RCA
Elite Member
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2017
- Professional Status
- Certified General Appraiser
- State
- California
I am not recommending any advanced Home Automation for people who don't have a high degree of stubborness to complete job. It may very well take you days to get something done. You will need some AI. And some luck. I spent days working with ChatGPT but finally had to give up, it was sending me around in circles continually telling me it was clear what the problem was. I just had to give up and call it quits. Then I went to Claude - and it had the problem fixed in about 30 minutes. Claude is #1 in most respects. Yet, even at $100/month, it runs out of time. So I keep the $20/month ChatGPT for less important things, as well as the $30/month Grok. But I may will finish those and go to $200/month Claud.
Anyway this is what I have:
Automation Equipment Toolbag:
1. Amazon Echo Dot (or clock), aka Alexa.
2. Apple HomePod, aka Siri
3. Rasberry Pi 5
4. Kasa Home Switches KP125M, aka "Matter" (8 of them)
5. Homebridge running on Pi
6. Apple HomeKit, part of MacOS
7. SwitchBot Hub Mini infra red controled mechanical switch (not used as of now)
Command Flows: Mac OS System
1. "Hey Siri, turn off Clean Shutdown Mac Studio"
3. After 60 seconds (or longer if you want) the Mac is completely shutdown.
4. Then you have the mac and its plugged in accessories connected to a single Kasa KP125M switch, which completely turns off all power.
5. By the way, the Kasa KP125M, monitors power usage.
6. Then you have another KP125M for the monitors and any other devices you need for running the Mac. And the power for them is turned off.
7. Finally, to turn everything on, all I have to do is tell the 2 Kasa power switches to turn back on. Apple is flagged to boot when the power comes on, so turning the system on is easy.
I have this all working perfectly. -- Well, at least, until Apple comes out with some update that breaks everything.
My TV Entertainment System
1. Samsung TV + Apple TV. This is easy, with a Kasa KP125M+ Echo dot: Alexa, turn on Bert's TV. Alexa Turn off Berts TV.
ADVANTAGES:
1. Reliable, you can ensure power is completely turned off to a set of electronic devices, and that in the case of Mac OS (any number of devices), you do the graceful shutdown - without waiting around for it to complete, and getting everything done the exact right way every time.
2. Helps save power and reduce cost.
.... BUT I WARN YOU IT IS NOT EASY TO ACCOMPLISH FOR RELIABLE, SAFE COMPUTER SHUTDOWN. You might however, be lucky. But I have guys look at me with total frustration and fear when I told them I just bought a Raspberry Pi to automate my computer system. Oh yea. ChatGPT failed - it can't be that easy for sure.
Anyway this is what I have:
Automation Equipment Toolbag:
1. Amazon Echo Dot (or clock), aka Alexa.
2. Apple HomePod, aka Siri
3. Rasberry Pi 5
4. Kasa Home Switches KP125M, aka "Matter" (8 of them)
5. Homebridge running on Pi
6. Apple HomeKit, part of MacOS
7. SwitchBot Hub Mini infra red controled mechanical switch (not used as of now)
Command Flows: Mac OS System
1. "Hey Siri, turn off Clean Shutdown Mac Studio"
- Includes a 60-second auto-confirm countdown if no action is taken.
- If any unsaved documents exist in applications, macOS asks you to save or cancel before proceeding.
- Applications are sent a quit request.
- Apps that support auto-save (most modern ones) save changes automatically.
- If an app has unsaved changes and does not auto-save, you are prompted to save or discard.
- Certain apps, such as Word and Excel, if they haven't saved open files, will ask for manual save before allowing the shutdown to proceed, thus additional instructions are provided to save any open documents and quite saving for all such apps.
- Any remaining apps are closed.
- Commands can be placedin the script to eject drives ( which are automatically mounted on startup.)
3. After 60 seconds (or longer if you want) the Mac is completely shutdown.
4. Then you have the mac and its plugged in accessories connected to a single Kasa KP125M switch, which completely turns off all power.
5. By the way, the Kasa KP125M, monitors power usage.
6. Then you have another KP125M for the monitors and any other devices you need for running the Mac. And the power for them is turned off.
7. Finally, to turn everything on, all I have to do is tell the 2 Kasa power switches to turn back on. Apple is flagged to boot when the power comes on, so turning the system on is easy.
I have this all working perfectly. -- Well, at least, until Apple comes out with some update that breaks everything.
My TV Entertainment System
1. Samsung TV + Apple TV. This is easy, with a Kasa KP125M+ Echo dot: Alexa, turn on Bert's TV. Alexa Turn off Berts TV.
ADVANTAGES:
1. Reliable, you can ensure power is completely turned off to a set of electronic devices, and that in the case of Mac OS (any number of devices), you do the graceful shutdown - without waiting around for it to complete, and getting everything done the exact right way every time.
2. Helps save power and reduce cost.
.... BUT I WARN YOU IT IS NOT EASY TO ACCOMPLISH FOR RELIABLE, SAFE COMPUTER SHUTDOWN. You might however, be lucky. But I have guys look at me with total frustration and fear when I told them I just bought a Raspberry Pi to automate my computer system. Oh yea. ChatGPT failed - it can't be that easy for sure.
