[Closed] what do you 'control'with your smart phone..?

My cooker.

I text my wife and tell her to put the goddamn dinner on!

But seriously, just XBMC and all my movies etc. But only onside the house on WiFi.

Denon amp, TIVO box and Roberts radio. Also the computer diary is now synced to the phone instead of the other way round. New camera for Christmas also has remote control feature from the phone.

the Panasonic tv remote control app is great for annoying my wife!

Roku, Cambridge Audio StreamMagic6 (well, I try to, the app is bobbins). Chromecast, obviously.

LG TV is controllable from phone, tablet or any browser with Chrome. YouView recordings remotely from phone or tablet. Can't remember the camera make but that can be remotely controlled by the phone. Bubble UPNP for watching media from the NAS on the TV, phone or tablet from the phone or tablet.
Basically TV based stuff. Once funds allow I quite fancy a go with that Nest thermostat. Don't mind at all if it spots on me in order to keep the house warm when we actually want it, and not when we don't. Quite fancy having smart TRV's, possibly charged up by using a peltier module tapping energy from the radiator.

Absolutely nothing. Which is annoying because I always thought Mrs MR was behind me in the tech stakes - yet she somehow manages to control much of my activity via a simple text app on her phone.

XBMC on a Raspberry Pi
Samsung TV remote app
Humax T2 freeview box can be controlled remotely using a web browser and has a mobile phone web interface
I can remotely switch electric heaters on and off in another house 100 miles away using ssh on my phone (Raspberry Pi using Energenie wireless sockets)
And if I'm playing music from my phone I can control it with my pebble watch.

Edit: And an AppleTV (cheers ratty!)

just my apple TV.

I tried a NEST . but no matter what i pressed on the app - it wouldnt put sticks in the stove.

The cat.

Covert cameras in the OP's house.

I can use it as a remote for my Humax Freeview box, but I never really bother as it doesn't do anything differently than the normal remote.

And there was me thinking smart phones were starting to control us.

Central Heating (Nest)
Tunes (Sonos in 3x rooms)
TV (Chromecast)

Central heating (Tado)
TV (Virgin box and Chromecast)

2x TV Sony Bravias (Sideview sony app, awesome)
Parental controls on Jr's Tablet
Chromecast
Windows Media Centre and DLNA served files.

Onkyo Stereo, laptop plugged into TV via remote desktop.

Only the Sky+ box and mainly just to annoy the wife/kids when they insist on putting guff on the TV.

Nothing. Have yet to get all my email accounts on the thing either. I've only recently got my first touch (thump) screen device as well. Playing catch up a little.

The Harmony app is great and lets me control all my media devices (telly/Sky box/amp/BR/Mac Mini with Plex/XBMC) via my Harmony remote - which is awesome anyway as you can replace all of your clickers with one (much better) clicker. I also control the lighting in my living room with it although that is a cheapo solution.

The Sky app is great but I pretty much only use it to set up recordings when away from home.

I have a couple of Squeezebox radios at work which I control with the iPeng app.

Also use Remotix VNC app for accessing Mac Mini at home and computers/equipment at work (even when not actually at work via VPN which is cool/handy).

My sleeper agents

My 2 year old. I downloaded 'Strength in Numbers' last week and now every time he achieves anything (complete jigsaw for example) he shouts 'Yeah, you can do backflips!'.
Now to get him practicing backflips.

Can anyone recommend decent WiFi enabled power sockets and light switches?
Where we live has no street lights, and apart from using expensive tech, I simply can't think of a way of having lights on when I come home in the dark...

DrP

I've got some of the belkin wemo kit which is pretty good, if a bit healthcare looking.

Can anyone recommend decent WiFi enabled power sockets and light switches?

GrahamS - Member

I can use it as a remote for my Humax Freeview box, but I never really bother as it doesn't do anything differently than the normal remote.

you can remotely set recordings on it when away from the house, by the way.

The Rothschilds...

Record stuff via the Tivo, and that's about it. I can access TV/PS4, but it's all a bit fiddly.

If you are doing a major renovation wire every room for cat6 and/or [url= http://www.automatedhome.co.uk/software/my-automated-home-open-source-automation.html ]RS485[/url] (if you really want to get into home automation).

It's not an area I know much about but I put in 4 ethernet ports in the drawing room and its been really useful. It may sound a lot but a smart TV and PVR will use two and one of the others is being used by the hi-fi.

Wired connections are faster*, more secure and easier to configure.

You could also look at [url= http://www.passivepoe.com/poe.html ]power over ethernet [/url]

You don't have to make all the connections live but I think that having enough ethernet ports us going to be like having enough power sockets in a few years time.

