A video doorbell! Why? I've got a tall house and can't be bothered walking down several flights of stairs just to tell a peddler to piss off. And, when I'm away, it's nice to know where couriers are leaving my packages. So, here's my review of the DophiGo DV-200. It was £40 on special offer. One thing to note - this is an energy efficient unit. There's no PIR sensor or movement detector. It …
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I have a Tado smart thermostat - part of my smarthome project. As well as letting me set the temperature from my phone, it records environmental data, and provides a handy API for me to retrieve it. This blog post will show you why I've gathered the data, let you download the full dataset, and explain what I learned from it. Why do this? There's a long-standing plan to use waste-heat from a nearby supermarket to provide communal heat to our neighbourhood. A low temperature heat main…
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Tado is a brilliant smart thermostat. But their API is very poorly documented. This is an updated guide for 2019. I am indebted to Stephen C Phillips' original documentation. Getting started You will need: A Tado (duh!) Your Username (usually your email address) Your Password A Client Secret Getting the client secret I'm using this client secret: wZaRN7rpjn3FoNyF5IFuxg9uMzYJcvOoQ8QWiIqS3hfk6gLhVlG57j5YNoZL2Rtc This secret may change in the future. In the examples, I'll shorten it to…
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One evening, my wife turned to me in bed and said, "Winter is coming..." Well, what she actually said was "Get your frozen feet away from me, you cold-blooded monster!" The only way to save our marriage? HOOK OUR BED UP TO THE INTERNET! I couldn't find an electric blanket with IoT connectivity - so I built my own. Why? As a person with cold feet, I want to yell at my robot servant to pre-heat the bed, so that it is toasty warm by the time I've finished my evening ablutions. The Blanket …
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I have friends. More than one! I also have a home full of smart-gadgets which are controlled by apps. The two don't mix. This is yet another complaint about solipsistic app design. Let's take my Lifx bulbs. I have a friend staying for a few days, and he needs to be able to turn lights on and off. Lifx make this functionally impossible. The available options are... Give my full email address & password to him. This feels suboptimal. Allow him on to my main WiFi. Again, suboptimal. This…
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I've previously reviewed other Meross smart home devices, so now on to their MSL120 - an E27 screw cap bulb. The bulb has dimming and colour changing functions. Let's crack on with a video! The app The Android app looks good - although a little rough around the edges, but it's easy to set up a bulb and control it. Controlling the colours and brightness is a little odd. You have to slide your finger over the whole screen. Vertical for brightness and horizontal for colour. There's…
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The good folk at Meross have sent me some of their smart-home gadgets to review. Let's dive in! Unboxing Products Smart Plug Socket And the Smart Power Strip. The single plug socket is good for 10 amps. It is smaller than the Wemo and Sonoff plugs I've reviewed. It has built in power monitoring - which is handy. The surge protector is curious. You get three regular plug sockets - each of which can be switched independently - but there is no power monitoring. There are also 4 USB …
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The good folk at Sonoff have sent me yet another gadget to review. This is a slightly curious device - an IP to 433MHz remote. This allows a smartphone to control smarthome gadgets which usually require an RF remote control. It costs £8 plus postage direct from Itead. This is similar to an Infrared device I reviewed a few years ago. It's a cute little box, small and light enough to hide away anywhere. Even under use, it doesn't get hot. Note - it only connects to 2.4GHz WiFi. That's …
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After hearing my interview on Radio 4, the Jeremy Vine show asked me to talk about my smart home tech for Radio 2. BBC Radio 2 @BBCRadio2 BBC We discuss controlling all the devices in your home with your mobile phone. #r2vine pic.x.com/O9hx7aTFpp ❤️ 6 💬 8 🔁 0 …
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Because I'm an idiot, I've decided that what my life needs is voice activated lightbulbs. But voice control is so 2015. Let's make these bulbs react to SINGING! Here's a demo - fair warning, my vocal prowess is "limited". https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Voice-Controlled-Lifx.mp4 OK, here's how to do this. I recently got a bunch of Lfix bulbs as part of a bug bounty. There's a full API for the Lifx bulbs. My mate Ruth has written a great demo on the Chome…
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I've just got a WiFi light switch. As I've explained previously, swapping out all my existing light bulbs with Smart Bulbs would be hugely expensive and has the disadvantage of not working when the switches are off at the wall. A WiFi light switch (theoretically) allows me to control the lights from my phone - and anyone else to use the physical buttons on the wall. That helps avoid this scenario: Cate@c8tersWhen you're house sitting for millennials and ask how the lights work…
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(A somewhat rambling post about a very inconsequential problem.) I'm slowly building a Smart Home. I've security cameras emailing me when a cat has the temerity to walk past a window, a Roomba which tweets me, a thermostat which knows if I'm working from home, and a car which knows when to charge from my solar panels. Now it's time to focus on something a bit more useful - lighting! A few months ago I treated myself to a Lifx SmartBulb. It's a cracking bit of kit! There's a widget on my…
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· gadgets IoT NaBloPoMo review Smart Home · 2 comments · 750 words · read ~1,138 times.