I’m just migrating from SmartThings and one of the things I use a lot is location modes. For example…
If the location mode is evening then 8 lights come on in the kitchen. When we go to bed, the “Alexa. Good night” routine switches everything off and puts the house into night mode. If the location mode is night then a motion sensor in the kitchen will just turn the cabinet LEDs on.
Likewise, the bedroom lights are on a motion sensor when the house is evening mode. But when it’s in might mode, the motion sensor won’t trigger.
The house also has a day mode which gets activated at sunrise so all the motion sensing gets turned off.
Is there a way to do the same thing with OpenHAB? It can’t be done with time as we go to bed at different times, or get up at different times.
Yep, that’s about right. I personally just use an “Away Mode” that I activate when leaving home and a “Night Mode” that I activate when I go to bed. You can use a combination of this and modes that are set based on time of day to accomplish quite a lot.
Others get more complex. If you want to simplify, skip the Evening Mode and just treat Day/Night with a single item that is either ON or OFF. Then trigger actions when the Astro sunset event starts.
In addition to having things happen when your modes are activated, you can have other rules check them before running. For example, I have certain lights turn on at Sunset, but only if Away mode is off (meaning that I’m home).
If we leave the house and switch on the alarm system for the whole house my daily routines are different. So it makes the house looks occupied during vacations.
However, when going to sleep we switch on the alarm on a part of the house from that moment on we run some scripts that close blinds switch of lights all according to Astro sunset and rise events.
The possibilities are limitless and all up to your own imagination.
That’s what I like about this. It starts when you buy a dot and the novelty of “Alexa. Tell us a joke” wears off. At that point it’s either go big or go home. I reckon a massive proportion of these devices end up in a corner covered in dust. Everything was voice controlled in our house to start with but it’s just a pain when 4 people are wandering around yelling orders and getting annoyed because Alexa couldn’t find a device called “bar room lights”. “I said BATHROOM you deaf *****!”.
Then sensors come along and the house starts to go peaceful again. Apart from when the batteries go in the door sensor on the loo and someone is opening and closing the door loudly several times at 2.00 in the morning to try and make the light come on. So smart switches in strategic locations as backups appear.
Now, the “smartness” of the house is almost invisible. Lights come on at low percentages when it gets dark and increase in brightness when you walk into the room. Fewer lights come on at lower levels at night. The electric blanket comes on when the temperature in the bedroom is below a certain level as we never have the heating on in there and always have the windows open. I love it when I wander around the house in the evenings or at night and things just happen as I move around.
The only time I use Alexa now is for the goodnight routine to shut everything down as that can’t be done based on time. I’ve thought about pressure sensors under the mattress but that wouldn’t be reliable enough as the dog sometimes sneaks in and jumps up on the bed. I wonder if a current sensing plug could do it when I put my watch on charge? But then I don’t always do that, or I might do it at a different time. So Alexa has a place for the moment.
Moving from a cloud based solution to fully local has been a step that I’ve been trying to make for a while now and I’m happy that I’m getting there.
I am also using own tracks, if I am more than 1 kilometer from home and my alarm is not switched on I get a warning through Telegram. All combined with phone detection on the WiFi network.
Being 5 kilometer or more away I receive a request through Telegram if I want to switch of my house heating.
I can’t remember when was the last time I have manually switched on a light in the house, it is all automated. When there are visitors and there are many Bluetooth devices close by the light patterns in the living room changed periodically. It amazes the guests.
