HA News

Do I Need a Hub to Automate My Home?

Mon, 18 Mar 2019 21:01:54 GMT

A lot of people in the home automation field are suggesting that the home automation hub (e.g., SmartThings, Wink, Vera, etc.) is no longer necessary. With the plethora of WiFi devices available today that connect directly to an app on your phone, hubs are just an extra layer of complexity. Well for some use cases, that is probably true. For example, you would like to be able to turn on a lamp (or another device) while you are away from home. You could plug the lamp into a Wemo outlet and use the Wemo app to control the device from your phone. At this stage though, you haven't implemented home automation, you've implemented remote control. The Wemo app (and most apps for other WiFi-enabled devices) support simple automation such as adding timers or scheduling. However, you will typically be limited to using products from a single manufacturer. If you have devices from different manufacturers, you will most likely have to open multiple applications to control the devices. Most hubs (especially SmartThings with its active user community) support devices from multiple manufacturers and using different protocols including ZigBee, Z-Wave, and WiFi. If all of your devices are connected to your hub (even if they use different protocols) you will typically be able to control them from a single app, or even all at once using a store routine on your hub.

Many might consider the Amazon Echo or Google Home voice assistants hubs. While they do provide many of the features and capabilities of hubs, they aren't really a substitute. However, I would consider it essential that whatever hub I chose support at least one and preferably both of these devices.

A home automation hub will typically support greater "automation" than standalone apps. For example, the SmartThings hub allows you to set up routines. Routines allow you to control multiple devices, from different manufacturers, setting different properties based upon what is supported by a specific device. Among the most powerful automation techniques that hubs make fairly easy to implement is control a device, or initiate a routine controlling multiple devices, via a trigger. The trigger may be a switch, or a sensor detecting some change in state such as movement, light, or presence of water. That last one is one of the most useful triggers that I will be implementing soon in my home to provide protection against flooding.

Scheduling through a hub can also act as a trigger to initiate any of the events outlined in the previous paragraph. Scheduling can be implemented in a way to simplify your daily routine by automatically turning lights or other devices on and off at predetermined times customized around how you live in your home. Schedules can also include some limited randomization to impersonate a "lived in" home when you are away.

Although there are improvements coming in power management for WiFi devices, most still are considerably more energy-hungry than ZigBee and Z-Wave devices. This makes them less suitable for battery powered devices such as remotes, buttons, connected locks, and sensors (including motion, light, temperature, and leak.) Batteries in ZigBee and Z-Wave devices typically last a year or more. This is especially important for devices that may be installed "out of the way" or "difficult to access" places.

Hubs themselves tend to be fairly inexpensive. Some of the proprietary protocols can add to the cost of your other devices. But, for the reasons outlined above, if you are planning to install more than one or two smart devices in your home, I recommend building your system around a hub that provides the features most important to you.

Products mentioned in this article.

HA-Hub may receive a commission.

Lenovo at CES 2018

Fri, 27 Apr 2018 20:22:56 GMT

Lenovo introduced their new Smart Display at CES 2018. The Smart Display features Google Assistant and has a full HD touchscreen. The Smart Display can show your weather forecast, calendar, and YouTube videos. The Smart Display also supports video calling using Google Duo on Android® and iOS® phones. Conveniently, the Smart Display is rotatable between portrait or landscape modes.

The Lenovo Smart Display features a clean, contemporary design in your choice of a soft Gray or natural Bamboo color and is available with either an 8" or 10" display.

This Lenovo Smart Display is expected to be available in summer 2018. To learn more visit the Lenovo Blog.

KOHLER at CES

Fri, 27 Apr 2018 19:48:45 GMT

KOHLER, a manufacturer of kitchen and bath products, launched its KOHLER Konnect platform. The KOHLER Konnect platform allows consumers to personalize select KOHLER products using a smartphone app. Once configured KOHLER Konnect products are controllable via supported voice services, including Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple HomeKit. For a demonstration of some of KOHLER Konnect's capabilities, please view this video.

KOHLER also introduced the Verdera Voice Lighted Mirror with Amazon Alexa voice services built-in. Linking the Verdera Voice Lighted Mirror with KOHLER Konnect enabled bathroom products such as the DTV+ showering system, PerfectFill, and the Numi intelligent toilet is a natural.

The Verdera Voice Lighted Mirror has an attractive contemporary design, but I feel an opportunity was missed by not including a display behind a semi-reflective portion of the mirror and providing Amazon Alexa video skills to display your morning flash briefing, music lyrics, etc. Video would have made the Verdera Voice Lighted Mirror centerpiece of the bathroom of the future. Still, the Verdera Voice Lighted Mirror would be an attractive addition to any smarthome.

KOHLER announced that the Verdera Voice Lighted Mirror would be available for purchase in March 2018. KOHLER Konnect products should be available later in the year.

