SMARTTHINGS


The SMART home poison have ate into me, this is probably the must have if you wish to turn your house into something SMART. Yes, I took the plunge and bought this SMARTTHINGS which comes with a few sensors.

It comes in two different flavors, the US and EU. Be sure to buy the right version or else it will not support the Z-wave frequency of the region that you are in. It is unfortunate that I need the EU version and have to live with the expensive shipping from Amazon UK.

Setting it up is easy, but there is an undocumented IDE website that you will need to visit in order to do the detail configuration of the SMARTTHINGS.

https://graph.api.smartthings.com/

Of course, you will also need to download a phone APP for the convenience. You may add your own phone as a presence sensor as well.

There are also other SMART home controllers, some cheaper,  but they are not as flexible and configurable as SMARTTHINGS. They is also a huge community supporting the SMARTTHINGS with their own customized device handlers. Not to mention, the CORE (Community's Own Rule Engine) is quite a must have if you are the hands-on person. You can install CORE as an add-on APP on the SMARTTHINGS itself, the installation procedure is quite straight forward, you just copy the entire source code and paste it into the IDE. Do a bit of goggle if you encounter issues.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Adding Xiaomi sensors into SMARTTHINGS

Image
You will need all kinds of sensors and switches to fully automate your house to exactly how you want it to be. Sensors aint cheap. Then, there is this Xiaomi who saved the world of home automation with very reasonably priced sensors. These sensors don't work out-of-the-box with your Smartthings, but it is not difficult to get it working. Once you get the hang of it, it's a piece of cake. Motion Sensor - RMB59 Window/Door Sensor - RMB49 Wireless Switch - RMB39 Zigbee Power Plug - RMB69 You can order them through your favorite channels of buying from the China market. According to Xiaomi, the batteries in these devices(apart from Power Plug) can last for 2 years. In order to pair them with Smartthings, first, you will need to be as close to the Smartthings hub as possible with the sensor, your notebook and your phone. 1) On your notebook, login into your SMARTTHINGS IDE on a web browser -> https://graph-eu01-euwest1.api.smartthings.com/
Read more

Now, the light switches

Image
Now that I can control my TV,  AIRCON, CEILING FAN, YEELIGHTS ， I want to control more/all things in my house using a combination of talking to Google home and the various sensors. That brings on the numerous number of light switches I have at home. I must have like 20 of these switches installed in all parts of my house. There is a complexity, all the popular switches sold in the US are designed based on US standards. They need a neutral wire on your switch to function properly. For most of us living in areas whereby your EU standard switches are just about opening and closing the circuit for the "Live" wire,  options are very limited. I came across this GR-HOME ZWAVE switch   when I am out looking for a solution. It costs USD35 each and comes in option of 1,2 or 3 ways in one switch module, doesnt sound too expensive as compared to the USD90 Fibaro switches that requires the neutral wire. Their switches comes in EU or US Zwave frequency, so depending on the version of
Read more

Turning on your PC from Google assistant from anywhere using your phone

Image
There were times where I have a need to remote control my home computer and run some file transfers jobs, but leaving it on 24x7 would equate to SGD11/mth for the power bill. It also does generate unnecessary heat as well. I thought it would be ideal to let it sleep most of the time and wake up as-and-when I need it. That prompted me on configuring a remote Wake-On-Lan (WOL) solution via the WebCORE app. (Refer to my previous post on WebCORE if you have not installed on your SMARTTHINGS) Do note that you will need to enable WOL on your motherboard BIOS prior to all these. Obtain your MAC address by typing "ipconfig /all" on the command prompt. Copy down the "Physical Address", also known as MAC address. Create a WebCORE piston something like below, Insert your MAC address on the part that is marked blue, do remove all the "-" and ":", we will need just the numbers and alphabets. When you come to the part on "IFTTT executes &#
Read more