RESET host Dave McCabe joins us to touch on the latest news updates and talk through some of the challenges he’s facing as he looks to extend his smart home setup to be a DIY security system. Is spinning your own home security the right solution for you? We discuss some of the things you should consider.
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Show Links
- Leviton Launches Mass-Market Home-Automation Platform, Starting with Wi-Fi Lighting
- Whirlpool’s Wi-Fi microwave will send a notification to your phone when your food’s ready
- Ring has hired most of Zonoff’s former employees
- Hue releases motion sensor updates in Hue Labs
- WeMo Mini Smart Plug is now available
- iDevices app updated with energy monitoring, complex automation, etc.
- Stringify adds support for Insteon scenes
- Find out more about Dave’s smart home needs in RESET 18
- Dave uses SmartThings at home
- Stringify can be used to create complex event trigger logic across ecosystems
- Learn how Richard used a KeypadLinc for indicators in Richard’s garage project
- Subscribe to Dave’s great podcast, RESET, for in-depth discussion on networking, storage, and automation.
- Follow Dave McCabe on Twitter
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Listening to Home: On #86, Dave McCabe talked about just using an older built-in home security system basically for hearing a “beep-beep” when a door or window opens. This describes my use perfectly of a twenty year old system in our house. And this is really all I need from it. I am not interested in using a security service, I just want notification when doors and windows are open. Are there any input modules out there that could take all these pre-installed, older window and door sensors as wired inputs to a home automation network? Something like Insteon I/O Linc module with 16 inputs. Then we could reuse the existing window and door sensors wired through out the house. Thanks
Products like Smartenit’s EZIO2X4 or EZIO8SA can monitor 4 or 8 devices, respecitvely. The issue is that those require the old-word Insteon hub or PLM that Insteon has more or less abandoned. I’m not personally aware of any, but I suspect there are similar products that could bridge to a Z-wave system, too.
This is exactly my situation too. I had a custom house built a house in 2012 and had it wired for door, window, and motion sensors with the cheapest DSC keypads and basic system the electrician could find. I never intended to subscribe it to a monitoring system. I want to upgrade it to something I can manage myself, but the only thing I can find is the ELK M1 Gold + ISY package from Smarthome. You can use the ELK to do simple automation and control Insteon lights using the ISY as a bridge. However, the much more powerful way is to use the ISY as the master controller and expose all the ELK sensors as triggers. The only reason that I haven’t pulled the trigger on this setup is that it costs over $1000 and would take me several weekends to figure out and get installed. Now that ISY has Amazon Echo support and all, I’m really leaning toward making ISY my primary automation controller. Since I haven’t chosen a controller, I haven’t bothered installing the several Insteon switches I bought on sale Black Friday 2015. Any other ideas?