My first Ring products were the Ring Video Doorbell and the Ring Pro Video Doorbell back in the summer of 2016, which had some issues initially, but worked out quite well in the end. I even bought a Ring Spotlight Cam last year, so my family was already accustomed to the Ring app on their iOS's…
The information in this article is subject to change through year end. Press Ctrl+F5 to refresh your browser, to be sure you're viewing the latest info & images. Most of the on-sale items featured in this article are about products I've blogged about extensively. None are perfect, but they are…
In case you hadn't spotted this yet, Ring made an announcement on their blog: #AlwaysHome, Even from Your Desktops May 02 2016 by Yul at Ring featuring a nice functionality overview of the free apps, and download links for the Windows and Mac App stores. I've been using the Windows version on…
There's a lot of great content coming up soon. To keep up to date, subscribe to the TinkerTry Weekly digest. My home's ecobee3 smart thermostat, 1 year later After Nest, what came next? The ecobee3 thermostat, with remote room motion and temperature sensors. Here's my latest updates on my 1 year…
It's been a bit of a rough week for IoT. On a recent Home Gadget Geeks podcast, I was lamenting the fact that home WiFi routers don't yet have a way to isolate all your cloud connected IoT gear off onto their own subnet, since such consumer tech tends to eventually succumb to various firmware…
This article will be updated, with additions below this original article, and closing thoughts at the end, the arrival of 1080p cloud recordings, and my podcast guest appearance video. Firmware 1.0.50 that arrived on May 6th does seem to resolve issues I was having, along with moving from a 16 volt…
Updates to this article below. Order The ecobee3 with homekit is available at Apple Store, Amazon, Best Buy, ecobee shop, Home Depot, and Lowe's. Review If you have multiple members of your household that are home at various times of the day, then you likely have some familiarity with inevitable…
[June 3 2015 Update - please revisit this page and press Ctrl+F5 to refresh, since many additions are being made below this original article.] Ok, now this looks more interesting than the little Hub II ever did. Apple Homekit-enabled. Easier to set schedules. Extended RF range, using a mere 2…
June 2013: I had the opportunity to talk about my home automation tinkering with my CES 2012 friend Mike Faucher, over on his podcast, BYOB Episode 125 “Home Automation”. Another guest on that very same episode was Richard Gunther, from The Digital Media Zone. Very grateful for that…
As of Nov 26, the new Insteon Hub became available at Smarthome, click on the image to jump to their site. Got a catalog from Smarthome in the mail today. I know, right? It's actual paper. Right there on the cover is the "New and Improved" Insteon Hub II. Peculiar though, as it would…
March 13 2014 Nest owners who purchase and install the Insteon Hub for their homes, as well as download the free Insteon app for both iOS and Android smartphones and tablets, can simply add an installed Nest product to their list of remote-controlled devices in the Insteon app. You may recall…
Insteon Smoke Bridge 2982-222 on Amazon here. The marriage of a smoke alarm and an Insteon home automation system can allow you to get automatic alerts on your smarthphone. Wouldn't you like to know whenever a smoke, fire, or carbon monoxide alarm goes off at your home, even when you're far from…
Insteon Leak Sensor 2852-222 on Amazon here. This is going well. First, Smarthome kindly replaced my Insteon hub, to make good on the promise of an easy configure smartphone + cloud home automation solution, chronicled here. Because of some early-adopter pain I had with the first revision of that…
Here's Mike Faucher's bold announcement. BYOB 125 is out and all about Home Automation. Special guests, Richard Gunther from the DMZ and Paul Braren from TinkerTry.com. Great show and a pile of information. You have to listen to this one. Mike Faucher and I decided to try a little something…
My home automation experiences started painfully, with thirteen years of mixed luck with X10 devices. I finally cut over to Insteon products in 2008. My first device was the 2413U and the clunky HouseLinc software, and an always-on Windows system to run it. While it controlled my Insteon devices…
Back in April of 2010, the time had come for me to assess the value of crawling into my attic and basement to replace my home's 1994 vintage fire detectors. Yes, that's well beyond the recommended every 10 year replacement interval. Because the detectors were hardwired to one-another, the prospect…
Insteon Hub Item # 2242-222 [click to view on Amazon] Insteon Hub - Initial configuration, creating a Christmas lights scene for my living room, from my smartphone. It's a busy time of year. But my Insteon Hub 2242-222 arrived today, an early gift. I knew it was going to be at least December…
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