[Build Log] Home Automation

[JrClocker]

Got some time over lunch to show what the ADT setup and control interface looks like. The interface is web-based, and you can access it from anywhere.

When you first log into the web portal, you are greeted with this screen:



Top Left: Zone status
Middle Left: Smart Devices and status
Bottom Left: Notable Events

Top Right: Home View (you can setup a schematic for your home and add animations here...this is on my todo list)
Middle Right: Security Camera Clips recorded
Bottom Right: Scheduled Automatic items


This is the "Alerts" screen:



This is pretty self explanatory. Basically, in addition to the normal call from ADT if the alarm goes off, I get text messages and emails based on various events. The cool one is the "System/Device Trouble" one, as it texts you if any of the devices are not currently reporting into the system correctly.


Here is the System Summary Overview screen:



This shows all devices on the system. The "Other Devices" at the bottom are the Z-Wave and Z-Wave Plus devices. New devices are added by simply clicking the "Manage Devices" button. It's very simple.

Notice that there are not any thermostats installed yet...those are coming in a few weeks. Two will be installed, 1 for each A/C unit in the house.


This is the "Schedules" screen:



This is where you setup things you want to have happen based upon a schedule and not any sort of sensor trigger. I have 3 programmed in right now:

- Front Door Lock: checks every hour and locks the front door, only when the system is armed in "Away" mode. Just in case we forgot to lock the front door.
- Lights Off: Turns off all lights in the house at 2 AM. Just in case one of the kids turned something on after the alarm was set to "Stay" mode (see below.)
- Away from House: if the alarm is set to "Away" mode, this will turn on lights randomly in the house. If we are away for an extended period of time, the "Lights Off" schedule will turn everything off at 2 AM.


This is the "Automations" screen:



This is where the majority of my smart home actions are setup. From the top:

- Security Panel Disarmed: Sets the house mode to "At Home" when the panel is disarmed. This is used to trigger and check other automations
- Security Panel Stay: Sets the house to "Asleep" when the panel is armed in "Stay". This is used to trigger and check other automations
- Security Panel Armed Away: Sets the house to "Out for the Day" when the panel is armed to "Away". This is used to trigger and check other automations
- Security Panel Burglary Alarm: Will delete this. A default program the system installer put in to show me how the system works

- Entry Door Open: Between 5 PM and 7 AM, this will turn on the living room, and the 2 hallway lights leading to the security panel when an entry door is opened
- Entry Door Closed: Starts a 5 minute timer which turns off the above lights when the above door is closed...I have added extra log here for "party mode" where not lights are automatically turned off (would be annoying to have lights going on and off when you have folks over)
- Front Door Camera Motion: Does the same thing as Entry Door Open, but is triggered by the front door camera motion sensor...this is handy when you forget to leave a light on...things light up as you approach so you can see!
- Kitchen Family Room Open: When the door to the outside lanai is open, this turns on the lanai ceiling fans, and turns them off 30 minutes later...useful for grabbing a smoke on a hot Florida day!

- Asleep Mode Starts: When "Asleep" mode is set (triggered by the Armed Stay above), this turns on the ceiling fan in the master bedroom, and then turns off all lights in the house
- Morning Mode Starts: Still messing with this one...TBD
- Movie Mode Starts: When "Movie" mode is activated (from my phone or the keypad), this turns off all lights in the surrounding area of the family room, and then sets the recessed family room light dimmers to 30%


Here are examples of the automation scripting:






That's it for now...until I come up with more ideas of what I want the house to do.

Any ideas are welcome!

 

[JrClocker]

I'm not ashamed to admit that I just had another nerdgasm...

Played around with the home view setup...a crude drawing of my house as seen from the ADT Pulse App:




It's pretty cool - shows the basic status and the smart devices. If I touch a camera, it brings up live video and clips. If I click on a light, I can turn on/off, dim, etc. Wow / much easier than navigating the main screen!



Here's the view from the web portal...Crude but Effective:

 

[JrClocker]

Updates:

The wife LOVES the smart house.