Home Automation from CES 2018

Tue, 09 Jan 2018 16:19:44 GMT

The CES Consumer Technology Show gets underway this week (Jan 9-12) in Las Vegas, NV. I anticipate many announcements in the Home Automation space. While I don't have the resources to cover everything that may be announced at CES, I will post my thoughts on those announcements that I find most interesting. Stay tuned.

Select Home Automation Products

HA-Hub 2018

Mon, 08 Jan 2018 16:59:00 GMT

Sorry that I haven't posted in a while. Other projects have been consuming way too much of my time. While these projects are still ongoing, here at the start of the new year I'm committed to dedicating more time to HA-Hub. I have been working on new home automation projects and learning new techniques, I just haven't had the opportunity to post any new articles or tutorials. Look for that to change, starting with comments on what I find interesting from CES 2018. In addition to learning more about home automation, I've also been learning more about how to present information in what I hope will be the most helpful format. Please check back soon.

LIFX+ Smart Lamp Setup Tutorial Posted

Wed, 05 Jul 2017 15:49:00 GMT

I've just posted a new setup tutorial featuring the LIFX+ LED smart light.

It is another short tutorial to help you get started and is titled "Setting Up the LIFX+ Smart Lamp". The new tutorial is a followup to my last tutorial titled "Resetting the LIFX+ LED Smart Light". Setting up the LIFX+ smart lamp is a fairly simple process that you could probably manage without my help. But I'm hoping that HA-Hub will be your one stop shop for help with the most useful home automation products. In the future I hope that my real added value will be in helping you extend the capabilites of your products and also help you with integrating products from different manufacturers. Information that is not always available from the manufacturers support site. Stay tuned.

New Tutorial Posted

Wed, 14 Jun 2017 19:57:00 GMT

I've just posted my latest tutorial. It is another short tutorial to help you get started.

The new tutorial is the first in a new category, "Reset Tutorials". It is titled "Resetting the LIFX+ LED Smart Light". You may notice that I have not yet posted a setup tutorial for the LIFX+ LED Smart Light, and may be wondering why I've posted a reset tutorial first. Well since I will be creating many of these tutorials from products that I am using in my own home, some of them may have already been installed. I am working on a tutorial on setting up the LIFX+ LED Smart Light, but before I could do that I needed to restore my bulb to factory defaults. You may also be interested in resetting your LIFX+ LED Smart Light because it has stopped working and all of your other troubleshooting efforts have been unsuccessful, or because you purchased a second-hand bulb that you can't connect to, or you are looking to resell your bulb and want to reset it before selling. Whatever your reason, here you go.

HA Hub is Live!

Thu, 25 May 2017 23:15:00 GMT

HA Hub goes live today. The content is currently very limited, but I wanted to get the platform running so that search engines can start finding the site. The design is currently very minimal. For now, I plan to concentrate on content. I am planning to add a new tutorial every week initially. As the site begins to gain traction, I will work on the design to make it more user-friendly. Early content will focus on the basics of getting started in home automation, including single device remote control as an introduction. This is reflected in our first tutorial, The Simplest Home Automation Project. I will always consider future expansion and once I have a collection of introductory tutorials, I'll starting adding more advanced tutorials showing you how to create "scenes" that combine control of multiple devices into a single action and maybe even how to write your own extensions so that you can make your home automation system behave exactly the way you want it to.

Welcome to HA Hub

Wed, 10 May 2017 04:18:00 GMT

I want this website to be a hub for all things "Home Automation". Content will be targeted primarily towards do-it-yourselfers. In promoting home automation as a DIY activity, I'm hoping to provide others the benefit of my experience as I figure out to automate a typical middle-class home. I'm hoping that growth in the DIY community will stem certain trends that have cropped up as home automation has become more mainstream. One trend that I don't favor is the explosion of an app for everything. While some people tout the simplicity of wifi or Bluetooth connected devices that are controlled by their own app, I find them inefficient once you progress beyond two or three controlled devices. Generally, I prefer a hub controlled by a single app that can bring together many devices allowing easier control as well as scripting of scenes allowing multiple devices to be controlled by a single action. The other troubling trend I've noticed are companies co-opting open technologies and tying them to for-pay service, requiring a subscription to a cloud service to control the hub. There are alternatives that include these services in the cost of their hub. While some of these services have shut down and left their users stranded, if you chose your controllers carefully, you shouldn't be locked into a single provider. For this reason, I will tend to favor the mostly-open protocols of Z-Wave and Zigbee. If you should need to replace your hub, most will be compatible with one or both of these protocols.

As I build out this website I will be offering news of the latest developments in home automation as well as tutorials to help you implement your own home automation project. I will show you how I've automated my own home and tell you why I've implemented certain features. I will also offer suggestions for automation that while maybe not suitable to my situation, may be appropriate for others.