* Its only going to be faster for streaming from local storage

TV via a Unity remote gadget.

Also got a bunch of lights and sockets controlled by [url= http://www.lightwaverf.com/ ]LightwaveRF[/url], they mainly work automatically through their own WiFiLink box but can also be controlled from my phone; the phone is also used to programme the WiFiLink box.

Wired connections are faster*

* Its only going to be faster for streaming from local storage

Not quite true. My Sky router is terrible. Can't even get the 15Mbs over wifi when sperated by a couple of meters of air (closer to 3Mbs). When wired, I can happily get the 15Mbs. So I wasn't using all the bandwidth I was paying for - although I liked to tell myself it was a poor mans QoS implementation 😉

you can remotely set recordings on it when away from the house, by the way.

Don't think I can on my one. I've got a Humax 2000T which, despite being a latest model, doesn't seem to have that functionality.

The Humax Remote app that I use is this one:
https://appsto.re/gb/sgq5N.i

It basically just emulates the physical remote.

Heating and burglar alarm. Though generally not at the same time...

[img] [/img]

IP Camera's
PiCorePlayers (SONOS Alternative), Music in nearly every room
Living Room Amplifier
TV's
Kettle
Lighting (Philips Hue)
Server (HP Microserver), DLNA, uTorrent, Webserver, LMS, DVR, DNS, Print, Etc
AppleTV
ChromeCasts

Cat6 in every room, we thought 2x sockets in each would be enough, it is no where near enough. In the living room we have 8x LAN devices, it soon adds up over the years! Seperate Wireless upstairs and downstairs and 5Ghz WiFi.

Next step is controlling the heating and more lights around the house. I'm also in the process of making a robot which will be controllable over Interwebz (Camera & Ultrasonics) and will run around the house when no ones home and probably annoy anyone that is home.

Philips hue might be the answer to your lighting question they only do bulbs though not sockets.
If sockets are a must then look at light wave but not tried those myself.

I control my
Heating (heatmiser) split into 6 zones plus dhw
Some lighting (philips hue)
Alarm
Three sonos zones
Avr
TV
Blu ray
Pvr
CCTV

As overs have said think about installing structured cabling my media node has four drops and these are now maxed and I'll need to add a small 4/8 port switch if I add any more networked devices there.
I had all my structured cabling terminated in the loft where my phone line terminates so my modem, router, switch and nas devices all live up there in a small comms cab.

Nothing unusual:

Music streaming from Mac to Airport Express (iTunes and radio)
Apple TV
Nest thermostat
Sky+ box

It's worth having a look at IFTTT (If This Then That) for ideas.

my love life.

GrahamS - Member

you can remotely set recordings on it when away from the house, by the way.

Don't think I can on my one. I've got a Humax 2000T which, despite being a latest model, doesn't seem to have that functionality.

ah, I didn't realise they do non-YouView boxes too...

anyone got the sonos playbar? considering buying one, worth buying?

[quote=allthepies ]Covert cameras in the OP's house.

Thanks for that - could you please keep your monitor switched on though, as sometimes I miss interesting stuff.

Nothing much, Sky box fairly often as the app shows clashes and alternative showings, and music playback from the Mac Mini via Remote.
Everything else is too old to have any remote capability via a smart device, at least, I don't think there's any remote apps that'll control a Yamaha A/V amp that's around 15 years old.

Tado thermostat, though that mostly does its own thing.
Sonos
Sky+ box
Apple TV
Tiles (not really control as such I suppose)

Felix, quite tempted by a Sonos sound bar, they get very good reviews. Just a shame it's now a full av amp with multiple inputs but I guess that's not the point.

My Mac via Splashtop. So that's music and movies sorted. And file transfers when I'm at the office and forgot something.

Sonos PlayBar - yes, if you want a soundbar beating setup with one optical input. No if you want a full av amp solution.

I swapped my 5.1 setup and dumped 7 boxes (!) and extremely happy with the result, it's great for music and very good for TV but of course not as immersive as full surround and more expensive than others soundbars. Far simpler, cleaner, less hunk in the room. Biggest drawback is the input, not an issue for me and check as lots of TVs don't pass 5.1 out of the optical port so you may need a TV change to get the best surround out of it.

My phone runs av stuff mostly - Sonos, Freesat box, Chromecast, Plex server, vnc into my desktop but looking at a thermostat.

Everything else is too old to have any remote capability via a smart device, at least, I don't think there's any remote apps that'll control a Yamaha A/V amp that's around 15 years old.

Any recommendations for lights that can be controlled by phone? It's a security thing. Would be nice, when we're away, to be able to phone on and put a few lights on, make it look as though we were in.