Home Automation

[l33tmaniac]

17 minutes ago, psinide said:

Ours are all house cats, they don't go outside. We get the occasional unwanted alarm, but if we want to sleep in, we usually keep the bedroom door closed  

 

I've been looking at the Deebot 950 & T8. T8 was ~44k a few weeks back on amazon, now its at 51k  But both are supposed to be good with pet hair. And it also has the no mop on carpets feature.

 

My cat is indoors only as well. He just wants to struct around the living room area once he wakes up or sit on the window sill and look at pigeons in the morning. That's the reason for the unwanted alarm :| 

Mine doesn't shed a lot being an Indie. Do you have Persian or any specific breed?

[psinide]

12 minutes ago, l33tmaniac said:

 

My cat is indoors only as well. He just wants to struct around the living room area once he wakes up or sit on the window sill and look at pigeons in the morning. That's the reason for the unwanted alarm :| 

Mine doesn't shed a lot being an Indie. Do you have Persian or any specific breed?

Ours are indies as well, but two of them a furrier than the average indie. They shed a lot during the summers and hot weather. Our unwanted alarms are when they decide to do their "tandav nrutya" on the bed while we are sleeping 

[l33tmaniac]

1 minute ago, psinide said:

Ours are indies as well, but two of them a furrier than the average indie. They shed a lot during the summers and hot weather. Our unwanted alarms are when they decide to do their "tandav nrutya" on the bed while we are sleeping 

 

Lol. That tends to happen before we go to sleep 

[Keyofx]

On 5/24/2021 at 10:47 AM, psinide said:

I've been looking at the Deebot 950 & T8. T8 was ~44k a few weeks back on amazon, now its at 51k  But both are supposed to be good with pet hair. And it also has the no mop on carpets feature.

 

I think the T8 is at 55K now. That's a very suspicious sudden price increase 

[psinide]

8 hours ago, Keyofx said:

 

I think the T8 is at 55K now. That's a very suspicious sudden price increase 

56k now... Not going for a robovac just yet. Wife still not convinced, and since her work load has reduced, she's finishing off the sweeping mopping. I'll keep an eye on it and buy it a the 44~46k mark in the next round of discounts.

[TheMonark]

13 hours ago, Keyofx said:

 

I think the T8 is at 55K now. That's a very suspicious sudden price increase 

 

5 hours ago, psinide said:

56k now... Not going for a robovac just yet. Wife still not convinced, and since her work load has reduced, she's finishing off the sweeping mopping. I'll keep an eye on it and buy it a the 44~46k mark in the next round of discounts.

 

All sellers are driving their price up due to lock down. Even the Viomi S9 which I bought is being sold for 52k. T8 was available for 40K including 5% Amazon Pay cashback on Apr 29th. I had placed the order but had to cancel due to a family emergency. Based on Keepa's tracking it was available in the same price bracket till May 10th. After that the sellers have been up marking it due to high demand. I expect the price to come down after the lock down.

 

Ozmo T8 Price Chart:

Edited June 2, 2021 by TheMonark

[psinide]

41 minutes ago, TheMonark said:

 

 

All sellers are driving their price up due to lock down. Even the Viomi S9 which I bought is being sold for 52k. T8 was available for 40K including 5% Amazon Pay cashback on Apr 29th. I had placed the order but had to cancel due to a family emergency. Based on Keepa's tracking it was available in the same price bracket till May 10th. After that the sellers have been up marking it due to high demand. I expect the price to come down after the lock down.

 

 

upto 45k is a decent time for this. 

 

BTW, anyone is using automated curtains? I've tried to DIY it, but its too difficult to retro-fit curtain rods with a pulley & motor mechanism. I'm looking at Somfy for our house once we are close to possession. Need something which has APIs I can use to centralize it.... Hate to use different apps for different devices

[dylanjosh]

Guys I bought an Echo. Using it to play music mostly.

 

Can someone tell me what I need so that I can sync up a smart light to the music beat. 

 

I bought a mi light but i can't find any way to sync it to music. Considering returning it and getting a different light

[El Tigre Chino]

On 12/24/2021 at 12:38 PM, dylanjosh said:

Guys I bought an Echo. Using it to play music mostly.

 

Can someone tell me what I need so that I can sync up a smart light to the music beat. 

 

I bought a mi light but i can't find any way to sync it to music. Considering returning it and getting a different light

The light needs to support audio sync I believe. Should be in the smart light app and not the echo.

 

The audio sync is not really worth it in my experience, haven't seen one that really builds a vibe. Unless you're putting down good money on something like the Philips Hue.

