About MelissaTucker

http://www.lifewithautomation.com

I am a thirty something wife and mother of two wonderful kids, a girl and boy. Both my children are under 5 and my daughter is on the autism spectrum. I rely on tech heavily both in my personal and professional life in order to get my day to day goals accomplished and I find it can be an asset to women if they are open to it. I have been in the tech industry for fifteen years and I am currently a Project Manager for a custom audio video company in the Northern Virginia area. As I have put together and managed several large scale projects I have found a recurring theme, women actively chose to not be involved in the process. They were involved in every other aspect going into their home such as flooring, countertops and paint color but not into the system that would control a large portion of their home and affect aesthetics. I decided to start this blog to encourage women to be more involved with home automation which appears to be the future of the home.

Posts by :

Light Control

My family and I moved into a new town house at the beginning of the year and I have to say we have never been a family that can host a house warming party. It takes us no less than three years minimum to fill a house and make it into our own. It’s not just the amount of furniture a bigger space requires, it’s also the look of the home we change by painting, changing light fixtures, adding ceiling fans and crown molding etc… In our current home, none of the bedrooms had lights when we moved in. The electrician simply runs two lines of power to the middle of the room for a ceiling fan with light and another to an outlet to control a lamp. I am not a fan (get it) of ceiling fans with lights so since there is an attic above us I decided to run can lights. The kids got LED lights built in to a can light trim but for the master bedroom I decided on the Phillips Hue white and color bulbs.

A lot of people have been speaking to me about how much they love these bulbs and since I was in need of LED bulbs the expense was worth it to me.

Another determining factor was that it is compatible with Apple’s Home kit, Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, Control4 and many other home automation system which was Smart of Phillips. They can just be purchased without the fear they will not work with an existing system.

I have to say we have really enjoyed Phillips Hue. My husband immediately attached it to his Google Home and began to tell the master bedroom lights to change colors. The lights flawlessly executed each command. There are two main reasons which finally pushed me to purchase Phillips Hue specifically.

1. Phillips has opened their API to developers so apps can be made by anyone with a good ideas for their bulbs. As usual, the internet did not disappoint. There are apps that change colors and follow the rhythm of your music, there are apps that change the colors of the bulbs to which ever sport team has just scored a point for the sport fans and there are apps change colors depending on the scene of the movie you are watching.

2. From a manual installation stand point there is nothing easier than to screw in a light bulb and plug in a hub to your router. From an app set up stand point it could be a little more user friendly but thankfully there are videos online that can help. More importantly this is a way for people to add dimming to their home without having to do any electrical work such as installing dimmers.

I do have a couple of grievances with the system but they are so minor they are negligible. Still, I would not be doing my self imposed job as a reviewer without sharing them.

1. I am unable to group my lights through the Phillips Hue app, I had to do so in another app which I feel should be a basic requirement. I have a tray ceiling in my bedroom and wanted the option to control the lights in the tray and on the perimeter separately. The app allows me control of all the lights in the room at the same time or each one individually. It’s a small annoyance but one I feel is important nonetheless.

2. My second issue is that I cannot use Phillips Hue bulbs in a room which uses a dimmer. Since the bulbs themselves do the dimming, attaching them to a room with a dimmer causes them to strobe, they should only be attached to on and off light switches. If you have dimmers already installed like me, that causes a real annoyance. If you have a home automation system like me that uses keypads to control several pieces of hardware in macro sequence, finding a work around involved quite a bit programming which not everyone has access to or the necessary skill set.

Due to the cost per color bulbs ($49.99) and the need to replace several dimmers in my home, I decided to only replace Hue bulbs in the three area’s that mattered the most to my family and I: the Master bedroom, the Living room and the Basement recreation area.

Overall this is a great purchase which has caused a couple of impromptu dance parties with my children. Anytime we are all happy and laughing together is a huge win for me. I purchased a set for my mom with some extra white bulbs to show her how much light control is a subtle way to improve the home and she is now constantly using it. We linked it to her Amazon echo and I hear her constantly asking Alexa to lower her bedroom lights to 20% or turn off all lights as she leaves the house. This is a purchase worth making.

