The Core

I'm waiting on the little automated bot that detaches from the front bumper to walk across the garage floor and plug itself in. Surely someone is working on this.

Didn't realize this was hubitat thread til after I posted, but yeah.... maybe it will just park itself right up against the contact pad on the wall. (the car, that is)

I wouldn't call it 'easy' --at least not for in-the-wall switches.  The biggest issue in the US is the lack of a neutral wire in the switch box (due to the way we typically run switch wires.)  The second problem is with 3-way switches --you have to change the traveler wire.  The wall-wart type receptacles and smart bulbs ARE pretty easy.

>Alexa

Alexa typically becomes a front-end for controlling the devices on the Hubitat, particularly lighting.  You lose voice control when the internet goes out, but the switches still work manually, or from the control screen, or on a Hubitat program.  They just won't hear you when you yell, hhh.

99% of the time, the reason our internet goes out is because our power goes out, which is often. Since the router is on a UPS, the internet is actually more stable than the power.

For me the main thing is that it needs to have graceful recovery from internet and power outages. So far so good, but occasionally, there's a manual process with the smart switch or the Nest after extended outages.

I'm waiting on the little automated bot that detaches from the front bumper to walk across the garage floor and plug itself in. Surely someone is working on this.

2015, but no news since

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMM0lRfX6YI

August 2019:

https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/electrify-america-stable-auto-robotic-ev-chargers-self-driving-cars/

Cost me $200 for Sonos speakers, but Google speakers have been dropped from my set-up.

Thanks!  If Sonos would get their a## in gear and fix their android app to work on Chromebooks, I'd be all set.  99.9% of our interaction with Sonos is via Alexa.  And the primary use is still TTS.  I suspect a physical remote would just get tossed in a drawer somewhere and forgotten,  so I haven't bought one --even though I love tech gadgets.  BPTworld's Notifier Plus app allows for volume setting before & after the TTS, btw.  I've modified the Notifier Plus Child app code to be more useful to us.  I've also added a virtual switch to disable all problematic TTS rules & apps with the idea being that we'll just kill TTS when we want uninterrupted music.

Though we rarely listen to music, parties & holidays are an exception.  The problem I AM having is that an incoming TTS causes the music playlist to stop and it does not resume.  To counter that, I purchased a third Sonos to be used for music only.  My plan is to use it mostly for outdoor gatherings or in remote parts of the house (garage) .  I can see where a physical remote might be handy there --but, then again, there's always a Dot nearby and Louise tends to default to voice control.