On our most recent podcast episode, Michael called our IoT Podcast Hotline with a specific question. He has LIFX bulbs but no smart home hub, and he wants to automate the light in his laundry room with a Wi-Fi motion sensor. He currently uses … [Read more...]
Four clever ways to use a door/window sensor for home automation
Ah, the lowly door/window sensor. It just sits next to an entry point in the home waiting to add security benefits and it doesn’t really cost that much. Instead of treating spare sensors like the Rodney Dangerfield of IoT devices, why not give that … [Read more...]
Smart home homesick at college? Make a smart dorm room.
Earlier this week, I read about St. Louis University equipping every dorm room on campus with an Amazon Echo Dot. It’s a great idea and not just a simple device deployment: SLU has a custom Alexa Skill that provides answers to more than 100 questions … [Read more...]
How we moved an IoT code project from a Raspberry Pi to Google Cloud
Last year, as an amateur (and I mean very amateur) developer, I created a simple Python app using Twilio APIs to run our IoT Podcast Hotline voicemail. Since the service has to run all the time, I decided to use an inexpensive Raspberry Pi as the … [Read more...]
Five automation ideas to improve your smart home lifestyle
We often talk or write about our smart homes without realizing that some folks don’t understand what it is that a smart home can actually do. That’s partially because there’s such a wide range of things we can automate or control by voice in our … [Read more...]