Smart Home & Home Automation discussion thread

[Kaido]

Preface:

I didn't see a general thread for electronic home type of stuff, figured it might as well go in the "Gadgets" sub-forum since there's a lot of neat little smarthome gadgets floating around. There's always new stuff coming out & stuff I haven't seen before related to home tech, so it'd be nice to have a general thread to browse through. I am now adding new links to the Table of Contents below.

Introduction:

Home Automation (HA) & "Smarthome" technology is a growing field that can give you a variety of benefits such as energy savings, convenience, and enhanced functionality. You can get into it on a DIY level with products like INSTEON, a service level with systems like ADT Pulse, or a turnkey commercial system with systems like Crestron. It all depends on your budget & your willingness to tinker. If you can think it up, chances are someone has already made it, and if they haven't, you can probably build it yourself using a variety of cool tools like Arduino. Have fun reading!

Table of Contents:

1. News & Resources
2. Commercial Systems
3. Services
4. DIY Smarthome Systems
5. DIY Software
6. DIY Commercial Gadgets
7. Lighting
8. HVAC
9. Doors
10. Windows
11. Music, Home Theater, and Voice Control
12. Camera, Alarm, and Security Systems
13. Robotic Cleaning & Maintenance
14. Power Systems
15. Standalone electronic gadgets
16. Non-electronic gadgets
17. Projects
18. Kickstarter
19. Information for research
20. Articles

1. News & Resources:
AVSforum's Home Automation section
Automated Home Blog
CEDIA Home Technology Association (famous for their expos)
CEPro
CNET Smart Home
Connected Crib
Electronic House (magazine & website)
Hack-a-Day
Hometoys
Houzz Smarthome section and Houzz Home Automation section
Instructables
Internet of Things
Lifehacker's Home Automation articles
MAKE
Smarthome.com Blog
Smart Homes Digest

Subtopic: Forums
Cocoontech forums
MiCasaVerde forums
Smarthome.com forums

2. Commercial Systems:
AMX
Bitwise Controls
Control4
Crestron
Elan
RTI
Savant
TaHomA
URC

3. Services:
ADT Pulse home automation/security
AT&T Digital Life
Comcast XFINITY home control & security
Cox Homelife
Frontpoint wireless home security
LifeShield wireless home security
Oplink Connected
Time Warner Cable Intelligent Home
Viper Home
Vivent home automation/security/solar

4. DIY Systems:
Almond+ Zigbee & Zwave home automation router
Nexia Home Intelligence (Zwave-compatible)
Revolv unified connected home (integrates commercial products, i.e for stuff like INSTEON, Philips Hue, etc.)
Vera Control (home of VeraLite)
Belkin WeMo
Lowes Iris home control system
HAL (Home Automated Living)
Ubiquiti mFi
GE Home Automation
Neurio Home Intelligence
Embedded Automation mHome (home of mControl; forum)
LightwaveRF smartphone controls
Aviosys IP control hardware
iAutomate RFID systems
CommandFusion
Wink Hub
2gig
inControl (Zwave, Clipsal, Foscam, Wemo, etc.)

Subtopic: X10 equipment
X10
Marmitek
WGL & Associates

Subtopic: INSTEON equipment
INSTEON
Smarthome.com

Subtopic: Z-wave equipment
Zwave
FortrezZ
Aeotec by Aeon Labs
Fibaro
NorthQ power reader kits
Everspring
TKB Home (home of the plug-in energy meter)

Subtopic: Relays
National Control Devices web relays
Global Cache network relays (contact closure, network to IR, network to Serial)
SainSmart Arduino-compatible relays (iOS & Android-compatible)

Subtopic: Micro-controller boards
Arduino
Raspberry Pi
Spark Core

Subtopic: Standalone sensors
Proteus Sensor (wifi motion, door, water, temperature & humidity, and motion/picture alert sensors)

