These Guys Want to Hack Your Home And You Should Let Them | Hacker News Reader

These Guys Want to Hack Your Home And You Should Let Them

wired.com

35 pointsdevinfoley15 comments

Whoever does the PR for IFTTT needs a raise. That is supposed to be an article on home automation, and reads like a press release. Barely mentions the hardware vendors, the arduino hackers, the competing standards and the ways to get started. Just repeats the name of one web service!?

Wow. Pay the firm whatever they ask.

I just expect that from Wired & Ars.

I love the top comment

"CKP obr4610 • 8 hours ago − User goes to flick on bathroom light switch...

"Sorry Dave, But I cannot complete this command. The Government has activated the Energy Conservation Program during these hours."

"Dammit" goes to flush toilet...

"Sorry Dave, But I cannot complete this command. The Government has activated the Water Conservation Program during these hours."

"fine then" goes to leave to go out to eat since refrigerated food spoiled...

"Sorry Dave, But I cannot complete this command. The Government has activated the Curfew Program during these hours.""

Does anyone have recommendations for good vendor(s) for home automation devices/systems/software/etc...? I'd love my house to be more "smart" but not really sure how to approach it. I need stuff that is either hidden or good looking, works well with iOS and OS X. Ideally would love a combination of home automation, HVAC control, alarms (smoke, CO, etc...), and security.

There's also some logic that I haven't seen offered, for instance: if someone drives up my driveway, I'd like to hear a chime (and/or get a text with a photo of the car). If they drive up at 2 AM I want to be woken up! Unless it's me or my wife (RFID chips in our bumpers for ID?). Etc...

SmartThings is currently working on a platform to unify this sort of thing into a centralized hub with app control.

I haven't actually used their product yet, but many years ago I used to work with the CEO there (Alex Hawkinson) and he's a great/smart guy.

How good are you with hardware? I'm building mine with rPi, Arduino, msp430, self-designed circuits (LM35 for temperature, phototransistor for light), COTS relay boards, all sorts of stuff I have lying about. I had thought about making it a serious design effort, but I hate doing printed circuit boards, and since you can buy this hobbyist stuff so cheap now, I usually just use what I can find cheap at the time. Someday I may put it all together after I've got the kinks worked out. Here are some sources: moderndevice.com, adafruit.com, sparkfun.com, pololu.com, mpja.com, taydaelectronics.com, surpluscenter.com, futurelec.com (flammable gas sensors, CO sensors, misc components), and then Allied, Digikey, Mouser, Future, etc. I used a cheap little relay breakout and 74HCT595's to control incandescent/halogen/fluorescent lights and 120VAC devices (search for "sainsmart relay"). Audio stuff came mostly from PartsExpress.com

Good old X10 stuff works with OSX (it's just serial port controlled RF dongle), I think that new fancy Phillips HUE works with iOS, but it is mega expensive, you can create the same functionality from COTS parts for much less.

For folks that are interested, I'm working on an open source platform called Nitrogen that helps you get devices online easily and communicating with applications using a consistent JavaScript development model. Still a little early but I'd love to find folks interested in hacking on it either as a user or contributor to the project.

You can read more at: http://github.com/nitrogenjs/service

</shamelessPlug>

This is kind of my pet project for the summer. I've already got the lights in my children's rooms done. I've got dawn/dusk sensing to turn off my outdoor audio system. I've got a temperature controlled attic-exhaust fan (my attic gets over 150F / 65C without it). I played with IFTTT a bit last year, but kind of forgot about it since I don't need it. But thinking about it again, I really do need it or something like it because the other residents of my house aren't programmers, but they might like to automate some action. I mostly use PachubeCosmXively for remote control of actions, but I don't think IFTTT has any integration with them. PachubeCosmXively can send emails based on trigger thresholds so it shouldn't be too hard to get something working. A great complement to IFTTT would be direct integration to an rPi or other open-ish platform cum home automation server.

I live in a house with automated lights, and I ABSOLUTELY HATE THEM.

They turn on when I want them off...

And turn off when I want them on...

It is really, really, really annoying.

You may have some incorrect boolean logic somewhere then, I'd check that out first. Do you have any system tests for these lights?

I mean, sometimes I want them on for example when I am trying to install a router in a corridor, or put clothes to hang, and the light turns off too early...

Or I want them off, when I arrive home at night, and do not want to wake up other people already sleeping...

And many other examples...

Yes, it could be fixed with code maybe, but then I would with 100.000 lines of code just to turn on and off lights in the correct time, it is not easier to just have a on and off button?

>I want them on for example when I am trying to install a router in a corridor,

If you used a motion sensor, you need to have used a re-triggerable motion sensor there. Some are, some are not. It's annoying to have the wrong kind in the wrong place.

>when I arrive home at night, and do not want to wake up other people already sleeping...

Try this or something like this http://www.legrand.us/~/media/E07D151FCE954D82A7B6A7204FF5D3...

I think he's referring more to the fact that "semi-intelligent" systems like automated thermostats and light switches have a difficult barrier to cross when it needs to determine your intent from it's sensor readings.

For example: Your Nest thermostat doesn't see motion in its camera range. Are you really out of the house and it's safe to turn down the heat? Or did you just go down to the basement to do laundry and took a phone call? If you set a time threshold, is it enough? Not enough?

If you're doing something like that, you should make damn sure it's NOT connected to the internet. Did you learn nothing the last few days?

Has anyone watched Battlestar Galactica?

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