- Create a RoomGroup devices in an area so that you can turn on/off the devices all together.
To begin, go to Automation in the left panel and select Add room.
Enter Room name to start.
On the right column, you will see a list of all your devices set up in Home-A-Genius. One panel is for Triggers and another panel will be for Devices, Rooms and System.
Devices/Room/System
These are anything that you want to turn on/off, dim/brighten or even color change.
Like kindergarten, simply drag them into the Action box of the room.
Items you may find in the list :
- Speak - Allows Home-A-Genius to speak to you
- Push notification - Send notifications to your iOS device
- Switches - Set it to turn on/off
- Smart lights/Dimmer - Set the Brightness, Hue or Saturation
- Music - Set it to play a tune as well as control the volume
- System - Automations/Routines that are created in Home-A-Genius. Set it to be enabled or disabled. Useful when it is bed time and you want to disable your motion sensored automation
- Rooms - Set it to turn on/off another room
Triggers
Triggers are anything that can initiate an Action.
Like kindergarten, simply drag them into the Action box of the room.
Items you may find in the list :
- Quick Button - A shortcut button to quickly turn on/off a Room. These button will also appear in a widget on your mobile phone. The widget will be available once our mobile app is downloaded.
- Voice Controller - Command your voice controller based on given room name. Tell your voice controller to on/off or set the brightness of the room
- Weather - Set the action to take when the weather changes (rain or sunny)
- Cameras - Watch the surroundings of the room. See the camera display in Room Detail (later section)
- Alarm/Timer from your Google Home - Set the action to take when the alarm or timer starts and stops
- Switches - Set the action to take when state of the switch changes
- Door Sensors - Set the action to take when the door is open or close
- Motion Sensors - Set the action to take when motion is detected or not detected
- Automating different types of devicesHome-A-Genius is a unique platform for various types of devices. To make your smart home as dynamic as possible, Home-A-Genius allows you to set advance logic to make the device more dynamic. e.g. changing the volume of the speaker, adding weather sense into the automation, dynamic texts for the push notifications etc.You can specify the details of each device after dragging it into the action box. You can customize the devices by selecting the edit button at the bottom right corner of each of the devices.
Home-A-Genius allows for various devices to be customized, below few are some examples:
- Speaker
- Push Notification
- Routines
- Scenes
- All other devices
Default Customization
For every switch/sensors/light device, Home-A-Genius will provide the following customization:
Delay: Use this only if you want to delay the automation for a certain period.
Turn Off After: This allows you to turn off a command/room/scene after you have activated it.
When room is On/Off: allows you to activate the automation when room is on/off.
When Rain Starts/Stops: This functions integrates Home-A-Genius' weather sense into the automation.
Temperature Threshold: This functions integrates Home-A-Genius' weather sense into the automation. Users can customize the automation based on temperature from NEA. You can see an example of this function here.
Speaker
Speakers are used for Home-A-Genius as a feedback announcement. You can customize the speech of the speaker by updating the text in the textbox.
Home-A-Genius also has various default texts in the buttons below "Greeting", "Room Name" and "Weather".
Greeting is useful for door sensors, e.g. Home-A-Genius will greet you when you enter your house.
Room Name is a dynamic input for the room you are updating.
Weather will announce the feed from NEA.
Once you have updated the announcements, you can click on Done and save the room.
Colored LED light strip
Colored LED light strip requires specific customization e.g. Color, brightness, Hue and Saturation.
You can update the above parameters accordingly when setting up the rooms
Dimmer Relays
Home-A-Genius allows you to set the brightness of the lights.
- Setting up Rooms for different timingYou may also set up rooms based on certain timing. This is to cater to different room scenes by giving the same command or clicking on the same Quick Button.
You can command “turn on Kitchen”, but expect different behaviour from the home at different time. i.e. You will not expect the lights to be turned on in the day as the kitchen may be bright enough. Lights should only be turned on from 7pm to 7am.
From the Automation page, select "Add Rooms". Enter the room name.
To define specific timing for the automation, select the edit button below “All Day”.
A time selector will appear. Simply select the timing you would want the action to be activated. e.g. 7:00am to 7:00pm. Once the timing has been selected, another timing (for the remaining parts of the day) will be automatically populated in the second action window.
You can use the dropdown to select your desired timing.
Once done, Home-A-Genius will automatically create 2 windows, one for your specific timing. one for the timing to fill up the rest of the day.
You may drag and drop the devices you want to turn on/off into the action button. i.e. Speaker to read out “turning on Kitchen. No Lights will be on.” For the morning shift.