5. DIY Software:
Indigo (Mac)
HomeSeer (Windows)
HouseLinc (free for Windows - INSTEON-baseD)
MisterHouse (free for Win/Linux/Mac)
HouseBot
PowerHome2 for Windows
Premise (discontinued by Motorola in 2005, but is available free with a good SDK & active community)
Open Source Automation
LinuxMCE
gnhast for NetBSD (only those with neckbeards need apply)
Haiku for iOS
CastleOS
CQC
OpenHAB (ridiculous amount of binding support, everything from Asterisk to Philips Hue)
Freedomotic
The Thing System

Subtopic: Other useful software
Macro Express Windows macro programming
AutoIT Windows scripting
Tasker Total automation for Android
FreeNAS (turn an old computer into a file server)
VMware ESXi (virtualization OS for hosting different OS's on a single computer)
MacOS Automation resource site (covers AppleScript, Services, and Automator)
Keyboard Maestro OSX macro software for Mac

6. DIY Commercial Gadgets:
Quirky Smart Products (dashboard, smart egg tray, spotter, porkfolio, etc.)
HP Slate 21 (21" Android tablet, VESA-mountable, touchscreen with keyboard/mouse included, great for the kitchen/entry-way, etc. for recipes/calendars/Pandora/etc.)

7. Lighting:
Lutron
Vantage
Philips Hue variable-color Wifi-controlled LED light bulbs
LIFX variable-color Wifi-controlled LED light bulbs
Lumen Bulb variable-color Bluetooth-controlled LED light bulbs
Luxera LED smartphone control for their LED light bulbs
Ube smartphone light control

8. HVAC:
Nest Thermostat
Honeywell Smart Thermostat
Honeywell Lyric smart thermostat (Nest competitor + proximity sensor + smartphone GPS triggers + maintenance reminders)
Mitsubishi Mr. Slim (per-room heating & cooling system, even more specific than zoned HVAC!)
Dyson Bladeless fans (new ones include built-in heaters; vertical models also available)
Ecobee smart thermostat
Aprilaire network thermostats
Escea indoor & outdoor remote-controlled fireplace (ex. turn on with an iPhone) video

9. Doors:
Lockitron Wifi deadbolt locker
Doorbot Wifi doorbell with camera
Skybell Wifi doorbell with camera
Goji smart lock
August smart lock
Kwikset Kevo Bluetooth door lock
Yale Real Living Zigbee/Zwave touchscreen deadbolt
Schlage locks
Chamberlain MyQ Wifi garage door opener
Okidokey smart keys

10. Windows:
Somfy Systems (motorized awnings/shutters/shades/blinds/projection screens) * Now with a solar power option
Hunter-Douglas hardwired motorized blinds
Blinds.com motorized shades (very budget-friendly! simple remote control, easy to retrofit existing windows with)
Lutron automated window systems (roller shades, Venetian blinds, drapery tracks, vertical drapery, tensioned shades, horizontal sheer blinds, pleated shades, honeycomb shades, Roman shades with CERUS cordless uptake system; wireless control available)
Crestron Shades Rigorously-tested motors, 400+ fabrics, variety of options
Pella Insynctive between-the-glass, inside-mount, and out-side mount blinds & shades

11. Music, Home Theater, and Voice Control:
Sonos wireless whole-house audio system
Apple Airport Express wireless music audio receiver
Airfoil for Mac & Windows (setup computers as Airplay receivers)
Logitech Bluetooth wireless speaker adapter
Home Theater Direct Lync whole-house audio & intercom system
Logitech Harmony computer-programmable TV remote controls (pulls from an online list of vendors & codes = super easy)
Remote Buddy (iOS universal remote control software)
Hunter Fan Concert Breeze ceiling fans with built-in speakers
Niles Audio whole-house audio system
Plex (Media Server + Client Player)
Extron multimedia controls
Monoprice equipment (cheap cables, among other things)
Aether voice-activated streaming cone

Sub-topic: Voice Control
(project) Whole-house microphones for voice commands in every room
Amazon Echo
Ivee
Nucleus
Ubi

