1x50: Automated

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27

In the USA, things are a bit confused. One needs a router (OW) for networking. However, there is a highway that runs from Chicago, IL to Santa Montica, CA which is called Route (always pronounced with OO) 66, which was a major piece of culture for some time. As far as networking though, perhaps my wife has the right idea when she asks if she needs to reboot the thingy that she gets the wireless connection to the internet. :smile:

Now, as far as rooters are concerned, I am all too familiar with those things. Our house has old clay tile pipe for the sewer, something tree roots love. I know when it is needing ‘rooting’ when there is a pile of things that normally makes its way to the sewer piling up around an old access pipe in the back yard. Those rooters are a lot of work for an old man. Once, I was cleaning up the pile and noticed that there was a plant underneath. ‘What is this?’ I asked. Then I realized that it was some mint we planted. Then I realized that it was some chocolate mint. I started laughing to the point of tears. My wife, (the poor girl) asked what was the matter. I asked if she wanted some mint. It’s chocolate mint. Double chocolate mint. Extra chocolately!! She declined.

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28

Really funny episode.

About Mycroft… am I the only one to think that it feels like a distant relative of chumby? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chumby When I saw the kickstarter it was the first thing that came to mind, cute adorable gadget.

Anyway. Great topics. Keep it up!

PS> Started listening a couple weeks ago (after listening Jono’s interview in triangulations).

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Ooh, the Chumby! I’ve got one of those around here somewhere, although I never actually did much with it :slight_smile:

30

$200 box is ridiculous. My standing desk 100% cheaper and has built in speakers :wink:

As for lowering and raising the entire desk to go from sitting to standing. That seems like an over complex and backwards solution to a simple problem. I have a tall stool behind me that I perch on if I feel fatigued.

31

There is a genuine need to ensure that WiFi radios play by the rules. the Linux drivers actually already handle this very well. However quite a few commercial manufacturers make it pretty easy to alter the regulatory domain or even use completely unlocked “Compliance test mode” and it is quite common for folks to abuse this to find a clear channel

I have no idea what the FCC rules may look like if they decide to make ruling but I rather doubt it’s ‘game over’ for open source drivers (or for Licensed radio amateurs being able to use WiFi radios on spectrum we are licensed for.

At worst we are probably looking at binary blobs in the form of radio firmware, something that a lot of chipsets use currently anyway

It seemed to me that Chris was taking a worst case scenario approach without any consideration of the seriousness of the issue. For example Here in Ireland the 4.9GHz band (within reach of many 802.11a/n chipsets) is a licensed Point to Point band for long distance licensed links, If I have a licence for a frequency pair in this band I pay substantial spectrum fees on the understanding I have a clear channel, having someone pirate in there will seriously spoil my day. As a licensed user I also do not have the flexibility to just move to a different channel.

Usable radio spectrum is a very scarce resource, it needs to managed and protected from abuse or we all loose.

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WRT to MyCroft, you guys mentioned, and the MyCroft site & campaigns make a point of comparing it to the Amazon Echo, but more open.

I have an Echo, and I really don’t see the MyCroft competing with it. First and foremost, the Echo is about playing music. It is, hands down, the best standalone bluetooth speaker I’ve ever heard. The dual downward-facing speakers really do fill a room with sound, and I’ve only ever brought the volume to 6 of 10 (while rocking out to some classic Def Leppard over the sound of doing dishes - this was loud enough to get a call from my neighbor. Yes, this is my life).

The voice automation functions beyond that have been handy, and this has made Alexa a well-used tool in the kitchen. We use it to manage our shopping list, set timers, and play jokes. (If you have an echo, walk to another room and use the remote with a “Simon says” command" :wink: ) What I haven’t done yet, is setup the “skill” to connect to my Wink, or any other systems.

Our Echo is, first and foremost, a music playback device with some smart features, not the voice-controlled center of my home.

As far as the open vs. ecosystem-lockin, well, meh.

