Category Archives: Automation
Reduced power usage achieved!
I don’t think we (or Universal Devices) can take much credit for the ~1% drop in power usage, I’d put that on the milder weather. I’d love to automate our way into lower electric bills, but there are only a few areas where sudden darkness would not pose a safety risk. In the near term, […]
Last hurrah for ISY994
FYI for all @here, our ISY994 automation controller is reaching end-of-support, see https://www.universal-devices.com/finalbye994/ We plan to continue to extend our makerspace automations, perhaps with the new Matter standard. Watch for updates here. Universal Devices (UDI) introduced the first ISY automation controller in 2007. The ISY-99 was a low-cost, embedded, and fully standalone home automation controller that was ahead of […]
Setting Thermostats
To achieve comfortable temperatures (at least in the front areas and woodshop), see the Wiki for information on thermostat locations serving each room. When you arrive, check the thermostat display and set the temperature as needed, be aware that setting it to an extreme beyond the desired temp will not speed up getting there. Our […]
Automating the Auto bay
Here’s an example of the code which handles the auto bay motion events. The Axis IP camera in the bay makes a REST call to execute the “Then” clause when motion is detected, and “Else” when a motion event ends: This project leverages the generous donations from Axis (Cameras and controller) and from Universal Devices […]
Automatic setback with Honeywell Thermostats
First floor Honeywell thermostats are deployed (except the textile room where we don’t know what it does). Decision is made by the ISY994 automation controller. Setback happens after +30 minutes without any camera motion events from the Axis cameras. Experimenting with using “webhooks” in the rPi MotionEye software to do the same for Computer Lab heat […]
Automating our Open House
Thanks to our ISY automation controller from Universal Devices, we’ve been able to automatically prep the HVAC (heat or cool) for our Monday Open House nights. This program automatically pre-sets the thermostat on Monday evening:
Webhooks aren’t for fishing
Our new ISY-994 z-wave controller has a bunch of options for webhooks, interfacing with open/close sensors, etc. Tons of documentation, under “IFTTT/Webhooks”. https://wiki.universal-devices.com/index.php?title=ISY_Portal_IFTTT_Integration We currently use these for sending out notifications via the ISY Portal to IFTTT destinations
Woodshop thermostat automations via ISY Portal
Thanks to Universal Devices (UDI) we have an ISY-994 with Z-Wave and access to their web Portal! We can also enable Google/Alexa/IFTTT now. https://wiki.universal-devices.com/index.php?title=ISY_Portal_Amazon_Echo_Integration_V3#Thermostats For example, in the woodshop, we use our Axis Communications camera motion detector to set-back the thermostat when room is empty for an hour. For the main hydronic baseboards, we’re going to […]
Automating our Makerspace
Thanks to Universal Devices, we’re moving forward with automation for Manchester Makerspace! First area to be targeted will be our thermostats. With five different thermostats controlling heat and/or air conditioning, it’s been difficult to stay on top of our HVAC costs, even just seasonal changeover is a real effort. The ISY-994 is not a general […]