12. Camera, Alarm, and Security Systems
Zmodo Security Camera DVR
Swann Security Camera DVR
Defender Security Camera DVR (includes wireless camera options)
EvoCam software for Mac
Security Spy software for Mac
Dropcam (easy wireless security camera with cloud storage)
SimpliCam (nice alternative to Dropcam)
Canary home security device
Piper home security & automation device
Nest Protect (smart smoke/CO2 detector)
Foscam individual IP cameras (great for baby cams)
SimpliSafe wireless security system
Protect America security system
Logitech Alert security cameras
QNAP Survellience NAS (compatible with a large variety of cameras)

13. Robotic Cleaning & Maintenance:
Roomba robotic vacuum
Scooba robotic washer
Braava robotic floor mopper
Looj robotic gutter cleaner
Mirra robotic pool cleaner
Lawnbott robotic lawnmower & Probotics accessories * Check out Kwik Kerb for mower-friendly curbs around your house, perimeter, and shrubs to create a 100% enclosed yard
RainMachine forecast lawn sprinkler controller (for water conservation)
HydroFLASH Irrigation Control (Wifi-controlled lawn sprinkler controller)
Ladybug Steam Cleaning system (expensive but awesome)

14. Power Systems:
Solar City resident solar panels & batteries
Generac whole-house automatic-switchover generators
Whole-House Surge Protectors (Home Depot listing)
Kill-a-Watt Power Monitoring (new versions include surge strips, wireless monitoring, and motion sensor detection)
Efergy Whole-House Power Monitors
NewerTech Power2U USB + A/C wall outlets (2 A/C jacks & 2 USB charging ports)
Smart Power Strip (currently on Kickstarter; I have a MonoStrip from Visible Energy but would definitely like something better!)
Legrand Adorne Modular under-counter lighting & fancy lightswitches (touch, tap, etc.)
Milbank Synap6 ATS Intelligent transfer switch for up to 6 power inputs (grid, battery, wind, solar, etc.)

15. Standalone electronic gadgets:
iStorm touchless hand dryer
CleanCUT Paper Towel Dispenser (touchless paper towel dispenser that can cut to any size to reduce waste)
Eye-Vac EVPRO touchless dustpan vacuum
Simple Human Touchless Trash Cans
Leviton Occupancy Sensors (for automatic lights etc.)
Gojo Soap Dispenser ($13 electronic foaming soap/moisturizer dispenser; $45-ish for a 2-pack of refills @ 2,000 doses each)
Lysol No-Touch Kitchen System (automatic liquid dish soap dispenser; I like using Dobie foam scrubbers)
Dyson Airblade Tap water faucet with air dryer (wash & dry your hands at the sink)
Mailbox alert (chimes when snailmail is delivered)
Light-o-Rama (build crazy-awesome holiday light shows with music, watch the videos!)
ChannelBrite & TrimLight permanent holiday lights
Warmly Yours heated towel racks
Cook-n-Dine stainless steel cooktops (including round & outdoor models!)
Rubbermaid Reveal spray mop kit (like the awesome Swiffer WetJet, but the sponge is washable & you can make the cleaner yourself to save a ton of cash!)
Legrand wire management (including the pop-out Adorne outlet; home of Wiremold)
TurboChef ovens
Blendtec blenders
Automatic door opener
Build your own CNC (then use it to build other stuff for your house!)

Sub-topic: Water Gadgets
Island Sky Corporation Skywater machines (dehumidifier with filter to turn into drinking water = endless "free" water!)
Moen ioDigital Shower Controller
Delta touch & touchless faucets (touch sensors & motion sensors)
Tankless drinking water cooler (hot & cold like a Poland Springs drinking water dispenser)
Leakfrog water leak alarm
Point-of-use flood stop systems (ex. washing machines & sinks)
Flo-N-Stop remote control watermain shutoff system (automatically closes upon power loss)
Droplet Cloud-connected plant sprinkler
FloodMaster leak detection & automatic shutoff
Wally Home smart leak sensor (works with Nest)
BriskHeat self-regulating indoor/outdoor heating cable (dedicated site available with accessory bundles - system is designed to prevent pipes from freezing)