- Open the door to go smoke and the outside ceiling fans are already spinning.
- Approach the front door at night and inside lights turn on.
- All lights go off automatically when you set the alarm.
- Lights come on and off randomly while away from the house.
- Doors and garage door close automatically.
- Enter "Movie Mode"...family room recessed lighting to 20%...turn off all other family room and kitchen lights.
- Have to step away from the house for a while...check on the dog with the "doggie cam".

It's very impressive when it all works. However, I'm working through a few kinks:


Z-Wave wireless reliability
Once I got the system up and running, I was noticing that every once in a while I would get lengthy delays in turning some lights on and off. Rarely, I would even get a "miss" and a "command not acknowledged" error from the ADT Pulse system. I went into the logs, and saw that some of the nodes were missing commands. The "network reliability" was at 98%.

The Z-Wave protocol requires a node to acknowledge a command when it is sent by the master controller. Missed communications causes retries. After a few retries, the device is "faulted" by the ADT Pulse System until it receives the next status update or command acknowledgement.

Step 1: I'm still learning about Z-Wave. Z-Wave is a mesh network...which means that it has the capability to optimize communication paths by routing communications through other nodes...as opposed to directly from the master controller to the node (like WiFi works.) Only A/C power nodes can be used for routing...battery powered nodes do not route. (Makes sense...you do not want your batteries being drained by routing traffic.)

The first mistake I made was to not force the system to refresh the mesh network.

I went into the ADT Pulse web interface, and forced a "Refresh Mesh" command. This takes about 5 minutes on my system.

Network reliability increased to 99.5%. This is pretty darn good. Automation is near instantaneous. However, I did have 1 missed automation communication over 2 days...so not there just yet.


Step 2: Z-Wave runs in the 900 MHz ISM band. As this is a much lower frequency than your typical 2.4 GHz WiFi network, it punches through walls much better than the higher frequency. However, it is more susceptible to multi-path interference (reflections of the wave). I went back and looked at the placement of the Z-Wave master controller...it was sitting very close to the high power audio amplifier and speakers of my main gaming PC.

Following the general rule of thumb to have a transmitter at least 10 wavelengths from any sort of emission or reflection source, I repositioned the Z-Wave master controller.

Network reliability is now 99.9%...and I haven't missed a command in 2 days. As the probability of missing a command is so low, I'm not sure if this has "fixed" the problem yet.


Interface with Alexa
The automation scripts and smart phone interfaces are working great! However, Alexa integration is less than reliable.

To have Alexa control the system, you have to say "Alexa, ask ADT to turn on the Kitchen Dining Light".

Alexa's voice recognition (which is usually spot on) is puking a lot. She is missing many of the words at the end. The only thing I can figure is that the microphone echo cancellation algorithm isn't very good for long phrases. This makes sense as it's based on an input signal differentiator...so this increases the perceived "background noise".

If you keep the phrases short, she is typically spot on.

The ADT Pulse Skill does not directly expose the Z-Wave endpoints to Alexa. If you ask her to search for devices, she doesn't see any.

The only answer is to add a secondary Z-Wave hub to my system...that will pull the points from the Master Z-Wave controller and expose them to Alexa. Once this is successful, the command will be "Alexa, turn on the Kitchen Dining Light".

Reviews for Z-Wave controllers are all over the map. This article says Item A is great...that article says it's bad.

For my first experiment, I chose the SmartThings Hub (generation 2). Some people have gotten it working...some not. But I got it for $80...much lower price than many of the other ones out there.

I'll post my success/failure as I work through this over the next few days!

 

[TechWizard]

I'll have to read through the rest when I can - Sounds like ADT bought or developed some open-mesh like software for working with multiple networked devices which is impressive if you ask me. I had no idea anyone out there was actively working on real solutions for something like this.

Definitely going to take all of this into consideration while looking for a new place in the near future.

 

[JrClocker]

The main alarm panel is made by Honeywell.

The Z-Wave master control hub is made by NetGear.