Video Doorbells

Video Doorbells

, , ,

The doorbell is one of those items I never really thought about before this recent surge in video doorbells.  It is probably the simplest of tech in the home and one of the most needed.  Press a button and two connectors touch send an electrical current to a chime placed somewhere in your home.  Let go of the button and the connectors separate stopping the current.  They cost less than $10 to replace which is why I always find myself being slightly annoyed when I visit a home of means and find that their doorbell is broken and has been so for awhile.

I began to research video doorbells while looking for a discreet place to house a camera by my front door.  We moved into a townhouse earlier in the year and I found it to be a real hassle to come down two flight of stairs while I’m trying to put my kids to sleep to tell a solicitor I’m not interested.  I was beginning to think I was going to have to run a cable to the front of the house which would become a bit destructive when I fell upon a YouTube review of a video doorbell.  My stand alone IP camera ideas was immediately eliminated for this option.

Video doorbells allow you to be notified by smart phone or tablet when your doorbell is rang.  You can then pull up the doorbell’s camera on your device and speak to whomever is at the door through the built in intercom.

Before I began to research my options in the world of video doorbells, I again asked myself the questions I always ask before I make a tech purchase.

1) Will this add convenience and security to my life.

Yes, it will prevent me from opening the doors to people I don’t know while still being able to communicate with them.  It will also prevent me from panicking when I am changing diapers or bathing the kids and doorbell rings.

2) Can this be integrated with other tech I own.

This one was tricky but ultimately it passed the test.  Most of the popular brands of video doorbells can be integrated with a home automation platform.

As you can tell from my front door picture, I ended up choosing the Ring Pro video doorbell as my choice for a number of reason.

The doorbell wire that the builder ran for my townhouse is in the middle of my door molding.  This means I had limited space to place a doorbell without having an overhang. No only is it not aesthetically pleasing but it could easily be broken off that way.  This left my option limited to a slim doorbell which the Ring Pro offers.

I also wanted different color options for the video doorbell so that it matched my door accessories and I liked that the Ring Pro comes with 4 different color skins.


The Ring company also had the brilliant ideas of inventing a ring chime pro which helps in two ways.  If you have a large home or a home with many levels like mine, there are parts of the house where you can’t hear the doorbell.  The Ring Chime pro simply plugs to an outlet in that part of the house and uses its built in speaker to chime when the doorbell button is pressed.  It also extends the wi-fi  broadcast range of the video doorbell which can make or break you experience with the product.  If the signal is too weak you won’t be able to pull up the video.

The Ring Pro also comes with motion sensors which can break up the area in front of your home into zones and notify you if someone enters the zone.  I made my driveway my zone so I get notified whenever someone pulls up to my driveway or walks within 10 ft of my front doorbell.  This allows me to watch my daughter steps off the school bus in the afternoon while I am at work and depending on she acts as she walks in I know if she had a good day at school or a bad one.  It’s a small thing but it makes me feel good to know I am not missing these moments.

I love my Ring Pro video doorbell so much that I ended up purchasing a Ring for my parents and my in-laws.  The Regular Ring model differs from the pro in that it does 720p video as oppose 1080p.  It also has the option to be wireless unlike the pro which has to be hard wired.  This makes the Ring much large in size.  My mom had even less space than me to mount a Ring in front of her house so we ended up mounting it to the brick.  Since it’s not wired, her Ring has to be charged periodically and from what she tells me one charge can last about six months. When the battery becomes too low se gets a notification and charges it for about an hour.  What has impressed me most is that she lives in Canada where the temperature regularly drops to below 20 in the winter and she has never had a functionality issue.

Please leave me a comment if you have any questions, comments, prefer another video doorbell or just want to say hi. I  always love hearing from you.

