31 Wednesday Jul 2013
Posted in Instructions, Iris, Secure
Tags
Iris, iris system, Lowe's iris, Lowes, video camera, WEP, Wi-Fi, Wireless
I had successfully got my camera to work over the Ethernet cable but every time I switch to the wireless option I get the following image below when trying to view the the video feed.
There are multiple different security methods in configuring the wireless option and the one I have set up at home is for “WEP”. Continue reading
30 Tuesday Jul 2013
Tags
camera, Iris, iris system, Lowe's iris, Lowes, Wi-Fi, Wireless
I finally installed the Iris camera but it wasn’t a smooth ride getting there.
Actually at this time I can’t really even use the camera because my primary connection for my Iris hub is the Cellular USB modem. To use the camera you need to have the hub on a broadband connection which at this time for me it would still randomly disconnect. I though it just might work because you can set the camera as a wireless device by configuring to your Wi-Fi network. Well I tried and I was wrong.
For the last two days I’ve been able to successfully getting the camera to work when it was connected to my router but when trying to reconfigure over wireless all I got these errors most of the time.
It was pretty frustrating when I had to reset the camera many times. I think I’ve gotten the reason why but still running some test. I may post up what I needed to do for this to work tomorrow.
**Update 7/31/2013**
I’ve made a post called “Resolving my Iris Camera wireless issue.“
26 Friday Jul 2013
Posted in Iris
I wanted to know what I can plug into the smart plug and found the following FAQ on Lowe’s iris support page.
The maximum wattage for a Smart Plug is 1500W. Make sure to check with the appliance manufacturer’s rated power and electrical current requirements before using it with a Smart Plug.
So what does 1500W mean? All I wanted was some examples.
I did a little search an it seems energy.gov gave some examples of the following.
TYPICAL WATTAGES OF VARIOUS APPLIANCES Continue reading
26 Friday Jul 2013
Posted in Save
Tags
My electric company sends me emails about saving, and this is one of them about cutting refrigerator cost.
24 Wednesday Jul 2013
Tags
Iris, iris system, Lowe, Lowe's iris, Lowes, Lowes.com, security, security signs, Sticker, Swann
I was looking for some generic security signs online and later decided to check what Lowes.com have.
Surprisingly I discovered that if you search on lowes.com for “security stickers” you would found there was only 3 results and one of them is a 3 inch by 3 inch security stickers for Iris!
22 Monday Jul 2013
Posted in Instructions, Iris, Secure
Tags
alarm, Burglar alarm, door contacts, iris system, Lowe's iris, Motion detection, Motion detector, motion sensors, sensor
This past weekend I needed some contractors to fix my doors while I needed to be away from home. This didn’t sit well with me, so I disable the door sensors where they need to do work on. However the rest of the house still had active motion sensors triggering the alarm if they walk in to range.
I had ran some test before I left them alone and it seems to have worked out well. They had access to what they needed and also the restroom and shelter if it rained, while knowing some parts of the house will cause the siren to trigger.
If you also need to do some thing like this, then you can disable some devices by going to the following. Continue reading
20 Saturday Jul 2013
Tags
alarm, alerts, email, iris system, issue, Lowe's iris, security, sms, text, Triggers
You may notice the same discrepancy like the example I have below when you receive an alarm notification.
It seems all the text, email and phone calls from Iris will provide the inaccurate device that was triggered. While your history will provide the correct device.
I’ve contacted Iris support regarding this and they are already working hard to get this resolved.
Hopefully this will be fixed soon because it will save me time by not having to review the history first before knowing which camera view to check up on.
19 Friday Jul 2013
Posted in Instructions, Iris, Simplify
Tags
dimmer, Electrical wiring, General Electric, Ground and neutral, Incandescent light bulb, Iris, iris system, LED, Light, Light switch, Lowe's iris, Lowes, Switch
To continue from my other post regarding “Replacing old light switch with GE light switch” There are some things you should know about the GE dimmer light switch and if it will work with your existing lights.
16 Tuesday Jul 2013
Tags
alarm, alarm configuration, false alarms, Iris, lowe s, Motion detector, motion sensors, Pet, Pets, pets at home, security, sensor
Even though I don’t have pets at home, I did look into this because it was an issue mention in a comment, and there’s a possibility that I may need to help install Iris for someone who has pets.
At this time there isn’t a pet friendly motion sensor and Lowe’s has the following in their FAQ regarding the current motion sensor.
**********************
The motion sensor will detect small movements from a pet walking by. There are a few methods to reduce false alarms caused by pets:
**********************
While reviewing community Q&A section for Lowe’s Iris, someone mention Lowe’s is working on one, so I decided to look further to see if this might be true.
If you didn’t know Lowe’s Iris platform is designed by alterme.com and Lowe’s is just one of their partners. I wanted to check out what the other partners had and found that British Gas display a list of their devices which they support and a pet friendly motion sensor is one of them.
This is the the product description from British Gas:
=====================================
A pet friendly motion sensor will detect human activity in your home when you’re not there. It does this using a passive infrared receiver (PIR) which responds to heat movement.
The sensor’s designed to filter out movement of a single pet weighing up to 18kg (40lb). So, as long as your cat or dog doesn’t climb up close to the sensor, he can roam freely without triggering the alarm.
You can have as many pet friendly motion sensors as you like. We suggest you buy enough to cover entrance points and rooms containing items of value.
======================================
At this time all we can do is hope the pet friendly motions sensor will be out soon.
15 Monday Jul 2013
Posted in Instructions, Iris
Tags
dimmer, electrical wire, Electrical wiring, GE, General Electric, install, Iris, iris system, jascoproducts, Light switch, light switch wiring, light switches, lowe s, Lowe's iris, zwave
I’ve tried to install the electrical wire for the GE dimmer the same way as the older light switch by keeping the hook shape for the electrical wire and was having a difficult time fitting it in. The screw doesn’t come out all the way and it just seems awkward.
It just so odd that it’s difficult to do, so I then searched online to see if I was doing this incorrectly. I found out that the GE Z-wave light switches were made from Jasco and they were licensed it out to GE. From there I was able to find some videos regarding their GE-Zwave products which are different then the one’s provided from Lowe’s. http://www.jascoproducts.com/support/video/z-wave-videos.asp
The video titled “GE Z-Wave on/off Switch” was most useful about 57 seconds into the video. From there you can see that they install the wire not by bending it like a hook but keeping it straight.
Just to show you how the traditional light switch wiring looks like while it’s hooked around the screw and tighten.
While the GE Z-Wave light switch requires the wire to be straight and be placed through the hole in the back then tighten with the screw.
