So I made a pretty simple dice roller for my android phone using Tasker. If you don’t know what Tasker is, it’s an all-around automation app. It’s been around for as long as I have been using Android phones I would guess. I’ve used it for years but have gotten really serious about it in the last year or so. This isn’t a post about Tasker though, although you will need it for this.
I had come across a Task (a set of actions) that would allow you to simulate the roll of a single six sided die. Really it’s just a random number from 1-6 so that part is pretty easy to emulate. I wanted to be able to roll multiple dice and I wanted the whole gamut, 2,3,4,6,8,10,12,20 and percentile dice. I took a little bit of work but I was able to get that part finished. I am currently using Google Assistant Intercept so I can say “roll 2d10” and it correctly recognizes that, gets the random number between 2 and 20 in that case, displays it on the screen and also speaks the answer. Tasker steps are below:
Task: RPG Dice Roll
<How many dice to roll>
A1: Variable Set [
Name: %Dice_number
To: %par1
Structure Output (JSON, etc): On ]
<What type of dice (d6, d10, d20, etc)>
A2: Variable Set [
Name: %Dice_type
To: %par2
Structure Output (JSON, etc): On ]
<Sets the minimum amount. This is easy, it just matches how many dice you are rolling. The minimum number you'll get>
A3: Variable Set [
Name: %HowManyDice_min
To: %Dice_number
Structure Output (JSON, etc): On ]
<The rest of the Variable sets puts the max amount you can roll * whatever kind of dice it is, i.e. 3d12 would be 12 * 3.>
A4: Variable Set [
Name: %HowManyDice_max
To: %Dice_number * 2
Do Maths: On
Max Rounding Digits: 3
Structure Output (JSON, etc): On ]
If [ %Dice_type ~ 2 ]
A5: Variable Set [
Name: %HowManyDice_max
To: %Dice_number * 3
Do Maths: On
Max Rounding Digits: 3
Structure Output (JSON, etc): On ]
If [ %Dice_type ~ 3 ]
A6: Variable Set [
Name: %HowManyDice_max
To: %Dice_number * 4
Do Maths: On
Max Rounding Digits: 3
Structure Output (JSON, etc): On ]
If [ %Dice_type ~ 4 ]
A7: Variable Set [
Name: %HowManyDice_max
To: %Dice_number * 6
Do Maths: On
Max Rounding Digits: 3
Structure Output (JSON, etc): On ]
If [ %Dice_type ~ 6 ]
A8: Variable Set [
Name: %HowManyDice_max
To: %Dice_number * 8
Do Maths: On
Max Rounding Digits: 3
Structure Output (JSON, etc): On ]
If [ %Dice_type ~ 8 ]
A9: Variable Set [
Name: %HowManyDice_max
To: %Dice_number * 10
Do Maths: On
Max Rounding Digits: 3
Structure Output (JSON, etc): On ]
If [ %Dice_type ~ 10 ]
A10: Variable Set [
Name: %HowManyDice_max
To: %Dice_number * 12
Do Maths: On
Max Rounding Digits: 3
Structure Output (JSON, etc): On ]
If [ %Dice_type ~ 12 ]
A11: Variable Set [
Name: %HowManyDice_max
To: %Dice_number * 20
Do Maths: On
Max Rounding Digits: 3
Structure Output (JSON, etc): On ]
If [ %Dice_type ~ 20 ]
A12: Variable Set [
Name: %HowManyDice_max
To: %Dice_number * 100
Do Maths: On
Max Rounding Digits: 3
Structure Output (JSON, etc): On ]
If [ %Dice_type ~ 100 ]
<Found this one at Soundbible. You can download your own sound file or disable this part.>
A13: Music Play [
File: Tasker/soundfiles/Shake And Roll Dice.wav.crdownload
Start: 0
Stream: 3 ]
<Get the random number between the minimum # set earlier and the max # set earlier and outputs it to the Dice variable.>
A14: Variable Randomize [
Name: %Dice
Min: %HowManyDice_min
Max: %HowManyDice_max ]
A15: Say [
Text: You rolled a %Dice
Engine:Voice: default:default
Stream: 3
Pitch: 5
Speed: 5
Respect Audio Focus: On ]
A16: Flash [
Text: <h1><b><center>%Dice</center></b></h1>
Long: On
Tasker Layout: On
Title: You Rolled a:
Continue Task Immediately: On
Dismiss On Click: On
Show Over Everything: On
Position: Top
Use HTML: On ]
I do have this up on Taskernet as well, you can find it here if you don’t want to input all of that. I would also like to create a series of scenes for this as well at some point but I’m pretty shitty at drawing. I’m thinking animated gifs that show up with the correct number and type of dice and actually show the correct numbers on them. Seems like it would be pretty difficult to implement and would need to include hundreds of images to make it work right. IDK. Going to have to think about that one for a while. I tried using DALL-E and LeapAI to create the images on the fly but it didn’t work worth a crap. Vaguely resembled dice but the background wasn’t transparent and the numbers on them weren’t actually numbers.
