Recently I bought few home automation "things" from US and China, having fun with it for a week, and I felt it is pretty powerful and can do almost any automation that you want

Things that I bought are

Samsung Smartthings hub V2 - z-wave and zigbee controller, it is open platform, compatible with many z-wave and zigbee devices, even the device is not in the support list, you can add custom device handlers to manage it. there are many developers out there to publish 3rd party z-wave device handlers, such as custom yamaha receiver device handler, custom smartapps integration to kodi to control kudled color bulb.


Kudled Color bulb (Taobao) - Zigbee color bulb, similar to Philips Hue, it is much much cheaper, only one quarter of Philips Hue price! thanks for the smartthings community, I'm able to pair this with smartthings hub directly and able to control the bulb from smartthings app


Monoprice z-wave in wall on/off switch - the cheaper z-wave on/off switch, you can use it as a relay or light switch, I use it as light switch and also a relay act as momentary switch to open/close autogate, the momentary switch connected to my autogate panel, the blue and red wires are connected to a z-wave switch relay, so I wired these two to the autogate door trigger, and it works perfectly, I set up a routine that when I'm arriving home, the gate will automatically open, and turn on the kudled lights installed at the gate.


GoControl Z-wave motion sensor and door/windows sensor - these security things can be used for wireless alarm, I use it for my second alarm system, the door sensor has external input that I connect it to the magnet contact installed on the autogate, this enables to monitor the autogate status to see whether or not it is close (I often forgot to close it). With the motion sensor installed, it is able to detect any intruder and take actions such as turn on all Kudled lights and set color to RED, since I have two Kudled color bulbs installed as the gate light, it is easier for outsider to notice my house is in the alarm state!


Below is the low quality video to demonstrate the smartthings integration with kudled color bulb

I have been using Smartthings hub for few months, it supports wide range of z-wave and zigbee devices, and is customizable, the system is opensource, so you can get update very frequent, drawback is it is not really reliable, sometimes there are too many changes especially if you apply some third party smartapps, things can go haywire .

Monowall z-wave in wall on/off switch is pretty good, it is reliable, easily pair with smartthings, it is actually a relay, so I use it to open/close my autogate. now my autogate can automatically open once my car is arriving home

There is a trick to use the Monowall z-wave, you must go through the manual and follow the steps to configure the switch, or it will not work as expected.

Smartthing has android and IOS app, this app acts as presence sensor, when you car is entering your house using geo fence, it will trigger the z-wave relay to open autogate.

My geo fence is about 200 meters radius from my house, so the autogate will open when my car is entering 200 meters radius.

the presence not only can trigger autogate, it also turn on lights, disable alarm, even unlock your door (but I don't have z-wave lock, I scare it is not reliable and also afraid smartthing is hacked)

I don't recommend to buy, it has quality issue, one of the bulbs already not working, another bulb lost red color, and the worst thing, it lost connection to my smartthings hub after the hub disconnect from internet.

If you wanted branded and good quality bulbs, philips hue and osram lightify, but they cost a bomb >RM200 per bulb and need hub controller!

or you can try xiaomi yeelight,

https://world.tmall.com/item/528834492886.h...0714.0.0.3KV7VX

http://xiaomi-mi.com/mi-lighting/xiaomi-ye...art-light-bulb/

I don't think Philips Hue sold in US can be used in Malaysia as it is 110V, if you plug in to 220V socket, it could burst!

You can bring back those battery powered smartthings compatible z-wave or zigbee sensors, it will work in Malaysia.

Another way is using z-wave/zig-bee bulbs if you don't want to modify anything, currently amazon selling Philips hue white around RM60 per bulb (without shipping cost)

Nowadays zigbee/z-wave RF is very power efficient, I have one z-wave power socket to dim light, after installing, I don't see any different in my electricity bill. also z-wave can easily detect 10 meters away device.

This post has been edited by Kiding: Sep 24 2016, 11:47 AM

you can get smartthings from amazon

smartthings forum is here http://community.smartthings.com

You can get xiaomi smart home kit, including smart plug, temp & humidity sensor, motion sensor, windows/doors sensor, smart button, hub at very low price.

These xiaomi devices are zigbee devices, some even can integrate to smartthings, I'm getting the humidity sensor to monitor my drybox is working properly or not


http://xiaomi-mi.com/smart-home/xiaomi-mi-smart-home-kit/

Yes, the iOS app support English.

you can get the kit from aliexpress or ezbuy if you can't read Chinese. Lazada also selling but a bit pricey.

Not really, most devices are zigbee devices, some of that are WiFi

Great to hear that! do you mind sharing some reference sites to integrate Xiaomi devices to Siri and homekit?

I'm going to get Echo dot to integrate with my smartthings home automation, actually I ordered it Nov last year through ezbuy, but they fxxx out and waste my 1.5 months waiting, very bad service for ezbuy US store.

I also just got the broadlink tc2 and RM Pro, now integrating with smartthings, so that I can use echo dot to voice control all my smart devices

I bought the xiaomi temperature/humidity sensor lately to monitor my drybox humidity, the sensor is dirt cheap which costs < RM35, and it can work with smartthings, I'm going to buy more xiaomi zigbee plug/motion sensor/door & windows contact sensors since it is much cheaper and able to work with smartthings hub

That is because you don't know about smart home, home automation is a hot topic in developed countries.

My smart home will automatically open my autogate when I approach my home, turn on gate lights. living room lights automatically when I reach home when it is dark. turn off light when I watch TV/Movie, and one touch to turn on/off all my amp, TV, media player. it is more than what you thought, it can make your life easier if you know how to do it creatively.

Further more, it is also can act as wireless house alarm, if someone break in your house, you will get notified through the app wherever you are , it also can integrate to IP Camera to take pic and video when house get intruded.


This post has been edited by Kiding: Jan 12 2017, 09:06 PM

Don't use ezbuy US buy for me service, suck big time!!! I wait for 1.5 months for echo dot and they told me Amazon didn't dispatch the items at the end, during the 1.5 month waiting period, message them, email them, all got this standard replied -> item not dispatched. It wastes my time and I lost opportunity to get echo dot at US$39.9, now I got to buy it at US$49.9! Fxxx ! ezbuy is my blacklist now.

I don't extend, instead I bought two broadlink devices, one is RM pro and another one is black bean (RM Mini)
Certain xiaomi zigbee devices have custom device handlers for smartthings, so I just use those device handler to configure xiaomi zigbee devices

Not true, why the smartphone can't connect to the device? it is also connect to router, both are able to connect to each other as they connect to the local router.

smartphone can make few hundred connections at a time, it can connect to smart devices and internet at the same time

Why some products require cloud? it is because it is easier to maintain the software, upgrade, patching are automatically done, cloud enables product to have more control of your smart home devices.

There are many smart home devices are running locally without connecting to cloud, and managed by smart phone, especially china brand wifi smart devices like tp-link, home automation solutions like wemo, openhab, home assitant, control4, vera all can work without cloud.

The broadlink TC RF wall plate doesn't require neutral line, just a live wire is good enough.



I have managed to integrate the broadlink RM Pro and RM Mini 3 to Alexa, the RM tasker app running on Android has feature to bridge Alexa and Broadlink eControl app, now I can use Alexa to voice control all broadlink devices