Well after many weeks of learning the Orchard CMS, HA Hub is finally live. HA Hub is my site devoted to DIY Home Automation. The content on the site is currently pretty limited. Just one tutorial and a couple of blog posts, but I wanted to get it running so that search engines can start crawling the site. I still have more to learn about Orchard to make it do all of the things I want, but now that I have a framework up and running, I can start spending more time on creating content. I hope that this approach will result in continually improving quality for the site.
The next couple of tutorials I want to do are “Simple Home Automation” Using LIFX color changing bulbs. LIFX bulbs produce a really nice quality light and communicate via wifi, so there is no hub required. Then I want to do a tutorial where I start creating a more sophisticated home automation system by integrating the LIFX bulb and the WeMo Mini smart plug that was the subject of my first tutorial on HA Hub, with the Amazon Echo to provide voice control of my home automation. The Amazon Echo and its ability to integrate with, and provide voice control of many different systems, is one of the most exciting developments in Home Automation in many years.
So watch for these tutorials. I will announce them here when they go live.