This is part of my ongoing quest for how "Internet of Things" can be practical and replace expensive monthly service by ADT, ATT, Comcast Xfinity and others.
It all started when I first tried iSmartAlarm.
Without monthly fee, I have home alarm system. If intruders go past it, they have to deal with my dog. Alarm siren rings, phones get text message and check how the security breach happened and then we call police. These days, police stopped responding to automatic phone calls. Security companies have some one to call the neighbors and then police. I don't need the middleman.
Then, I added Belkin WeMo InSight to get a text message when my Laundry stops. That worked nicely. Did not have wrinkled or smelly clothes since then.
Then I added Kwikset electronic deadbolt.
It has Z-Wave wireless and Kwikset will be happy to sell you a device which connects to their server and you pay $10 a month or so. I decided to try SmartThings Hub.
Someone wrote a nice blog about it. Read it if you like. Better yet, see SmartThings on Youtube.
I first activated the hub using their instructions. Just needed to go to their website using their App on my smartphone, enter the activation code.
Then I tried to let it discover my Kwikset electronic lock. It was searching for ever. I sent a request online and also email last night.
This morning I was pleasantly surprised by email from Ryan of SmartThings.
He said that the SmartThings Hub was partly paired with the lock. He used chat messages to quickly remove it and added back. It worked like a charm.
Photo below shows discovered (Green device).
Then I opened the main menu and found the device.
Then I was able to lock or unlock the door by pushing that UNLOCKED icon.
Then I selected the gear icon right above the UNLOCKED icon. It opened the below screen.
All this took just 5 min. The when I hit refresh, it showed battery status is 60%. However no matter what I do either from the phone or from the lock directly (only 2 ways) the status is stuck at unlocked. Ryan of SmartThings agreed that it a bug they are working on. He offered to push firmware update Release Candidate to my hub. I agreed. RC is usually quite stable. After he pushed it to the hub, I saw battery status 40% and device status is stuck at unlocked. He apologized and asked me check blog.smarthings.com for updates.
I guess that will be a future blog and I may add another sensor or 2 by then...
It all started when I first tried iSmartAlarm.
Without monthly fee, I have home alarm system. If intruders go past it, they have to deal with my dog. Alarm siren rings, phones get text message and check how the security breach happened and then we call police. These days, police stopped responding to automatic phone calls. Security companies have some one to call the neighbors and then police. I don't need the middleman.
Then, I added Belkin WeMo InSight to get a text message when my Laundry stops. That worked nicely. Did not have wrinkled or smelly clothes since then.
Then I added Kwikset electronic deadbolt.
It has Z-Wave wireless and Kwikset will be happy to sell you a device which connects to their server and you pay $10 a month or so. I decided to try SmartThings Hub.
Someone wrote a nice blog about it. Read it if you like. Better yet, see SmartThings on Youtube.
I first activated the hub using their instructions. Just needed to go to their website using their App on my smartphone, enter the activation code.
Then I tried to let it discover my Kwikset electronic lock. It was searching for ever. I sent a request online and also email last night.
This morning I was pleasantly surprised by email from Ryan of SmartThings.
He said that the SmartThings Hub was partly paired with the lock. He used chat messages to quickly remove it and added back. It worked like a charm.
Photo below shows discovered (Green device).
Then I selected the gear icon right above the UNLOCKED icon. It opened the below screen.
I guess that will be a future blog and I may add another sensor or 2 by then...
No comments:
Post a Comment