{"id":615,"date":"2018-07-08T16:09:04","date_gmt":"2018-07-08T20:09:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ericstechblog.com\/?p=615"},"modified":"2018-07-08T16:09:04","modified_gmt":"2018-07-08T20:09:04","slug":"diatribe-number-37-automating-the-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ericstechblog.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/08\/diatribe-number-37-automating-the-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Diatribe Number 37 – Automating the House"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is it a sign I\u2019m getting old when I think about a post topic so much that I think I\u2019ve already posted it? Then I realize I\u2019m so behind in my posts that I might be forgetting one of my \u201cvitally important\u201d topics? Don\u2019t answer! Ok, do!<\/p>\n

So, I\u2019ve got an Amazon Echo. Who doesn\u2019t. I\u2019ve got Siri. If\u2019 you\u2019re Applefied, you have Siri. I have a WEMO switch that allows me to turn my chair light on and off using my Amazon Echo. Ok, that\u2019s pretty cool -when I remember I have it.<\/p>\n

So, I had to replace my dishwasher recently. I researched one looking specifically for a wifi-enabled appliance. It\u2019s a bit of a challenge -even today! I was left with either a Bosch or an LG. The LG was local. The Bosch was a return at a Best Buy about 100 miles away. I went for the LG. Turns out Home Depot doesn\u2019t stock dishwashers and wouldn\u2019t let me unscrew the display and take it with me. A week later, I had a wifi-enabled dishwasher. What does it do? It sends me a message when the washing cycle is done and if my drying additive is low. Cute. But, not astounding. Hey, I live with stuff when I\u2019m on the cutting edge. Woohoo! Ahem.<\/p>\n

Ok, now down to my concern. Automating the house involves also falling for some \u201ccool\u201d gadgets that turn out to be pure useless. Take my sprinklers system. I ordered a Wiijoo<\/a> from Amazon. It looked cool in the pics. It was for my birthday. I opened it with the necessary excitement (maybe a bit more) and only when I scheduled some time to install it, did I realize the manual was a tiny pamphlet written rather poorly. Also, the unit was not designed for outside use \u2013 so replacing my existing outdoor controller would be awkward. Worse, the process to program the unit with the house wifi settings was archaic. And once I downloaded the Amazon skill, I realized the real issue \u2013 Amazon would treat the entire controller as an on\/off switch. No zones. No sprinkler amenities. No joke.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, my adventure lead me to Lowes to look for a box large enough to mount outside and protect the Wiijoo. There, I came across Orbit\u2019s version of a wifi-enabled sprinkler controller. There was music. A chorus. It was a relief. And after installing it and using the app from Orbit, it was a revelation. Don\u2019t buy a Wiijoo! Buy an Orbit! The company already knows sprinkler systems. They added the wifi and the app is good. Darn good. It can even handle multiple homes as well as zones. And it lets me know when it\u2019ll skip a schedule because there was enough rain in the area within 24 hours (an option I enabled as it\u2019s Internet connected and monitors the local weather). The Wiijoo was returned post haste!<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is it a sign I\u2019m getting old when I think about a post topic so much that I think I\u2019ve already posted it? Then I realize I\u2019m so behind in my posts that I might be forgetting one of my \u201cvitally important\u201d topics? Don\u2019t answer! Ok, do! So, I\u2019ve got …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2gH3K-9V","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericstechblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericstechblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericstechblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericstechblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericstechblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericstechblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":616,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericstechblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615\/revisions\/616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericstechblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericstechblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericstechblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}