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First blog post: About me

For the past 16 years, I have worked for a variety of start up companies; my roles have ranged  from QA, marketing, sales and finally settling in on sales engineering positions.  Most of the companies  I have worked at have been in client/end point security and encryption space, with the last few companies at mobile technologies, like Good technology and Usher (a subsidiary of Microstrategy).  Therefore, it is safe to say, in my professional life I have always loved technology,  specifically mobility.  Therefore it is of no surprise that I found IoT.

Smoke Detectors & Smart Things

More IDEAS –

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XMX4GUC/?tag=slicinc-20&ascsubtag=3835a6e2f56211e6adf44e2cdd8a711b0INT

Leeo is extremely easy to use. Just plug it in and connect to your home’s WiFi. That’s it! And because it listens for the frequency of your existing smoke/CO alarms, you only need 1 for a typical home – much cheaper than replacing all of your existing alarms. It has additional features like millions of hues and temperature/humidity monitoring, too.

this thing listens to your fire alarms and then calls you, texts you, and sends a notification on your phone to warn you, so that you can look at cameras, etc.

 Leeo just announced that they are IFTTT compatible. So, you can create your own custom recipe for the SmartThings Hub to communicate with the Leeo Smart Alert.
https://ifttt.com/leeo/recipes

Leeo doesn’t detect smoke, it detects the alarm beeps from a smoke detector. Put another way, Leeo is a sound detector not a smoke detector (programmed to detect a specific sound pattern)

 

https://ifttt.com/leeo – Some cool actions !

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NEST 2

https://ifttt.com/connect/nest_protect/smartthings

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/nest-protect-2nd-generation-battery-smart-smoke-carbon-monoxide-alarm-white/8077101.p?loc=0&ref=8575135&acampID=eeecb7aef56211e6b8763ea98204674e0INT

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https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001AYERC2?tag=slicinc-20&ascsubtag=747a0428f56111e6b8228eb04cb7fa5b0INT

snag-0127

Motion Sensor to temp. gauge

So, I am planning to make home made prosciutto in my garage in the next week and I thought it would be great if I knew the temperature of my garage.  well, I have come to learn that all devices can register temperature (some more accurate than others). My plan is to buy this one, ZOOZ Z-Wave Plus 4-in-1 Sensor ZSE40 (motion / light / temperature / humidity), however, in the mean time, for testing, I will use my SmartThings Motion sensor in my office that is doing nothing.

First step was to see if anyone created an app on the SmartThings community and two minutes later and I have a remote temperature gauge.  Now to see IF the distance from my house to the garage is not an issue. Should this work, I will buy the ZOOZZ

img_0333

While I am here, I thought I would snapshot the other apps I have published on the SmartThings site.

screen-shot-2017-01-28-at-6-07-44-am

Ech0Sistant

Last night I found this site: http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=EchoSistant#Officially_Supported_Commands_Listing

http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=EchoSistant#Latest_Software_Versions

Before I tell you what it might do, these are the requirements:

Required Hardware/Software

  1. – Amazon Alexa enabled device or the service on your mobile device (check)
  2. – SmartThings account with active ST Hub, V1 or V2 (check)
  3. – Speakers that are available from within the SmartThings environment. These can be Sonos, wi-fi, z-wave or any other method, but they must be seen in your SmartThings mobile app 😦
  4. – Amazon Lambda Account (check)
  5. – Amazon Developer Account (check)
  6. – Echosistant Software installed (check)
  7. – SmartThings IDE Account access (check)

Naturally, I moved on this WITHOUT reviewing the requirements and in the final steps, I could not complete the integration.  So what am I missing, the SmartThings Speaker.

So what does this app give you, from the creators:

We’ve all seen “Iron Man” and dreamed of having Jarvis in our homes. We want to talk to our home; give it commands, ask for statuses, ask questions, and have meaningful conversations. All of this has been possible, to some extent. But now, the gaps are being filled. You no longer have to program in commands and have pre-canned messages for your Home Automation system. Now, have more control over the way things work.

………………..==EchoSistant==………………..

THE Ultimate Voice Activated App that turns Alexa into a powerful assistant capable of delivering your spoken messages via connected speakers or SMS. The Text To Speech capability you have always known has been expanded to a whole new level. Alexa, via SmartThings connected speakers can now be used as a two-way voice communication device!

So, now I have to look into speakers!

Google on Alexa

This morning I woke to an email from my friend Lee, who asked a simple Q, could the link in his email be legit?

Here is the link:

http://alexamods.com/guide-install-ask-google-alexa-skill/

(the creator: https://github.com/tartanguru/alexa-google-search)

And here is the result and evidence:

img_0332

So I can now ask “Alexa, ask Google” and then the question.

-thanks lee