Here using an HAI Omni Pro 2 (X2) and Automation Software (Homeseer). The house will function with either or or both. I do make the hardware compliment the software and the software compliment the hardware. Security is security and the Automation and security do not mix well. The Leviton HAI Omni-Pro or the Elk M1 combination security and automation panels do a good job of this. There is really
no home automation software that I can see that replaces security today (it does compliment it)
As the above here utilize primarily UPB for my in wall light switches.
While I tinker with automation the light switch will always be the control for the lighting here. I do play with new technology as it keeps me busy. The WAF is there but it isn't prioritized nor needed these days. I try and do make it fit when necessary or if necessary but it is not obligatory; never has been.
As stated above the interconnectivity of new automation devices is not all there. I tend to not have any dependencies on cloud automation of any sorts. IE: the Nest is cute but my thermostat does everything I need for it to do and I do not pay attention to it nor need to pay attention to it.
Software automation does provide a person with the ability to tinker with everything new while hardware automation doesn't and simply just works but is bound by a hard set of firmware rules. Security typically is utilized for life safety stuff and while it is fun to tinker with it; you shouldn't tinker with your life ......
Meanwhile I do utilize Homeseer automation software to bring the technologies together while concurrently creating a console that will work on any OS. I have done that since the 1990's. I did do the doo of automation with whatever was available back in the late 1970's; even remote controlling a home thousands of miles away via telephone.
Been playing with smart phones since the 1990's. Palm OS / Microsoft OS smart phones were around years before the IPhone. One global enterprise project in the early 2000's was the tethering of the smart phone to the person wherever in the world that person might be. Around that time I choose not to be tethered 24/7 to my testing phone. I have always purchased phones sans contract and early on would cook my phones removing the garbage and making them just tools for my needs.
My wife likes the technology but has no dependencies on the automation or cell phone.
She mostly does keep her cell phone off as I do.
Concurrently her sister, my sisters and other relatives here sleep and interact with their iPhones / iPads 24/7 (along with twitter / facebook et al). My grandson (around 4 now) has his own little Android (rubberized) tablet and watches NetFlix movies on it. Geez went to a funeral last year where one cousin spoke about her new Echo as if it was a new member of the family and didn't even mention the dead relative.
Wife accepts the automation and accepts my tinkering with it. She has the choice of using it any way she wants. It is not mandatory. While here do try to keep the WAF high; it is more of an acceptance of what is rather than many personal efforts to provide a conduit to it.
Personally here it is a hobby that keeps me busy. As a hobby over the years there has been no real budget as it was installed over time with a little spend here or there. IE: recently I worked on one automobile which I wasn't really driving, it was all apart in the garage and little bit by little bit would do stuff with it; there was really no time frame and I just enjoyed the learning experience (even though I go a bit slower these days with it - it is the same with my automation today adding this or that new technology device while concurrently not ever putting dependencies on it (or budget these days)).
Lately been playing with a Wiki called
Home Automation. It has turned in to a little endeavour; going really slow with it. Note that the primary sections do mention methodologies of control here but no real dependencies and some interplay between the various technologies but really it is not soup today yet and evolving. There is so much happening that it is hard to freeze it such that it will be a live document always. There is an automation race of sorts between big players today like Amazon, Apple, Google or Microsoft. (linux is there too) There will probably be not much interplay between these players other than the basics of what and how things are being automated. There is NO singular Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft or Linux automation protocol today that I know of.
I've been working on this part (attached) for a couple of weeks now and still it is not even close to completion (so it will be live). I am trying to make it global rather than just US centric.