Automated locks

Automated locks

, , , , ,

Since I love technology, it does not take much for whatever the newest gadget is to entice me into purchasing it.  In my quest to make my home fully automated, I have made many purchases on a whim which I ended up regretting.  Be it that the technology was not perfected yet or it is so complicated to utilize that I am the only one who can operate.  I now ask myself the following questions before I make any tech purchases:

1) Will this add convenience and security to my life.

2) Can this be integrated with other tech I own.

Convenience to me means that it reduces the amount of steps it would of taken me to perform a task.  An example would be instead of trying to remember if I locked the door as I ran out this morning I can quickly check on my phone for the status of each door of my home.

Security would be receiving a notification when my door is unlocked during a period when no one should be home.

Integration is important because I need my technology to be able to communicate with one another.  Gone are the days when every product spoke its own language.  If what I am coveting cannot interact with existing gear I own or plan to own, that is a deal breaker for me.

Not as important as far as functionality but important to what I bring in my home is aesthetics.  My system should be invisible and if it can’t be than it should be at the very least discreet.

I began researching automated locks because I saw my daughter reach for the front door handle one day in an attempt to follow my husband outside.  If she had a little more strength she would of been able to open the door.

I thought about this for awhile and began to think of features the lock would have to have to validate my purchase.  If it was only about my children’s safety I could easily just install a child safety lock and be done with it so it had to offer me more.

Enter the August smart lock with HomeKit.  This lock met every single one of my qualifications

1) The lock is placed on the inside of the door so it is not visible to the outside.  My door decor is unaffected and no one knows there is a smart lock on the door.  I can also keep my higher quality lock on the outside which is harder to pick if someone was so inclined.

2) It uses the Bluetooth and GPS of my phone to sense my location and unlocks itself as I am heading towards the door (it also knows which side of the door I am on so it doesn’t unlock when I am inside the house).  As a mom, this feature has saved me when my arms are full of bags and kids and adding unlocking a door to that equation would require me to place one or both down.

3) I can remotely access it via my iPhone  HomeKit app and an AppleTV 4th generation.  This allows me to unlock the door from anywhere I have an internet connection.  If you don’t have an AppleTV 4th generation or iPhone, August sells an August connect which gives you that capability from their app.  It can also be integrated with Amazon Alexa and Google Home.

4) I have a time stamp of each time the door is opened and wether it was done electronically or manually.  If the door is opened electronically I see a picture and a name of the person who unlocked it.

5) I can schedule specific times that allow guest access to the lock.  Guests can also download the app and get added to the access list at no additional cost.

The install was incredibly easy which is another perk of this lock.  All I needed was a Phillips screw driver.  Once the lock was in place I downloaded the app and followed the directions.  August also has decent customer service if you need assistance.

Since the existing front lock is unaffected it was my only option of a smart lock when I lived in an apartment.  This allows me to recommend this lock to everyone I know.  I especially wanted my younger sister to have it for the safety features in her apartment.

All in all, I am quite impressed with this smart lock.  There are some features I wish they would address like how quickly it goes through batteries (4 AA every three months) and once the batteries get too low the lock does not always respond before I am notified to replace the batteries.  I always carry my keys with me in my purse but if I were to try to go jogging I doubt I would take them and I would want the lock to do it’s job without trepidation.  Bottom line, I have not found a comparable smart lock at the same price point which gives me all these features and it has added to convenience to my life as it will to yours.

Please leave me a comment if you have comments, questions, or just want to say hi.

20 Great Things About Montreal

20 Great Things About Montreal

,

Traveling is a luxury we should all experience a minimum of once a year. There is no better education than experiencing and taking part in foreign cultures, especially for children. It’s empowering to adapt to a world you are not familiar with, learn to communicate with people who speak a language you don’t understand and most importantly cultural sensitivity.

I am currently on vacation with my children (hubby had to work) and we are in Montreal, Canada. I absolutely love this city with its historic architecture and its summers full of fun of activities. Certain parts of it remind me of NYC with its packed buildings, retail stores and restaurants all inching for space. Other parts remind me of Europe with their hundreds of year old buildings and strict rules about preserving their architectural history. I lived here when I was younger but did not really appreciate it until I became an adult and saw everything the city offers to its residents and tourist. Below are the 25 reasons I love this city.

