
These Guys Want to Hack Your Home And You Should Let Them - devinfoley
http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/06/internet-of-things-ifttt/
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lifeisstillgood
Whoever does the PR for IFTTT needs a raise. That is supposed to be an article
on home automation, and reads like a press release. Barely mentions the
hardware vendors, the arduino hackers, the competing standards and the ways to
get started. Just repeats the name of one web service!?

Wow. Pay the firm whatever they ask.

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fnordfnordfnord
I just expect that from Wired & Ars.

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elie_CH
I love the top comment

"CKP obr4610 • 8 hours ago − User goes to flick on bathroom light switch...

"Sorry Dave, But I cannot complete this command. The Government has activated
the Energy Conservation Program during these hours."

"Dammit" goes to flush toilet...

"Sorry Dave, But I cannot complete this command. The Government has activated
the Water Conservation Program during these hours."

"fine then" goes to leave to go out to eat since refrigerated food spoiled...

"Sorry Dave, But I cannot complete this command. The Government has activated
the Curfew Program during these hours.""

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modoc
Does anyone have recommendations for good vendor(s) for home automation
devices/systems/software/etc...? I'd love my house to be more "smart" but not
really sure how to approach it. I need stuff that is either hidden or good
looking, works well with iOS and OS X. Ideally would love a combination of
home automation, HVAC control, alarms (smoke, CO, etc...), and security.

There's also some logic that I haven't seen offered, for instance: if someone
drives up my driveway, I'd like to hear a chime (and/or get a text with a
photo of the car). If they drive up at 2 AM I want to be woken up! Unless it's
me or my wife (RFID chips in our bumpers for ID?). Etc...

~~~
fnordfnordfnord
How good are you with hardware? I'm building mine with rPi, Arduino, msp430,
self-designed circuits (LM35 for temperature, phototransistor for light), COTS
relay boards, all sorts of stuff I have lying about. I had thought about
making it a serious design effort, but I hate doing printed circuit boards,
and since you can buy this hobbyist stuff so cheap now, I usually just use
what I can find cheap at the time. Someday I may put it all together after
I've got the kinks worked out. Here are some sources: moderndevice.com,
adafruit.com, sparkfun.com, pololu.com, mpja.com, taydaelectronics.com,
surpluscenter.com, futurelec.com (flammable gas sensors, CO sensors, misc
components), and then Allied, Digikey, Mouser, Future, etc. I used a cheap
little relay breakout and 74HCT595's to control
incandescent/halogen/fluorescent lights and 120VAC devices (search for
"sainsmart relay"). Audio stuff came mostly from PartsExpress.com

Good old X10 stuff works with OSX (it's just serial port controlled RF
dongle), I think that new fancy Phillips HUE works with iOS, but it is mega
expensive, you can create the same functionality from COTS parts for much
less.

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outside1234
For folks that are interested, I'm working on an open source platform called
Nitrogen that helps you get devices online easily and communicating with
applications using a consistent JavaScript development model. Still a little
early but I'd love to find folks interested in hacking on it either as a user
or contributor to the project.

You can read more at:
[http://github.com/nitrogenjs/service](http://github.com/nitrogenjs/service)

</shamelessPlug>

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fnordfnordfnord
This is kind of my pet project for the summer. I've already got the lights in
my children's rooms done. I've got dawn/dusk sensing to turn off my outdoor
audio system. I've got a temperature controlled attic-exhaust fan (my attic
gets over 150F / 65C without it). I played with IFTTT a bit last year, but
kind of forgot about it since I don't need it. But thinking about it again, I
really do need it or something like it because the other residents of my house
aren't programmers, but they might like to automate some action. I mostly use
PachubeCosmXively for remote control of actions, but I don't think IFTTT has
any integration with them. PachubeCosmXively can send emails based on trigger
thresholds so it shouldn't be too hard to get something working. A great
complement to IFTTT would be direct integration to an rPi or other open-ish
platform cum home automation server.

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speeder
I live in a house with automated lights, and I ABSOLUTELY HATE THEM.

They turn on when I want them off...

And turn off when I want them on...

It is really, really, really annoying.

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dekz
You may have some incorrect boolean logic somewhere then, I'd check that out
first. Do you have any system tests for these lights?

~~~
speeder
I mean, sometimes I want them on for example when I am trying to install a
router in a corridor, or put clothes to hang, and the light turns off too
early...

Or I want them off, when I arrive home at night, and do not want to wake up
other people already sleeping...

And many other examples...

Yes, it could be fixed with code maybe, but then I would with 100.000 lines of
code just to turn on and off lights in the correct time, it is not easier to
just have a on and off button?

~~~
fnordfnordfnord
>I want them on for example when I am trying to install a router in a
corridor,

If you used a motion sensor, you need to have used a re-triggerable motion
sensor there. Some are, some are not. It's annoying to have the wrong kind in
the wrong place.

>when I arrive home at night, and do not want to wake up other people already
sleeping...

Try this or something like this
[http://www.legrand.us/~/media/E07D151FCE954D82A7B6A7204FF5D3...](http://www.legrand.us/~/media/E07D151FCE954D82A7B6A7204FF5D320.ashx?w=370&h=400&bc=ffffff&as=1)

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sdfjkl
If you're doing something like that, you should make damn sure it's NOT
connected to the internet. Did you learn nothing the last few days?

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PencilAndPaper
Has anyone watched Battlestar Galactica?

