Enlightenment
Enlightenment
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29 comments
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This is wonderful. To me, “smart” devices are usually things to be avoided. I interpret “smart” to mean additional cost, more points of failure, giving up my privacy to “register” the device, and possible future incompatibility (especially if the company fails or is bought out).
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I don't mind the smart home concept, but I find it falls apart at the planning and implementation level. People need to put more thought into what actually needs to be automated.
The best example I can think of is one of the older "smart" devices: a coffee maker. I had an old coffee maker, and I used the auto on function all the time. But, when I wanted to wake up at at different time, I had to fiddle with the coffee maker. Wouldn't it be great if I could just tie it in with my phone's alarm?
Eventually, the coffee maker broke. My first thought was "I bet someone makes a smart coffee maker", but then I remembered not having coffee because the very simple controller died. How long would a "smart" coffee maker actually last? So I bought the dumbest possible coffee maker and a smart switch.
By identifying what part of the process actually needs to be automated, and buying devices that don't require internet connections, you can avoid almost all the common problems people have with smart homes.
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Smart home stuff can be incredibly fun and handy, but you have to go into it with a tinkering and very IT-centric mindset. If you've already got a homelab set up then running a home assistant VM/container is pretty dead simple. Beyond that, keep as local an ecosystem as you can to reduce friction and improve security. Set up proper vlans, etc. and most importantly, only make smart what you can either live without or effortlessly control WITHOUT the "smart features". My lights automatically turn on when I get home from work if it's dark- but if my server is down, I can still just hit a light switch. My camera doorbell still rings as long as the power isn't out, etc. Yeah it's work, to set up right, but well worth it if you enjoy tinkering.
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Stupid me just kind of assumed a smart device would be a simple thing that would accept API calls or something. But no, you need an app that sends a signal to China every 10 minutes and you need to link it to Google too. Even better when you have three devices of different brands
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A lot of smart devices are just an esp that basically does that. The zigbee and z-wave stuff isn't even internet connected. A usb dongle connected to a PC running smart home software locally controls it.
It's weird that so much has sprung up around personal homes when businesses had bacnet for years and years. Most of that stuff is wired up with basic analog inputs and outputs.
Personally, I like hardwired everything and would like to see more PoE stuff come out rather than wireless. I hate dealing with batteries because some people can't deal with running low voltage wires.
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Yes, "smart" here is like "turbo" for electric power tools whete it shows they are weak so they try to swope that under the rug with a cheap selling technique.
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At this point for me "smart/iot" means "possible hardware reclaiming project" thanks to how unsecure they are.
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29 comments