FYI, if you buy a Google Pixel 7 from the Google store enter “Z1M77NMTD8MEMZWQI7SNT87” at checkout and both of us will get $100 in Google Store credit
The Google Pixel 7 Pro is fairly easy to unlock, root and pass SafetyNet provided you have a little bit of knowledge on how to use the command line and aren’t afraid to permanently break your phone. While Pixels are relatively easy to recover if you do something wrong, there is always the potential to permanently brick your phone if you don’t know what you are doing.
You are going to need a few things before you can unlock and root. I am assuming you are doing this from Microsoft Windows (I am using Win 11 and everything works from there)
Unlocking your boot loader will factory reset your device. There is no way around this so make sure you have backed up everything. Once you unlock it I would suggest never relocking. If you do want to relock it, make sure not to do so until you have restored it to 100% stock. A couple of notes are that with Verizon branded versions, they can never unlock the bootloader. With T-Mobile and AT&T you can unlock once you’ve paid off the phone. You can contact your carrier and have them CARRIER unlock it (not the same as bootloader unlocking). Your best bet for unlocking and rooting phones in my opinion is to buy them direct-from-google or make sure that you are buying the carrier unlocked version if you are getting them from Amazon, Best Buy or some other vendor.
The steps to unlock the bootloader are:
Go to Android Settings – About Phone
Click on Build Number repeatedly, seven times
Go back to the main Android Settings – System – Developer Options
Toggle OEM Unlocking (you need to be connected to the internet)
Make sure you’ve unzipped the ADB/Fastboot (SDK Platform Tools) and installed the Windows USB Drivers (you will have to do this twice. Once when you first connect and again when you reboot into the bootloader.)
Navigate to the platform-tools folder
Make sure your USB cable is plugged in to your computer and to the phone.
Run the command “adb devices”
On your phone you should get an ADB prompt. Check the box to always give ADB permission and click OK
You should get a list of connected Android devices at that point. If not you may need to troubleshoot your drivers, make sure you only have one ADB device connected, etc..
Run command “adb reboot bootloader” and the phone should reboot into the android bootloader
Run command “fastboot flashing unlock”
One the phone press the volume up or down button until you see “Unlock the bootloader |>|” beside the power button.
Press the power button. The screen should go black for a moment and then near the bottom it will say “Device state: unlocked”
After this go to the steps to root your device.
Steps to Root
Unzip the Pixel 7 Pro Factory Image that you downloaded.
Copy the Magisk apk to your phone (I generally use the Downloads folder and copy all items to it.)
Copy the init_boot.img file from the unzipped factory image to your phone.
On your phone go into whatever file manager you use and install Magisk and open the app.
Toward the top click “install”
Click “Select and Patch a File” and choose the init_boot.img that you copied over from your PC.
Copy the modified init_boot.img (it will look something like magisk_patched-25200_1a2B3c.img) back over to your PC into the platform tools folder
Go back to your command prompt and run “adb reboot bootloader”
After it has rebooted into the bootloader (Fastboot mode), run the command “fastboot flash init_boot magisk_patched-25200_1a2B3c.img” (use whatever your file is actually called)
Run command “fastboot reboot”
Confirm that your phone reboots normally.
Congrats. Your phone is rooted. If you open Magisk it should show “Installed” and the version number.
Passing SafetyNet
If you want to use Google Pay and most banking apps as well as some games and media apps there are a few more steps you need to do.
Launch Magisk
Go to Magisk’s settings (the gear on the top right).
Click “Hide the Magisk app. You’ll have the chance to change the Magisk app’s name to something a little less unobtrusive such as Settings. Note that when you have it hidden or renamed you can accidentally install a new version of Magisk and neither will work at that point.
Go back to Magisk settings
Click “Systemless Hosts”. That will add a Magisk Module to Magisk, you can verify that later.
Toggle “Zygisk” on.
Toggle “Enforce DenyList” on.
Click “Configure DenyList”
Add every app that you want to deny root access and the existence of root including Google Play Store, Google Services Framework, Google Play Protect Service, Wallet, GPay, and banking apps, any streaming apps that use DRM (like Netflix), any two-factor authentication apps.
Reboot your phone.
Go back into Magisk and go to Modules at the bottom.
Confirm that Systemless Hosts is in the list, and enabled.
Install the Magisk Module Universal SafetyNet Fix that you downloaded.
Launch YASNAC and click “Run SafetyNet Attestation”. It should say: Basic Integrity: Pass., CTS profile match: Pass, Evaluation type: BASIC.
