Creating Automation Instructions for Friends/Guests

[palayman]

I've been thinking about the best way to create some instructions for visitors and guests to my home to become acquainted with use of the basic voice control of my home.

I have Home Hubs in every room and have been playing around with the idea of creating short instructional videos covering both the guest rooms they may be using and the major public spaces. Through some careful naming of videos on youtube I can get a Google Home routine that responds to a specific voice command to display a list of my personal account videos that cover use of the automation in the rooms I described. So far they are place holder videos but the plan is to both record the home hub screen and the resulting actions in a very condensed video for each. I may also create routines that cycle through the automation actions as an additional demo.

Before I spend time doing this I wanted to see what others may be doing to address this issue. 

Paul

[larryllix]

Most of my visitors have some voice remote control but not really any home automation despite all being very technically oriented. Any system that they would need to operate is available on a normal light switch. Any home automation in those bedrooms is found unplugged when they leave each time. This amounts to an MS over their beds to turn on a very low lux (during sleeping hours)  lamp so they don't trip and fall on night time bathroom runs and to allow them to get into bed after turning off the rooms lights.

My grandchildren all have their own Alexa Dots along with a smart bulb or receptacle to allow voice control of their own bedroom lamps (I made sure of that ) so they are familiar with arguing over Alexa's intercom system and creating sleep noises on sleep timers.

The rest of the people, I doubt I would tell them anything about it. If they don;t already know they are likely not going to take it well. I have already been asked if the MSes were video cams watching them undress.  

I am going to gift my close neighbour with an Alexa Dot for his birthday this summer so I am sure there will be some poking and prodding there for training. That will likely end up behind a cabinet somewhere as each time I demo in my home somebody wants to talk over top of my instructions and then the demo flops.

For switchLincs my basic instructions to all is, if you don't get enough light tap it on the top again, or double tap it on the top to get more lights. I try to keep a consistent theme throughout my HA installs. 

Yes, it can be a problem but I am not sure a training video will be worth YOUR time for the non-interested parties to talk over top of it.  I bought my last Dots for about $20 CAD and if anybody else was interested they would have done the same. One son gave me his GH that they won at some party as they don't want any electronic eavesdropping in their home, especially from Google. **SIGH**

[palayman]

19 minutes ago, larryllix said:

Any system that they would need to operate is available on a normal light switch

I think the lights and fans are fine in most rooms.  I'm thinking about things like curtains and whole home audio that they're probably aren't familiar with and have no buttons. Apps are not likely installed on the theirs phones, but with a little instruction are readily available via voice command.

26 minutes ago, larryllix said:

Yes, it can be a problem but I am not sure a training video will be worth YOUR time for the non-interested parties to talk over top of it.

Yes, better to spend my time creating enormous programs that monitor occupancy. ?

24 minutes ago, larryllix said:

they don't want any electronic eavesdropping in their home, especially from Google

Have you seen Project Alias? http://bjoernkarmann.dk/project_alias

[palayman]

I did figure out if you put the string used by YouTube to Access the video into your google home routine you can get a particular video to play. I imagine you could cast it as well.

For example for the video 

 

you get it to play by putting "Play kmkQ-HF6IdQ on YouTube" into your routine Action.

Edited March 11, 2019 by palayman

[lilyoyo1]

I don't worry about automation for guests. The simpler the better. Less questions as well. All bedrooms have predefined scenes on the keypad and remotes for each room and that's it.

Any voice control is very simple (this is throughout the house). Tell Google to turn on a light and it will turn on the main light. Tell it to turn off then all lights turn off. This way regardless of what someone turns on and how, the lights turns off. 

What automation is done is generally behind the scenes. Leave lights on in an empty room it'll turn off. Get out of bed in the middle of the night, the underbed lights turn on/off. Fall asleep with the lights on; they'll turn off on their own. 

Edited March 12, 2019 by lilyoyo1

[lilyoyo1]

On 3/9/2019 at 1:07 PM, palayman said:

 

Yes, better to spend my time creating enormous programs that monitor occupancy. ?

 

Actually it can be done with 1 program for each room. Depending on how done... 4 lines

[paulbates]

Behind the scenes, you say...?

[TrojanHorse]

Wait. What is Alias? Looks intriguing for those that valuable privacy. Anyone tried it? The skeptic in me says amazon and google can strip the constant white noise though if they want to.


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[larryllix]

Oh thanks for that!

 

I love the underbed lights!! Great idea!

The guests wont be able to find the off switch, shouldn't bother the eyes, and won't  interfere with some XXX-in_law that always wants to lay in bed and read with a personal bedside table lamp that keeps timing off.  You can't predict what side they will sleep on. I typically do one automatic and one manual. I have lots of RGBWW strips and controller left over.

[lilyoyo1]

1 hour ago, larryllix said:

Oh thanks for that!

 

I love the underbed lights!! Great idea!

The guests wont be able to find the off switch, shouldn't bother the eyes, and won't  interfere with some XXX-in_law that always wants to lay in bed and read with a personal bedside table lamp that keeps timing off.  You can't predict what side they will sleep on. I typically do one automatic and one manual. I have lots of RGBWW strips and controller left over.

Your reasons are exactly why I set it up that way. It doesn't wake up someone who may be sleeping should you get out of bed for some reason. Each room has its own bathroom. Even if a person is gone longer than the time out, it'll kick back on when the bathroom light turns out and when someone is in the vicinity (if they went somewhere else)

I have insteon motion sensors under my beds on both sides angled to pick up a person sitting up to get out of the bed. I use insteon's because they have a flat top which makes it easier to mount than the round fibaro. I use hue light strips (any would work) and a program which triggers them when all lights are off at night time

Edited March 12, 2019 by lilyoyo1

[larryllix]

1 hour ago, lilyoyo1 said:

Your reasons are exactly why I set it up that way. It doesn't wake up someone who may be sleeping should you get out of bed for some reason. Each room has its own bathroom. Even if a person is gone longer than the time out, it'll kick back on when the bathroom light turns out and when someone is in the vicinity (if they went somewhere else)

I have insteon motion sensors under my beds on both sides angled to pick up a person sitting up to get out of the bed. I use insteon's because they have a flat top which makes it easier to mount than the round fibaro. I use hue light strips (any would work) and a program which triggers them when all lights are off at night time

Where are the strips located?

Do you fasten them up to the frame facing down or just lay them on the floor?

Do you run them down the sides and across the bottom of the bed?

I am not familiar with the Hue strips but I understand they would require a 12v adapter PS and a controller that receives their form of Zigbee, where the strips would be plugged into? Is that correct? (I am just in the process of possibly dumping my Hue things)

[lilyoyo1]

They are attached to the bed facing inwards. On 3 sides. I didn't do the back since that's against the wall and wouldn't be seen @larryllixThe hue strips comes with everything you need. Depending on the size of your bed you'll need some of the extra extensions. 

Edited March 13, 2019 by lilyoyo1