To do so, drag the speaker to the action button. Select the edit button on the bottom left side of the speaker. You can edit the speech text of Home-A-Genius to include “No lights will be turned on”.
- Setting up your room for different weatherWeather changes will alter how you want your rooms to behave.Scenario: You have set up the command "Turn on Dining Room" to turn on lights and fan in your dining room. You want to limit the lights to be turned on only after 7pm. However, the sky gets dark when it rains in the afternoon. You's also want to limit the number of commands in your home so that your family members can command it as per normal.Home-A-Genius is connected to NEA for weather news feeds, updating your home of the weather condition outside of your house.Weather conditions such as showers/sunny/cloudy/hazy and air temperatures will be captured.You can use Home-A-Genius' weather sense as a measure to how you would like your home to be automated.
Scenario: Saving Electricity by turning off the aircon and turning on the fan by default
The scene for "Sleep Mode" is set to work only when the command is activated. I have already named my Broadlink device in my bedroom to be Master Bedroom Fan and Master Aircon for activation/deactivation of the aircon/fan.
Criteria for this scene:
- To turn on the Air con AND turn off the fan if the temperature from Weather Sense is > 25DegC
- To turn off the air con AND turn off the fan if the temperature from Weather Sense is < 25 DegC.
This scene is useful for users who wants to save energy by reducing the air conditioning usage based on the weather outside. i.e. if the external temperature drops to less than 25 DegC, Home-A-Genius can turn off the air con and turn on the fan by default, so our home owners can continue their well deserved rest,
Drag and drop the Broadlink device Master Bedroom Fan into the action box. Select the edit button at the bottom right corner of "Master Bedroom Fan". You will see the below pop up.
There are several criteria for the bedroom fan. The one we are focusing on is on Temperature Threshold.
Under the condition Temperature Threshold, enter the temperature you would like Home-A-Genius to trigger the action. In this example, we will be using 25DegC as the threshold.
For the Master Bedroom Fan, you will want the device to be turned on if the temperature is below threshold (25 DegC) and the device to be turned off if the temperature is above (25 DegC).
Now, drag and drop the Master Air Con into the action box, You will need the criteria to be totally opposite of the Master fan, When the temperature is above 25DegC then turn on air con. If it is below 25DegC, turn off the aircon.
Select the Save button to save the scene.
- Further CustomizationWe believe each home is unique to its own. Below is an example of how you can alter Home-A-Genius dynamically to suit the needs of your home. Try out the tutorial as a starting ground on how you should optimize your home. Contact us if you have any doubts.
Turning on your study room based on your selected trigger
You want the Study Room lights and fans to be turned on based on the following conditions:
1. Through our mobile app
2. Through Voice Controlling
On the Automation page, go to "Add Rooms"
Drag and drop “Quick Button” and “Voice Controller” into the Condition window.
Drag the Study room Light* switch (represented by BR3 Switch 1) and Study Room fan (BR3 Switch 2) into the action window.
For Advanced users, you can explore more options by clicking on the edit button on the bottom left of each box.
*You will need to label the gadgets in their respective hubs in order to know which gadget you are dragging in.
Once the room has been created, you may choose to update room with the following actions
1. Activate/deactivate the room
2. Duplicate the room
3. Delete the room
4. Remove any action by clicking on the X.
You can select save to save the automation. You will see a pop-up to get your voice controllers to discover devices. You may do this after you are done with the automations or you can repeat this after every save.
Now Study Room will appear in your
Automation screen. You may choose to edit the room automation by selecting the edit button at the bottom right corner of the Study Room box (pointed by arrow).
Now, one last step. A popup will appear to remind you to ask Alexa to discover devices.
Why do we need to ask Alexa to discover devices?
Alexa will need to be alerted to synchronise the devices. Alexa will not automatically sync the devices until she is told to do so.
- Detailed view of a RoomYou can view the details of your room, per gadget basis, from the overview page.
On the Overview page, go to the quick button section. Select the triangle (on the top right corner) of the room you want to look into.
Once the detailed view is selected, you will be directed to the below page.
The first section will display the latest activity of the room. e.g. Last turned on an hour ago.
The section will also show you how long was the room turned on for.
You can select the various device on the 3rd section to see the usage history of each device,
The second section is a chart that displays the number of devices turned on during the period of time.
Scrolling down to the last section will display all triggers for the room. If an IP Camera is attached to the room, you can also view and control the camera in this section.
You may also view details of your room from our mobile app.
