My Massive Smart Home Tech Unboxing - EP 12 - Discoveries Galore!

[@dgmayor]

I'm in North Carolina, and this is where your geese come to vacation. Mean, mean creatures lol

[@AutomateYourLife]

Ohhhh man! I'm so sorry for your winters! ;)

[@obijuan-]

I always look forward to your monthly unboxing of new products. Great info.

[@AutomateYourLife]

Thanks Obijuan! Looking forward to chatting with you at the Premiere!

[@markstart2672]

The smart kettle is great, I got it without the gooseneck. It works great for ramen, and also for baking for exact temps. Once I get my appartment I can't wait to get tea for my GF.

[@AutomateYourLife]

I didn't even know they made it without the gooseneck! Also, that GF is gonna be happily full of tea!

[@garethjones5068]

3:07 These guys really look like Eve from Wall-E

[@AutomateYourLife]

Eeeeeeeeve

[@anthonyfroggatt]

😊

[@Isleskye]

Thank you for this video. Always fun to watch them. Love the solar panel for the curtain Automator! It is brilliant! But oh my! When will curtain automators drop the entire machine bulk below the fabric curtain header and the curtain rod where it can tuck within a curtain fold? A metal extender should be standard between the rod top creeper rollers and the control pack bulk. At minimum sell the bulky devices with a few dozen colors of adhesive backed paint chips we can match the machine to the curtain and rod to help the ugly thing - visually disappear. I’ve been hoping for a couple of these devices well maybe three, for years. But want an extremely tasteful very “smart” but unobtrusively so home.* I don’t really want to look like a young nerd-geek who believes good taste may be related to product quantity. A feature I do like very very much is a speaking control panel which announces FRONT DOOR OPEN, KITCHEN WINDOW CLOSED etc. I am an elderly live alone woman whose homes have been burgled twice. No matter who visits me- whether a tradesperson or a relative guests hear these spoken announcements and are assured I have an monitoring going on. It makes me feel safer. I was thinking about how safe the voice makes me feel regarding the apartment living lady who you recently assisted. Thanks for all the great help!

[@AutomateYourLife]

Look at Eve Motion Blinds then :)

[@Isleskye]

@@AutomateYourLife oh thank you! I will seek for info on the Eve and hope you did a review. Cheers and thanks!

[@Isleskye]

@@AutomateYourLife oh… I just reread this before I went searching for Eve. Are you suggesting automated blinds as a solution rather than a fabric curtain/drape opener? If so, that won’t work for me. Long living (80yrs) taught us that circumstances change! We never lived in homes as long as we intended. We’ve lived in over 3 doz homes since birth, owned 11 properties on 2 continents, renovated/restored 2 of these and redecorated all but one owned home and a few rented ones. Our inner-something craves beauty and convenience whenever affordable. Affordability whether married/single/widow always required learning how and then DIYing fixes, upgrades, improvements and beauty. Hiring/buying outright $$ was and is scant. This is my last flip-in-five-years home. My emphasis especially for this home is convenience, practicality, a largely neutral modernized traditional range-home look compelling to young or mature professionals. i.e. Easy for me to live in and easy to sell fast by my kids. Most blinds, but especially narrow horizontal and vertical slat blinds, are a tad underwhelming for the intended market and neighborhood. Cordless roman blinds in neutral colors sans fussy details are great though. I’ve installed a couple here, maybe Eve can automate them. I typed up more detail than you need because after learning you do consulting for people with distinct needs and ages - I’m going to watch you and pay more attention- I’m thinking a consult or a couple might get my home more secure as well as more convenient. I’ve been burgled twice, once in this home. Feeling particularly vulnerable is new but not nice. Parkinson’s, a slowly degenerative disease of brain and gut which decreases physical strength and ability while causing many nonmotor issues = I can do increasingly less but need more convenience and automation. My former good-for-a-girl computer tech ability didn’t keep up in retirement. The tendency to quickly pick up these skills are clearly fading unfortunately. I’ve tired USAs BestBuys Geek service but it’s been disastrous. They couldn’t get my 5 older Amazon Dots and Echos to work with my new router and Eero system. They couldn’t install the Eufy or Arlo camera doorbell to replace the cheap wired in but dead one installed by a security company. They didn’t even manage to install the Eero and router. Wave TV installed the Eero system sold me by BestBuy to replace Wave’s equipment. Still have no camera doorbell. It’s been 2 years and my irrigation time is still manual instead of connected to internet and Eero. Sorry to go on like an old person…. Again- thanks for the info, inspiration and ideas!

