Beta EXP: Meet The Team
Meet the Beta EXP Team: T.H.
• 6 mins read
Name: T.H.
Brief Bio: I have been using technology since I was about 4 years old when my dad brought home an Apple IIgs and we were blown away by everything we could do with it. I have continued to play and work with technology in my adult life as I've worked at a home automation company that focused on automating luxury hotels and now work as an Innovation Manager in retail.
Top DIY / IoT Blogs or Periodicals
- bruhautomation.com/
- lon.tv
- reddit.com/r/homeautomation
Any DIY / IoT devices beside Scout? Google Home, Raspberry Pi, Garageio, Nest, IP Cameras
How are they used & connected to Scout? I use my Google Home daily to arm and disarm Scout. Every night at a specific time I arm Scout to Sleep Mode using IFTTT. I then also trigger Garageio to close my garage doors every time I arm Sleep Mode. I have home-assistant.io running on my Raspberry Pi that calls specific IFTTT recipes to arm and disarm Scout. I also use a plugin in home-assistant.io to emulate Apple's Homekit so I can access those IFTTT Scout Recipes from my iPhone in the Control Center. github.com/home-assistant/homebridge-homeassistant
What’s your IFTTT “secret sauce” recipes? I have Dasher github.com/maddox/dasher running on my Pi that listens for Amazon Dash button presses. I have a dash button set up by the bedside that when pressed calls a IFTTT Recipe that triggers a Panic Alarm on Scout.
I have an IFTTT Recipe set up that when called from the Google Home, it sends a webservice command to home-assistant running on my Pi that turns on my fireplace. https://youtu.be/QutcwxnybRE
Any "happy accidents" with recipe or device combo? I set up an IFTTT recipe to log all activity on a specific door to google drive. It was amazing to see how many times we went in and out of the door to the garage as we were working on a flooring project for the house.
Ever "hacked" or customized any devices, and if yes what/why?: More along the lines of just leveraging devices that were designed for one use and re-purposing them for something else. Specifically the Amazon Dash buttons.
What should everyone know regarding their DIY home security?: Check out all of the user made IFTTT Recipes. https://ifttt.com/scoutalarm