1) The Art:

The city takes it’s art seriously and wants everyone regardless of income to participate in it. There are pieces of art peppered throughout the city that are as much a part of the city as the buildings. I continue to discover new one’s each time I visit. When I was young, I use to believe this sculpture was of a person scared that the sky was falling on their head.

2) Phenomenal public transit system:

No one needs a car in Montreal. The Metro and bus system are seamless and go to every corner of the city. 15 minutes at the latest and the next bus or metro has arrived. The city has modernized their system since I last visited as the they now have digital signage at each station to let you know how many minutes until the next train arrives. I also love that each metro stop was designed by a different architect so each has a distinct look. Another way the city subtly surround you with art.

3) The stairs:

The stairs of the street lined duplex and triplex of the city have always stood out aesthetically and appear to be specific to Montreal. Where many cities chose to have a cookie cutter residential streets, Montreal decided to place it’s staircases on the outside to allow more real estate inside for residents. The stairs also needed to be a certain distance away from the street which is why many are curvy. The individuality of each when the opportunity was there to have them all look the same, that’s belongs to the architects and contractors of the city. They are magnificent to look at in the warmer months and terrifying to use in the winter.

4) The Neighborhood Food Gardens:

The city is made up of neighborhoods referred to as “arrondissement” and many of them are assigned large plots of land to be used as community food gardens. These gardens are not only inspiring to look at with all it’s multi colored fruit and vegetables as far as the eyes can see but as I have become more health conscious for myself and my family I now see this as a way to give everyone access to healthy food. One of my friends when I was younger would invite me to dinner by having her meet her at her plant area with her mom and making us delicious fruit and vegetable salads while she grilled chicken on small charcoal grill. This is where I began to love eating tomatoes, something my mom could not convince me to eat at the time. To further encourage the use of these food gardens, the city provides soil and the Saint Michel environmental complex also offers free mulch to residents (as long as they bring their own bucket and shovel).

5) The real Fresh Market:

I eat more fruits and vegetables while I am in Montreal. There is such an abundance of it and it is as such a good price that I can’t help myself. I like trying new fruits and vegetable every time I am in a market in hopes of discovering something nutritious I can enjoy.

6. Movie Production:

There are more than 50 film studios in Montreal which means at any given point there is movie being filmed. My sister is an actress so when she is not doing theater work she plays as an extra on them and I am always looking for her in the background of films. The latest X-men movie is wrapping up from what I heard so hoping to see some of the crew in the streets.

7. The Clothing lines:

Even though most household I have visited have both a washing machine and dryer, the consensus appears to be to air dry clothes outside during warm weather. I had forgotten the wonderful smell of summer and flowers it adds to my clothes. It’s also a great way to save on energy.

8. Parks, Parks, Parks

The city is full of parks. Some open and others wild. The city gardeners do a great job of making each one look picturesque. There is nothing I love more in the summer than taking a stroll with my family in a park. The kids can run free or blow bubbles while adults have little pic-nik’s or start spontaneous soccer games.

9. City of 100 bell towers:

Notre Dame Basilica of Montreal, Saint Patricks’s Basilica, Saint Joseph’s oratory… There are breath taking churches all over the city which stand equal to the one’s in Europe in my opinion. Some of the churches are no longer in use and since the city is not allowed to destroy them they have been repurposed in apartments.

10. Bicycling is encouraged:

You can find bike rental stations all over the city. You can even use your metro card to rent them. Major streets have dedicated bike lanes for the safety of the cyclist as well as metal posts with loops to secure your bike to while you are running errands.

11.The Festivals

The summers are full of festivals all over the city. The “Just for laughs” comedy festival, the Montreal World film festival, the Montreal international jazz festival… Each one of those make the trip to the city worth it and bring in international artists.