Launch Play Integrity API Checker and click “Check”
It should have green checkmarks beside MEETS_DEVICE_INTEGRITY and MEETS_BASIC_INTEGRITY.
It’s normal for MEETS_STRONG_INTEGRITY to have a red X beside it.
You don’t have to keep those last two apps installed unless you just want to.
Sometimes you will need to clear app cache AND data for apps like the Google Play Store, GPay, Wallet and others if you have opened them before all of these steps.
I’m currently using the following Magisk Modules and can cofirm they work with Android 13 on the Pixel 7 Pro (Cheetah):
If you install a Magisk module and you start bootlooping or SystemUI freezes up, restart your phone (make sure you have it connected to your PC and from the commandline run: “adb wait-for-device shell magisk –remove-modules”
That will boot you into safe mode and all your Magisk Modules will be uninstalled and you can add them back one by one to see what the issue is.
So, I received the Pixel Watch back on October 13th and figured I would post an update on it.
I got the non-LTE version as I already have five lines on my mobile and don’t currently feel like I need the added capability that it provides. I’m never anywhere without my phone, and (I am assuming) also don’t need the extra drag on the battery that LTE would cause. I could be wrong about the battery usage, just making non-technical assumptions here.
Battery life on the pixel watch so far has been about what I expected. Not great. It does seem to charge a bit faster than my Galaxy Watch 4 Classic that I have been wearing for the last 14 months. I prefer to wear the watch at night for sleep tracking. With the Watch 4, I can get through the entire day and all night then charge before I go to work and end up somewhere around 50-75% before I leave the house. With the Pixel watch I am able to do the same, but it will be at full charge before I leave the house. I haven’t done any sort of real thorough testing but basically if I am travelling it’s an absolute must to carry a charge with me. It would be nice if someone could come out with a decent watch that would last several days between charging. The charger is also proprietary and I can’t use my Samsung charge for it (or vice versa) and weirdly enough can’t use my Pixel 7’s battery share feature to charge it either.
One thing I don’t like is that I have to use a third-party app to get all my data into Google Fit. Google chose to strictly use Fitbit for the Pixel Watch, which I guess makes sense as they own fitbit, but does that make Google Fit the red-headed stepchild now? I’m not adverse to using fitbit but I would like to use the same app for both of my watches as I am not using the Pixel exclusively. I am using FitToFit to get all of my stuff into Google Fit currently. Just one more app. I already use Health Sync to get my info from Samsung Health into Fit.
The large bezels don’t bother me as much as I was afraid they would. Google did an excellent job hiding them and as I use a black watch face they aren’t very noticeable.
As far as comfort is concerned it’s more comfortable to wear than the 4 Classic. It’s a much smaller watch than I am used to (comparison pic below) so I guess that’s part of it. The band fits nicely and there is more play (rubbery lol?) than the band that came with the Samsung Watch. I don’t even notice I am wearing it most of the time.
It’s a stylish watch and I really like it, however, it’s obvious at first glance that it’s a smart watch. Having worn watches from an early age I am used to having big old clunky things (I seem to remember having a Casio calculator watch at some point) and like big watches like the 46mm Galaxy Watch 4 Classic.
The band mechanism is neat and something I would like to see other watch makers offer, but it will never happen. Rather than use a normal watch band their bands go right up to the watch. You push a button and twist, and the band comes right off. Putting one back on is just as easy. The problem that causes is that you can’t use a regular watch band with it and Google did not release any sort of adapter. That’s only a matter of time though until someone releases one.
A couple of things I don’t like are that the Pixel Watch can’t do blood pressure (the Watch 4 can) and sleep tracking. I snore a little bit and with the Samsung it can record it for me using my phone. I am sure I could use another third-party sleep tracking app for this but that’s just one more app (and I already use 200+ as it is). There is also no automatic workout tracking either. While it will continue to monitor steps, you must go in and select when you are working out. That’s one thing I got used to and really like about the Watch 4 Classic.
I am concerned about the lack of ruggedness as well. As you can tell in the size comparison above my Watch 4 is pretty beat up. I work in the service industry and my phones and any wearables get a lot of abuse from it. The lack of raised bezels is the part that concerns me as well as a lack of water resistance. That means that as soon as I walk into one of the restaurants, I must remove my watch (if I remember) in case I end up washing dishes. I do most of my walking going through my restaurants daily and I would like to be able to track it. I have gotten it wet a few times (submersed) when I have forgotten to take it off and so far, no problems with it.
Even with the cons listed above I really like this watch and will keep on using it. The only things I have to compare both the Pixel Watch and Galaxy Watch to is the Moto 360 which I wore for a couple of years until it finally died on me. Both of these are much faster and have better battery life than that one did.
So in Part I I touched on most of the hardware I’m using and some of my software. I keep coming across stuff I missed and I’ll mention some of that here.
