Cat Woods: June 2015

SmartThings Workshop – controlling devices with code: SmartApps #smartThingsUK

18:15 – Struggled to find the place, tucked away with an abstract building number! Massive entrance hall, taken to the lift and sent up, randomly entering a open office space with no one there to greet me… Then presented with free cider and beer on tap! Beer please!

18:30 – And the announcement of a 45 mins countdown with food coming soon! Chicken and chips, don’t mind if I do!

Double whammy, winner!

18:35 – Then as a reward for turning up early, a free t-shirt! I could get use to these events!

18:40 – Countdown, Twitter hashtag feed, slide presentation – looking forward to it getting underway!

18:50 – Certainly a fair number have turned up! Running out of seats.

18:55 – Cue old school 80s groove background music in the shape of Baltimore’s Tarzan Boy! Followed by George Harrison’s Got my mind set on you!

18:56 – Gadgets are now out to have a play – touchy feely time commences!

19.05 – standing room only now, and there’s plenty standing! T-shirts all gone too! Ratio women to men, 6:40, no surprises there then!

19:15 – and we’re off…

Hmm countdowns finished… Hum de hum

19:16 – and we’re off

SmartThings Over from US as part of Techweek UK

Samsung working in collaboration

Ben Edwards – @alttext

Alex Hawkins @ahawkins

Alex, founder and CEO of SmartThings

Majority developers, few designers, one investor, “users”

graph.api.smarthings.com

30,000 apps

Background story, 2nd home flooded as the result of frozen pipes, expensive to repair – why does no sensor exist to let me know how the house is doing (April 2012)

Easiest way to turn your home into a smarthome via an open platform

Communicates with Zigbee, z- wave, LAN, Cloud-to-cloud

Explosion of uses

Three core sections – 3rd party developers, device makers, service providers

Withings, sonos, Honeywell, jawbone, etc

Connected IoT benefits – Security / peace of mind, convenience/ entertainment, energy savings

Acquired by Samsung, August 2014

Understand they can’t provide everything for everyone – so have a platform where others can do it for you

Scenarios – gym, office, energy, security, wellness, shopping, medical, auto, fun, factory, home, family, safety, boat

19:30 – Andrew Mager

Hardware is less hard now

Moisture – wet dry

Motion – motion no motion

Acceleration – active not active

Temperature

device type handler – turns raw message into code so you don’t have to

Device lab in Paolo alto

SmartApps – let users connect devices, actions and external services to create automation – turn off lights when I arrive, make me coffee when I’m in the shower

Written in Groovy

Preferences – inputs and capabilities

Install, update, initialise

Open handler, close handler

Graph.api.smartthings.com/ide

You don’t have to have the device to code, virtual devices available to select from and install

Docs.smartthings.com

User will control via App (pending approval)

Hub (control), App, devices

Host with SmartThings at the moment

Zigbee 300 ft range, devices act as repeaters

Limit – 250 requests per minute at the moment, was put in place to prevent Cloud crashing

How many sensors? – under 12

1,000s of other devices

Sandbox – developers can create whatever they want

Submission process to allow other users to use – 150 device types passed so far

GitHub exists for code sharing

No approval required to use in your own home

New capability requests – constantly coming in

SmartApp templates – list of shared apps, GitHub integration coming soon

Limit on data storage? data coming in can talk to external web services

Control devices with HTTP requests – GET / PUT requests

Preferences

Mappings – GET / PUT

Set switch

Apigee.com – authentication

Control Hue bulb from SMS

Preferences

Mapping

PostHue/ set hue colour

Demo inviting everyone on to text a mobile number to change the colour of the bulb

Twillo – php scripts runs in the background

Make http requests from a SmartApps

Weatherground

– preferences

– run update every 5 mins

Links

Goo.gl/XnWYvn – GitHub

ide.smartthings.com

Community.smartthings.com

3rd party integration- eve, smarttiles, smartrules, smart alarm

Andrew Mager @mager developer advocate

Ben Edwards @alttext community

Alex hamkinson @ahawkinson ceo

Alex Bowker @alexbowker developer relations

Ben davolls @samsungbenuk developer advocate

@smartthingsdev

Alex Stanford-Clark – the house that tweets

SmartThings whiskey – YouTube – scotch collection with SmartThings http://youtu.be/zh8GBP10Axw

Safety, reassurance

Personality quirks – suit your own individual needs

Waking up in winter – replicate SAD scenarios. Slowly dim lights before bedtime.

Motion sensors for footfall within a store

Sonos – Google translate generates voice file for speech capability; doorbell; weather read out when walk into a room

Rate Limiter to prevent high voltage / overheating – yes, the potential to blow your own up house!

What if your internet fails? Coming in September, the new hub will be able to run locally (v2) plus battery back-up. Both v2 and v1 alert you when offline. Will get more robust in time!

Calibration – motion, accelerometer – limitation at the moment for pattern recognition

Pricing – $20-50 for basic sensors, more expensive for other higher end devices

One sensor to report into multi hubs? multiple hubs in one location is possible

Certified in EU but no local language support at the moment

UK release is imminent

Devices connected to the cloud – no available data at the moment

Hub $99 – cost will reduce over time

Kit with 6 sensors + hub $299

Data privacy? Users own their own data e.g. SmartThings can’t see when your front door is open. Monthly penetration testing to scrutinise data protection

Mandatory patch updates have been carried out previously when security flaws have been discovered

Artik.io – 3 prototypes available but currently oversubscribed at the moment to get your hands on one.

Complete composite devices – garage door relay simulates open / closed

Groovy will be supported for the time being, JavaScript will be coming in soon, other languages may follow dependent on Community feedback

U.S. Time zone Hangout – GMT times coming soon – all published on the developer site. Community is lively and supportive, great resource community.smartthings.com

All in all a great presentation and enthusiastic audience who are clearly keen to get their hands on the hub! Me included!

Now to get my thinking cap on for what I can set-up! Rocky theme tune plays and hallway lights switch on when I open the front door! Step into the bedroom and the lights come on along with the TV ! That’s minimal compared to what SmartThings is capable of! Thinking cap well and truly on!