Hey! I’m JV. I’m an electrical engineer who specializes in digital design, and a smart home fanatic. As you can see, I’m somewhat passionate about electronics.
My first real experience with smart home technology was my senior design project while I was getting my Bachelors degree. It was with a fairly new type of vacuum called Roomba. (That’s just a joke. Roomba was founded in 2002 and had been around almost a decade before I got my hands on it.)
Okay, so I guess you’re wondering what my project was using a Roomba for. Did I have to vacuum a floor? I promise it is a lot more exciting than that.
We designed a pool playing robot!
The robot was previously able to fire the balls into the holes, but the solenoid (the part that shoots the balls) broke a week or two before. We had to develop a different strategy! We didn’t get a whole lot of sleep during that time.
We ended up driving the balls to the pocket and letting them fall in. The good news is we won the competition! There were no rewards other than bragging rights, but that is when I became hooked on smart home devices.
I really realized the potential of what all could be done with a little programming. We were just a small team with a few months and limited budget. Imagine what the big companies like Google or Apple could accomplish! And Amazon? They weren’t really a tech company back then!
Now we have Amazon Alexa (released in 2014), and Siri (released in 2010). We can intelligently control almost anything in our house that is capable of being powered!
My hope is that I can take what I’ve learned over the years, and continue to learn, and share that information with you.
Along the way, I have learned a ton but felt that I needed to buckle down and research some things related to this amazing technology. I’m sure that there had to be more people in my boat, so I decided to share the things I’m learning along the way by posting to this site.
A few things that I love, apart from the latest smart home tech:
- My Family – What can I say? Of course, I love my family!
- My Dog’s – One Brown Labrador and One Rhodesian Ridgeback They’re big, goofy, and usually stay out of trouble.
- Guitar – It’s my other hobby. One day I’ll start a blog about it.
- Cookies – If there are cookies to be found on a cruise, you can guarantee I’ll be there.
- Pepsi Max – I have to admit, I am totally addicted to Pepsi Max. Coke Zero will do too, but I can’t drink just Diet Coke by itself.