So on to how all this works together. Down among the creepy crawlies that inhabit my garage and basement along with my son’s defunct 1990 Firebird lives the brains behind my house. Homeseer. It’s a piece of software that I’ve been using since 2000. I have tried probably 50 or 60 different packages over the years and also some dedicated hardware solutions (such as the Wink Hub) and not a single one of them can do everything that Homeseer can. Nothing even comes close. Unfortunately that also means a bit of a learning curve. You can just set up the hardware, the software and a few plugins and actually have a pretty decent automated home but for the depth of control I like it takes a bit of time (16 years worth lol)
A small portion of the 500+ devices shown on the web page of my automation software.
Homeseer is extended using plugins (as well as VB scripting if you want). The plugins I am currently using are
BLGarbage (this just helps to keep things running smoothly)
BLRF – for X10 RF signals
Blue-Iris – controls and receives information from Blue Iris, which is running on a PC in my bedroom. This is the heart of my CCTV security.
EasyTrigger – better event triggers. More on events later.
HSTouch Server – for touchscreen clients including Android and iPhone smartphones, windows clients (my Asus touchscreen) and tablets.
JowiHue – Sends and receives information to my Hue Bridge. This is the part that failed in the video in part one. That or the bridge itself. It definitely is not as reliable as Zwave lighting and while the Hue lights are cute they will end up being replaced.
NetCAM – Allows for snapshots of my network cameras. Now that I’m using the Blue Iris plugin I’ll be retiring this soon.
Random – Using this with some of the other plugins and text to speech so that when Homeseer talks with us it will use different phrsing and words and not always sound the same. I haven’t really done much with this yet. Never enough time.
Restart – Allows me to restart Homeseer if needed without having to remotely log into the server.
RFXCOM – I touched on this one earlier. It pulls in info from my Oregon Scientific weather sensors (including the ones that aren’t connected to the base station due to compatibility. Some of the sensors have died over time so I have replaced them with cheaper ones, which the base station doesn’t read. I upload all of my weather data to Weather Underground and WeatherBug. The software that I use for that (VWS) sends most of the info and I use a VB script to send the missing info that RFXCOM picks up. RFXCOM also receives the RF signals from my old X10 security sensors that I haven’t repleaced yet.
SCBULLET – A pushbullet plugin. I have it set up but not doing much with it yet as far as notifications
Tasker Plugin – There is so much I could say about this. I saw a quote from someone on the Homeseer forums that goes something like “Tasker, for a Home Automation enthusiast is like hitting a drug addict in the face with a big bag of crack”. Tasker is awesome. When I go to listing some of the things I’m able to do we’ll touch on Tasker.
TextSeer – a simple receiver for sending controls to homeseer over the web. While I can use JSON to do the same thing, TextSeer allows me to use HTTP GET with my BBS software and other stuff. It makes it very simple.
UltraGCIR3 – this allows me to control my IR stuff. TV, receiver, etc.
UltraMon3 – Monitors stuff on my network. I have this running but don’t really use it as much anymore. I have switched to a more robust set of scripts and local control over each computer in the house.
VWS – pulls in the info from my weather station.
The Oregon Scientific Base Station. The VWS software is running on my PC and sends it’s info to services in the cloud as well as to CSV format which the VWS plugin reads
weatherXML – Weather information but much more than that. Alerts, maps, etc.
X10 – While X10 is very old, not 100% reliable and a bit outdated, I still have switches and motion sensors that have worked for the last 16 years. In the past I’ve used the X10 CM15 controller, the Applied Digital Ocelot (I think this one died due to a lightning strike several years back) and am currently using a TI103 X10 controller. One of the reasons I am moving over to Zwave is that even though I have a coupler wired into my breaker box and another one plugged into my dryer the X10 does not always seem to send the signals to the switches and other appliances. For instance, if you open my side door (which we let the dog out of at night) my side and front porch lights come on and will then turn off after 15 minutes of no motion. My front porch is Zwave and always immediately responds. The side porch is X10 and sometimes it’s immediate, sometimes it’s four or five seconds and occasionally it just never switches on. That’s a no-go as far as I’m concerned for an automated home. It’s also the reason I don’t want my shit cloud controlled. When you hit the light switch it should just immediately come on. There should never be a delay.
XBMC – I use Kodi on my bedroom PC occasionally and this allows me to control it when I do. More on that…
Z-Wave – I used to use an Aeon Labs Zwave controller but updated last year to a Homeseer Zwave Smartswitch+
Kinect – This plugin is actually running remotely on the Asus touchscreen in my living room.
