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> and nothing depends on some company's servers. Exactly my motivation. I have an mqtt broker at a heart of everything. homekit2mqtt for homekit/siri integra

by soneil 10y ago

> and nothing depends on some company's servers. Exactly my motivation. I have an mqtt broker at a heart of everything. homekit2mqtt for homekit/siri integration, lirc2mqtt so my harmony remote can join in, node-red providing some automation logic, etc. But where it gets interesting is being able to support devices that won't otherwise. Homekit support for Philips Hue means €50 for a new hub - or mqtt-hue so I can support it myself. Belkin Wemo doesn't support homekit, and has no plans to - but I've done it via node-red regardless. DIY looks messy from the outside. But once the ball is rolling, anywhere a vendor won't support the features I require, I'll support them myself. The ability to do so makes it all worth it.

Karrot_Kream 10y ago
> DIY looks messy from the outside. But once the ball is rolling, anywhere a vendor won't support the features I require, I'll support them myself. The ability to do so makes it all worth it. Pretty sure the messy part isn't about writing code, it's about maintaining it. What happens if one of the APIs you're talking to changes? What happens if you want to add a new device into your ecosystem? If there's a power outage and one of your hubs doesn't come back up, how much time/energy does it take to figure out which one and to bring it back up? Not saying that it's not a worthwhile project, just that it takes a lot of effort. That said, I have my own growing list of bots that helps me automate repetitive tasks in my life that I maintain...
- soneil 10y ago
  If an API changes, I can catch up with it in a quiet afternoon - instead of buying whatever hardware they tell me their next update requires. Catching dark hardware is really easy - just allow each component to die if it can't reach the hardware, and then catch their 'last will' messages in mqtt (mqttwarn is great for this, I can get an email whenever a 'last will' is published). Also a problem the vendors won't solve for me ..
- twothamendment 10y ago
  I roll my own home automation with a combination of things. Once it is up I don't know that it I'm any worse off than anyone else. The worst I had was the weather API I was using dried up. 20 minutes later I had weather from somewhere else. I like that if I end up with a pile of useless junk it is my fault, not the decision of company that decided to stop supporting their hardware and shut down their cloud servers [1]. I don't need the cloud and I don't need a 3rd part to have control of my garage door opener. I'm still waiting for the hack that opens a half million garage doors around the country! (I have no idea how many doors these big companies control, but it would make great news.) This may be the biggest reason I go DIY on my automation - it gives me a chance to learn things that I wouldn't get into at work. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/05/revolv-devices-bricked-google-nest-smart-home https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/05/revolv-de...

by soneil 10y ago

Karrot_Kream 10y ago

> DIY looks messy from the outside. But once the ball is rolling, anywhere a vendor won't support the features I require, I'll support them myself. The ability to do so makes it all worth it. Pretty sure the messy part isn't about writing code, it's about maintaining it. What happens if one of the APIs you're talking to changes? What happens if you want to add a new device into your ecosystem? If there's a power outage and one of your hubs doesn't come back up, how much time/energy does it take to figure out which one and to bring it back up? Not saying that it's not a worthwhile project, just that it takes a lot of effort. That said, I have my own growing list of bots that helps me automate repetitive tasks in my life that I maintain...

soneil 10y ago
If an API changes, I can catch up with it in a quiet afternoon - instead of buying whatever hardware they tell me their next update requires. Catching dark hardware is really easy - just allow each component to die if it can't reach the hardware, and then catch their 'last will' messages in mqtt (mqttwarn is great for this, I can get an email whenever a 'last will' is published). Also a problem the vendors won't solve for me ..
twothamendment 10y ago
I roll my own home automation with a combination of things. Once it is up I don't know that it I'm any worse off than anyone else. The worst I had was the weather API I was using dried up. 20 minutes later I had weather from somewhere else. I like that if I end up with a pile of useless junk it is my fault, not the decision of company that decided to stop supporting their hardware and shut down their cloud servers [1]. I don't need the cloud and I don't need a 3rd part to have control of my garage door opener. I'm still waiting for the hack that opens a half million garage doors around the country! (I have no idea how many doors these big companies control, but it would make great news.) This may be the biggest reason I go DIY on my automation - it gives me a chance to learn things that I wouldn't get into at work. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/05/revolv-devices-bricked-google-nest-smart-home https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/05/revolv-de...