chrisfraser05
Established Member
Guys,
I haven't been posting on this forum long (but have lurked for years lol) and have noticed more and more questions or posts about home automation.
A thread I've been reading on an Automation forum has provided good interest to me so I thought I'd start a similar one here.
Basically if you've been meddling/tweaking/planning with your home automation system today, post a little about it.
That way we can get ideas, give suggestions and maybe start spin off threads if we hit a topic that interests anyone.
I'll start...
Overview. I run a Vera controller and an android tablet in my hall with various devices enabling automation and control of lighting in all rooms, an alarm system, control over harmony, heating and a few other functions....
Today I setup "say the weather" with imperihome app. This speaks a weather forecast pulled from weather underground and played over the tablets TTS.
It plays over my Bluetooth speaker in my front porch which is used for my alarm.
Then I got back to my head scratching about how the hell I can choose whether to play sound on the tablet in my hall or the Bluetooth speaker in the porch.
It's been driving me mad.
I'd be happy if it was possible to just set the tablet to do both....
Not so simple!
In the end I found a workaround.
I need to hear tts in the porch for alarm armed, warning for motion detected pre alarm sounding, and disarmed.
Also a warning when attempting to set the alarm if a window is left open.
I need to hear it in the hall when putting the alarm in night mode (door/window sensors only), weather forecast or spoken warnings like humidity in bathroom high etc.
What I've ended up doing is using tasker to disconnect the Bluetooth on a trigger from autovera, play what it needs to then reconnect again.
Works like a charm!
I learned a few new swear words in the process mind lol
Next i improved my alarm PLEG (logic code) where the system checks if the bathroom window is already open when setting away/night.
If it is open the system returns to home mode and a tts plays either in my porch or hall depending which mode to tell you "the alarm failed to arm as the bathroom window is open"
I then also decided to use a combination of tasker/auto vera to silence the tablet alarm clock.
As the tablet is in the main hall just outside our room.
It goes off at 07:30 for us to get the kids up for school.
If one of us is already up we will set the "wake" mode on the tablet (imperihome & a Vera virtual switch) which puts the house into home mode, disables the alarm system, turns on a few lamps, off a few night lights and turns the tv on with harmony.
I've used tasker to check between 00:00 and 12:00, if wake mode is enabled between these times it automatically turns the tablets alarm volume to zero.
At 12:00 the volume returns to 5.
Next I'm going to setup an alarm acknowledge on both our phones using tasker and auto remote so we can both turn the alarm on the tablet off from bed lol
Now I'd better do something other than play with the HA or the wife will go daft!
Please share your experiences guys, Chris
I haven't been posting on this forum long (but have lurked for years lol) and have noticed more and more questions or posts about home automation.
A thread I've been reading on an Automation forum has provided good interest to me so I thought I'd start a similar one here.
Basically if you've been meddling/tweaking/planning with your home automation system today, post a little about it.
That way we can get ideas, give suggestions and maybe start spin off threads if we hit a topic that interests anyone.
I'll start...
Overview. I run a Vera controller and an android tablet in my hall with various devices enabling automation and control of lighting in all rooms, an alarm system, control over harmony, heating and a few other functions....
Today I setup "say the weather" with imperihome app. This speaks a weather forecast pulled from weather underground and played over the tablets TTS.
It plays over my Bluetooth speaker in my front porch which is used for my alarm.
Then I got back to my head scratching about how the hell I can choose whether to play sound on the tablet in my hall or the Bluetooth speaker in the porch.
It's been driving me mad.
I'd be happy if it was possible to just set the tablet to do both....
Not so simple!
In the end I found a workaround.
I need to hear tts in the porch for alarm armed, warning for motion detected pre alarm sounding, and disarmed.
Also a warning when attempting to set the alarm if a window is left open.
I need to hear it in the hall when putting the alarm in night mode (door/window sensors only), weather forecast or spoken warnings like humidity in bathroom high etc.
What I've ended up doing is using tasker to disconnect the Bluetooth on a trigger from autovera, play what it needs to then reconnect again.
Works like a charm!
I learned a few new swear words in the process mind lol
Next i improved my alarm PLEG (logic code) where the system checks if the bathroom window is already open when setting away/night.
If it is open the system returns to home mode and a tts plays either in my porch or hall depending which mode to tell you "the alarm failed to arm as the bathroom window is open"
I then also decided to use a combination of tasker/auto vera to silence the tablet alarm clock.
As the tablet is in the main hall just outside our room.
It goes off at 07:30 for us to get the kids up for school.
If one of us is already up we will set the "wake" mode on the tablet (imperihome & a Vera virtual switch) which puts the house into home mode, disables the alarm system, turns on a few lamps, off a few night lights and turns the tv on with harmony.
I've used tasker to check between 00:00 and 12:00, if wake mode is enabled between these times it automatically turns the tablets alarm volume to zero.
At 12:00 the volume returns to 5.
Next I'm going to setup an alarm acknowledge on both our phones using tasker and auto remote so we can both turn the alarm on the tablet off from bed lol
Now I'd better do something other than play with the HA or the wife will go daft!
Please share your experiences guys, Chris