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So I've been thinking, what ways do you guys think smart home tech can help during the current COVID-19 pandemic? I was thinking that smart displays could be particularly useful for the video call functionality for those in self isolation. The drop in & broadcast features on the Echo Dot/Nest Mini's could be useful for communication for those not wishing to handle their mobile/call phone for infection control reasons.

You're all Automaters, and so I don't need to tell you that you can do your part in slowing down the spread of COVID-19. You get it. As people with smart homes and smart lives, we have learned how to manage our lives through our voice, through our sensors, and through our ideas, and as we continue to show others how to do so, we can actually help the world become a happier, healthier, and easier place to live in. This is especially true during any flu season, but even more so right now as we all continue our efforts around social distancing. It's easy to take a message like this and laugh it off, but don't kid yourselves. Your Smart Home helps. Your ideas for automated living help. So stand up, get out your (heavily sanitized) phone, and share a little video or a picture of you automating something. Show a moment where you don't have to touch a device, and let your friends and family see how it might benefit them. You can also do this on your own Facebook feed, or your own Twitter Profile. So go forth Automaters and let's show the world how a smart home helps in this situation, as in many others.

I really like this topic! I was thinking about gesture control on the smart displays and phone control being really important to lessen the chance of passing through touch!

Motion sensors, contact sensors. I have motion sensors or motion zones in just about every room I, almost never turn on/off light switches. Motion sensors can be used in a number of ways to keep you from transferring the virus.

I am currently under house quarantine for covid19. They will not test me as I don't have the breathing problems, just the fever, dry cough and sore throat. No one at work is even allowed in with a fever. As someone with a smart home I can say without a doubt the best things have been motion sensors for lights and the big Echo buttons for routines. My throat/voice have been in no condition to speak to Alexa.

I am caring for an elderly parent with mild dementia, and I would love to use smart tech to do video calling during this pandemic. But I really do not know where to start or what tech to get. I have a Google mini, and I have a smartphone. My parent, however, is using a computer that is more than 10 years old. There is wifi in the house. My parent has used Skype. My parent has a an Alcatel flip phone, but the data is turned off. My thoughts: a. start simple by getting a chromebook (touchscreens are intimidating to my parent; keyboards are familiar) and starting a FB account. Could then use FB messenger to video call. Problem: I can't just "drop in." And I can't set reminders to take meds. b. Google Nest Max. Problems/Questions: how do I set it up in my parent's home? Can I set it up using my smartphone and remote operate it from my home? Do I also need a Nest Max to video call? c. Some say Alexa is easier for the elderly to use. Question: True? Looking for advice.

Yeah absolutely @MNA1966like you I have motion sensors in the majority of my rooms to trigger lighting, even where this is not the case I have the ability to use voice control, there's only really 1 set of lights that isn't currently served by smart lighting & it's not an essential part of the house

I don't have the Phillips Hue System so can't help you with the Hex color settings, but I do have a Sylvania Color Bulb so I created this piston using that. Perhaps you can modify it for your purposes. At least it gives you a good idea for your piston. If you have any questions about the piston please ask. As you can see I only gave it 4 colors. You can add more and the piston will check to see how many colors are in the color variable and only reset the counts variable when it gets to the end of the color list. Then it will start over.

I signed up for the RoomMe beta program and have been testing their implementation for SmartThings. It currently requires you to create a SmartApp from their GitHub page and they have detailed the steps well for setting up OAuth. The system works for my Use Case of tracking a Senior's locations throughout the day. I was testing their implementation for Hubitat which takes the same "user app" approach, but never could get Hubitat to recognize any of the zwave or zigbee devices... just Philips Hue I also found that a Samsung s10+ phone has better Bluetooth than a Samsung Note10+ in my testing... I'm still testing my Galaxy watch which appears to be a bit "too sensitive"

Hi @Caregiver, I'll let the Google experts weigh in on solutions for their products, but I can offer some advice on the Amazon products. I have found Echo Show devices to be great for elderly parents by providing as easy way to do video calls. You can start a call where they have to accept it or "drop in" if you are worried about them. They can also call you. https://technology4seniors.com/independence The simplest way to set this up is to add their Echo Show to your account, but this gives them control over your devices. This will work even though they are on a different network. The more difficult way to set this up is using their own Amazon account as this requires a smartphone with a different number then yours. This can be accomplished using a free Google voice number https://www.amazonforum.com/s/question/0D54P00006zSpI5SAK/you-dont-need-to-get-grandma-a-smartphone-to-setup-alexa-calling Frank

Hi @David With the loss of your voice, if you run out of Echo Buttons and have an Echo Show, you might want to look into "Tap to Alexa" under Settings- Accessibility. https://youtu.be/vuhuJpnl4Ag

Changes to routines: You can now copy/paste existing actions from one routine to another. You can also change the trigger to existing routines.