16. Non-electronic gadgets: (smart"er" stuff)
Kleenex Cool-Touch Moisturizing Tissues (never get nose rash again when you get a cold!)
Ziploc Slider Bags (various plastic bags with a zipper instead of the stupid press-to-seal lining)
TV dinner trays (make your own TV dinners! bulk pack, microwave/dishwasher/freezer-safe; 3-compartment models also available, as well as oven-safe models)
Cascade Action Pacs (dishwasher pellets with dishwasher detergent & rinse aid; bulk bins available on Amazon)
Add-a-trap (put an end to clogged sinks forever!)
Plug1 gas shutoff switch
Floodchek no-burst washing machine hose
DryerBox (recessed dryer exhaust hose box to prevent hose squish)
Smart Vent (flood vent)
Thermocrete chimney system
Quakehold picture hooks & SnagToggle high-performance anchors
Sugru self-setting rubber (too many applications to list, just browse their website)
DrainNet floor drain strainers
Gutter Edge vinyl exterior gutter stain guard
SharkBite PEX fittings (easiest plumbing method...ever)
Platinum Tools EZ Ethernet crimper (connectors & strain relief pack)
American Plumber Whole-House water filtration system
Residential fire sprinkler system (good articles here and here & at Bob Vila's site; average whole-house cost is $6k; HFS Coalition & FEMA resources)
DripTite (water-catch pans for washing machines, kitchen sinks, bathroom sinks)
Bauco access panels

17. Projects:
Voice-controlled Home Automation with Android
iPhone Garage Door Opener with Arduino
Physical mailbox delivery notifier with iPhone & Arduino
Raspberry Pi & Arduino Smarthome Project on a Raspberry Pi & Arduino smarthome project)

18. Kickstarter:
Ninja Sphere home controller
myLifter iPhone-controlled garage winch for ceiling storage
Sprav shower energy & water meter
Garagio Smartphone garage door opener
Mr. Postman
Curuba Home Automation Open Project
AngelBlocks

19. Information for research:
Universal Powerline Bus (UPB)
X10 Industry Standard & X10 Wireless Technology (vendor)
INSTEON & Smarthome.com
1-Wire
ZigBee & XBee
Home Automation

20. Articles:
Digital Trends: Your home is dumb, but making it smart is cheaper than you think
Lifehacker: Transform Your Digs into a Home of the Future, DIY-Style

Search tags for Google: (since I'm not aware of any directory on the net quite like this one) smarthome, smart home, home automation, electronic home, electronic house, list, master list, list of smarthome parts, vendors, suppliers, HA, smarthome big list

 

[Ns1]

wow, legendary.

 

[Kaido]

wow, legendary.

Compiled notes from years of neffing :biggrin:

There's just so much stuff out there that no one has ever heard of, but a lot of it is really really awesome. And there's differently levels...basic plug & play stuff just off the shelf, mid-grade stuff for tinkerers like Indigo/HomeSeer & INSTEON/Arduino, and then the pro stuff like Crestron & Savant. All depends on budget/goals/level of involvement desired. I've played around with a lot of this stuff both professional & personally and there's some really cool gear out there!

 

[jalaram]

Very nice list. Thanks. I'm looking into doing this for our house.

 

[Kaido]

Very nice list. Thanks. I'm looking into doing this for our house.

Glad you like it! It mostly boils down to budget vs. involvement. If you have a low budget, you can make just about anything available commercially, but you have to put in the time to learn the programming, buy the parts, etc. If you have a large budget, you can just pay Control4 or Savant to design pretty much anything you can dream of. My buddy does home automation at work and recently put in a $1 million install in a high-end NYC apartment, it was amazing! Everything you could think of or dream of & more! :biggrin:

It's really cool what's available now too - stuff like Wifi doorbells with cameras in them and INSTEON, which lets you do all of the basic smarthome stuff like door sensors & motion detectors. The "Internet of Things" is definitely growing - I'd really like to see more standardization so you could pick which control software you want & then easily tie everything into it. Indigo for Mac is getting there (support for X10, INSTEON, Zwave, Philips Hue bulbs, Sonos Audio Players, Nest Thermostats, etc.) but it requires a Mac and needs to be on 24/7. Lots of stuff to mess with out there, just need the bucks to do it!

