Just curious. Such a huge variety of individuals and thought it might be fun to hear some of our origin stories.
For me, I got started with a simple garage door monitor. I had kids in the house that were of driving age. They liked to exit the garage, and would frequently leave with the door open exposing all the bikes I have hanging in my garage to theft.
Looked around for solutions. Ran across a video for a "beer cannon" using IOBridge hardware(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVyLuosZ1rY). Dug a little deeper, and found that they made a gateway that had connectivity and could notify me based on status of things directly connected to it (in my case, a magnetic open close sensor connected to a relay on the gateway).
Eventually, I hooked up a momentary switch wired to the garage door button to allow me to open/close the garage remotely. But, I also hooked up a camera so I could verify no obstacles before doing so. (I still made my kids drive home and close the door anytime they left to emphasize the point of not leaving it open).
Anyhow, as things go, you start seeing other things that would be handy to do. Moved on to Smartthings, which went downhill quickly with cloud issues and V1 deprecation to eventually wind up with HE.
So, overtime (12 or more years), my single garage sensor has migrated to over 300 devices on HE. I think I might have a problem. But, it keeps the mind active trying to find new ways to be lazy.
*** Edited to add my background:
37 Years in physical, dimensional, and eletromechanical metrology and courses, not a degree, in programming (back in the days of mainframes to include Assembler, an antiquated version of Basic, COBOL and even using cards as IO) Programming was needed to simplify calculations needed for calibration of some fairly sensitive equipment back in the day when dedicated software was not available as it is today. For instance, calculation of apparent mass to true mass based on the effects of gravity and air boyancy to achieve ~16 part per million uncertainty for high precision mass and pressure.***
Having an empty house in the u.p. of mich that if heat fails or pipes burst in the winter can have dire consequences ... so the need to monitor snd control. Started with our main house in nh as a test/trial so i would be able to do the initial setup while there for only 2 weeks in nov.
Initially smartthings and moved here from there when the winds shown the demise of groovy around the time of c7 initial release. Ported a whole bunch if stuff from st that i used.
Now have some automations in 4 different locations.
Wife decided to put 8 "UP" lights behind some furniture etc. Each had a rotary switch on the light cord. All 8 go on and off every day. This was back in the X-10 days.
I wanted automatic closet lights without having to move the existing switches. The Aeotec ZW187-A magnetic switches in the top of the doors allow for automatic lights that are invisible.
I used to have a bunch of X10 stuff for lights and waking up... Got away from it but have always remembered it.
Got into marine aquariums and had a controller with a webpage and UI. Wrote a HUGE Tasker integration to parse the webpage and notify me if anything bad was happening to the system when I was not at home or could not see the UI, which is most of the time.
Saw a Kickstarter for an integrated router, Z-Wave, and ZigBee system. Thought, that sounds cool... and being able to have some things react when we get home (it had presence based on when a MAC rejoined or left the network) would make stuff easier by having lights on/off or such. That really started the "current" stuff.
Then we moved into a house where we could really kick off our Halloween and Christmas decorations. This allowed/required a LOT more controllable outlets and lights and I expanded it almost all using Z-Wave or ZigBee.
My wife and kids got into inflatables for Christmas. We can get some damaging winds though so I was having to shut them off if it sounded like it was too much....
The company making the controller started to lag... After giving it quite some time I decided to look for alternatives and ended up with Hubitat. Sounded interesting and the ability to write my own drivers had some appeal even though I thought I probably would be unable to. The first driver (I think, it blurs) I worked on was one that integrated my aquarium controller. Then ones for the sensors and outlets left from the previous system... This kicked off a bunch of my initial drivers.
Then I thought of the wind for the inflatables and bought a weather station... and found I could not integrate it. A year later I bought a different one and found it DID have something... so I wrote a driver integration from that... which has led to me having multiple different weather API/station integrations, all so I could shut off the inflatables automatically if it got too windy.
Now it is a few years later. I have multiple Hubitats of different generations. MANY parent drivers as well as a multitude more child drivers. TONs of devices as I buy things used or such. It has really added up.
Needed remote for wired HW vista 20P security system. Had purchased a device for that and less than a year after they shut down their server. Wanted something more future proof and ended up purchasing konnected boards and a hubitat hub. Had several wifi devices at that time, took them all out and started replacing with zigbee. Only been about 1.5 years and I have appx 60 zigbee devices and 30 zwave. Lucky I am retired from HVAC so I have the time it takes to learn this. This is a great hobby, very usefull IMO and easy to become obsessed with.
