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> Shouldn't we be a little more worried about introducing this kind of extra complexity into our lives? Yes, we should. I'm currently building and I wouldn't t
by iamaelephant 7y ago
> Shouldn't we be a little more worried about introducing this kind of extra complexity into our lives?
Yes, we should. I'm currently building and I wouldn't touch this stuff with a 10 foot pole. The only thing I'm considering is Philips Hue bulbs, but only for the configurable colour temperature and brightness, and if I can find an alternative that doesn't need a web connection I will use that.
- Havoc 7y ago>Philips Hue bulbs, but only for the configurable colour The xiaomi equivalent is pretty good too (yeelight) at half the price. That's assuming your OK with the brand >alternative that doesn't need a web connection I will use that. All these things need an initial Web connect and usually app to configure. After that you can firewall it off and use a local server like home assistant. Well for the xiaomi. Not sure Philip's
- iamaelephant 7y agoGreat tips, thanks mate I'll look into that.
- drdaeman 7y agoPhilips Hue doesn't require Internet connectivity. Bulbs and switches use ZigBee ZLL (AFAIK, they don't have WiFi capabilities at all), and IIRC it can even work without the bridge (just turning on and off) as switches can talk directly to bulbs. Bridge device surely can work without Internet. It's essentially a small webserver that exposes an API for the smartphone app (which talks to the bridge directly as long as they're on the same network) and then talks to the devices over ZigBee. IIRC, there is even FLOSS RPi-based alternative implementation somewhere out there. Don't know if Internet is required for the initial setup.
- trashcan 7y agoLutron Caseta is really good for smart switches. Also, if you just want motion activated lights, there are switches with IR motion sensors built in.