Smart Homes

Thought I would update this for any others interested in a Smart Home.

So we have the Hub in the kitchen (that serves the main living area too. Mounted on a 3D printed support under the cabinets),
Mini's in the "office", master and in the hallway.
Nest Thermostat in the hall.
Phillips white bulbs in "office" and living room.
Smart outlets in the master (2) that control two 3 bulb lamps
A Night Owl Doorbell at front door (chosen for price, 1020 image and not needing a paid subscription service for retaining video but available)

Pending:
Another doorbell on the side entrance for a better view of visitors approaching.
Roomba. I have always wanted one and now the NCS is onboard for a particular variety. It too works with the Google assistant.

Not likely:
A camera anywhere IN the house.
Coloured lamps. I see no purpose except for limiting blue light at night.

3D help:
Printed the mount for the Hub. It swivels and gets it off the counter space.
Printed a mount for the hall mini that makes it fit into controlled compact area at the plug that looks clean
A simple wall mount for the "office" mini that gets it out of the way for better sound and response.

Thoughts so far:
We are liking it.
I have a couple routines like "I'm home" and "good morning" to turn on / off lights and play news, commute traffic etc.
Set up speaker groups to play music or something else in the entire house or a portion when desired.
At first it is a little strange to have to tell Google to turn on/ off lights but it is easy after a few times.  We can turn off the lights before leaving a room or from any other location since at least one of the speakers will pick it up.  I like being able to dim some of the lights on request. We can also do any of this from our phones.
A key part of the lighting was found to be to leave something connected to the light switch for that flipping the switch habit and non-verbal action with results. When using the smart lighting (bulb or plug) I made that the primary lighting source.

I was thinking the thermostat needed to be replaced due to some erratic actions. Decided to go all in on the smart home with a Nest thermostat. It has worked great fixing my concerns and learning when I am gone based on motion sensing and phone location.

Using the doorbell has been if nothing else, FUN. The one I decided to use is hooked to the doorbell wires for power so there is no battery and it operates the mechanical bell in the house. viVideo is recorded on a micro sd card. It will do continuous or motion activated up to 128 GB
Just looking at the front yard and the occasional package drop off is interesting. Passing cars set off the motion detector especially at night even on the lowest setting. The "someone has rung your doorbell" alert is lost among other alerts of motion so I miss the rings but then I would not have been home for those that I miss anyway. Two way communication is possible with the Night Owl bell if you catch it. I did have an issue with it losing connection to the router after about a week. Made connection with the phone intermittent. I did a factory reset that seems to have solved the issue for now.




The hall speaker with 3D printed mount


The Hub 3D printed under cabinet mount swiveled


Normal use position for Hub.


The less attractive "office" wall mount (and assistant controlled lamp)