 

[Kaido]

Added a TOC, was getting a tad hard to read. Now it's just plain overwhelming

 

[RossMAN]

wow, legendary.

Well said and completely agree, definitely Elite caliber if you ask me :whiste:

 

[Kaido]

Well said and completely agree, definitely Elite caliber if you ask me :whiste:

Well, we gotta wait until I finish sorting out the INSTEON product inventory into my wiki first

I'd also like to have a section for neat home building materials, although those aren't really gadgets, and there's always so many options available that it's more of a personal-preference kind of thing, so I'll probably just throw that on my personal wiki as well - maybe over the holiday break. Just a quick laundry-list sample:

• Kerdi Shower Book: Waterproof bathroom tiling system using Schluter Systems
• Kwik Kerb: Concrete curbing for lawns, shrubs, and driveways.
• Gerard Roofing: Stone-coated steel roofing (hurricane/tornado/fire resistant).
• Quad-Lock ICF blocks: Ceiling, floor, and tilt-up insulated concrete block-building system.
• BLUM Metabox: Steel drawer system (no more warped wood, easy cleaning, etc.).
• BLUM Blumotion: Soft-close hinges for cabinetry & drawer slides.
• Blue Sky Framing System: Metal framing system.
• Bylin Engineered Systems: Roof & walkway/driveway ice melting systems.
• Driveway Impressions: Stamped asphalt driveways.

There's just a million things out there that make life better that aren't exactly public knowledge because of marketing budgets etc. - stuff like building your house out of concrete instead of flammable wood, stone-coated steel roofing that looks normal but lasts a lifetime, stamped asphalt driveways with a colored epoxy coating so they look great but can handle frost heave & not need constant patching, and so on. We're already living in the future as far as building materials & advanced home technology goes, but it's so spread out that it's just hard to put all of the pieces together without doing a tremendous amount of personal research or hiring a team to handle it for you.

 

[sm625]

This is an interesting market but the prices for everything are so grossly overinflated that its really a turn off. But that's to be expected since this sector is driven by people who want to throw serious money around. But when it comes down to it why would anyone want to spend $299 just to be able to control your light switch or your heater vent with your phone? It's actually more work to utilize most of these systems.

 

[vshah]

awesome list. I'm looking into getting a VeraLite and some z-wave switches in the near future.

 

[Kaido]

awesome list. I'm looking into getting a VeraLite and some z-wave switches in the near future.

Thanks, added Vera Controls to the list. I'm sure there's a bunch I'm still missing! So much cool stuff out there...

 

[Kaido]

This is an interesting market but the prices for everything are so grossly overinflated that its really a turn off. But that's to be expected since this sector is driven by people who want to throw serious money around. But when it comes down to it why would anyone want to spend $299 just to be able to control your light switch or your heater vent with your phone? It's actually more work to utilize most of these systems.

That's the biggest catch - it's not cheap. Which wouldn't be so bad if it was 100% reliable, but it's not. Standard wire is 100% effective 100% of the time, it just never fails (there's always exceptions, but generally speaking - flip on the lightswitch, the light comes on - flip it off, it goes off). When you introduce automation, you introduce additional expense and additional failure points. I have never seen a home automation system that works 100% like traditional wire systems. The new systems are getting there and are almost 100%, but still...it's not like it's running a life support system, so it is prone to error despite the cost.

