It’s no longer a newfangled fad to automate things around the house using devices that do the heavy lifting for you. Like many of you, in my home I’m using gadgets such as Nest smart thermostats, Nest Protect smoke detectors, WeMo home automation products and LIFX wifi-enabled smart bulbs.
How could I take my home automation to the next level? A logical step was to play with Internet of Things (IoT) widgets and devices such as LightBlue Bean and Raspberry Pi. Maybe I could orchestrate the devices and behaviors using the IoT cloud and apps like IFTTT, which makes it possible to set behaviors in response to given conditions. For example, within IFTTT I can schedule events like sunsets to switch on a light through WeMo (though time zones seem to be an issue with these events in the cloud sometimes).
But we still had those annoying physical light switches on the walls! I wanted to replace them in order to dim the LIFX lights using an app-like dashboard. So I started by removing the physical light switches in the kitchen and putting a tablet in their place.
Figure 1: Kitchen light switches with replacement tablet
In the bedroom I used an old Android phone as a new light switch. I also replaced the lightbulbs in the bedroom and kitchen with wifi LIFX lights. I used the LightBlue Bean sensor with some minor modifications so that if it’s dark and the door opens, LightBlue Bean notifies Raspberry Pi and Pi, through IBM Bluemix and Node-RED, switches on the lightbulbs in the doorway using wifi. I wanted to have as many IoT elements as possible for this scenario. (Of course you could also use Node-RED on Pi itself and use MQTT to notify the LIFX light. There are lots of different ways to accomplish the same goal.)
Figure 2: LightBlue Bean widget on door lock
Figure 3: Example of a NodeRED flow to switch a light on or off
Similarly to the light switch app/website on the table in the kitchen, this system would also talk to IFTTT to switch the lights on or off based on events like blinking when Nest Protect detects smoke—or in our case, when the International Space Station is over our home, so we can go outside and see it flying by. I was also able to use the app on my phone to switch the LIFX and WeMo controlled lights on and off
Figure 4: LIFX app on a smartphone
The whole setup worked fine the first weekend I had it up and running. I showed my wife all the new gadgets and features, and we decided to keep it installed.
The next week, I had to go on a business trip for a couple of days. I left the house early Monday morning, and on Monday late afternoon my DIY home automation setup started to fail. My Internet provider had decided to do some maintenance, so there was no Internet connection at home. My wife came back from work in the evening and was not able to switch on lights since I had used our central wifi as the base of communication. This was an unexpected challenge!
You can imagine the call I received from my not-so-happy wife. It took me a while to explain to her that she could use an app to switch on the lights using the light’s local wifi. When I came back from my trip, I of course had to revert back to analog light switches to maintain the peace in our household.
I guess there are still a lot of bugs to be worked out. I will have to sort out multiple ways of accessing the controls and find easier ways of overriding the electronic controls with physical ones, as well as include a backup communication channel for my DIY home automation. In hindsight, I probably should have left the light switches in place instead of ripping them out and going completely wireless.
Next time, I’ll wait until a company sells a solid home automation solution that’s easy to use and has a 24/7 help line!
Have you ventured into home automation yet? What home automation challenges have you faced?
Please connect with me about mobile, Bluemix and the Internet of Things on Twitter.
The post Can home automation challenges lead to divorce? appeared first on IBM Mobile.