Edited December 26, 2021 by El Tigre Chino

[dylanjosh]

2 minutes ago, El Tigre Chino said:

The light needs to support audio sync I believe. Should be in the smart light app and not the echo.

 

The audio sync is not really worth it in my experience, haven't seen one that really builds a vibe. Unless your putting down good money on something like the Philips Hue.

 

Yeah I also figured Philips Hue was the best but its too expensive. If its not worth it then will stick with the Mi bulb only then.

[psinide]

On 12/26/2021 at 8:10 PM, El Tigre Chino said:

The light needs to support audio sync I believe. Should be in the smart light app and not the echo.

 

The audio sync is not really worth it in my experience, haven't seen one that really builds a vibe. Unless you're putting down good money on something like the Philips Hue.

There are ways to DIY it - this is something I was messing about with:

Lemme know if you're interested to know how to get it done, will be happy to help. And if you know you're way around electronics, its based off WLED & LEDFX. I'll upload another video soon. The setup is completed and the LEDs are even more responsive.

 

In other news, finally picked up the Deebot T8 during the Republic day sale and got it integrated with my Automation platform:

 

Setup an automation for the bot to run if we both are not at home in the second half of the day. The maid covers the morning ka zhadu pocha. This is only in case we're out with friends and it ends up being a house party at ours.

Edited January 25, 2022 by psinide

[Channu]

40 minutes ago, psinide said:

There are ways to DIY it - this is something I was messing about with:

Lemme know if you're interested to know how to get it done, will be happy to help. And if you know you're way around electronics, its based off WLED & LEDFX. I'll upload another video soon. The setup is completed and the LEDs are even more responsive.

 

In other news, finally picked up the Deebot T8 during the Republic day sale and got it integrated with my Automation platform:

 

Setup an automation for the bot to run if we both are not at home in the second half of the day. The maid covers the morning ka zhadu pocha. This is only in case we're out with friends and it ends up being a house party at ours.

What a coincidence, i came looking for a robo vac thing and this is the post I find!

 

So how's the cleaning performance especially the mopping part ? If it's slightly more than mere a checkmark for the feature being included then it will fit my needs although pricing at 40K seems a bit steep!

Also, do you think it can be handled by elderly parents without much of a fuss ?

[psinide]

20 minutes ago, Channu said:

So how's the cleaning performance especially the mopping part ? If it's slightly more than mere a checkmark for the feature being included then it will fit my needs although pricing at 40K seems a bit steep!

The mopping out of the box nothing to write home about. It will basically drag a wet cloth around multiple times and you can control the 'wetness' of the cloth. It works decent for fresh stains and dried water stains. I had to run it twice on in the kitchen and increase the water flow to the cloth, but it did manage to clean a sticky stain which was pretty dried up.

 

I might go for the 'Ozmo PRO' accessory which has a motorized mop that oscillates later, but as of now, our main focus was the vacuuming as we have 3 cats and the 1 time maid zhadu pocha can sometimes be insufficient, especially if you have people coming over.

 

29 minutes ago, Channu said:

Also, do you think it can be handled by elderly parents without much of a fuss ?

 

If you set it up for your parents and do all the room demarcations, no-mop zones (carpets) and virtual boundaries, then its only a matter of pressing a button on the phone app or asking Alexa/Google to start the cleaning. The setup process is a bit cumbersome, and the 1st cleaning session where it will map your home takes time.

 

Also, you need to tidy up a bit before starting the cleaning session, else it will avoid all obstacles like shoes, wires, small toys etc and just go around them.

[quixote_1989]

4 hours ago, psinide said:

you can control the 'wetness'

 

Teach us, sensei.

[LordSpymaster]

What other vaccum bots did you consider? And why the Deebot one?

[psinide]

On 1/26/2022 at 2:07 AM, quixote_1989 said:

 

Teach us, sensei.

It is as simple as wax-on wax-off. Clock-wise and counter-clockwise. Variation with repetition. 

 

Use this power wisely young padawan, it can lead to very dark roads

 

On 1/26/2022 at 10:33 AM, LordSpymaster said:

What other vaccum bots did you consider? And why the Deebot one?

I looked at the iRobots which were too expensive.

The Deebot T8 was the only one which had the LIDAR+IR for obstacle avoidance in this price range along with the advanced mapping, virtual boundaries, no-mop zone type features and the option to add the motorized mop. A few friends also recommended it and the Republic Day deal was too good to pass.

