I am desperate for ideas

"I am desperate for ideas"
That must be terrible for you.

I don't think I've seen mention of dashboards? There's a whole huge can of worms you could open up there if you're not already dashed up.

This one's not strictly home automation, but it seems from the above like a project you might like that would go well with some of your other projects: Look into making your own SMART MIRROR/MAGIC MIRROR?

Coupling one of these with dashboards could be a pretty intense and extensible project that would give you plenty to do!

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I'd toyed with the idea of a magic mirror. I love the idea. Right now, I have a dashboard on my cell phone and that is it. I know! It sounds crazy, but let me talk a bit about my setup. I hope i don't miss anything. It's a bit of a read.

We'll start with the outside and work inward like walking through the house.
Outside lights - turn on an hour before sunset and off an hour after sunrise IF they're on. They turn off when night mode is invoked, but turn back on if a door is opened to enter or exit our home if it's within the sunset/sunrise time frame. (Front, garage, back garage, overhead, or walkway door.

Inside garage lights turn on when entry to the garage is made at any time. It's not ever very bright in there. so house to garage, back garage door, front garage walk way door, overhead.

Enter from garage to kitchen/dining - the kitchen island when the entry door opens will light if the motion sensors in that room are inactive and the lux is below the set threshold. The house knows that no one else is moving and turns on that light to help you into the door. The light in that entry also turns on when the pantry door is open. Lights the pantry closet quite well.

the kitchen/dining pendants only actively turn on between 5&7 as dinner happens in that timeframe. there are 3 motion sensors to keep them on while we're moving in there. One above the dining table/above stove/sink/ on in the entry path be the table.

The kitchen/dining pendants will turn on at any time if movement exceeds 10 minutes in that area. So if I've started doing a longer task, the lights will turn on and remain on with motion. The lighting above the cabinets will turn on an hour to sunset and off an hour after. They remain lit at 20% with no movement and ramp up to 100% with movement. When night mode is invoked, then 1 strip turns off and one strip remains on to interact in the same way, but as a nightlight. In the morning, the other strip will turn back on when quiet time or home modes are invoked if it's between the sunrise/sunset hours. I have cans that light in the kitchen with motion as well if the lux is low enough, but stop responding after 7pm unless movement exceeds 10 minutes. The strips above the cabinets are bright enough to light the room enough to get a drink or put something away, etc. No need to keep turning on the main lights for a drink of water.

Bedrooms are lit with motion. The mode determines which lights turn on. Under the bed, two sconces, and a lamp. Fan turns on at quiet time and off in home mode. Quiet time turns off the lamp and two sconces. Only the under bed lights function as someone has gone to bed if quiet time is on. in night mode, everything turns off except for the small light strip above the kitchen cabinets. Tv's turn off and anything else that may indicate "on".

Upper living room has motion and fan also. Fan turns on if the temp exceeds a threshold. Turns off in away mode. Lights are switched. Turn on if motion triggers them and lux is below a certain level. If I turn the tv on, then the lights turn off and the table by the front door dims to 20%. That lights is on a sunset/'sunrise schedule and off and night mode, but dims when the living room lights or tv turns on and brightens when the room is unoccupied. I did this because we hang out in the basement more and we look like we're never home.

The rest of the house is more simple, just worth mentioning. Steps are lit with a sensor at the top and bottom. The bottom sensor turns on the basement living room lights when you reach it. The lights remain on if my office lights are on or the tv is on. Otherwise they turn off when motion stops. Same weith the spare bedrooms.

I can't automate my bathroom yet as we are still remodeling that room. Need an exhaust fan and switches installed. Electrician comes when he has slow days.

My house modes are dictated by our cell phone chargers. You read that right. Docking one cell phone changes the mode from home to quiet time. Docking the second cell phone changes mode from quiet time to night. undocking both changes to home. Presence dictates home and away modes also. I had to create the dock automation using a pressure button and contact sensors.

So, in that nutshell, I haven't a real need for dashboards as the only way my husband would allow this automation project is if he didn't have to do anything. Like push a button or ask alexa to turn something on for him. Everything had to be worked into something he does every day as a routine. Nothing extra. I've kind've begun to appreciate our silent automation qualities and take them for granted to an extent. Really messes with visitors.

[EDIT]
I missed one thing. The yard light in the back turns on when I let the pups out and off when I let them back in. Open - On - close -stay on - open- stay on- close - turn off. Pups get a treat!. Also, all of my other rooms, laundry, furnace, server rooms all have motion lighting, but since we don't use those rooms for much, there isn't much else in there. Also we have smart smoke detectors.

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Right on! I've recently done quite a bit with motion lighting and time/mode aware behavior of switches and such, and definitely know what you mean about taking for granted when the light is just always kinda "right." That said, don't forget about the utility of dashboards as informational hubs about what your home is doing, status. A dash doesn't just have to be a control panel. It can display info from all around your home, and outside as well, I can tell from where I sit in my bedroom now that my kids are up, someone has messed with the thermostat (of course), and what the weather is going to be today, all at a glance. I can also see that my daughter has taken the portable speaker from the living room and is using it for Spotify. (And my dashboards AREN'T even set up primarily for info).

Was just a thought though. You have an enviable setup. Enjoy, and keep us posted!