Alexa plugin – I mentioned that Homeseer has Echo support built in. It does. What this plugin does is allow me to use ANOTHER instance of Alexa on my bedroom PC without having the Echo in there. It runs remotely like the Kinect plugin. I can have as many instances of this as I need. With it getting warmer there will be stuff we’ll be working on in the garage (where my Homeseer server is) and I will probably install Alexa on that too. The only caveat to having software instances of Alexa rather than the Echo or Dot is that it doesn’t support media (Pandora, etc) but there are workarounds for that.
I think that’s all of the plugins I am currently running so here are some of the things the system does.
There are currently two (really three) voice recognition systems at work in my house. One is Alexa. As seen in the video and countless other ones on Youtube the recognition is awesome and there is a lot of stuff you can do. “Alexa, tell Domino’s to order my Easy Order” worked great last night when it was just me and Tootsieroll eating dinner. Obviously I can also control my lighting, TV and somewhat my thermostat. It does have it’s limitations though. I currently have 581 devices attached to Homeseer. Not all of those are hardware obviously. Some are virtual devices that control other ones. The Echo (Alexa) can control stuff that is able to be specifically controlled by Off, On, Dim or it can set heating or cooling to a specific temperature. You can’t chain commands with it.
The second voice recognition system I use is Homeseer itself. I have a little piece of software running on each PC and laptop called HomeSeer speaker. It acts as a remote text to speech client for Homeseer and can send announcements to all or specific clients. I can also turn on the recognition so in addition to “Alexa”, “Jarvis” lives in my house. With Jarvis I can tell Homeseer to turn on the air in 15 minutes and set it to 72. Or I can set the virtual device “Alarm” to “home” in twenty minutes. There really isn’t much I can’t do with Homeseer Speaker. The problem with Homeseer Speaker’s voice recognition that I’ve found over the years is that it sucks balls. It’s an awesome idea and a great back end but the implementation is so fucking awful it’s basically unusable. That’s why, even though Google Now and Alexa work through the Internet, I use them anyway.
That brings me to the third one I mentioned above. I use Tasker on my Nexus 6 as do my wife and youngest daughter. My oldest has an iPhone so she’s shit out of luck. With Tasker and a couple of plugins I can say “Ok Google, turn on the TV, change to FireTV, lock the front door (yeah, I found one on eBay that hopefully will be here soon) and dim the living room lamps”. Yeah, that’s where the awesome sauce kicks in. Can’t do that shit with Alexa. It does mean that your phone has to be with you but who doesn’t always have their phone. Or does it? On my todo list is adding Tasker to the two Nexus 7s in my house so we don’t have to have our phone with us. Oh by the way, my Moto 360 is also connected to Tasker through my phone so as long as it’s in range and they are both connected to wifi, I can just talk to the watch like Dick Tracy.
That’s Me!
Some of the other things Homeseer does?
If it’s between November and March and the temperature is under 59 outside the heat kicks on the a specific setting, It’s a little lower at nighttime. From May to October it’s the air that kicks on but as I mentioned earlier, only if the windows are closed.
When you open the door to the basement stairs the lights kick on in the stairway as do the ones in my basement and garage. If it’s the garage door the same thing. They cut off after fifteen minutes, IF no motion has been detected. If I flip the lights on, off, on they are overridden and will stay on until I cut them off.
If it’s nighttime and motion is detected outside by any of my motion detectors the flood lights and porch lights cut on until no motion has been detected. Same thing if Blue Iris detects motion on the cameras. Lights on. When I open the side door at night the porch lights come on and then go off fifteen minutes after no motion detected. If the front door is opened at night the foyer light, front porch lights and driveway floods come on and then will turn off fifteen minutes later if there’s no motion. That’s particularly useful when I leave for work at 6:15am and my hands are full.
When the washing machine is in use and then stops (watts in use) it tells everyone in the house, hey, the clothes are finished. Put them in the dryer. Once it has been out of use for a period of time it completely cuts the power to the Zwave switch. You know that most appliances still use a minute bit of power even when not in use. Not my washing machine. Or my daughter’s monitor for that matter, which she tends to leave on. Eventually most of my appliances will be hooked to Zwave switches as well. Even if I just save 50 cents or a dollar a month when you have 50 items running, TVs, monitors, washer and dryer, etc…it all adds up.
If motion is detected in the house when we aren’t at home it sends the wife and I email alerts along with pictures. If the basement windows are opened it sets off and alarm and starts flashing lights around the house. If my CO/Smoke detector in the kitchen (the only connected one I have so far) goes off it of course sounds, but my basement alarm sounds, all the lights start flashing off and every speaker in the house starts shouting shit about fire or carbon monoxide and it also sends us emails and text messages.
My basement control center. After 16 years of hooking shit up it’s embarrassing the wiring mess I have down there. On my todo list for this summer is to clean it up and rewire everything.
When I get close to the house my driveway and porch lights come on at night and the system announces Daddy’s home. It drives my dog nuts.