Edited January 27, 2022 by psinide

[psinide]

Testing these wifi switches out from HomeMate. This one is a wi-fi fan controller and is the easiest way to automate and 'smarten' your fan

 

 

 

Have another pair which are connected to dumb tube lights. They are great around Indian houses are they are 'maid-proof'. Biggest draw back is that these are based on the Tuya platform, hence no local control. I did forego the Homemate app and these up to connect to Tuya's India data centre, but still, they need the internet for the app operation. Tuya has promised local control, but doubt they will honor it. These used to come with ESP8266 chips and could be flashed with custom firmware, but not anymore. There are still ways to get local control, but its quite clunky.

 

So far no complaints, working well and was able to integrate it with my main HA platform. Planning to install these in the new house all over

[psinide]

Testing reactive biased lighting (ambilight). Currently only setup for the left and the top edges. The LEDs are flickering as I'm currently powering them up directly from the Arduino. They should stop once I get a dedicated supply for them. Using a camera, need to tweak Gamma & FPS to get better responses. If I'm happy with this setup, will make one for my C9 as well.

 

 

 

 

 

[TheMonark]

On 5/23/2021 at 11:48 PM, TheMonark said:

I got Viomi S9 last week. I was planning to get Ozmo T8; however, I decided against it at the last minute. The seller has increased the price from 43k to 51k in the previous two weeks, and many recent reviews mentioned issues with the fall sensor. 

 

Here are my preliminary observations of Viomi S9:

• I bought it for 42.5k, including 5% Amazon cashback.
• It uses LIDAR-based navigation, so it doesn't bump into furniture and objects. However, it can get stuck on wires and small items if they get caught under the wheels. I have a three-year-old, so I remove all toys and small things from the floor before using the robot.
• The suction power is good; however, it gets loud on the max setting. It is not good at cleaning corner and boundaries. There is a dedicated mode in the app for cleaning edges. It helps a bit but doesn't solve the whole problem.
• It comes fitted with an intelligent water tank that has three preset levels for water dispensing. Mopping is okayish. It cannot remove tough stains. It would be too much to expect this from a robot vacuum cleaner. My maid can't even clean those stains properly.
• It is also equipped with an automatic dirt disposal system where all the dirt from the robot gets sucked into the charging stand, which uses a disposable bag. It happens once the cleaning is complete; however, the process is a bit loud and lasts 10 seconds. As per the website, the disposable bag can last one month. So, it is an additional expense, with each bag costing around 150 bucks.
• The battery capacity is 5200 mAh. It takes about 5.5 hours to charge from 10% to 100%. I am unsure whether it is on the higher or lower side as this is my first robot vacuum.
• It takes ~90 minutes and drains ~50% of the charge for cleaning an area of ~1000 sq ft. I use a Y-shaped mopping pattern, which is slightly slower than the S-shaped pattern but more effective. 
• Overall I am satisfied with the robot as I was aware of some of its limitations before the purchase. I expect it to reduce my daily chore workload, and I can do a deep clean every 7 or 10 days with a regular vacuum cleaner.

 

 

 

Sharing one year review of Viomi S9. Hope it may be useful to others.

 

The vacuum has been working well for the last one year. However, last month while cleaning one of the rooms, the vacuum died suddenly. It won't start, charge or connect to my phone. So, I raised the complaint by calling Cambium Retail who is responsible for the RMA. Their engineer called me and asked me to share a video, explaining the issue. After I shared the video, they asked me to deposit the device at their center in Nehru Place. I obliged to their request and deposited the device. After 4 days, I got a call back that the device has been repaired and they have replaced the battery.

 

I got the device back and started using again. Then, another issue cropped up. The device stopped dispensing water during the mopping function, even at the max settings. So, I called them again and shared a video. They informed me that they will be sending a replacement tank. Their assumption was that the pump in the tank had died. Initially they had committed to deliver the replacement tank within a week but they took 3 weeks to deliver the replacement.

 

The device is back in action and working well like before. Overall, I would say that the RMA process has been hassle-free except for the delay in replacement pump. Now, the device is out of warranty. Fingers crossed for any future issues.

[psinide]

Got it on all 4 edges now, still need to work on a better response. But overall, happy with how its come out so far. Here's another vid:

 

 

Got a 4 mtr LED strip to set this up on my C9. Before I move onto that, going to try a few more variations. Right now I think the camera is the weakest link leading to a slight lag. Other options are capture cards which will only work with HDMI inputs and wont react to apps installed on the TV. 

Camera placement is also very important and it needs to be fixed, or you end up having to crop the pixels and make keystone adjustments everytime, so it may not be suitable for the living room.