ADT still has some work to do on IFTTT interfaces and additional automation functionality. For example, the NEST thermostat "interface" is not really that great. You can read and control thermostats through the smart phone app, but you cannot use automation commands to drive the temperature (i.e. raise temperature when you leave the house, keep the temperature constant when the alarm is not set, etc.) The Z-Wave thermostats provide this functionality, but they don't look as "cool" as the NEST ones do.

But so far, I am happy I went this route...as I can use the main wired alarm control panel points (door open, motion sensor, etc.) to trigger home automation activities.

 

[JrClocker]

OK - Quick Update:

I got the Samsung SmartThings Hub today and set it up.

I was able to pair as a secondary controller to the main ADT Pulse Z-Wave controller.

The SmartThings Hub pulled over all of the devices, but not the names I gave them in ADT. It did not properly recognize 2 dimmers and a switch, but did bring them over as Generic Z-Wave devices. I'll have to research more about how to fix this...as I can't set a few dimmer levels through the SmartThings app.

Also - it pulled over my garage door opener, but it's update is very very slow.

The plus side, is that when I enabled the SmartThings skill in Alexa, it brought over all the switches. Now I can just say "Alexa, turn on the Lanai Fan" instead of "Alexa, ask ADT to turn on the Lanai Fan". Alexa has had 0 errors since I did this.

Also, with Alexa you can create groups. For example, I grouped all the kitchen lights together and called it "Kitchen". Now I can say "Alexa, Kitchen on" and all 3 lights come on at once! This is great as ADT does not support grouping.

I am not very impressed with what you can automate with the SmartThings app. ADT pulse has way more flexibility in automation as compared to what SmartThings offers. However, the SmartThings interfaces with many more devices.

I have no problem buying only the devices directly supported by ADT as my main goal is a smart home with automation.

But...now Alexa has good voice control...so mission accomplished!

 

[JrClocker]

I still agree with my initial statement that I'm not very impressed with what you can do with the SmartThings app compared to ADT Pulse.

This statement is true for beginners and not geeks like us!

However, after poking around, I learned about the SmartThings IDE. Here, you can create your own code to run in SmartThings as well as use code provided by other folks in the community. This is very interesting...I will do more research here. My main concern would be security breaches into my smart house network...as this code appears to partially execute in "the cloud" as well as on the SmartThings hub. Again, more research is required.

I think it's kind of cool that I can have the main ADT Pulse system do all the security and "main" smart house automations...and I can then use the SmartThings to add additional automations. For example, ADT Pulse has no "sunset" or "sunrise" options to include in it's automations. So, you can't tell a specific light to go on at "sunset"...only at a specific time of the day.

SmartThings understands "sunset" and "sunrise". With my current configuration as the SmartThings as a secondary Z-Wave controller, any SmartThings automation appears as a manual button press to the main ADT Pulse system...and it catches it on the next update. I still haven't been able to figure out if the ADT Pulse system polls the Z-Wave devices for status or utilizes the "I just got turned on/off" message that the switches send. I think it polls...but I can't find any information on the polling interval or how to control it.

Another thing is that the SmartThings app doesn't always display the Z-Wave device status correctly. I'm not sure if it's a time lag thing (as it has a longer polling interval) or if it doesn't poll at all...or if it's an artifact of having the SmartThings hub as a secondary Z-Wave controller. For me, this isn't an issue as I want to use the ADT Pulse app as the main interface.

So - for total home control I still have 1 App. Automation now happens within 2 separate hubs.

Pretty cool...and more to come as I make my house smarter!

 

[JrClocker]

Update: SmartThings incorrect device recognition

OK - I figured out to easily correct when the SmartThings hub scanned some of my Z-Wave devices earlier (as a secondary hub) incorrectly.

You fix this within the SmartThings IDE. You can change the type of device to what it needs to be. As an additional bonus, it also automatically pushed these updates to Alexa (I have 2 dimmers that were not originally recognized as dimmers...I updated these in the IDE and Alexa was automatically updated...pretty cool).

It looks like I also have the capability within the IDE to add devices. I am going to put a few more Z-Wave switches in this weekend, and I am going to go this route versus having to rescan the entire Z-Wave network. This requires that you know the device type and that you also know it's network ID. The network ID will be assigned by the ADT Pulse master Z-Wave controller...so this should work.