If we are on vacation and motion is sensed anywhere outside random lights go on and all the outside lights go on. It also sends the obligatory emails and text messages along with pics.
I’m in the slow process of writing a series of Alarm Events so we can set an alarm when we leave to trigger other events.
I have a counter set so it has started tracking when we change the HVAC filter and it will tell us when it needs to be changed.
Less automation but more information, Homeseer scrapes my BBS for info and I can see who is logged in, how many calls I’ve had and other various info. It also pulls in a few RSS feeds so I know when the last show has been updated and I can download the torrents, pulls in horoscope and also news feeds. It’s supposed to read me the top headlines when my alarm is dismissed in the morning and also tell me if it’s a holiday but I’m debugging that I guess.
If there’s a NOAA weather alert for the area it announces it to everyone.
That’s most of the items currently. 90% of it happens whether there’s internet connection or not.
I have a streaming music server on a Raspberry Pi and my entire music library on an NAS. It runs Subsonic, a streaming server. It doesn’t get much use but that’s mainly because I have set up obvious clients for everyone. Unlike Pandora, iHeartRadio, Play Music or Amazon, no internet needed. There are clients but I just mainly use the html interface and can cast it to any of my chromecasts oh by the way.
Subsonic web interface login
There are a thousand other things my automated home does and can do that I can’t think of at the moment but the stuff above gives a good general idea anyway.
Some things in varying stages of completion I have that will be added shortly include,
A smart mirror. I actually have all of the materials next to my desk for this. Basically it’s a see through mirror with a Nexus 7 behind it that supplies pertinent information for day, camera feeds, etc. Voice controlled. There are more intensive projects out there that I’ve seen that use a raspberry pi and touchscreen monitor but I went the cheap route. Still a wow thing. I haven’t decided when I’m going to place it.
A Raspberry Pi based emulator running Nintendo and Super Nintendo games to mention a few. That’s 90% complete. I thought I had an old NES in my basement that I was going to gut and put everything inside but I can’t find it (I think it didn’t survive a rare spousal purge of crap) so I’m going to gut my old Nintendo Xbox 1 and put everything inside.
Mounting my projector to my bedroom ceiling and running the wires (I am thinking about living room actually). It will take the place of my bedroom television. It has HDMI inputs so I can hook in my chromecast. I have a ceiling mount and another FireTV stick on the way (my poor poor discover card.) I will also be able to control it with IR and in turn run it via voice or touch screen control via phone. The extra TV I’ll either hook to my desk or set up a gaming station next to my daughter’s computer in the living room and hook up the unused Xbox 360. Nobody here does a lot of console gaming but it’s nice when there’s company.
Front door. I managed to get a steal on a Zwave motorized deadbolt. It’ll be here eventually and I’ll add it into my system. Probably have it unlock when I drive up. Not trigger by motion but by our phone’s proximity. Nice to be able to remotely let people into the house as well without having to give them a key. It was an open box deal but I can return it if it doesn’t work.
A software based alarm system. I mentioned I was working on that but it’s a long way from completion. I’ve barely touched on the capabilities of Blue Iris as well as the scripting that Homeseer provides so this will be a fairly robust system. I’m not willing to pay monthly fees for monitoring so this is the next best thing.
Incorporating using more JSON into the interface so I will have more control of the automation aspects through the BBS, my web site, and all of the internal stuff. We use Plex in addition to Kodi because it just works well with browsers as well as the FireTV Stick. I have eventghost on most of the computers and will be adding more control over/from that as well.
More/better voice control options.
Touch support. I have rudimentary touchscreen clients on our phones and in the kitchen but I need to update the screens and provide more control.
I have a shit ton of old stuff I need to sell that I haven’t had the opportunity to list but will soon. If you’re looking for any of this stuff let me know and we’ll work out a deal. This includes an iPhone 5 no idea the size, HTC One (AT&T), Samsung Galaxy S3 (Verizon), Two Moto X (original, 2012 I think), an Ipod Touch and a Gameboy Color. Automation stuff includes an Applied Digital Ocelot and SECU16-IR. I think the IR controller is good but I haven’t been able to get the Ocelot to work. Many x10 switches, lamp and appliance modules, door/window sensors, in-wall switches, universal modules. Some are defunct but most are still in fine working order. They are from various manufacturers. Mostly X10 but some Radio Shack and a couple others as well. Most of that I’d prefer to just sell as one lump deal but I will consider selling seperately. A couple of netpads. Slow and Old. Considering throwing linux on them and using as netcams if I don’t sell them.
SO I’m a big gadget geek. As far as phones, while there is nothing wrong with Apple products my personal preference is for Android. The platform is much more extensible and I can do 1,000 more things with my Nexus than I ever would be able to with Apple. But…this isn’t about that.
