HOME AUTOMATION

[Greenhornet]

switched everything besides thermostat 2 years ago... best decision ive made
got a ring that unlocks my front door on the pad

 

[↓R↑LYB]

I co-owned a company that specialized in home automation a while ago. We sold Crestron products. I have to admit, its overpriced and overbuilt for the average home, but its pretty dope. Its all self contained, so no need to connect to outside servers to operate. As long as your home network is running, so will the system. Here is a great video showing off a system:


Control4 is company I tell most regular folks to look up. They are much cheaper than Crestron, but still expensive. You can save money if you can wire your home yourself, limiting most of your cost to just equipment and setup. Everything is integrated, so you are operating everything from a single app.

I'm shocked to still see a huge chasm in home automation. Consumers only see these fragmented control ecosystems, all designed primarily to harvest customer data. Then you have the legit home automation systems that are either still being sold mostly by high end home theater companies, like the company I use to own, and limit setup to a specialized programmer. At the end of the day all we need is a good software program running on linux, and a managed router with some extra connections like POE, IR, and 12v. This way everything is hard wired and any enthusiast can program it like they use to do with universal remotes back in the early 2000s. The bulk of the money would go into wiring and not into the programmers pocket. Our company used an outside programmer and he could charge as much as 10% of the jobs price tag ($20k in programming for a $200k job).

The problem with control4 and crestron is they both require a dealer. Years ago when I was researching my whole home audio system Russound came up regularly but I would have to get a dealer to get their equipment.

I'm finally getting around to upgrading my smart home stuff and control4, crestron, and russound are still dealer only

And I'm starting to despise all these hubs. I was going the Google Home route but all this shyt is modern day spyware. I need to stop bullshytting an put all these "smart" devices in it's own vlan so I can block all traffic.

 

[Family Lives Matter]

The problem with control4 and crestron is they both require a dealer. Years ago when I was researching my whole home audio system Russound came up regularly but I would have to get a dealer to get their equipment.

I'm finally getting around to upgrading my smart home stuff and control4, crestron, and russound are still dealer only

And I'm starting to despise all these hubs. I was going the Google Home route but all this shyt is modern day spyware. I need to stop bullshytting an put all these "smart" devices in it's own vlan so I can block all traffic.

I stripped all that shyt out my house years ago. I kept the hue bulbs and that's it.
Btw your phone is spying on you say more than Google home hubs

 

[Cakebatter]

The problem with control4 and crestron is they both require a dealer. Years ago when I was researching my whole home audio system Russound came up regularly but I would have to get a dealer to get their equipment.

I'm finally getting around to upgrading my smart home stuff and control4, crestron, and russound are still dealer only

And I'm starting to despise all these hubs. I was going the Google Home route but all this shyt is modern day spyware. I need to stop bullshytting an put all these "smart" devices in it's own vlan so I can block all traffic.

You clearly seem handy, so join a control4 forum and get help configuring a system. Those sites will have people who program systems remotely and/or will sell you stuff under the table. There's also ebay which has tons of dirt-cheap used gear. integrators are constantly ripping out systems to install their own products, and they just dumps it all on ebay. Once you configure the right system for your home, wire up for it, buy the gear, then find an online programmer. Just make sure you own the programming and have a copy of it. I use to see this occur in AVSforum back in the day. It's the way I plan to do it, once I gut and renovate my old-ass house. Not sure which system I would use today, as I've been out of the industry for more than 5 years, and stuff changes a lot in that period of time. None of the systems I mentioned phone home to big brother. Godspeed.

Damn!! IFTTT use to be free. Now it looks like a subscription service.

 

[↓R↑LYB]

You clearly seem handy, so join a control4 forum and get help configuring a system. Those sites will have people who program systems remotely and/or will sell you stuff under the table. There's also ebay which has tons of dirt-cheap used gear. integrators are constantly ripping out systems to install their own products, and they just dumps it all on ebay. Once you configure the right system for your home, wire up for it, buy the gear, then find an online programmer. Just make sure you own the programming and have a copy of it. I use to see this occur in AVSforum back in the day. It's the way I plan to do it, once I gut and renovate my old-ass house. Not sure which system I would use today, as I've been out of the industry for more than 5 years, and stuff changes a lot in that period of time. None of the systems I mentioned phone home to big brother. Godspeed.

Damn!! IFTTT use to be free. Now it looks like a subscription service.

I'm not doing any of that shyt breh

I'm not jumping through those types of hoops because the manufacturer doesn't want to sell to consumers.

 

[Cakebatter]

I'm not doing any of that shyt breh

I'm not jumping through those types of hoops because the manufacturer doesn't want to sell to consumers.

I get what you are saying but why would a company sell products to consumers who can't configure or program a system? They'll just end up with a 90% return rate. Unfortunately that's how all the companies that sell the good stuff operate.