12. Recycling is encouraged by the city

Recycling stations are also starting to pop up all around downtown. Their existence makes me make smarter decision about what I do with my thrash. Every grocery store I have walked into also charges 5 cents per bag so I have become better I remembering to bring my own bags while shopping as a principle.

13. Downtown (Saint Catherine)

This portion of the city is where a lot of the tourist go. There are shops lined along the street for miles and artist playing at street corners for change. I find it to be the best place to find jeans shop that fit my figure which is not an easy task.

14. Chinatown

There are lots of neighborhood dedicated to specific to a country or culture but none has a better entrance than the paifang of Chinatown. It goes without saying the asian restaurants are a gastronomic experince but what I especially enjoy are the food markets with foods I don’t usually find at local grocery stores. I’ve yet to try their acupuncturists but I am intrigued.

15. Quartier des Spectacles

This area is dedicated specifically for the arts and hosts many free concerts and outdoor movies. The city sponsors these events to enable everyone to have access to the arts. On slow days, I like to watch people play the life size chess boards in the streets

16. Cirque du Soleil

It originates from Montreal and is always worth going to see if you are interested in watching humans do things you did not think the human body was capable of doing. Any new shows they develop is usually first presented to the Montreal crowd first.

17. The Wild Gardens

All over the city are wild gardens in people’s front yard. They grow mostly free and require little maintenance but beautify’s the space. I prefer their chaos to the perfectly planted gardens. The city sometimes host garden contest to encourage everyone to plant.

19. La Ville Souterraine

The underground city is perfection in the middle of winter. It’s a series of shops, malls, commercial buildings, universities, subway stops, hotels and performing arts area that you can access without having to go outside. If you are lucky enough to stay at one of the hotels connected to the city you don’t even need to bring your coat with you. A large portion is underground but some is at ground level which allows natural light to enter.

20. Milk

Like the rest of the world, Canada is on the metric system so they sell their milk by the liter not by the gallon. I have always liked the liter plastic bags the milk is sold in and I am a supporter of food being sold in smaller quantities in general. It prevents over buying and over eating. It also takes less real estate in the recycling bin.

Let’s change the World

Let’s change the World

, , ,

I have always been the one my friends and family turn to when they are having technical issues with their electronics. I am even consulted by most of them before they make electronic purchases just so they have peace of mind they are not investing in dated technology or that they are getting their money’s worth. It’s been this way ever since I was a teenager and I have always enjoyed it. When it was time for me to choose a major at FSU I had no clue what I wanted my profession to be so I ended up double majoring in the two subject I had the most credits in, French literature and Philosophy. While I was looking for a job immediately after graduation I landed a part time job with an electronic retailer until I was able to find a job that would lead me to my career path and I have never left this world since then.

Now that I am a project Manager for one of the largest Custom integrator in the country and I oversee projects in the hundreds of thousands of dollars I find myself making recommendations and explaining how technology works more than ever. A common recurrence in a lot of my meetings is that if I am reviewing project goals with both a man and woman, only the man will engage in the conversation. I can try my best to try to have her join in by asking how would she like the gear to work with the aesthetics of the home or what would she like the system to do to make life easier for her but in the end she will turn to her partner for the final decision. On the other hand, when it comes to the flooring, material of the countertop and paint color of the home the roles are reversed. This has always troubled me. Having been in this profession for 15 years I can count on one hand how many other woman I have encountered. I have also experience first hand why it is not easy for women to be accepted in this male dominated profession. The condescension, discrimination, constantly having to prove you are up to the task is enough to send anyone running for the hills. In spite of it all I love this world and I want to erase the accepted notion that women and girls have no interest in it. I love that we are finally in a place when cost has become affordable and more and more components can now talk to each other through a unified platform.

This blog was created to encourage more women to use technology in their day to day life and perhaps consider the many aspect of the world of technology as a viable career field. I would love to hear from everyone. Other women in this field, women who are curious but afraid to ask questions, the young, the older and other women who just want to keep breaking glass ceilings.

Thank you for reading this and without further due, let’s change the world.