Posts Tagged: smartthings

0 Updating cheap SmartPlugs

Published 23^rd June 2020 by Jon Scaife & filed under SmartHome & IoT. Last updated 28th January 2024.

I have previously written about modifying cheap £10 smartplugs to run open source firmware. Now I have quite a number of them I needed an efficient way to update them. In this article I document how to do
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0 Expanding smarthome on the cheap

Published 30^th October 2018 by Jon Scaife & filed under SmartHome & IoT. Last updated 10th November 2018.

As I’ve written about before, I have begun to experiment with the world of smarthome devices, and currently use a smartthings hub and a google home mini. So far these have just turned on lamps and other “plugged in” devices via smartplugs, but with more compatible devices at reasonable prices finally starting to appear I wanted to start documenting more of what I’ve tried
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3 Cheap WiFi SmartPlugs with SmartThings

Published 17^th March 2018 by Jon Scaife & filed under SmartHome & IoT. Last updated 2nd February 2024.

SmartThings compatible smart plugs are annoyingly expensive — typically around £40. This is far too expensive to consider buying many of. There are however WiFi plugs available online for around £10 that don’t officially work with SmartThings. Most of them are based on the ESP8266 chip which can be reflashed with new firmware that will work with SmartThings. Below I document my trials and tribulations with hacking these plugs
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2 Connect SmartThings to Windows PC’s and Kodi

Published 1^st March 2018 by Jon Scaife & filed under Kodi, SmartHome & IoT. Last updated 18th March 2018.

I have several windows PCs in my house that run Kodi. I wanted to connect them to SmartThings for a range of purposes. There are various things that can be done depending on the functionality you want.
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0 Samsung SmartThings — A smart home hub

Posted 15^th June 2016 by Jon Scaife & filed under SmartHome & IoT.

I’ve recently invested in a SmartThings Hub for my home to use for security and safety as well as for general smart home functions. Over the coming months I will be writing a series of articles with some of the technical hurdles I cross along the way.
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