How does everyone deal with the WAF?

Yes and already implemented, I have the home control remotes, the Elite which has a touch screen. Each remote is setup identical for the launch activity buttons I.e. short press the TV button starts TV, short press the movie button starts NVidia Shield, etc.

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My WAF improved a very little bit when I explained that the reason why lights didn't come on immediately when she pushed on a remote like my Picos, Eria dimmers, etc, was because the remote had to make sure she wasn't holding, double tap, etc before performing an action. She didn't like it but at least understood why. It has kept her from repeatedly pushing a button when light didn't come on immediately. I have a couple of Picos that utilize the fast version but most do not.

However, the 3 year old son doesn't understand that so the Samsung button mounted low for him turns on his bedroom light whether he pushes, holds, or double taps then is disabled for 30 seconds so that he doesn't blink the lights with all of his pushes.

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My wife is opposite. as long as she can speak to it through Alexa, she doesn't really care what I do. simple voice commands dramatically increase the WAF. I had floated the idea of something using a remote and there was ZERO acceptance. I cant even get her to use the app or dashboards.

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This cracked me up...I can imagine him leaning on it w/a sword, hitting it w/a toy hammer, and until you disabled it, strobing the light endlessly. :smiley:

When I started w/ST years ago my sons were already old enough to use it w/out issues. Just realizing how lucky I was about that timing... :smiley:

I can barely imagine this in my world. :slight_smile: I can't even get my wife to remember/use "Hey Google, turn on the island light." Her attempts before she gave up were pretty hilarious, though...

  1. Hey you, I need the light on the island on
  2. Hey google, give me the island light now
  3. Hey google, light up the island

...and more I can't remember. It was very entertaining for my son and me. :smiley:

Update: Oh, oh, remembered our favorite:

  • Hey google, light up the lights

My son an I almost passed out from laughing, wife didn't speak to me for a little while...

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Yeah. Alexa hates me with a passion. I stick to the dashboards and app. once in a while I may try Alexa, but I usually end up getting ticked off them my wife says the same thing and it works just fine. I'm pretty sure Alexa is sexist. hahaha

Of special interest to those of us who are just entering our seventies:

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One of the most hilarious SNL skits ever, and I go all the way back to season 1. :slight_smile:

I just watched it again, and I hurt myself laughing.

Oh, and to honor some posts from women in this forum complaining about their husbands' inablity/unwillingness to deal w/smart home stuff, I think there was talk of a needing a new acronym...

WAF ->:

  • SAF (spouse approval factor)
  • PAF (partner approval factor)
  • HAF (housemate approval factor)
  • RAF (roommate approval factor)
  • TNTAPISCTLWAF (The now totally annoying person I somehow chose to live with approval factor)

I like the last one the best, because it really captures my feeliings on the subject.

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Jewelry......

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Automation in "technical" areas: garage, basement, stairs. Autolock bolds. Random lights when we're not there. Irrigation and energy measurement. Garden lights. Thermostat. Lutron Caseta for lights. Independent monitored alarm system (but I use my hub to obtain various info like doors status/smoke alarm). Independent Cams system, but some are harvested to display them into hub.
Specific buttons (picos) that launch a set of operations (open the TV, launch the connected computer, etc) with a single press.
no voice inputs (microphones are all switched off). some voice outputs (wash is done, mail has arrived, somebody/friends ring our bell, etc). Sound system on multiple rooms.
I have several lights triggered by presence but my wife has a single "WIFE" button to disable them, because she likes to be in control.
No automation in our bedroom (old X10 weird auto-triggers).

Basically, if my hub/plc are off for any reason, the house is still fully functional, less some optional advantages.