More updates to come!

 

[JrClocker]

Update: SmartThings IDE

The SmartThings IDE is pretty powerful. In addition to being able to update improper device recognitions, you can also write your own code.

Additionally, SmartThings has integrated GitHub to allow you to save your programs, as well as share them with the existing community.


Gawwwwwww....I just had another nerdgasm on this (after already having a few today!)


--------------------------------------------------------
There are two main types of code you can write:

1. SmartApps: these are apps that you add into your SmartThings hub through the smart phone app...and they can do whatever you program them to do. There is a large number already existing...but there is a VERY large number up in the GitHub repository! These interface to your SmartThings connected hardware through "Device Handlers" - number 2 below.

2. Device Handlers: this is code that allows you to write specific "drivers" than can be access by your own apps. These Device Handers can be hardware specific, generic, or create virtual hardware devices that can be accessed by the SmartApps

The downside of this is that your SmartThings automation happens in the SmartThings Cloud. There are some instances where the automation happens locally to your device, but it has to be limited to a set of devices that your app is accessing which SmartThings verifies runs locally on your device.

So, in my initial experimentation, I have decided to only put SmartThings custom coded automations around instances that I don't really care if they operate when the Internet goes down at my house.


--------------------------------------------------------
So...on to what I've done so far!

The GE Z-Wave Plus switches and dimmers that I installed have the capability to process a "double tap up" and a "double tap down" versus just a "tap up" and "tap down". However, the current ADT Pulse and SmartThings integration of these devices does not expose these capabilities.

So first, I brought down and installed a user written Device Handler for these switches which incorporates this. The code is written by nuttytree, and can be found here:

https://community.smartthings.com/t...switch-with-double-tap-and-associations/82042

Here is what it looks like in the SmartThings IDE:




So, now I publish it to my SmartThings account/hub, and change the device type for the switches I want to use the double tap capability...check!

The double tap requires association if you want to recognize double tap events on multiple switches to perform the same function. Like a double tap of any switch in a given room to perform the same function. If you only want the double tap of a single switch to drive logic, then you don't have to associate.

Next, you need an app that can do something with the double tap event. As I'm not quite ready to write my own yet, I did some searching and found a fantastic community rules engine called CoRE (Community's own Rules Engine). This thing is FANTASTIC. Here is a link to their wiki:

http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=CoRE


Gawwwwwww....another nerdgasm after browsing the CoRE wiki again!


Using the VERY POWERFUL logic engine, I added the following automations to my smart house (which is getting smarter):

1. Double tap either the Light or Fan switch in the family room
--> Double tap Up, turns both on
--> Double tap Down, turns both off

2. Double tap any of the 3 hallway Light switches (one on each side of the house, and one in the middle)
--> Double tap Up, turns on all 3 lights
--> Double tap Down, turns off all 3 lights (the more useful one)

Even my wife was impressed!

The best part is that any automation which runs on the ADT Pulse Z-Wave hub looks like a manual activation to the SmartThings hub...and vice-versa!


More to come!


Gawwwwwww....

 

[JrClocker]

OK - another quick update.

The CoRE automation is pretty cool. There is also a version called webCoRE which makes creating scripts much easier as you do it through a web browser versus setting up on your phone.

I migrated the two double tap automations over to webCoRE. Here is hat the double tap script looks like for the hallway lights:




I could have combined all 3 button #1 into a statement like "if any of xxx,yyy,zzz button #1 is pressed". I structured it this way as it's easier to read, and does not require any device associations.

 

[JrClocker]

OK - I have been working through a "bug" in one of my home automation routes:

Turn Lanai (outside) fan on when back door is open, and turn off 30 minutes later.

I originally implemented this in the ADT system, as the back door sensor is a wired contact that feeds into this. The original script went like this:

- Back Door Open
---> Turn on Lanai Fan
- Back Door Closes
---> Wait 30 minutes
---> Turn off Lanai Fan

My original assumption (which was a good one) was that the newest event for back door close would override the 30 minute timer and start again.