I came across and article this morning entitled “The Perfect Smart Home: What our editors are using” over at Android Central, one of the sites I frequent. Each of them lists what they are using in their smart home and why. The question I had when I read the article is what about each thing makes their house smart? Each of the items, in itself, is pretty neat and I own several of them. The problem is that by themselves none of them make the house smart, at least not by my definition of the word. There are a couple that come pretty close, mainly Smarththings, but even that has it’s limitations. Most of them are limited by being able to connect to the Internet, for starters. What if you lost your internet connection? Most of the folks using these products are shit out of luck, including if you use Smartthings. From their web site:
Any locally executing SmartApps or Device Type Handlers still send events to the SmartThings cloud. This is necessary so that the mobile application can accurately reflect the current state of the devices, as well as perform any cloud-required services (e.g., sending notifications). In the event of an Internet outage, the events will be queued and sent to the SmartThings cloud when Internet is restored.
So what am I using? First off, bear in mind I’ve been using Home Automation for 16 years now and have used some really good (and some really crappy) products. For the most part I try to get things off of eBay or cobbled together from the parts that seem to inevitably collect around the desk of a gadget enthusiast.
Before I go into my set up we need to touch on why I don’t think a bunch of awesome gadgets make your house smart and what does. To begin with, it’s the controller. To have Home Automation, as opposed to Home Control, your house needs to do shit without you necessarily directing it to. All of your stuff also needs to work together. For instance, if one of us turns on the AC and there is a window open my house (HomeSeer) immediately turns it off and says something to the effect of “There is a window open, I have turned off the HVAC. Shut the windows and try again.” Eventually I’ll add logic which will cut it on once the window has been closed but for now we have to tell HomeSeer to turn it on once they are shut.
Here’s a quick video I shot right after I ready the article.
You’ll notice in the video that I am also using Alexa, which was mentioned in the Android Central article. I managed to get the Echo and remote while they were only being introduce to Prime members, for $99. If I had realized how cool it was I would have preordered another lol. As it is, I have an Amazon Dot coming sometime next month. That’s a piece of hardware Amazon is introducing to current Echo owners. It uses Alexa technology but insted of being a big speaker you hook your own speakers up to it. You’ll also notice my living room lights didn’t do dick when I told them to. I’ll touch on that a little later as well.
So here’s the hardware I’m using and then I’ll go on to describe what each piece does and how it fits together.
In my basement:
My basement control center. After 16 years of hooking shit up it’s embarrassing the wiring mess I have down there. On my todo list for this summer is to clean it up and rewire everything.
refurbished Dell Optiplex workstation. It runs the heart of my home automation system, the software Homeseer. Attached to that I have,
RFXCom receiver. It receives signals from my Oregon Scientific weather station I received for Christmas a few years ago. It also receives signals from a few other weather instruments as well as X10 security devices. I used to have the X10 Door/Window sensors on everything as well as a couple of glass break sensors. I’m now down to 4 window sensors as it’s an unstable and outdated technology that doesn’t always work. I have a shitload in a box I’ll be selling on eBay shortly if anyone is interested.
W800RF32 receiver AND a MR26a receiver for redundancy. These two pick up X10 RF signals from my few remaining X10 motion sensors as well as X10 remotes and stick-a-switch things. The W800 also receives X10 security device RF but I’ve found the RFXCOM and homeseer plugin does a better job. I am also slowly replacing the X10 motion sensors with Zwave as well. The timeline on that is just when I find a good deal on eBay or when they go on sale for deep discount at my local Home Depot.
HomeSeer Zwave Smartstick+, this is what controls most of my lighting. Zwave devices are slowly replacing X10 for reliability reasons as well as speed.
A shitty Samsung SDR-4001 CCTV system I picked up at Walmart a couple of years ago. Currently has four cameras attached. It’s locked down and you can’t access it with anything other than old versions of Internet Explorer and the Samsung software. However, I recently found a program that will pull in the video feeds. Blue Iris. More about that shortly.
Zwave door/window sensors on all the windows and the back door. Zwave light switch in the basement and a couple of GE Link light bulbs in the garage as well as the basement stairs.
Aeon Labs Zwave energy monitor directly attached to the breaker box.
In the living room:
Amazon Echo. Alexa. As Phil noted in the article I linked to, Alexa is one of the most exciting things to come out in the area in a long time. She’s sexy. So much so that they are literally flying off the shelves and besides being able to buy them through Amazon they are also available at Home Depot and Best Buy to name a couple. The voice recognition is so much better than the other system I use (part of Homeseer) that the devs from Homeseer added support. The one and only downfall to the Echo is that you have to be connected to the Internet. So I have redundancy and also use the Homeseer voice control as well.
really need to get that wiring cleaned up lol
A Global Cache GC-100-06 IR controller I got for a steal off eBay last week as a matter of fact. In the past I have used the USB-UIRT, eHome IR receivers (Windows Media Center) and an Applied Digital SECU16-IR (attached to the X10 controller I was using at the time.). The Global Cache controller works over the network and is a small form factor among my components.