And it's also expensive getting niche electronic products out. You can do a lot of stuff with relays, Arduino, etc., but even that stuff starts to add up. I was starting to experiment with using Raspberry Pi's for whole-house audio using Raspbmc (XBMC for Pi) with the Airplay feature, but by the time you get the whole thing built & running, you can just buy an Airport Express for $99 and get regular updates and low power usage. So it's really hard to get something good out for cheap, and once the cost goes up, you have to question whether it's really worth it or not - you have to deal with the cost, setup, maintenance, and bugs that go along with automation.

I think we need communication standards. I think we need communication security so it's not easily hackable. I think we need more generic programming software (talks to standard communications protocols), as well as more user-friendly programming software (like drag & drop stuff). You can do virtually anything you want in MisterHouse, but it's not easy if you're not already into programming. Indigo is pretty great, but doesn't support the whole breadth of available products and requires a full-on computer (Mac, in this case) to be running 24/7. But then stuff like the INSTEON Hub, a dedicated controller with some really nice smartphone control features, gets absolutely terrible reviews in terms of actual performance. So it's a difficult field to be in.

I'd like to see more stuff like the Lowes Iris system...like be able to go down to Home Depot and buy "smart" devices, like a 2-port A/C wall outlet that has GFCI, TRR, USB ports, remote on/off/dim, network control, and power monitoring. Does it have a circuit breaker? Is it safe from kids? Can I charge my mobile device without having to find an adapter plug? Can I turn it on or off remotely? If a lamp is connected to it, can I dim it? How much power is it using? All of that for $15 per outlet please :biggrin:

I was really into smarthomes for awhile, but then I realized it's really overkill for what I want, so that's when I got more interested in home automation. Stuff like, when you're in bed at night, you can open an app and see if all of your windows are closed, doors are shut & locked, garage door is down, and then flip off all the lights in the house. Simple. The rest seems easier through dedicated systems. I like Plex + Roku for my movies & TV shows. I like Airplay + Airfoil Remote for music everywhere. It doesn't have to be overly-complex, just meet the need. So I think I'm more of a fan of smarter homes than smart homes, if that makes sense

 

[Kaido]

Google Glasses mod for smarthome control:

http://www.engadget.com/2013/12/10/google-glass-mod-gives-you-control-over-home-appliances/

Pretty neat - uses Xbee & IR! Would be super cool to control your lights, HVAC, window coverings, locks, garage door, etc. through a wearable device!

 

[vshah]

assuming you saw this earlier this year Kaido:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/1dt508/

 

[Kaido]

assuming you saw this earlier this year Kaido:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/1dt508/

Nice! I added a new section to the TOC - "#16: Projects" and stuck it under there. That can house custom endeavors like Raspberry Pi, Arduino, Android, etc.-based systems.

 

[Kaido]

I also added SimpliSafe under "DIY Systems": (smartphone-compatible)

http://simplisafe.com/wireless-home-security-feature-overview

This is a really nice DIY wireless security system that has a lot of additional sensors. Their basics include:

1. Keypad
2. Entry Sensor
3. Motion Sensor
4. Keychain Remote
5. Smoke Detector
6. Panic Button
7. Glassbreak Sensor
8. Water Sensor
9. Freeze Sensor
10. CO Detector

So you've got your entry & control methods (keypad, remote, panic button) and your sensors (entry, motion, smoke, CO, glassbreak, water, freeze). It is capable of handling up to 41 sensors; the wireless sensors use off-the-shelf lithium batteries that can last up to 5 years. The base station also has a built-in rechargeable battery for power outages. In addition, you can easily relocate sensors or take them with you when you move because they use standard 3M strips to adhere to the wall.

It also works with iPhone, Android, and Windows phones and you can get SMS alerts (based on the optional monthly service package you get). They offer a cellular-based monthly monitoring service (with no contract, quit anytime) for $15 a month - no landline needed ($20/mo adds SMS/email alerts and $25/mo adds more features). The equipment is also ridiculously reasonable - their "Ultimate" package with tons of stuff runs under $600 and their basic ones are under $250.

 

[vshah]

any solutions out there for whole house microphone systems? one mic in each room type thing.
once I buy a house I want to have an always-listening type system set up.

