Got a Smart Home? - What's so Smart about it?

BobbyT28

The high horse brigade wrote: »

Was a joke, the laughing emoji didn't format correctly, no need for rolley eyes

:rolleyes::rolleyes:

matrim

bk wrote: »

I think it comes down to how dominate iPhone is in the US. As a result HA tech companies seem to focus on iPhone first and at best the Android app seems to be an after thought.

Android actually has a higher market share. From my experience companies usually target iPhone first as that is where they perceive the money to be. I've read analysis before that showed that iPhone users are more willing to pay for apps than android users. So even though android has a higher market share, iPhone users spend more money.

bk

matrim wrote: »

Android actually has a higher market share. From my experience companies usually target iPhone first as that is where they perceive the money to be. I've read analysis before that showed that iPhone users are more willing to pay for apps than android users. So even though android has a higher market share, iPhone users spend more money.

Right, iPhone owners tend to be higher earners and tend to spend a lot more on apps and services.

I suspect, but haven't seen any research, that as a result, they are also more likely to spend money on expensive HA tech too.

Of course Pixel phones, etc. are gradually changing this. Either way I don't think you need to change your phone to play with this HA tech, it mostly works fine on both.

randombar

bk wrote: »

Ah, cool idea. I didn't know it had a humidity sensor, nice

You'll have to double check if SmartThings supports humidity for this sensor and that it will do what you want it to do.

BTW another option might be a Z-wave usb stick and Home Assistant on the Raspberry Pi. Avoid the need for SmartThings then.

Hueston we have a problem, set up the sonoff the other night (They are quite flimsy so you have to be gentle) and works fine with app but then discovered that it doesn't work with Pi HA. :mad: you can flash them but they won't work with original app after that. Might look for alternatives (Open to suggestions!)

As a basic switch they aren't bad though.

BionicRasher

Android user here. (S7 Edge)
We also have iPhone 6 (wife) iPad (family shared device) Samsung tablet (kids device) and teenage daughter has iPhone 5.

I've found that everything I have in smart home gadgets works perfectly for Android. In fact some things seem to require the more open nature of Android like Broadlink IHC sharing configuration to another device, instead of having to set everything up again, works on Android to Android but is hit and miss on iOS.

I also use an app called SyncMe that syncs my photos to a network attached storage device when I come home every evening. It wakes the PC when I arrive home and my phone picks up home WiFi and sycns any photos off to a 1tb drive. I have yet to find anything in iOS for this.

Also Philips hue will not install on the iPad as it's running iOS 9 and it's not compatible where I can install it with no issues on the Samsung tablet running Android 4.4

No real difference in how things run on Android and iOS on our phones that I can see other than sometimes the app looks a bit better on iOS

If your in to tinkering then I think Android is the only way to go

bk

BionicRasher wrote: »

I also use an app called SyncMe that syncs my photos to a network attached storage device when I come home every evening. It wakes the PC when I arrive home and my phone picks up home WiFi and sycns any photos off to a 1tb drive. I have yet to find anything in iOS for this.

Lots of apps like that for iOS, often made by the companies who make the NAS, for instance I've one for my QNAP NAS.

BionicRasher wrote: »

Also Philips hue will not install on the iPad as it's running iOS 9 and it's not compatible where I can install it with no issues on the Samsung tablet running Android 4.4

iConnectHue is amazing.

BionicRasher wrote: »

If your in to tinkering then I think Android is the only way to go

Jailbroken iPhone :P

bk

GaryCocs wrote: »

Hueston we have a problem, set up the sonoff the other night (They are quite flimsy so you have to be gentle) and works fine with app but then discovered that it doesn't work with Pi HA. :mad: you can flash them but they won't work with original app after that. Might look for alternatives (Open to suggestions!)

As a basic switch they aren't bad though.

Is it a switch you are looking for or humidity sensor?

Xiaomi Humidity sensors can be made to work with Smart Things, thus I'd guess they should work with HA too, but you should of course double check.

Of course the best solution is probably straight Z-Wave sensors, the only downside being that they are usually expensive.

BionicRasher

Dont want to side track the main topic but as this is Smart Home related I am going to ask a few more questions

bk wrote: »

Lots of apps like that for iOS, often made by the companies who make the NAS, for instance I've one for my QNAP NAS.

Do you have any decent examples of apps that will sync photos to a network drive (its not a NAS just a regular PC with attached drives etc)
Would be great to smartify all the phones in the house to sync up to a network drive when they have new photos
At the moment we use Flickr and that syncs iOS device photos and then an app on the PC called PicBackMan which can pull the photos down from Flickr and make copies to the Network drive - bit of a rigmarole!

bk wrote: »

iConnectHue is amazing.