[@AnimeMangaBazinga]

Only about maybe halfway ( 1:01:01 ) through the Touch Monitor portion, but it looks like a display for a RaspPi, and I could see this being used to add a touchscreen display to a HA setup, separate from any other setup. Seems pretty cool.

[@AnimeMangaBazinga]

As soon as I type this, second later their is the pi

[@AutomateYourLife]

You are/were 100% right. I just don't know what the visual display would be that comes out. You'd need some kind of OS on that Pi right?

[@AnimeMangaBazinga]

@AutomateYourLife The OS would be HA, and you could have this set up as a dashboard you could place anywhere in the house, without the need of a separate case for the Pi. It could also be used as a secondary dashboard for HA, using the base Pi OS (which is a Linux distro I believe) to display a webpage connection to your HA instance. I think Everything Smart Home has done this concept on his channel?

[@EsotericArctos]

The Aeotec items look interesting. Nice to see them releasing some new S2 devices. The WallMote looks like it could be a competitor for some of the other battery switches on the market, which is something that has been missing from the Aeotec range. Sometimes non-smart products, and a small thing like a switchbot bot, can make things so much easier and also better in the home. Smart should be tiem saving, not making things more complex. Just on your Give Away. In section 2 of Terms and Conditions it suggests the competition is open world wide, then in Section 16 it says must be in US or Canada. Can you confirm for sure?

[@AutomateYourLife]

Yeahhhh, world wide! Sorry Brendan. That's just the system I'm using forcing that.

[@philipperostin]

Got To Love The PRADA plug, lol !

[@AutomateYourLife]

Wait, what's the prada plug!?

[@philipperostin]

@AutomateYourLife Your glasses in close up lol! Advertising plug!

[@philippesteindl3356]

How do you provide zigbee, zwave, matter etc all together to a HomeAssistant PC? Can you abuse an aeotec HUB as some sort of "antenna only" to provide all signals locally to a HA PC? Sonoff with multiwave firmware?

[@AutomateYourLife]

You can, but everything goes through SmartThings as an app then. It's basically a bridge :)

[@AmandaJoWilliamsNewkirk]

Any suggestions on where to find that Airdog humidifier in North America? Amazon US doesn't have that model and the website you link requires me to fill out a form to find out about pricing 🙄

[@AutomateYourLife]

That's a good question! It's a pretty tough thing to find. I'll check in with them on when it's coming to N.A.

[@rosiehawtrey]

Don't know anyone else noticed. Tuya added preconditions based on device status/weather. Seem to act with every variable on a device... Haven't looked at weather.

[@AutomateYourLife]

Nice! I gotta check that out Rosie

[@turboturd7954]

I dont think think any new conditions were added to Tuya? Where and what? But they have rearranged the menus though and added Change Arm Mode, which is annoying because its never used, but its the first in the menu. And if using the latest beta version, it has some major bugs. In consultation with them now.

[@rosiehawtrey]

It's in automations in smartlife.

[@turboturd7954]

@@rosiehawtrey Yes I know where u mean, but there wasnt any new conditions added. But the menus were certainly rearranged.

[@turboturd7954]

​@@rosiehawtreyOk u were right😁 I think😁I had a software upgrade to v540 international. Now it says: "when alarm triggered", with a lot of sub menus. P.s. they fixed my issue of a bug in 24hrs.

[@cdarrigo]

Any improved solutions for controlling smart lights with smart switch, something that looks like a traditional toggle switch, but keeps the power always on (zigbee preferred but id settle for any protocol)

[@AutomateYourLife]

I do think I have something coming. There's a certain type of switch that might do this. :)

[@ibiubu99]

Yes.. it's the philips Hue smart dimmer switches. All zigbee. Look for the new circular one.

