My Smart Home Tour (2021)

[Music] my smart home automation journey started back sometime in 2015 when i purchased the first generation amazon echo device i believe this smart speaker was the first of its kind and it pioneered the way for other manufacturers to enter the market of voice control speakers since then i have purchased a few other models and was able to put one in just about every corner of my house but the one that i use the most is the second generation echo show 10 because it is conveniently located on my kitchen countertop i enjoy seeing all of the photos that i have uploaded to my amazon account as well as get news update in the daily forecast although you can use the 10 inch touchscreen to control your smart home devices i rarely do this because i rather just control everything by voice back in 2015 smart products such as light bulbs and plugs were pretty costly but now they are very affordable and i even have a few spares stashed away these were previously used to control certain accessories but i ended up changing a few things out so now i just store them until the next project comes along the newest smart accessory that i recently installed is the quick set halo touch fingerprint deadbolt from our front door i previously had the schlage smart lock and while i had no issues with it i thought the fingerprint feature from the halo touch was neat so i wanted to try it out the main difference between the two is that the schleich connects via z-wave and requires a hub whereas the quick set is wi-fi enabled and does not need a hub the halo touch deadbolt works really well and much faster than having to enter a numeric code to lock or unlock by placing any unregistered finger the door locks and to unlock simply use the finger that you set up there are red and green led indicators to let you know the lock and unlock status as you can see it is very responsive and according to kwikset's website fingerprints are more secured when compared to a four digit pin code by using the quick set app i am able to view a detailed lock history that shows if the lock was accessed via fingerprint or manually with the knob i can also add up to 50 different users check connection status battery life and receive notifications for every time the lock is being used i do hope that in the near future the quick set halo touch can be integrated into my ring alarm system like the rest of my smart locks now let's jump over to my security setup i am using the first generation ring alarm system i won't be getting into full details of everything this alarm can do because then this video will probably be way too long the ring alarm has everything you would look for in a home security system such as detailed notifications motion and contact sensors rechargeable keypad and so forth i have two keypads in my home one near the front entryway and another in my master bedroom the keypads are supposed to have a six month battery life on a single charge but they last much longer for me because i don't really use them i use the ring app for just about everything they connect to the base station via z-wave so even if your network is down they will still function properly to keep an eye on things inside the home i have multiple ring indoor cams scattered around i have the motion detection and recording disabled when my alarm is set to disarmed and they turn on when i arm my alarm but this one here is located in my master bedroom which is plugged into a spark plug so that i can have the power completely cut off when i'm home and only when i'm leaving the house will it turn on one neat feature about this camera is that i'm able to use the motion detection to trigger a routine or a smart device using the alexa app for example when i enter my home office the camera will detect motion and trigger my led light bars that i have installed behind my monitor and if no motion is detected for 10 minutes the lights will then turn off there are countless ways to use this feature but i kept it pretty simple for my outdoor surveillance i am using the ring video doorbell pro something that almost every home in my neighborhood has and since i am subscribed to the ring protect plus plan i am able to save share or view videos for up to 60 days at only 100 a year the plus plan allows me to add as many cameras as i like and it includes 24 7 professional monitoring for my ring alarm system what's cool about the ring doorbell is if anyone rings it my echo show alerts me and shows me a live feed it's a great feature that conveniently allows you to see who's at your front door like this weird guy right here i also have the brilliant all-in-one smart home control in my office that also receives the ring notification this smart controller replaces a two gang switch and adds a touch screen as well as two touch sliders that controls my ceiling fan and light i can also access all of my ring cameras and control other smart devices for a full list of compatible products please visit the link in the description below aside from having the ring video doorbell i also installed eight zimoto poe 1080p cameras to monitor the perimeter outside my home these cameras are hardwired into a network video recorder that is equipped with a six terabyte hard drive which allows me to record more than 30 days of footage and does not require a subscription all eight cameras are displayed on this wall-mounted dell 32-inch monitor and toggles between four channels every 10 seconds i mounted the monitor with a very basic swivel and tilt mount which allows me to slightly adjust the viewing angle if needed the cameras can also be viewed on the zmodo app and i receive notifications for specific motion detected areas whenever i am away from home a unique feature about the zmodo app is that i am able to view four cameras at once and with a simple swipe i can see the other four the live view usually loads much faster than this but it seems a little laggy today zmodo has been around for a little over a decade and i have used a lot of their products in the past they offer quality cameras at an affordable price you can find a lot of their wireless cameras on amazon but the poe system i am using is no longer available not even on their website now let's go back and talk about what i have underneath my surveillance monitor to the right there are a pair of smart dimmer switches the left switch controls my dining light while the right one is for my kitchen these two switches are scheduled to have a decreased level of brightness 30 minutes after sunset to prevent the lights