Frank's Corner: More Smarthome DIY Ideas
More DIY Tech and Smarthomes for Older Adults
Longevity Explorer Frank Engelman wrote articles about technology and smart homes on Tech-enhanced Life for several years. He has his own Newsletter now, called “Frank’s Easy Tech Corner”.
Below are some of the recent Tech DIY ideas he has published. If they look interesting to you, please go ahead and sign up for Frank’s Easy Tech Corner.
Frank’s Corner: Five Recent Popular Posts
Here are five popular recent DIY Smarthome recipes from Frank’s Corner.
How to Set Up a Simple Calendar App for Your Mom Including Remote Calendar Management
A Way to Automatically Text Family Members if You Don't Check in Daily
How to Control Wall Switches Without Using Apps or the Internet
Below, you can read about the specific “problems” that these DIY solutions are designed to solve!
The Problems these Ideas Solve
Here are the “Problems being Solved”, for a better idea of what the posts are about.
How to Set Up a Simple Calendar App for Your Mom Including Remote Calendar Management
Your mom uses the Apple Calendar app on her iPhone or iPad, but her failing eyesight is making it difficult to manage her Calendar and even to see what is on her Calendar. Sometimes she even deletes calendar events by mistake.
You have investigated the various calendar apps in the Apple App Store and found that while they may help, you are also looking for a way to manage her Calendar for her remotely.
Instead of managing yet another calendar app, you would prefer a way to use your existing Apple Calendar app to manage your mom’s Calendar
A Way to Automatically Text Family Members if You Don't Check in Daily
You have a fear of being incapacitated and not being discovered for a long time. You have looked into my previous solutions, such as Article #40 "A Way to be Notified When Your Parent Doesn't Get Up on Time," but you would rather have a solution that only requires your iPhone.
You may have tried creating daily reminders to contact a family member using Alarms, Reminders, or calendar events, but you found them complex.
You even tried some apps that give you notifications at a preset time and a simple way to indicate that you are OK, but you found that you must keep the app running in the background, and the notifications are easy to miss.
If there was only a way to have a service send me a daily text message if I forget to check in and text emergency contacts if I fail to check in on time. Text messages can be set to be more noticeable than Notifications… even having a unique ring tone.
How to Control Wall Switches Without Using Apps or the Internet
Your elderly parent, who is very technology-adverse, would appreciate some smart home automation, such as lighting control. However, they don’t have a smartphone, Wi-Fi, or the Internet. They only use a flip phone and cable TV.
Doorbell Alert Light for the Hearing Impaired
For those who are hearing impaired, a doorbell sound may not be loud enough. In this solution, I’m going to show you how to use your iPhone to detect the doorbell sound and to vibrate, speak a notification on the iPhone speaker, and to pulse the iPhone’s flashlight LED. If you have an iPad with the flashlight feature (currently iPad Pro 12.9-inch, iPad Pro 11-inch, and iPad Mini 6th generation), you could also use this solution, minus the vibration. This requires no modifications to the existing doorbell or doorbell button.
If you feel that the iPhone flashlight isn’t enough of a visual indicator, I have provided a “medium solution” adding an Apple Watch and an “advanced solution” using Apple HomeKit that controls a smart light through an Apple HomePod mini or Apple TV. The advanced solution assumes that you already have Apple HomeKit set up.
A Simple DIY Spoken Reminder Solution for Your Parents
Your parent has become forgetful about mealtimes and could use a dedicated reminder device that speaks to them. The usual iPhone/iPad notification apps require the device always to be nearby.
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Frank’s Corner and Tech-enhanced Life
Frank and Tech-enhanced Life are long-time collaborators, and we are enthusiastic about this initiative.
However, Frank’s Easy Tech Corner is not formally associated with Tech-enhanced Life, and we do not have any responsibility or editorial oversight of the content.
We realize not all Tech-enhanced Life subscribers will want to get this new content. But if it looks interesting to you, please go ahead and sign up as a subscriber to Frank’s Easy Tech Corner.