Started with X-10 to control Christmas candles in every window. Moved to ST when the X-10 controller software could not be updated anymore with newer versions of Windows. Added Zigbee and Z-wave devices replacing X-10 to control other lights. Added MyQ gateway to monitor/control garage door but stopped using when it went rogue flooding my local network so badly that it interfered with my ip-based TV. Finally, moved to Hubitat after much frustration with ST not doing DST time changes automatically.
I started with Phillips Hue for a couple of table lamps and a SmartThings kit where I used the outlets to control some outside lights and a water feature. About that time I heard about the changes happening at SmartThings; being new to home automation I didn't really understand but thought I should jump ship and look at alternatives. Vesternet in the UK had some information and comparisons on various hubs SmartThings, Hubitat, Homey, Fibaro Home Center etc. I was tempted by Fibaro as I had some devices but Hubitat seemed to be a better fit ( things running locally and not internet dependant). I automated all of the curtains, I added a few Z wave devices for lights in a couple of rooms and then OCD took over.....It made no sense to not have every single light in the house on the system ('we need this - I've got to improve the mesh babe...'). I then added a device to the alarm system and a Raspberry Pi running a MQTT broker allowing all of my existing PIRs and door/window contacts to be mimic'd by the Hubitat. That was a game changer for me as a security installer, as adding additional devices became almost free of charge and using the alarm set/unset status to shut things down or control whether certain automations should occur is easy.
For a couple of years it's been practically an obsession, constantly looking for additional things to automate using Rule Machine. I'm at a point now where things 'just work' and I don't need to be messing around too much with the system. I can't imagine going back to a non automated home.
I just like gadgets so back in the day, X-10 gear was an obvious rabbit hole for me to visit. There was no specific problem I was trying to solve, though.
Eventually better stuff came along and I got into Insteon. Though, if you know Insteon, you also know that the hardware itself was often awful. I bought so many switches and remotes and they kept dying. I got fed up and stopped buying in to that system... Just made do with an increasingly degraded HA setup.
Then, I learned about Hubitat, and finally got up to speed on ZIgbee and Zwave. Once I demonstrated to myself that the Hubitat way was going to work, I put together a box of every working Insteon part I still had, of which a half dozen were NIB, and just gave that box away on Craigslist.
I am still using my C-5. While I would like to upgrade there is also no killer feature pushing me to do so.
I started with X10 in the 70's with a "starter kit"... a 16 button controller and 1 dimmer and 2 appliance plug in modules... THAT was the beginning of the end!
Got my Father into X10 as well.
X10 (BSR) closed up, the SmartHome software was just ok, and module prices went up 5-10 times.
Just 2 weeks ago, I got rid of ALL X10 stuff (both mine and my Father's, since both parents have passed and I had to sell their house). Three big boxes that took up my car's back seat.
Off to the recycler they went.. many memories!
Then started with Wink, and failed when they went belly up. Still have the wink wedgie.. parts?
Then SMartThings but too limited and clunky. Still have THAT hub also. Usable?
Then found Hubitat!!!! WOWWOWWOW!!!
Joined Nov 20 2020 (two days after my birthday), and so far, GREAT!!!!
Have about 300 devices paired with maybe 100 different devices "on the shelf" just WAITING to be installed!!!!
This is NOT a plug-n-play system, although it is fantastic for someone that wants to go CRAZY with home automation!!!! and I try my best to do so!
All in that tiny little black box!
In my case near everything is already 100% automated. Per my wife request, everything absolutely must have a manual control (100% followed this requirement). As a result as of today I even have no idea what else to atomate. I am open to any suggestions.
Started with lighting like most I think. Setting up routines in the hue app was kind of a pain when out of town, and the dog sitters kept leaving the non-hue lights on all night. Which kind of defeats the purpose of having automated schedules. And it just kind of exploded from there. I can turn off all the lights (Z-Wave and Lutron switches, and Hue bulbs), automate some lights so they're not on all day (basement, kitchen), and automate lights for the dog sitters so they don't have to fumble around for the switches (which aren't always in the most obvious places). And a bunch of other things just to keep an eye on the state of the house.
My wife gave me a Harmony remote one Christmas and coupled with the need to turn off the fan/lights/outlets in my son's room, I found Wink, then moved to SmartThings, and later joined Hubitat.
Tell it like it is
