Geek

So the conversion to all HomeKit for our Home Automation system continues. The outlier continues to be a Google Home Hub in the kitchen, as Earl uses it for recipe guidance and an occasional YouTube video, but he’s indicated this is simply a luxury right now and he wouldn’t mind if I sold it.

I replaced our two Smart Outlet Plugs with devices that were suppose to be compatible with HomeKit/Siri, Google, and Alexa. I was able to configure them for HomeKit without an issue, which was my plan all along. But getting them to join the Google network has been trickier. I’ve reached out to the manufacturer, VOCOLinc, for assistance, but this has not proven to be fruitful. Since the Google and Alexa integration is a secondary need I’m not pursuing it further, however, I can say these VOCOLinc plugs do work very well on HomeKit. They have both been rock solid.

The HomePod in our Dining Room had a bit of a fit last weekend and forgot about all the devices in the house. Siri would respond to requests for whole rooms to be turned on and off, but it wouldn’t control a specific device, even though we were able to without an issue with Siri on our phones and by using the Home app on iOS and/or our Macs. I restarted the HomePod but that didn’t help the situation; Siri just started behaving normally again after a couple of hours. I don’t know if there was an Internet issue or something else, but Apple constantly has our devices talking to each other in the background, perhaps they just had to have an extra chat.

Today I installed a Lutron Decora Smart Dimmer Switch to control the lights over our breakfast bar. Switches normally need two wires, the hot from the panel and the hot subsequently going to the lamp, as the switch is just turning this leg of the circuit on and off. But smart switches need to be powered as if they were plugged into a wall outlet, so the Smart Dimmer Switch also needed to access the Neutral wire. Luckily, modern homes have the neutral wire where it needs to be, but older homes didn’t follow such standards and there’s a good chance you won’t have a neutral wire in your switch box. I was able to tap the neutral wire without an issue, though, and the setup of the switch was flawless. I love the way it looks and acts.

I’m very interested in the smart control panels by Brilliant Control, which are designed to replace up to four light switches in a wall box. The interface looks good, the idea behind it is awesome, and it would give us the high-tech approach I’m striving for in our home. The issue is they don’t make a HomeKit version at the moment, but according to Brilliant Control it’s in the works. I look forward to seeing what they come up with.

I am making progress with this ongoing project and I’d say I’m around 90% pleased with the results thus far. Earl has remarked that he doesn’t miss Alexa at all and he’s happy with having one “system”, so that mission is accomplished.

At the beginning of next month Earl and I will have lived here in Chicago for two years. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long as it feels like it was only yesterday when we moved here.

As an “all things connected geek”, I had an old school clock system wired through the old house back in Upstate New York. When we moved we decided not to do the same here in our condo; the old clocks were loud when they advanced each minute and as we aged we didn’t find as much whimsy in the experience of having these antique timepieces on the wall. I donated several of the clocks to the historical society in my hometown, I gave others to friends and family. I thought about converting the remaining clocks to quartz mechanisms, but I’d rather have clocks that are perfectly in sync with the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) because I’m precise like that.

Enter our atomic clocks.

I’m on the search for clocks that have a “retro” look to them, and the first of the clocks was installed last night. Made by La Crosse Technology, the clock synchronized itself while we were sleeping last night. It’s keeping perfect time and it shows accurate time to the second.

I am a happy geek.

This is 21st century technology in an American automobile that has built in cell connectivity. These steps follow three activation prompts and 45 minutes of upload time from a dongle.

45 minutes of sitting in a vehicle with the battery discharging but the car is not allowed to be started during that time.

This Voyager era captain has an older Shore Leave uniform.

J.P. out.

I am delighted to see items marked in an old school way. These young whippersnappers though think they need to use the “FOR” mark, which would actually be used in a 2 FOR 99 scenario.

I’d probably do the same thing, though. It’s geeky cool.

The switch from Amazon’s Alexa to Apple’s HomeKit to handle our household technology needs is going mostly well. HomeKit hasn’t lost any devices or scenes and routines I’ve set up, but accessing them can be tricky. Apple has a “gap” in the device department; there’s nothing equivalent to the Echo Dot or Google Home Mini. I don’t want to buy a HomePod for the bathroom, but we like to listen to music and podcasts during our morning routine.

Another gap in the HomeKit device arena is an equivalent to the Google Home Hub. We tried having an iPad fill that role, but it’s just not the same. Google has knocked it out of the park in this area; Earl can ask the Home Hub for a recipe for something spectacular and a combination of audio commands and visual cues can take him through the recipe at his own pace. An iPad requires physical input, which is not convenient when your hands are covered in cooking oil or whatever. I haven’t found an iOS app that replaces the functionality of the Google Home Hub, so it’s back on the kitchen counter again. I’m thinking of installing a couple of freebie Google Home Minis in strategic locations in the house as well.

This takes us away from an all HomeKit setup but it helps keep costs down.

The other kicker of this conversion is that some of our home automation outlets are either HomeKit or something other than HomeKit, none of the controlled outlets we purchased will interface with both systems. I purchased a couple on Amazon that should be here tomorrow; hopefully they will work with both systems simultaneously. This way we can talk to Siri or the Google Home products when we need to.

My husband just asked that we don’t continue to use Alexa, because that seemed like it took the longest for anything to happen and we found Alexa to be the least reliable when responding to voice commands.

I’ll probably have a part three to this saga in the next week or so, but I’m learning that Home Automation is still well entrenched in the “early adopters” stream. I could never see my grandparents setting up something like this.

Who knew there would come a day when updating software in our car would become a thing? I’m surprised the car doesn’t update itself, but it’s a fun little exercise.

A live version of the “Charlie’s Angels” theme song. One of the best television theme songs of all time.

There better be a nod to the original theme song in this movie coming out at the end of the year.