As an Android and home automation enthusiast, I wanted to chime in on the automation discussion f...

[G+_gregg nichols]

As an Android and home automation enthusiast, I wanted to chime in on the automation discussion from this week's show.

 

For years now I've been using my Android phones to control the automation products I've installed throughout my house. I use SwipePad for quick access to my most-used scenes, and I have NFC stickers placed all over to initiate scenes even more quickly in certain areas. For example, there's a sticker on my nightstand that initiates the "Good Night" scene, which turns off almost every light in my home, turns the thermostat down a little, and makes sure the front door is locked. I love it.

 

As a home automation enthusiast for the past 14 years, I see two major problems with the technology in general that prevent it from breaking into a massive hit:

 

1) Cost

 

Home automation products are expensive. Unless you use X10 (don't use X10), expect to pay around $60 for every light switch in your home. Thermostats typically run at least $100 more than their normal counterparts. My door lock cost me around $250. This is my hobby, so I have a passion for it and I'm willing to pay the high costs. Plus, I scooped up a bunch of stuff in a one-time Radio Shack fire sale. Most people are going to have to plan to pay around $50 to automate each individual light in their home if they want to do lighting automation.

 

And that's if they do it themselves. With lamps it's easy (you just plug the lamp into a module and the module into the wall). With light switches, you're going to have to get comfortable with wiring diagrams and the possibility of shocking yourself if you do it wrong (and sometimes even when you do it right). You have to do actual wiring, or you have to hire an electrician. Again, this expense puts it out of mass market range.

 

2) Proprietary products

 

The second huge barrier is the proprietary nature of almost every company in the home automation space. NONE of these companies' products work with ANY of the other ones. This means that if you have a Nest thermostat, an August door lock, Philips Hue light bulbs, and WeMo lamp modules, you have to use different apps to control all of them, and there are no possibilities of creating scenes that use different products. There are some companies trying to address this, like Revolv, but they're all just hacks (Revolv can't rely on APIs to control these things, so compatibility could break any time).

 

Some of these companies are expanding, like Nest, but they're doing it very slowly, and you still have no options to use products from other systems. Nest now has thermostats and smoke detectors, and they're partnering with some obscure company to offer other automation products (but only to installers, not direct to consumers).

 

 

Because of these two things, the HA market cannot become as big as I'd like it to be.

 

 

If you're interested, my own system is built entirely on ZWave. I have a Vera Lite, with GE light switches and lamp modules, a Trane thermostat, and a Kwikset front door lock. I'll be adding cameras, window/door sensors, and more in the future.

[G+_Ron Tostevin]

Even X10 has become expensive.

Creating some industry standards would address both your issues, but what are the chances?

And yes, I'd be interested in learning more about what you've done!

[G+_Matt Maher]

True true. You can find some pretty cheap X10 stuff on certain Ebay stores (I was getting lamp modules for $6 towards the end of my X10 days).

 

It would be fantastic to have industry standards, but I agree it seems unlikely. Everyone wants to be the center of this technology and license it out. That's what ZWave is about, I believe, and I assume that's why everything is so expensive.

 

Here's my system:

 

Everything runs on a device called the Vera Lite, made by a company called Mi Casa Verde. It's a controller that I add all my ZWave devices to and it handles creating scenes and the actions that initiate those scenes and events.

 

I then have a couple dozen light switches in my house. These are on recessed lights, track lights, chandeliers, wall sconces, and porch lights. I also have lamp modules plugged into another dozen lamps around the house.

 

Lastly, I have a Trane thermostat and a Kwikset front door lock.

 

The Android side starts with an app called AutHomation. It's a Vera control app (I think the best one for Android) that displays all the devices and scenes that have been added to my Vera Lite. AutHomation is pretty powerful on its own. With it, I can create shortcuts on my home screen to any device or scene. I've added several scenes to my SwipePad, so at any time I have a one-gesture motion to my most-used scenes.

 

What this capability means is that I can also initiate these scene shortcuts with other apps, like Tasker. I can tie AutHomation into Tasker, using all the usual powers of Tasker to control my home.

 

Lastly, I can use NFC Task Launcher to initiate these scenes when I put my phone up against NFC tags around my house. In many rooms, I've put these tags in unobtrusive places, like the inside edge of a door (the part that goes against the jamb on the hinge side).

 

With my Galaxy Nexus, I had rooted my phone with a ROM that allowed me to use NFC without turning my phone on and unlocking the screen. That was really convenient! I could just carry my phone around like an access key, and I didn't have to do anything but hold it up to the door to turn on the lights in a room. I haven't wanted to root my Nexus 5, so I still have to turn it on and unlock my phone. I've been using Gravity Screen though, and that reduces the number of steps.

 

Anyway, it's fun stuff, and I'm going to be doing more with it in the future, but the automation equipment is expensive! :)