lilyoyo1 Posted June 21, 2021 Posted June 21, 2021 (edited) 17 minutes ago, MrBill said: @lilyoyo1I agree in that I want automation and I don't want numeric keypads and touchscreens on my walls. I kinda laugh out load at the HA geeks that are asking questions about the best way to power an Amazon tablet they want on the wall. I don't want things on the wall. In fact there's really a half dozen switches in my kitchen I wish I could hide, because we only touch one, the one we do touch does different scenes with the rest of the outdated switches based on time of day. We do get tired of Alexa tho. She's hears wrong at least several times a day. Which results in more talking. Plus it interrupts conversations etc... In general I like to use buttons to actuate most automatons either KPL, HA (the most frequently used being easy to find home screen widgets on my phone) or in some cases I've hidden a few buttons... specifically Insteon hidden door sensors.. they actually aren't attached to doors, they are just a hidden button (3 are outside, 1 inside) that my wife and I know where are. Push and release to run an ISY program, one even has a second double click program. I've noticed Smarthome appears to have deleted the hidden door sensor, it's not just out of stock anymore. I did pick up a bunch of the surface mounted version when they were on sale with the idea that I could add a button to the cover if I need to invent a button, but I really wish there was more button options in the marketplace to be used with programmable controllers like the ISY. Im with you on the touchscreens. We did them in our last home (i was using RTI then). Outside of the alarm system, we never used them for anything else. Being a new home and new toy, I used it for about 2 weeks but got tired of the extra steps to do stuff. I still use kpls for stuff. Just not nearly what I used to have- 2 for each room (not including beside remotes). Now, I mainly use a single 6 button kpl in each room, which will be swapped out to 4 button kpls hopefully by the end of the year. I like your hidden door sensor idea. Fibaro has a touchscreen i tried to use mounted under end tables but the Isy didn't support it at the time so I ended up sending it back. In hindsight, it would've been a waste of money. Would've had to remember too many things for it to be effective. Unfortunately the hidden door sensor is disco'd. I use Google more than Alexa. Google works really well but sometimes it'll act funny and control the wrong things for a day or 2 for some reason. For example about 2 weeks ago, my bedroom unit would turn the fan on for my ecobee vs ceiling fan when I would say turn the fan on. It chooses the right thing 100% of the time until those moments then it drops to zero. A couple days later it's back to normal Edited June 21, 2021 by lilyoyo1
KSchex Posted June 22, 2021 Posted June 22, 2021 I find in general, there is a lack of quality push button command/status type ZWave devices. After a year long escapade with Fibaro and Aeotec I wound up rolling my own. I used a Beagle Bone Black then an Arduino UNO WIFI R2 to send REST commands to the ISY. I built them in a nice wooden box with buttons and status LEDs. I do like using Alexa with the ISY. She seldom makes a mistake and we don't have to get up to command something on or off (lazieness). Automation was a play toy for this retired electrical engineer but it has become a necessity for us. We rely on it daily. 4
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