Natalen

I am a network engineer in the Pacific Northwest and I have been deploying a home automation system in our home to allow Natalie the ability to be self-sufficient as long as possible.  The home automation journey began about 18 months ago but has recently become more important that we have these systems running and stable since Natalie is needing the extra assistance in daily life.  I have reached out on a two fold request.

1. We need assistance in procuring additional gear which I am working on providing specific products.

2. I want to find a way to share what I am doing for Natalie with others who have the same needs. My vision is to have a repeatable package with instructions to use and deploy along with a way to support the deployed systems.  The care and feeding of the system once it is installed is the most difficult part of this endeavor.

I would like to help where I can, I understand there is a group of individuals who may be interested in tackling this mountain.

I am using Home Assistant as my hub along with the following off the shelf integrations and products.  I chose Home Assistant due to the amount of you tube tutorials, ease of programming, number of integrations and the quality of like minded people on the help forms.  Home Assistant is free since it is an open source product that is being developed by people who enjoy doing this work.  I am not setting up the alexa integration since Natalie has bulbar onset ALS and lost her ability to speak clearly two years ago.  I have automated the following items so she can control them using her Tobii TD Pilot.  This is a bit easier since the apps are native to the apple iOS.  Side note Natalie is really disappointed that she can not control her Permobil wheelchair with the TD Pilot.

1. Home Assistant is running on a Raspberry Pi 4 with an Aeotech Gen 7 z-wave stick

      The devices i am using are all z-wave based and do not rely on internet connectivity

      I have a paid Home Assistant Cloud account to allow me to easily and securely access the system remotely

2. Light Switches – Home Seer WS-3000 light switches They can be deployed with or without a neutral wire.

3. Power Outlets – Aeotech Smart Switches

4. Thermostat for heat and cooling is a Honeywell T6

5. The Bidet is controlled using a Broadlink IR blaster, I have both physical buttons (Fibaro The button) and virtual buttons on the HA dashboard.

6. The TV is a Samsung Frame and Natalie is using the Smart Things app to work the TV.  This includes navigating the menus.

7. The heater for the tile floor in the bathroom.  Natalie can turn the heat up when she showers to help her not get cold

We still need to add to the system:

Garage Door Sensor/Controller   – HomeSeer device

Sensors to turn on lights when she rolls into a room  HomeSeer or Aeotech device

Sensors to help with ambient temperature in the areas where Natalie is spending time  –  HomeSeer or Aeotech Device

Ft Door and Bedroom Door openers that will integrate to the system  –   Searching for the best option

Camera Doorbell and cameras on the home – Still searching for the best option

Future Needs:

Hospital Bed – the ability to change positions using the Tobii

Window Shades – the ability to open and close using the Tobii

I need these devices to learn how they work to figure out the programing.

Building a Home Automation System that is easy to deploy and support will help so many people, not just those with ALS.  The hard part is how to build this at a national scale and how to find the money to make this a reality?