When I started tinkering with home automation, my hubs made one statement. "I do not want do dance, sing, jump, yell, or beg for something to turn on." In his opinion, it's easier to walk to the switch. That being said, I'm 3 years in and take pride in the fact that almost everything automated is based on every day interactions in our household. It's forced me to think outside the box. Dock your phones and mode changes to night, morning, or quiet time depending on how many phones are docked. With this customized automation:

I use a fair amount of motion sensors throughout. Our bedroom fan helps keep the bedroom cool at night. It changes speed based on @iharyadi 's environment sensor. I've had to loosen up the rules for this because his sensor is way too accurate and fast and had to contend with the fan fluttering. The fan only turns on if someone is in bed. Thus a phone is docked. If everyone is up, (no phones docked0 the mode changes to day and the fan turns off and lights adjust and interact accordingly. The living room lights interact based on our harmony remote. When the tv is on, the lights dim and stay on until the media is turned off and motion is inactive. I've spent a LOT of time observing our habits. Little tweaks here and there to make things more transparent. I have voice control, but it seems that my husband has more success with that wench than I do. She never controls anything I ask her to. Ironic? Yes, I think so. I use alexa mostly for voice announcements. She announces someone at the door and who unlocked one of my locks. I have a dashboard but only for troubleshooting, or if someone wants to get into my house and I am not home. So I find some controls are still necessary, but prefer transparency. I have a considerable number of automations. Too many to name here and the only one that requires any real interaction is a button in the kitchen that will pause the lights from turning off in there if we find we're doing something that requires an exception. Otherwise everything is "contactless" interaction. Yes. I take pride in that. 3 years in and getting even better.

I will throw in this one as well. Home automation also needs to be fun, otherwise we wouldn't do it.

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Come on, we are all Tech's here and we know we do with outdated technology. We replace it. I know I know it's expensive. But we're used to it. That's the price we pay for loving this hobby/obsession.

I suggest that if you are having a WAF issue that you simply need to upgrade. W1 level upgrades are probably the most expensive upgrades you can make. In fact, as I understand it if you want to replace/remove a W1 it may involve technical and even legal expenses. It can damage your entire network and home. I personally have never upgraded my W1, and I don't intend to. But I have had friends make these upgrades. Actually some chose to upgrade, others just removed the W1, and still others thought they were upgrading and it turned out that the feature set of the new W2 level was severely lacking. I've watched in horror as it caused them to lose their ENTIRE HOUSE! I know! Who thought that this obsession could have such dire consequences? It started with just wanting to make a silly lightbulb come on at a specific time (because a simple darkness sensor just seemed too easy) and it progressed to removing the W1 and losing their house!

Some WAF problems can actually result in the W1 failing on its own! Network intrusion and malware cause the W1 to self uninstall and join neighboring networks. This is the worst! There is very little in the way of software that will prevent this! In fact, often the only way to repair this level of problem is to remove the automation system completely or remove the W1 before it removes itself. Super super expensive I might add.

My WAF level is very high. I hope to keep it that way. But then I started this obsession when I only had the GF7 installed and it was a pretty smooth upgrade to the W1. As I understand it when you follow that upgrade path the chances that the W1 having WAF issues are much lower. Good luck and just beware of all the pitfalls.

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WAF? HAF? Sounds like you may have set the bar a little low. Marry someone smarter. The problem goes away.

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My wife has forgotten how to use the switch. I have an automation that turns on our back patio lights after dark when the patio door. One day I reached over and not switch to turn it off and she asked how did you turn off,the lights I didn’t hear you.

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Set up as "Absence". I do this for my guest manual mode. This is simply done in "simple automation rules" works perfectly.

Do you have any dark pantries, linen closets, laundry closets? My WAF completely change when I added light strips to those areas. I prefer to use contact sensors to trigger mine, so as soon as the door opens the lights are on (closed the go off).

Check out this post by @nkyspike. I have some pics of mine somewhere but I cannot find them now. Plenty on that thread to get the idea.

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That works unless you have someone like my sister, who has never closed a cabinet or closet door in her life. So then every light in the house is on all day.

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lol 3 min timeout? Have sis pay electric bill (seems to change behavior fairly quickly :rofl:)

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I work with some of those !!!

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