Questions tagged [smart-home]

For questions about any smart devices and services that help automate or remote control one's home. Prominent examples are lights, home appliances, roller shutters and radiators.

Use this tag for questions that are about any smart devices and services that help automate or remote control one's home, including home automation questions.

Consider the question check list if your question fits the tag. You can also look at the example questions. If this tag doesn't fit your question have a look below at somehow related tags that might fit your question better.

Question checklist

  • Is the question about automating a home? If not, consider a more specific tag.
  • Is the question about a particular device (e.g. a Google Home)? If so, use the product's tag instead, e.g. .

Example questions

Not what you are looking for?

  • Use if your question is about any IoT network, not just a smart home network.
  • Use the product's tag, if it exists, for questions about specific devices and their behaviours, e.g. , or .
315 questions
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Securing small home automation setup

I have a small home automation lab (that I keep saying I'll expand, but haven't). In this setup, I have a control system to control lights (utilizing the x10 protocol), blinds, a Nest thermostat and two web cams. With the recent record setting DDoS…
Andy
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Where can I harvest energy in my home to power my wireless sensors?

I was reading this article, "Five Building Blocks of Self-Powered Wireless Sensor Nodes" (shared on IoT Meta) about energy harvesting in IoT. It lists a couple of harvestable energy sources for example: thermal energy vibration energy I am…
Bence Kaulics
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When to use Wi-Fi over Bluetooth or vice versa in an IoT system?

Basically when it comes to IoT, the two main communication methods which come to my mind are either Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. I know that there are others as well like ZigBee, Z-Wave but I would like to stay at either Wi-Fi or Bluetooth as they are…
Bence Kaulics
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What are the best security practices to secure a remote IoT camera?

I have done a bit of home automation such as building a remote camera that can be turned on via SSH locally and publishes images on a Raspberry Pi run Linux server. I'm curious, though, as to what protocols are best followed when your security is…
Zeitsperre
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4 answers

Making a smart light switch

I want to make a home automation system, and I need some computer-controllable switches. The reason I can't use relays is that I also need the switches to be switchable manually and not programmatically (because I don't want the light to get stuck…
Danya02
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5 answers

How to write custom Alexa Skills without 'Ask xxxx'

I am currently using fauxmo to send custom commands to various devices to turn them on/off (For instance I have a WiFi to IR converter to control my Tuner & TV) and I can turn the tv on/off with this. I also have Kodi integration setup, so I can…
PhratcuredBlue
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4 answers

Safety of a smart switch on a fireplace

Would it be unsafe or considered "bad practice" to replace a gas fireplace switch with an IoT enabled smart switch? I would like to think there would be no issue, but, I want to make sure that it's not going to break any fire safety codes in my…
tbm0115
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Is there any open source firmware or OS for IP camera like openwrt for routers

Is there any open source firmware or OS for IP cameras like OpenWrt for routers. I need an OS or a firmware for IP cameras in order to communicate with our cloud service easily. I have some experience with OpenWrt that's why I'm thinking in that…
20
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4 answers

Is my Samsung Smart TV vulnerable to the "weeping angel" attack?

On CNet, there's a report about Samsung UNF 8000 smart TVs being vulnerable to a hack developed by the CIA: In June 2014, the CIA and UK's MI5 held a joint workshop to improve the "Weeping Angel" hack, which appears to have specifically targeted…
Aurora0001
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Is it better to control smart lights or smart light switches/fixtures?

IoT enabled light bulbs have been on the market for a while now. The Philips Hue is probably the best known. But I think controlling bulbs directly is a rule-maintenance disaster waiting to happen. If a bulb goes out (and yes, LED bulbs do fail),…
John Deters
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6 answers

How to detect the state of "dumb" entertainment equipment?

Scenario After the helpful answers to my last question I got myself a Harmony Hub and it works as I want it to. Basically, it remembers the state of the devices and uses infrared signals to fake the remotes and change to the configured settings when…
Helmar
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How do I avoid port forwarding when exposing IoT devices to the external Internet?

I received some good answers in the question What do I need to create my own personal cloud for IoT devices? and one of the things that I understood from there is that I need to "expose" my HUB or GATEWAY to the external internet. The proposed…
m4l490n
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Adding Devices to Samsung SmartThings

I've got the Samsung SmartThings system installed in my house, but I've encountered a few situations where a new device (e.g. an in-wall outlet) couldn't be found through the SmartThings App on my Android phone. A temporary fix for me was to move…
tbm0115
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Is there a way to control my lights from my Linux desktop?

I have just started investigating smart lights. I am interested in using some Wi-Fi sockets in some lamps in my office to automate the lights. I am curious if there is a way to turn my lights on from my PC, and ultimately turn them on when my Linux…
Scorb
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3 answers

How can I control my TV from my computer?

I have a TV as secondary PC monitor and console output, and I would like to build something to control it from the PC sources—turning on and off, volume and such. In short, a program to emulate my TV remote control. I have no idea where to start,…
mejillonius
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