SmartHome Blog

The Fibaro App includes a very useful Widget that can be used on Android or Apple phones and tablets to make it easy to trigger Fibaro Home Center Scenes - without needing to open the App - Find out how...

Did you know that you can control the Vera Edge via HTTP commands? This opens it up to a host of other technologies, including Tasker, web browsers, PHP and more.

This exclusive post will show you how, as well as provide you with a very handy tool to make it all happen.

The Fibaro Home Center Lite and Home Center 2 are the pinnacle of Z-Wave Gateway Controllers - incredibly well designed, user-friendly and very powerful. Did you know that you can control the Fibaro Home Center via HTTP commands? This opens it up to a host of other technologies, including Tasker, web browsers, PHP and more.

This exclusive post will show you how, as well as provide you with a very handy tool to make it all happen.

Z-Wave has been around a lot longer than you may think. In fact, the first Z-Wave product was certified way back in 2004. With the introduction of the new "Next-Gen" Z-Wave 500 Series chipset, Z-Wave has significantly improved and extended its capabilities. Welcome to Z-Wave Plus.

Grab some popcorn and dim the lights, the movie is about to start. Automatically trigger your Z-Wave Scenes with Vera and XBMC (Kodi) by using our Vera Z-Wave Addon. Exclusive to smarthome.com.au. Enjoy :)

Fibaro Home Center Lite and Home Center 2 are the best Z-Wave home automation controllers on the market. A question we often get asked is... "What is the difference between the Fibaro Home Center Lite and Home Center 2?". It's a good question, so let's take a look...

Let your Philips hue lights extend the Minecraft experience by changing the colour and brightness of your room. Each Minecraft biome is mapped to different colours and the colour of the hue lights will change as you travel from one biome to another... with few more nice surprises too.

In a galaxy far, far away… the battle for the unified smart home begins… Well, not that far away… here on earth actually. Both Apple and Google are waging a new "smart" war, each hoping to be the centre of your smart home. This is going to be a war of epic proportions... bring it on.

Now you can monitor and control your home from your Apple Watch - all you need is the INSTEON Hub. Keep an eye on sensors. Look in on your WiFi cameras. Control and dim lights. Activate a scene with just a tap - all from your wrist - without touching your iPhone.

If you are looking to start out in home automation, it can be a little daunting. In this blog post, I will take you through each of the major home automation technologies available, compare the product range, reliability, value for money and give you an overview that will hopefully provide you with the information you need to make an informed decision.