[@cdarrigo]

@@ibiubu99 those aren't standard looking toggle switches

[@dvwebster]

@@cdarrigo How could a smart toggle switch control the brightness of a smartbulb since it only has two positions for on and off ?

[@cdarrigo]

@@dvwebster it honestly doesn't need to. Just turn them off and on, so non techies who throw the switch hey the expected experience, and throwing off the switch doesn't kill my smart light routines

[@SlackerLabs]

Thanks Brian for the round up! I’m all in on eero or I would try Google wifi.

[@AutomateYourLife]

You're a smart home guy Jeff! You gotta switch every few months! ;)

[@turboturd7954]

I use Tplink Link Deco. The main deco (no voice assistant) is centrally located with an echo 4 close by, in the kitchen. 2x Deco Voice, which are wifi nodes with Alexa built in. One for the shed and a second loungeroom. And an X50 Outdoor, which connects by a 50m ethernet cable (up to 100m can be used) to a POE+ Switch, back to the main kitchen deco. This gives me complete wifi and automation coverage, indoor and outdoor, over an acre sized block. I use a phone for outdoor commands away from earshot of two dots on the ouside of the house. So in total, 1 main deco/modem, 3 deco nodes, 8 voice assists. Cost me all about $600usd. Btw, I also have a wifi humidifier that is controlled by smart home app 😂

[@AutomateYourLife]

I think the Nest WiFi Pro cost me that 😂😂

[@timcash6372]

I think that movie was run away train with John voit

[@AutomateYourLife]

😀😀 It wasn't, but that's a good guess!

[@MakeitZUPER]

Although your Avian humor was amusing, don't expect an offer from HBO/Max to have your own comedy special, lol. Great presentation. There's nothing of interest to me beyond the door sensors. I would never have an Amazon product with the sidewalk feature in my home. If a device of mine is trying to connect with someone else's network, then I see that as a potential security/privacy risk. It's this type of software feature that can lead us down the Orwellian path to others gaining access to our networks. It's not a high risk in a rural home setting but it certainly is in a crowded apartment building where your neighbors could end up using your bandwidth/internet connection. Nobody should have to share their internet with random users just because Amazon wants to connect with your device. You're giving remote access to your tech even if you don't want to. If I disable the internet in my home to stop an Amazon product from sharing any information on my network, then I certainly don't want it to find itself a "work around" either. You can consider me an alarmist but since they already have a back door to all their tech devices and use it at their discretion, I can't see why I should trust them with access to my network. Almost every online retail purchase, google search or video I stream shows up in either an Amazon ad or a purchase suggestion. I can't wait to have a firewall and anti-tracking software to prevent them from uploading my data.

[@AutomateYourLife]

You're afraid of facing me...almost...chicken! 😂😂 An HBO Special would be nice. I could go for that. One thing about Sidewalk...it's mostly using LoRA to accomplish its goals, so I think it's going to be OK. That's the stuff often used in smart city applications. But hey, I get it. Nothing's 100% secure and I get what you're saying about not opening yourself to that. :)

[@MakeitZUPER]

@@AutomateYourLife I'm glad you thoroughly appreciated my poor attempt at humor, lol. It's not so much the current protocol but how it could change over time like everything else does, often without a public explanation except that "it's for our convenience".

[@timcash6372]

Brian I have a zooz siren I would donate for your client if she needs one

[@AutomateYourLife]

That's so kind of you! Thank you so much Tim. But we have one now!

[@tobyevans78]

1st

[@AutomateYourLife]

Winner!

[@philipperostin]

I still don't understand why Samsung or others that carry pods on their tablets dont manufacture a dock with speaker. It would be so usefull. Samsung could even make it so it starts smartthings board automatically.

[@AutomateYourLife]

Right? It's ridiculous!

[@Isleskye]

That is so very thoughtful and kind of you! Warms my heart!