 

[Kaido]

any solutions out there for whole house microphone systems? one mic in each room type thing.
once I buy a house I want to have an always-listening type system set up.

Closest I've seen is an HTD Lync system, but that's just a whole-house intercom system (with whole-house audio):

http://www.htd.com/Products/Lync

What would probably work the best is a bunch of cheap tablets or Android-based MP3 players with an open-air microwave connected to each one for audio input - one per room. Some reading for ya here:

http://james.lipsit.com/whole.htm

They used HAL (Home Automation Living) for their backend, which apparently is very voice-oriented:

http://www.homeautomatedliving.com/ayh.htm

It's definitely an interesting problem to look at. Car manufacturers are getting good at it with their in-cabin microphones for system voice commands; my buddy's new Moto X Android phone has an always-on mic that suppposedly recognizes the sound of his specific voice (I think it's the "OK Google" feature on 4.4 KitKat).

 

[vshah]

ideally i'd like to hack something together with motox + several mics mixed down, with the output tied to the motox somehow. maybe just a cheap used motox in every room.

man, i can't wait to buy my own house.

 

[Kaido]

Very cool Arduino board - the "Yun" model for $70:

http://www.engadget.com/2013/12/11/holiday-gift-guide-2013-geek-with-everything/

The nearly ubiquitous Arduino had one major weakness, if you ask me: a lack of on-board WiFi. It's pretty rough building an internet of things with piles of shields and yards of Ethernet cord. The YUN solves this most basic of conundrums by putting the versatile ATmega on the same board as a MIPS-powered WiFi SoC. You can even reprogram the Arduino wirelessly, so you can load up a whole new set of instructions without having to pull apart your meticulously crafted project. -- Terrence O'Brien, Deputy Managing Editor

Key specs: WiFi, microSD slot, ATmega32U4 microcontroller, Atheros MIPS WiFi SoC.

Price: €52 (about $70) from Arduino

 

[Kaido]

ideally i'd like to hack something together with motox + several mics mixed down, with the output tied to the motox somehow. maybe just a cheap used motox in every room.

man, i can't wait to buy my own house.

Yeah that'd be pretty cool. The mic part would probably be easy with a bunch of choir mics and a mixer and some long XLR runs to centralize everything; the tricky part would be getting the voice input sent to the Moto X somehow. I'm sure there's some tricky ways of doing it, or at least a relay system for output to your phone. I know there's Prowl for iPhone, which lets you do custom push-notifications:

http://www.prowlapp.com/

And Google is integrating voice search into everything - even the Google homepage (at least in Chrome!), so I'm sure there's some way you could setup a data relay system...

 

[vshah]

Yeah that'd be pretty cool. The mic part would probably be easy with a bunch of choir mics and a mixer and some long XLR runs to centralize everything; the tricky part would be getting the voice input sent to the Moto X somehow. I'm sure there's some tricky ways of doing it, or at least a relay system for output to your phone. I know there's Prowl for iPhone, which lets you do custom push-notifications:

http://www.prowlapp.com/

And Google is integrating voice search into everything - even the Google homepage (at least in Chrome!), so I'm sure there's some way you could setup a data relay system...

the simplest way would probably be just to hack the output of the mixer into a headset cable and get the levels right. I wonder if the motox can use always on listening on a headset.

 

[Kaido]

the simplest way would probably be just to hack the output of the mixer into a headset cable and get the levels right. I wonder if the motox can use always on listening on a headset.

Oh, you mean like have it permanently mounted somewhere instead of digitally forwarded to a phone in your pocket? Yeah, you could just like like a TRRS adapter so it acts like a headset input or something.

 

[noacess]

I recently wired up my garage door to a RasPi with some relays over the GPIO pins. It works pretty well when paired with Tasker on Android and a web server. I also wired an Arduino with some distance sensors to detect when the doors are open and closed. Its amazing what you can do these days with such cheap hardware.

 

[Kneedragger]

Very nice!! Thanks for spending the time putting that together!