  • I have a prime account, have for years, and you’ll have to pry it out of my cold dead hands.
  • The echo has developed a public API, and there are additional ‘skills’ available for it as well, and plenty of great developer resources for building your own skills at https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/alexa/alexa-skills-kit
  • Although I can’t find any information about it in the MyCroft docs, I wouldn’t be surprised to find they’re using Amazon’s voice service… so until they come up with some open voice service or local solution, you’re still locked into a third-party ‘ecosystem’. (BTW I did look, and I’ve even asked, but have not at this time gotten an answer).

For me, an open API is the most important step forward beyond a closed device; a fully-open thing would be nice, but that’s not as big a leap for me as having a staightforward, reliable way to extend and tinker with the thing. I don’t need the design schematics for the speaker, I just want a way to make it play my way.

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33

I should mention as well, I bought the Echo during the Prime pre-sale, for $99.

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Based on your experience with it so far… could you see it becoming the voice-controlled center of your home?

This is simply barbaric. Your neighbors should have their humanity license revoked.

What happens when you tell the Echo to “turn it up to 11”?

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I can’t say for sure. Unifying all the home-automation-things is right up there with unified logins. Convenient? Yes, but at the expense of a larger hackable surface area, and less privacy. While I do see the benefit in using a Wink hub to manage both my z-wave outlets, and my Philips Hue lamps, I’m not sold on tying that into my outdoor security cameras, for example. I will probably, eventually, add the Wink skill to Alexa, because I am weak :wink:

I’ll try when I get home :stuck_out_tongue:

36

I use a standing desk, like a lot of the other folks here, but I’ve purposefully avoided something that’s convenient to sit at. If I had a desk that would allow me to sink into my old, comfy office chair at the press of a button, I’d only press that button once, and go back to staying in my chair.

But, I can’t stand for 8 hours at my desk (and I’ve read, and heard from medical professionals, that I shouldn’t) so I found a middle ground - a stool. Its tall enough to sit on and use the standing desk, but not comfortable enough to stay on for more than a half an hour, so I switch back and forth all day.

https://goo.gl/photos/uzv66tav4PV9Z7Jg7

37

And just one more thing… Bryan asked about thermostats.

My story is a little different than most, in that we don’t use central heat in our home. We used to have a central heater, but upstairs was always too hot, and downstairs was always too cold, especially the living room of all places, and it seemed to blow more dust around than even the best filters could collect. So we got rid of it, and moved to independent heat in each room/area, in some cases with in-wall electric heaters, and in some places (like bedrooms) with portable electric oil radiators.

Initially, I wanted to go with Nest thermostats, but they’re designed for a central heater. To do multiple devices, you need multiple Nests, plus an adapter since the thermostat is looking for one of those wierd 24V control circuits, and just can’t cope with running a straight AC relay. So, my total for 'Nest’ing was going to be about $2000. LOL, NOT.

As an aside, a lot of the proprietary nature here, is in figuring out, and handling, all the different goofy thermostat control protocols and wiring. Nest does a really nice job of that.

So I started playing with Arduino, and moved pretty quickly to the wifi-enabled Spark Core (now the $19 Particle Photon) as I knew I would want some integration, but didn’t want to run serial cable for the Arduinos, or deal with an entire rPi on the wall in each room.

So rev 1 let me set a temperature, and ran an AC relay pigtail, to control temps in the kids bedrooms, with very little hardware - the Spark Core, a 4x7-segment display, a serial temp & humidity chip, a digital knob.

The problem was, I really wanted to manage the temperature well, so I got as close to PWM as I could with an oil radiator: cycling every 6 minutes. At this rate, I hit the relay’s EOL after just one winter, so I knew I’d need a different solution.

I found about that time, that most of the home automation outlets we moving to opto-isolated relays (which pretty much last forever) - so I picked one up, and a z-wave USB adapter, and started working having the Spark core send web requests to a small app running on a local server, which would then switch the outlet on & off. Long before I succeded there, I found the Wink hub (which Home Depot was selling for $20 with the purchase of any 2 compatible devices). This made the server part of the equation, and the complexity around z-wave, completely obsolete.