BZZZZT

My wife had friends over, and the fan kept turning off a lot...far less than 30 minutes.

After some experimentation, I discovered that EACH of the door close events launch a separate 30 minute timer. So, if you open the door at time 0, 5, 10, and 15 minutes...each door open triggers the fan to come back on...but now I have 4 30 minute timers running separated by 5 minutes.

So...if I turn the fan on at 31 minutes...it goes off again at 35 minutes as the second timer is complete and turns off the fan.

I looked around in the ADT settings, and there appears to be no way to override the "parallel timer" functionality.

Bummer...this type of automation does not work with the stock ADT Pulse Z-Wave logic.

BUT

BUT...we have SmartThings and CoRE available to us.

After some experimentation, I came to an answer!

1. I need a piece of hardware to "translate" the ADT wired contact event to the SmartThings hub.
2. I had an old regular Z-Wave outlet switch device sitting around.
3. I renamed this device to "Lanai Fan Link"
4. Now, the ADT script looks like this

- Back Door Open
---> Turn on "Lanai Fan"
- Back Door Closes
---> Turn on "Lanai Fan"
---> Turn on "Lanai Fan Link"

I then went into the SmartThings CoRE and created 2 routines:

1. Lanai Fan
--- If "Lanai Fan" Switch is On, then
--------> Wait 30 minutes
--------> Turn off "Lanai Fan"

So...I have the ADT Pulse system start the fan, and I have the SmartThings CoRE be the timer.

This made it such that I had only 1 event turning off the Fan. The scenario of opening the door at 0, 5, 10, and 15 minutes just causes the fan to turn off at the 30 minute mark. If I turn the fan back on manually, the timer restarts to 30 minutes and then counts down.

Check!


However, what about the behavior of having the fan timer restart when the door is open? It's already on, so we have to make a new CoRE logic routine

2. Restart Lanai Fan
--- If "Lanai Fan Link" switch is on, then
--------> Execute piston "Lanai Fan"
--------> Turn off Lanai Fan Link

"Piston" is what CoRE calls a logic module.

So, the base fan timer is set any time it is turned on (by the app, by the switch, or by the ADT Pulse Animation). When the Lanai Fan Link module is triggered, the Lanai Fan timer is reset to 30 minutes. So, I always get 30 minutes of fan on-time from the last time I opened/closed a door.

YAY!


It may not seem like a big victory, but getting the ADT System to drive logic changes in the SmartThings system (without device polling) is a big deal.


The final piece I added was to have the motion sensor trigger for the back camera also kick the Lanai Fan Link. So, when you are outside and trigger the camera motion sensor (easy to do), the fan timer also gets reset...just like you opened and closed the back door.

Sweet!

This worked so well, I dropped the timer from 30 minutes to 15 minutes!

YAY!

 

[JrClocker]

OK - Scratch Vera off the list...complete piece of junk.

At the least the SmartThings works if it's connected to the internet. After 7 hours of messing with it (and 70 minutes on the phone with tech support) I could not get the VeraPlus device to deterministically get the status of any Z-Wave node.

A complete piece of junk!

The only positive I can give this thing, is that there was actually a person on the phone when I called the tech support number. However, I couldn't understand him...and he had no idea what he was doing.

 

[JrClocker]

Somehow the Vera device managed to hose up my SmartThings setup and my garage door opener.

I had to factory reset both...what a piece of junk this Vera device is. It's been out for over a year, and still not stable.

The good news is that while rebuilding the SmartThings setup, I found a SmartThings utility that lets you set the Z-wave devices association (something not natively exposed in the SmartThings or ADT Pulse.)

With Z-wave associations I'm able to directly tie devices together so that switch A directly turns on/off switch B...passes double tap commands...etc without directly involving either Hub or requiring any logic.

Also, I was able to directly set the "lifeline" association so that both the SmartThings and ADT Pulse hubs are immediately notified of manual button presses.

There is still some lag I am working to solve if the ADT Pulse activates a device with automation before the SmartThings sees it (and vice-versa).