Thanks again Frank, I will take a look at the ST post and see if I can use it. Hi Larry, I want to be able to see the device history in a spreadsheet where I can analyze it, and make configuration adjustments or changes. Is webCORE capable of doing this? Jim

Hi Jim, I just found this over at the SmartThings forum. It may be be of use https://community.smartthings.com/t/smartthings-data-visualisation-using-influxdb-and-grafana/44946 Frank

Hi Frank, Thank you for sharing this information. I am looking at the IFTTT applet configuration and it appears that one has to specify a specific trigger. I am looking to record event activity for all devices. The ST app has a history feature which is the exact information I would like to get into a Google sheet. I can seem to figure out how to do that in the IFTTT app. Jim

Hi @jmack87 Here is what I use: Create an IFTTT applet to trigger from the SmartThings device and have that applet write to Google Sheets, a cloud based spreadsheet Once the data is there, you can use the Google scripting language to create reports Frank

Would something like this help? After it is tripped (needs to vibrate for at least 15 seconds, configurable) then it will not trigger the flashing again even if the sensor see's vibration for 3 min (180 seconds, again configurable). Don't know if this will help but i use this in several pistons. If it happens again after the LockOut time then it will trigger again. But once triggered will not trigger again for another 180 secs.

Alarms can now be set for any echo from any other echo.

I use webCoRE to monitor the washer and dryer check out this post Also if you are interested in getting webcore running there are several video's that can help you get started here

I found an interesting video that contains a mashup of solutions I've been working on. https://youtu.be/iXC25jb5zck

Hey guys & gals. I have discovered a new website (new to me) that will allow you newbies in automation to get started to program some of your own voice automations using either AMAZON ALEXA or GOOGLE HOME. It does NOT require any prior knowledge of Coding & is very easy to use. Brian you may want to consider doing a Youtube video on this as well on Automate Your Life. Here is the website... https://www.voiceflow.com Check it out & Enjoy! 🙂

Smart watches could be used to monitor the body for unusual bodily behaviour then automatically contact there GP.

I noticed this week that my 2 show 5's have been keeping a webpage open long past the usual 5 min. timeout. Last check was approaching an hour before I cancelled it.

Doesn't seem to be enough people interested in buying these @Peter If you want me to send you one let me know in a PM and i'll see what I can do.

So I haven't seen this personally yet...but ya, I'm not a big user of Bluetooth! Anyone?

I use my google displays and speakers at home more than I use assistant on my mobile. Although I use my assistant in the car for making calls. I listen to music, get the news and weather the most at home as well as ask for info on something. I have a nest hub in the kitchen which I have recently used to follow recipes, which when I first saw that you could use the hub this way, I thought 'who is going to do that?' but look at me now 😀

Ok update have made 2 minor changes and 1 major change to the controller. first change was to cut a opening for the power connector instead of drilling a hole for the power this makes for a lot easier to plug the controller into the power supply. Second change was to add a capacitor across the 5v supply going to the light strip. This helps stabilize the 5 volt supply when making large changes to the brightness and intensity settings because the LED's pull more power when doing those changes. The last change is the major one and that is I am now using a newer micro controller called a D1 mini. Takes up less space and is faster then the nodeMCU controller. Here is a picture of the board in action. And here is a picture of the controller close up. Kepp in mind this controller is small. The box it's in is only 4 inches across. Here are the links for the D1 mini controller and the capacitor. All other parts are the same. D1 Mini micro-controller board -- https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076F53B6S/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 16V 1000 uf Capacitor -- https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076MKH6YR/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Any questions please ask them here.

I guess I’m not set up for notifications, sorry for the delay. No, I don’t. I’m really surprised this works as well as it does and to this day because I haven’t updated the firmware. Feels like I just tempted the universe 🥺

Sign me up. I know you wrote "anyone else", but hey I just want to start things of. Make a deal with @AYL_Brian so he can do a you tube walk through of your package, with installation, webcore implementation and different examples of use cases. Perhaps start with only AYL Patreons to start things in a smaller scale?

Is anyone else interested in these?

The Monkey man says to come here...so I do. What do I find!? Nice one!

Seems like they need to work out a pre-power and pair option and then move through installation....the 1" thing is strange!