Don’t mind the wires lol. I need to straighten that mess out.
The overhead light/fan is a Zwave switch. Lamps are Hue bulbs (just white, no color). While the Hue bulbs are pretty cool and I will probably eventually get a couple to play with, they are overly expensive and not 100% reliable. Again, something else that depends on the cloud.
Honeywell Zwave thoermostat
Xbox 360 Kinect (minus the Xbox360 which is put up on a shelf somewhere) connected to an Asus touchscreen laptop.
Foscam IP camera
JVC AV receiver and Vizio 42″ TV. Both controlled by the GC100-06 and Homeseer or obviously their own remotes. Hooked into them I have a Chromecast, a Chromecast Audio and a FireTV stick. The Chromecast Audio and FireTV stick are probably the two coolest things I’ve added over the last year besides the Echo. I used to have a huge Windows PC running BeyondTV and later, Windows Media Center. Now you can’t even see the devices I use.
Two of my last four X10 Window sensors.
Various Zwave motion, security and environment sensors.
Almost forgot, a Wink Hub (like Smartthings) and the only thing it still controls, a Quirky Pivot Power Genius
In the Kitchen:
Two more GE Link bulbs
Zwave light switch for the sink lights
Chromecast Audio attached to a pair of speakers that sit on top of the cabinets.
Petsafe Wireless Fence.
a couple of X10 lamp and appliance modules which control the pet’s water fountain and the lights inside my china cabinet.
mounted on the wall next to my light switches a Nexus 7 with a few things running, Homeseer HSTouch software, Google Play Music (to cast audio to the speakers) and IP Webcam Pro which in turn is picked up by Blue Iris, as are the rest of my cameras in the house. I’m actually going to be replacing this with an old iPad at some point soon.
In the bedrooms I have mixed Zwave and X10 lighting, another Vizio TV that’s controlled by a Global Cache itach IR controller, various X10 and Zwave motion sensors, door/window sensors, etc. In my laundry room there’s a GE Link bulb and a Zwave appliance switch plugged in to my washing machine and then the wall. It monitors energy consumption as well as some other stuff that I’ll touch on in part II of this article. Yes, I’ve managed to write so fucking long that I just decided I should split this up into two parts.
There’s a Wemo switch hooked to my upstairs Wifi Router (there’s another on in the basement. due to wifi connections I had to create two networks. The second one is basically just working in Access Point mode). I have it controlled through IFTTT and in turn, Homeseer (which also allows for built-in IFTTT integration).
Another Chromecast attached to my bedroom TV and a Chromecast Audio on my bathroom speakers. Once I get the Echo Dot I’ll stick the Chromecast Audio upstairs for the girls.
So how does all this crap fit together and what can it do? You’ll have to wait for me to finish typing Part II.
Seems like such a simple thing. I’ve been trying to find an app that would let me remote control my Nexus 6 and my Nexus wall-mounted tablet from my PC. Not as easy as you might thing.
I checked out VNC first simply because I’ve used it before. No go unless you are rooted. Then did some searching on el Goog and looked into Teamviewer and Airdroid. Both work fine for mirroring and Airdroid will let you control if you are hooked to the PC via USB but that’s fucking useless for what I wanted.
Vysor is a pretty good app and I trust the developer as well. I’ve got it installed for later use but again, you have to have the device hooked to the phone.
Desktop Capture showing control of my phone over Wifi.
FINALLY found one with Mobizen. Initially I thought it would be simply screen mirroring with no control but once you’ve given it admin access in the security settings it works just fine.
They (whoever they is/are) say that there is an app for everything. Up until today I wasn’t quite so sure of that but now that I’ve come across this nifty new Android application I know I’ve seen it all. One might think they designed this little baby specifically for Velociman.
PoopLog is a free application that allows you to track your bowel movements using the Bristol Stool Scale on your Android powered device. Once you record the type of bowel movement, volume, and time, PoopLog allows you to attach a note, attach a photo, and even allows you to share any part of your entry with other installed applications (such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, SMS, Email, etc..). PoopLog also features an extensive reporting option which will allow you to export your PoopLog to a text file for easy analysis by a health practitioner.
*NEW*: PoopLog now has the ability to log a pain/discomfort level from 0-10. This option is disabled by default, but can be enabled via Settings > Defaults.
!! UPDATE ALERT !! I am working on and will soon be releasing a large update that will include more logging options, charting, and trends!
Heh. Android Central even posted a video review at Youtube yesterday. You can see it here or watch it below…
I really don’t know what else to say. Damn. The coolest part of the app? You can attach photos and then share your dump on your social networks. bwahaha.