I think my next step is going to be a USB Z-wave controller stick and a raspberry pi!

 

[JrClocker]

Been a while since the last update...but I have been busy!

Taking House!
---------------
1. I found an old laptop
2. Installed VLC Player
3. Installed the community written "VLC Thing" into the SmartThings Hub

The VLC Thing exposes a "player" and text-to-speech tool within SmartThings. I setup CoRE logic routines to make my house talk!

Front Door is locked
Front Door is unlocked
All kitchen lights are on
The playroom is ready for playing
The playroom is now off
...and others...
...my favorite:
Opening the pod Bay doors (when the garage is opening)
Pod Bay doors are open Hal (when the garage door is open)

Hehe

My wife thinks is cool, but also thinks I'm a major geek. I told her that I just found this on the internet...the major geek was the guy who figured how to do it the first time!

Future state is to bring either Sonos or Bose wireless speakers into the mix! I did this one for free!


Also, I installed Sylania Osram Zigbee RGB landscaping lights and RGB bulbs into the front light fixtures. (SmartThings does both Z-Wave and Zigbee). This is what they look like now:




For Halloween, they will be orange.

After Thanksgiving through New Year they alternate red and green!

On the 4th of July, they will flash Red, White, and Blue!

It's good to be a geek!

 

[Mandrake4565]

I'd bet most of us here are Geeks at heart JrClocker! Nice work man

 

[TechWizard]

Now I'm really skeptical after seeing the outside of your home! It looks nearly identical to one my grandparents used to live in when they lived in Olcala, FL for 15 years. Lots of memories there.

Now only if it had all this automation I would have had way more fun at 12 years old visiting in the summer

Nice on the RGB in the front. RGB EVERYTHING!!! Good idea on the holiday color change. I am going to have to consider doing the same putting up regular LEDs in the windows of our current apartment.

 

[JrClocker]

Hehe - thanks guys!

I don't live in Ocala...so I'm sure it's not your grandparents' old house! However, many of my neighbors are "grandparents". I never understood the concept of being retired and having a big house...

I know that my next house after my second oldest daughter (20) and my stepson (12) move out is going to be a condo on the beach! ...And it will be the smartest condo ever on any beach!

 

[JrClocker]

I ended up having to replace 1 of my 2 central air indoor units...poof...there goes $2,500!

But...but...but...

That means it's a great time to add in new Z-Wave smart thermostats!

Muhuhuhuhahahahaha

My AC guy installed 2 new Honeywell Z-Wave thermostats for free! Now, these are automated too!

You can even ask Alexa what the temperature is for either thermostat, and have her change the temperature!


Yay!

 

[JrClocker]

SmartThings is starting to lose it's shine...

For the 3rd time this month, my SmartThings hub has lost all of its devices:

- 30 Z-Wave devices (switches and 2 thermostats)
- 5 ZigBee devices (Osram Bulbs and a water sensor)
- VLC Thing (Text to Speech)
- 2 Samsung TVs

All of the groups I made are still there...but are completely empty.

All of the SmartApps are still there...but point to empty devices.

All CoRE routines are still there...but point to empty devices.

However, the devices are gone...not to be found...reboot doesn't fix it...disappeared into nothing...not a trace to be found...absent...nada...zilch...zero.

The last two times this happened, I had to do a factory reset and add all of the devices back in.

I sent an email to tech support, but have not heard back yet.

I will not add these devices for a 3rd time, only to have them all disappear again in a couple of weeks...I have better things to do with my time!

If tech support cannot fix this, then I am 100% done with SmartThings. Great idea...lots of customization...unstable platform.

Tried Vera already (piece of junk...and saying their software is at the Beta stage of development is generous.)


The ADT Pulse system (as the primary Z-Wave system) has been rock-solid-stable since I put it in. The only issue is the limitation on automation. Hence, SmartThings.

As a backup plan, I just ordered a HomeSeer USB Z-Wave stick and a Lightify gateway. If tech support can't help out, then bye-bye SmartThings, hello HomeSeer!


More to come...

 

[don256us]

Very interesting thread.