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Why thank you! I do have various tablets that can display a dash if I pull it up. My downfall is that the nest is empty. It's just my husband and I. I did threaten to put another smart lock in house door from the garage because he has this crazy habit of locking doors. WE LIVE IN IOWA! In a town of 800 people. It's VERY high crime. Someone might just steal his hershey bars. ha! I'm planning on getting some different cameras around this joint. The ones that I have are proprietary and won't let me add them to a dash. I think that once that happens, dashboards will be my thing. I think I will work on creating some new dashboards. It's come in handy from work when someone needs to stop by for something or I'm expecting someone.
You make a great point on that.

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I'm interested in what you've done with silent set up. THAT is my thing. Any unique ideas there?

Oh, I doubt I have anything you don't already have outdone. Just simple things like how my deck light, which is motion activated after dark, has a Lutron Pico switch now so that if I want to cook out, I can turn it on, and it sets the mode to manual for an hour, and leaves the light on instead of motion... Or if I want to take the dog out and NOT trigger the motion detector, I can hit the off switch, and it sets it to manual and leaves it off for half an hour, then resets it to auto... Simple stuff, and various lights coming on as night lights for various lengths and different brightness depending on what mode the system is in. You've got more than I do in that regard.
I use Sharptools running on wall mounted tablets for my dashes.

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You're starting to convince me to improve my dashboards. :smile: Very nice.

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If you're looking for some additional silent automations, I'm happy to share

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Beautiful home you have.

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Thanks! I actually have 6 motion sensors sitting here that I'd love to put to work.
I have the living room, kitchen, hallway, both bathrooms, pool deck, garage, and front step covered with motion in one form or another, though the front and garage aren't "smart" per se, because just good old fashioned occupancy and light sensing has proven to be all I really want there.
Haven't put any motion sensors in the kids' rooms or anything, because...1. there's nothing smart in those rooms (pun lovingly intended) and 2. If they're in there, they're lying there lazily on their phone or computer, and they wouldn't trigger motion anyway. :joy:
But I'd love to hear some silent ideas for 6 motion sensors that could perhaps be put to use in a way I hadn't thought of. :+1:

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Given you have a drop ceiling in that room, i would set up a spotlight in the ceiling tiles for that flag, I think edge lighting it might optically detract from the flag.

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Ah good call! My husband and I are going to hang some steampunk shelves on either side of the flag instead of the frame. I'll be looking into that spot. Never thought of that. This is why I love this forum.

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Well, my steps are lit. I have a motion sensor on both ends. My intention is for it to turn off when you reach the second sensor, etc, if the first sensor is active, but I haven't set down to figure out those rules and the timing of it all.

My kitchen has several motion sensors. Maybe overkill. I like lights to turn off as soon as there's not motion with no delay. My desk has a little xaiomi motion sensor under the monitor that keeps my office lights on when I'm working at my computer. I also have one at my work bench so that when I'm working there it's without interruption of light. Works really well for me. I have a short hall that's really really dark at night. For some reason there was never a light in there. I have a sensor in that hall that will turn on the spare lamp in the room at the end. I plan on a sconce in the near future, which will also be motion. It's crazy, but I walk my house occasionally with my computer looking for motion dead spots where there should be detection. I wired in my aeotec multi 6's so that they can update more often for illuminance. I like the lights to turn on if I would typically turn them on. I'd put motion in the garage. Not just for lighting, but for SHM. My thoughts are if you have them use them. Even if you think it may be overkill for now. If you add something with motion, you can always change it. You can really button things up nicely when you have plenty of motion sensors going on. Keeps my hubby happy. Our 20x20 bedroom even has 2 sensors. Haha.

Kids with phones? Teenagers? Motion sensors don't always need to used for lighting. They don't get appreciated as much as they should be.

When it comes time to work on your stairway rules, remember the ' wait for conditions/events' actions. I've found this to be a simple and reliable way to sequence things. I've set up an automation to where I can tell Alexa to lock the door behind me on my way out. A virtual switch is turned on, then waits for the door to open and close before locking. If the door isn't opened in 30 seconds, the wait is cancelled, the actions are cancelled and the switch is reset.

In your case, motion sensor 1 is triggered turning light on, wait for motion sensor 2 to go active, then turn light off.

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Great advice. I need to establish the range on the sensors. I think I'll have to have some sort of delay, but not sure what that'll be. The bottom sensor also turns on the basement lights when you're headed down and just about to the bottom, so I need to button it up and keep my rules efficient. It'll be a nice challenge. Right now they're just reaching out and working so that I can establish how we use them. I want to change the brightness and color of the steps according to time of day. Blue at night and maybe bright white during the day. or direction of travel. Going up could be a bit blinding and going down needs to be brighter because the basement is dark. So many things to think about with this project. I'm glad you brought that up. I hadn't thought about basing these rules on conditions in that way.

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April—I have an idea that I’ve wanted to do for a few months, but haven’t had time to complete (my wedding is just weeks away now). :flushed:

I have a Xiaomi magic cube—the idea was that when I roll it, depending on what side is up, it would order a different pizza meal with the dominoes api. The order would be placed in 10 seconds, with a double tap of the cube (or some gesture) cancelling the order.

If you’d like to steal that idea and automate it, you’re more than welcome to :slight_smile:

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  • Convert your battery powered devices to run on AC power
  • Convert all those dusty 2.5 rules to 4.0

Brilliant--just think of the possibilities:

whose turn is it to do the dishes...
or cook dinner...
or pick a movie...

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Ohhh the movie one would be great for Plex users ... randomly pick an unwatched movie on your server. I like that idea a lot.

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