from being too bright when it gets dark outside and on the left i have an ipad 6 mounted on the wall using an accessory called the iport lux the iport lux is a premium wireless charging and mounting system designed for a variety of ipad models the lux case is an aluminum enclosure with built-in magnets and when mounted to the wall station or base station you get conductive charging without the messy cables the wall station has a slim profile and is wired to a power source behind the wall there are pin connectors all around with strong magnets so i am able to mount the ipad in portrait or landscape mode i will sometimes use this ipad to read a brief news article or check the calendar for upcoming events but what i mainly use it for is to play music throughout the house using the spotify app since i have an amazon echo just about everywhere i am able to play music through all of them from here it's very handy when you have a get together and when i'm not using it i usually just leave it on this clock app tucked in this little nook at the center of my living area i have the dyson pier cool fan the dyson pierco intelligently purifies the air while keeping the room cool as well you can select different rotation angles and the built-in lcd screen shows you different types of gases that are present in your space in real time everything can be controlled with the dyson remote which attaches via magnet to the top although i wish the magnets were a little stronger because i have knocked over the remote a few times by accident but to be honest i never use the remote anyways because i have it scheduled to turn on and off during specific times of the day if i need to make any changes i just use the dyson link app keeping the air fresh is great but keeping the floors clean is also a necessity in any household for my weekly vacuums i use the dyson v11 animal the cordless design makes it very convenient and i'm able to vacuum my entire home on a single charge but when it comes to those hard-to-reach spaces or areas you normally can't clean with a traditional vacuum i put my roomba to work this is the irobot roomba 980. it is of course wi-fi enabled and app controlled just like everything else i have mentioned throughout this video so far before this model i had the third generation 500 series and it was not smart at all even though it had infrared sensors to detect obstacles like this one i never knew which path it was going to go but the 980 has improved significantly this guy is equipped with smart mapping technology that keeps track of where it's been and where it hasn't cleaned the slim design allows it to easily glide underneath my furniture and tackle areas i would never otherwise vacuum if you have pets the multi-surface brush works really well and it pulls in hair dust and other debris without getting tangled you would be surprised at what this little thing picks up after a cleaning session and when it finishes taking care of the job the roomba automatically navigates back to the dock and recharges itself the roomba's docking station is located underneath my media center which consists of eclipse 5.2.2 dolby atmos setup and the lg c10 77 oled tv i just recently purchased this tv about a week ago so the clips at the beginning of this video was actually an older model samsung tv and when i first got it set up i couldn't decide between using lg's web os or sticking with my 5th gen apple tv 4k that i recently purchased a couple of months ago but i finally decided to go with the apple tv because i prefer the compact remote in the minimal interface i also created two ios shortcuts so that i'm able to turn my tv off and on with my apple watch i actually use this feature a lot because i'm always moving around when i'm at home and even though i could use my iphone to control the apple tv this shortcut makes it much faster home automation has become a fundamental aspect of my everyday life and one of the best upgrades that i did this year was changing out all of my window blinds to smart ones these are the grey wind zebra shades from amazon they are custom made to order so you're guaranteed a perfect fit for any window they provide about an 80 blackout and thanks to the mesh fabric you can let in light without the heat and still keep your privacy if you would like to see how these were installed i uploaded a video on my channel a couple of months ago detailing the install in my home office so check it out the zebra shades not only look great but they are motorized and connect to my echo show 10 via zigbee i can open or close a single or multiple shades at once and to any percentage between 0 to 100 all by voice but i can also use the remote which can be programmed to control up to 16 different windows the programming is very simple once you get the hang of it you can set a single channel to control one or multiple windows at once the motor has a built-in lithium battery that can last up to six months on a single charge you can manually charge the motor with the supplied power adapter or you can purchase the optional solar panel to make things easier only half of my windows are using the solar panels because the other half doesn't get enough light these three windows in my master bedroom used to have five separate blinds and it was a hassle to open each one every time but now just like everything else smart in my home these shades are on a synchronized schedule with my porch lights as well as my indoor lamps i had a few friends over the other week and two of them love the zebra shades and are planning to upgrade their blinds soon the grey wind shades can get pretty costly at about 350 or more per window but i shopped around for nearly a year and other companies charge almost twice as much for just motorized shades without the smart home integration at the end of the day i think they were a great investment they really transformed the space and provide the windows with a more modern look well i'm going to wrap it up now although there were a few other accessories i didn't get a chance to talk about today maybe it'll be something i can feature in a future video and as always thank you so much for watching and i hope you enjoyed this video take care my friends [Music] you

Channel: Matt NVZION

Views: 491,270

Keywords: smart home, graywind, motorized shades, kwikset, halo touch fingerprint, ring alarm, ring camera, ring doorbell, IPORT Luxe, dyson, Zmodo, home automation, smart home tech

Id: nMSCEcq-JSQ

Length: 11min 27sec (687 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 05 2021