Maccast Members 156 - Connected Stuff
Introduction
Stuff
- Nest - Learning Thermastat (USD $249.00)
- Installation was incredibly easy. Obviously if you are uncomforatble hire a professional.
- I had a great installation experience. I was cautious when purchasing. Turns out you can take a pic of your existing thermostat wiring and meial it to Nest support. They will tell you over phone if they can support it.
- Founded by Tony Fadell who lead the iPod team. Matt Rogers, who led iPod software development, is VP of Engineering.
- Technology
- Connected via Wi-fi ( I connected mine to my guest segment on my airport extreme)
- Sensors for activity, humidity, three temperature sensors, monitors local weather conditions via Internet
- I did have an issue where I recently afer months had to speed recharge the Nest battery using the microUSB connector. My understanding is that it charges from the AC power when system is in standby. Mine must have very slowly lost ground over time and need a charge boost.
- Security
- You of course need to consider the quality of password on your Nest account.
- When I did some traffic sniffing I saw a lot of SSL traffic so it is reasonably secure. Plus you set it up at home and leave it.
- Control
- iOS App
- There is a third party OSX App on the app store. Climate
- There are some reverse enginnering based Python libraries etc out there. That means you can control it via Siriproxy
- GlassNest, unofficial project to control your NEST from Google Glass
- Hue - Phillips (USD $199.95)
- The starter pack includes a wi-fi bridge and 3 bulbs
- Additional bulbs are USD $59.95
- Technology
- The bridge is a standard Zigbee wireless bridge. This means it can be integrated with other home control systems.
- You plug it into a wired network port on your router. If you plan on hacking control you should consider putting it on a dhcp reservation so the IP is always the same.
- Security
- It uses a secret key pairing method. The setup is detailed in the Hue Developer Documentation
- Calls to the bridge api are REST API calls. I managed to pair up my laptop and issue color and lighting changes via wget in an Automator.
- Control
- Wemo - Belkin (USD $80 (sensor+switch) /$50 (switch) /$70 (baby monitor))
- Comes in options of a motion sensor+switch, switch only and they have a baby monitor.
- I have just the switch.
- Technology
- Proprietary but joins your wifi network.
- Security
- As safe as your Belkin and IFTTT logins are.
- Control
- Misc Others
- Door Locks
- ADT Pulse Whole System