Problem I have is that the official Hue app wont install on anything less than iOS 10 - 3rd party apps are fine but I want to start with the official app on the family iPad - keep it simple and family friendly so we can all use the same interface

bk wrote: »

Jailbroken iPhone :P

Do many people do this? Is it worth it?
I would imagine new versions of iOS generally cannot be jailbroken for some time after they come out.

randombar

bk wrote: »

Is it a switch you are looking for or humidity sensor?

Xiaomi Humidity sensors can be made to work with Smart Things, thus I'd guess they should work with HA too, but you should of course double check.

Of course the best solution is probably straight Z-Wave sensors, the only downside being that they are usually expensive.

A switch to replace the sonoff, something cheap that works easily with home assistant ideally. Worst case scenario I'm thinking a plug of some kind.

I'm thinking

Fan switch -> plug socket -> smart plug -> fan.

But ideally I would just replace the sonoff with something else.

Also interested in the experiences jailbreaking phone. Used to do it with the first ones but upgrades were an issue and didn't see the benefits if you had a factory unlocked but could be missing some useful apps.

bk

GaryCocs wrote: »

A switch to replace the sonoff, something cheap that works easily with home assistant ideally. Worst case scenario I'm thinking a plug of some kind.

I'm thinking

Fan switch -> plug socket -> smart plug -> fan.

But ideally I would just replace the sonoff with something else.

Also interested in the experiences jailbreaking phone. Used to do it with the first ones but upgrades were an issue and didn't see the benefits if you had a factory unlocked but could be missing some useful apps.

Well there are various z-wave relays from the likes of Fibaro that would work with SmartThings, etc. But they are quiet expensive.

I quiet like my TP-Link smart plug, works well with GH, etc.

bk

BionicRasher wrote: »

Do you have any decent examples of apps that will sync photos to a network drive (its not a NAS just a regular PC with attached drives etc)
Would be great to smartify all the phones in the house to sync up to a network drive when they have new photos
At the moment we use Flickr and that syncs iOS device photos and then an app on the PC called PicBackMan which can pull the photos down from Flickr and make copies to the Network drive - bit of a rigmarole!

Mostly I use Google Photos, Flickr and the QNAP app. I've no personal experience of them, but doing a quick google finds a bunch of apps that sync with network drives on iPhone. This one looks pretty nice with both iOS and Android support:

https://www.photosync-app.com/

There is also iCloud which can sync photos to a PC:
https://support.apple.com/en-ie/HT205323

BionicRasher wrote: »

Problem I have is that the official Hue app wont install on anything less than iOS 10 - 3rd party apps are fine but I want to start with the official app on the family iPad - keep it simple and family friendly so we can all use the same interface

Looks like the Philips Hue Gen 1 app works on ios8 or greater:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/philips-hue-gen-1/id557206189?mt=8

To be honest, I don't find the newest Hue app very family friendly. Some of the third party ones are better.

BionicRasher wrote: »

Do many people do this? Is it worth it?
I would imagine new versions of iOS generally cannot be jailbroken for some time after they come out.

Many techie people do. It use to be well worth it, but less so nowadays, Apple have integrated most of the best ideas that use to be in jailbreak only into official iOS.

Really iOS is very powerful and flexible now. So less need for it.

BionicRasher

bk wrote: »

https://www.photosync-app.com/

Nice one - I had tried that before but the autotransfer to a computer seems to be in the more recent release - before it was drag and drop in iOS and was a pain. I will give it another go and try it on both iOS and Android. Only thing it seems to be missing is wake on LAN so I will dig around and see if there is an app to do that also

bk wrote: »

Looks like the Philips Hue Gen 1 app works on ios8 or greater:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/philips-hue-gen-1/id557206189?mt=8

Good spot - will see how that works out.

randombar

bk wrote: »

Well there are various z-wave relays from the likes of Fibaro that would work with SmartThings, etc. But they are quiet expensive.

I quiet like my TP-Link smart plug, works well with GH, etc.

The TP-Link smart plug has dropped off Amazon for some reason, bizarre.

bk

GaryCocs wrote: »

The TP-Link smart plug has dropped off Amazon for some reason, bizarre.

Weird! The likes of Argos, Curry's etc. still have it but expensive now! Maybe just out of stock after Christmas.

randombar

bk wrote: »

Weird! The likes of Argos, Curry's etc. still have it but expensive now! Maybe just out of stock after Christmas.

Ya will hold off until they are back.

One issue I have with the iphone and HA at the moment is Chrome Casting.

No proper controls once I send something to the tv (in plex anyway) and the RTE player version is chronic.