I’ve nearly got the Spark-based controller talking to the Wink’s API - just working out a few bugs there now, and working on a 3-d printed faceplate instead of the project boxes that are currently stuck on the wall, with plenty of time for the coming winter. Hopefully this revision will actually be something work sharing :wink:

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38

I’m wondering how this all would work with a zoned heating system? Having a central boiler and controllers in each room for radiant heat is nice. This seems to be something that would be right up that alley. Especially if one is looking at new construction and wanting to put the radiant heat right into the floor, but retrogrades are quite feasible.

39

I have been looking into home automation myself, and SmartThings seemed like the way to go, especially with their V2 that just got released with a built in backup battery and a few other small new features. The only thing I am now finding is the OpenHab Project . Has anyone tried this out? It looks pretty great from online at least, and would definately fit the open source bill, The only real issue is it looks like it will require a decent amount of work to set things up at this time, less preset stuff. But they do have an IFTTT channel, which helps a lot.

40

I totally agree!!! I kept waiting to have the problem clearly explained to me but it never happened.

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@bryanlunduke you asked about any open hardware for home automation. Check out Open Sprinkler http://rayshobby.net/opensprinkler/ The projects is open with all the software and hardware files on Github https://github.com/rayshobby/opensprinkler

There is a version for Raspberry Pi or Beagle Bone Black. I’ve not installed one myself but it’s on my list of things I’d like to do.

42

Well, that was anticlimactic: it went to full volume, without as much as a snarky remark.

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Hi, I’ve bought one of the ergotron standing desks last year and quite like it.
It’s easy to mount and move because it clamps on the table edge. I should note
that I used it for about four months at my previous job. I brought it to my
new workplace and immediately took it back home sinced it looked very silly
on an open workspace ‘island’ with three other coworkers at it, and the small
monitor I have was to light for the adjustable spring system to counter, so it
always floats up.

An important thing is to note the wheight of your monitor when ordering. I got
the ergotron single HD version, and the lift force is quite big. At my
previous job I had an older and bigger screen, even that was to light to
counter the spring suspension. So I improvised by attaching a heavy magnet I
had laying around to the vesa mount area. (Yeah I know, magnets are a bad idea
close to electronics). At my new job, the 21.5" monitor was really to light, so
I ordered a worksurface, hoping I could fix something heavy underneath it, the surface
on its own didn’t make it heavy enough and when I couldn’t think of a decent way to
make it heavyer, I gave up and kept the standing desk at home, on an old rollable
computer table.

I really recommend getting a chair with adjustable arm rests for sitting, and get
yourself a small keyboard so you don’t need the slideout mouserest. I prefer a
M570 trackball to go with an apple keyboard (small usb version without keypad).

The spring suspension is really nice, it keeps its height properly, and it’s
easy to switch from sitting to standing, just push the platform upwards.

At home I have a 23" monitor, without vesa mount however, so I improvised a
mount in alumin(i)um. This setup is really nice for coding, for reading
paper (like sheet music, with an ikea laptop stand on it), and for soldering.
I have a laminated wooden board (used to be part of said old computer table) on
which I keep my solder station, and I put it on the worksurface when I need it.

At home I tend to stand on a foam knee pad (marketed for gardening
purposes). On the job I walked around on running shoes because I didn’t feel like
spending more money on a standing mat.

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44

I work tech support at a Law Firm and have Crohns Disease. Without going into too much graphic detail, sitting for 7 hours a day is a literally a pain in the arse. After having to have some time off sick with a bad attack recently, HR were on the case and funded an experiment with a sit/stand desk.

They got me one of these https://www.humanscale.com/products/product.cfm?group=quickstand

All I can say is that they’re awesome. For me, it’s started solving problems I didn’t realize I had.

The two things I have to say is if you’re going to try this, yes GET A MAT! But also, this solution won’t work for you if you’re messy and can’t get out of the habit of being messy. Aside from that, It isn’t going to be for everybody, but 80% of the people who’ve had a go at my desk, say they like it and wouldn’t mind trying it.

45

Heh.

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46

I had a standing desk once. Took it to obedience classes… now it sits on command :wink: