Source
r/homeautomation•
DethFace

Microsoft centric household

My castle is very Microsoft; xbox, desktops, couple of windows phones, the whole bit. I've trying to find a hub system that fully intergrates with Cortana and is UWP so I can use it with any of the mentioned devices. Geolocation with so my phone hits home my lights and Xbox turn on, Netflix scene, game scene, so on and etc. The idea is to host it all on my desktop. I have electronics background but limited programming knowledge. Any ideas, suggestions, gofuckmyselfs? Thanks!

Posted Apr 10, 2017, 12:08 PM UTC

216
impmonkey•

Windows phone.....good luck. My prayers are with you.

9
DethFaceOP•

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKie-vgUGdI

2
youtubefactsbot•

There are dozens of us... DOZENS [0:07]

I do NOT own this, FOX does. You can watch Arrested Development on Hulu, and is readily available on DVD (all three seasons). Come on!

^Storage1129 ^in ^Comedy

^420,738 ^views ^since ^Apr ^2011

^bot ^info

1
DethFaceOP•

Way to ruin the fun, spoilerbot.

3
impmonkey•

Haha saved me the bandwidth

3
CastleAutomationVendor: CastleOS•

CastleOS supports Windows Phone.

1
MailmanOddSmartThings 2 + Google Home•

I work for Microsoft and have done some work on my own time with Windows 10 IoT Core on Raspberry Pi. As far as I know the ecosystem is pretty much roll your own right now.

2
CastleAutomationVendor: CastleOS•

Have you checked us out at CastleOS?

1
Dean_RoddeyVendor: CQC•

If you are a Windows house, then our CQC system is an obvious choice (www.charmedquark.com), but Cortana isn't an option. I don't think any automation system supports it currently? We support the Echo and we support local voice control (via Kinect or any good mic array product that shows up as an audio input in Windows.) That's about as much choice as you are likely to get on the voice control front at this point.

CQC is a pro oriented system, so it's very open ended and you can do pretty much anything you are willing to put in the time to make it so. It takes a bit of commitment as any serious automation system does, but if you have a technical background you shouldn't have an issue, and the payoff is substantial. There's no programming involved. It's all point and click.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQKu1lndLzM&list=PLJojk5z5q10RZfh3aI2aoVvTgUDkpZgpE

We also have some 'quick start' features to help you get going with minimal effort.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWK4GwDO7bA&list=PLJojk5z5q10RZKzxzyBlNI8VktL4uEls2

2
DethFaceOP•

Thats cool and all but I would really prefer Cortana as I already have her everywhere.

1
Dean_RoddeyVendor: CQC•

This is a common thing. Obviously it's your thang, and you can do whatcha wanna do. But it's not uncommon for folks new to this to come into it with this one thing that they think they think they have to have, and they will compromise everything else for that.

But really you should be picking the best automation system for what you want to accomplish overall, and working with what it provides. Ultimately voice control is a very peripheral thing, and there are many more important considerations when it comes to creating an automation solution.

Anyhoo, I'm just saying, and I'll say no more.

2
duncan1382•

Microsoft is just opening up the API now to develop custom cortana skills. I imagine porting alexa skills to cortana will be pretty easy, so you'll probably see some stuff pretty soon.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-is-ready-to-deliver-its-promised-cortana-skills-kit-preview/

1
DethFaceOP•

Sweet, well that's promising news. Thanks!

1
P4x•

I haven't checked in with Microsoft Dev stuff lately but I remember that you could enable your Windows Phone apps to work with Cortana for quite a while. It was pretty straight forward. I assume that the difference to the Cortana skills is that this would only work on the device you install the app on then instead of being in the cloud, linked to your MS account and usable on all your devices.

It would make development really easy though. You could create an UWP app that reacts to certain Cortana commands and then for example control your home assistant server or OpenHAB server.

I also found Huetro for Hue in the MS store. I haven't tested it but it is supposed to work with Phillips Hue and support Cortana commands. Now this is something. But if you look at solutions like Home Assistant or OpenHab they can emulate Hue devices and turn on other stuff for you. I for example created a config to start and shutdown my Windows PC via Home Assistant. This switch is then offered as a Hue device in the network and I can tell my Alexa to "shutdown Windows PC". So that would also work via Huetro then.

As an alternative there is patience and waiting for Microsoft to release home automation capabilities with Cortana which is probably soonish. And as they will definitely support Hue you could prepare for that setting up one of these tinker systems like Home Assistant if that is your thing.

1
DethFaceOP•

Wow thanks! Gave me alot to look into!

1
CastleAutomationVendor: CastleOS•

My castle is very Microsoft;

Then you need CastleOS!

1