Hey everyone! I am posting in hope that one of you might have an elegant Hubitat-oriented idea to help me stop our tech-savvy, sneaky 9-year-old from getting up at 4am and gaming or watching YouTube. This community is full of creative problem solvers, so here it is:
This problem started with COVID when we put an Intel NUC & monitor in his room for online school. Initially, we restricted/punished him. But it persisted. He admitted he's willing to do the time for the crime! Meanwhile, we need to ensure he is getting sufficient rest and is prepared for school.
We've tried several other things to no avail (removing the NUC, power cords, monitor cords, etc. nightly), but it is a LOT of hassle for us at night & morning, and the cables were not seating well after a couple weeks. And if we forgot one night, he would be online at the crack of dawn the following morning.
One idea I had is to replace all of his power outlets in his room with z-wave or zigbee controlled outlets so I can shut off all power in his room after 7pm, but I cannot find a device where both inputs are z-wave or zigbee controlled. It seems that only one of the two outlets can be controlled.
Do any of you have any ideas on how I can thwart our early morning gamer? If you don't, I'm going to have to learn how to write code for our Mist router.
Thanks for your thoughts! I'm willing to spend $$ on devices or whatever if we can automate our way out of this.
Are you running Windows 10 on the Intel NUC? If so, the simplest solution might be to enable parental controls. You can easily restrict the time of use using this feature, if I recall correctly.
Zooz ZEN25 is a double outlet z-wave plug where both are controllable. This won't stop him from disconnecting the Zooz and plugging in his devices though.
You could also look into a ZEN20 and replace his power strip with this. Then create a rule to turn off the outlets at 7pm, and between 7pm and sunrise (or whenever you want), if the outlets turn on they turn off. Of course this rule could be harmful to the equipment so use at your own risk
Take the internet offline between certain hours... HE (Hubitat) will be fine. Of course if he's anything like my daughter he will just connect to the neighbors WiFi... sigh.
One option could be to buy a zwave duplex outlet, one that is always on and one that is zwave controllable. Set a rule in the zwave controllable outlet to turn off in 5 seconds after it is turned on during the times before 7 am and after 8 pm or whatever..
for the always on outlet.. just use epoxy to block/close off the outlet.. low-tech solution. once the epoxy cures, it will be electrically insulating ( just make sure it does not have metal particles for strength ). you may have to do it on any outlets they the NUC could be plugged into.
I added one day of no tv/internet for every hour of unauthorized use.
I do have windows 10 parental control, Android Family and my Unifi which block out my son's devices as well. After about a week. He followed down to the second.
That Family Links Android app works great. My daughter was horrified to learn that I reset her birth date so her account wouldn't roll over to a regular google account when she turned 13. This is ultimately a losing battle of course and I will most likely relent when she starts high school this fall.
I wonder if you could cut the power to his room for the night?...
Definitely a losing battle. Luckily I don't have to worry about my kids with screen time but my older kid is also turning 13 and he's way above me on tech now. I am actually worry he will lock me out instead
I don't know anything about the Mist line, but if you can create an SSID that only he uses and give him the PW for that one, and then change the passwords on all your other SSIDs so he can't connect to them, and then schedule his SSID I think you'd be done. (As long as he can't use his phone as a hotspot.)
My netgear x8 r8500 has built in scheduling per user or device. It’s a few years old now but I am assume most high end routers now have this built in. Of course It came too late for me. My son is almost 22.
It will, however, allow him to block your internet access when you're 80 years old and staying up too late posting on Facebook. ("Seriously, Dad, Facebook?!?")
This goes back more than 20 years but when our kids were of that age, AOL was the big thing. I had a rule on the internet router that blocked access to the AOL login hosts after 10PM. That way they could continue to do schoolwork (that was always the excuse if I shut off the internet entirely). It is probably far more difficult to do that today as there are so many more attractive nuisances on the internet. I wonder if anyone has put together a block list for pi-hole that you could use . . .
A lower tech solution might be to purchase a wireless keyboard and mouse. Remove them at whatever time he must stop using the computer. I realize you will have to watch for smuggled in keyboard and mouses (mices to pieces?).
Kinda the same as what you are doing now but without the cables.
Kids are creative, I can think of several ways to circumvent Z-Wave controlled outlets. For instance; an extension cord from the garage left outside his window.
I'm not sure how to accomplish this but my initial reaction would be to let him have access to the computer but somehow make the time worst that the crime. It would seem a few times he stayed up all night and wasn't allowed to sleep during the day might change his view on things. But I can't really say as everybody is different.
Another thought is buy him a laptop. Keep the charger in your control.
("Seriously, Dad, Facebook?!?")
