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It’s this type of garbage that has turned me into a luddite when it comes to smart home type technology. Lack of interoperability, inability to understand easil
by throwaway100773 7y ago
It’s this type of garbage that has turned me into a luddite when it comes to smart home type technology. Lack of interoperability, inability to understand easily whats actually going on and massive privacy invasion causes me to look for dumb devices whenever possible - I know how to deal with them, I can have other people fix them when something goes wrong, and there’s just less ongoing maintenance. I’m sure this isn’t a novel idea though.
- emerongi 7y agoThere are standards that are being worked on. My criteria is: all the logic must be contained within my home, the devices must adhere to some open standard, they must be repairable and modifiable to some degree.
- chiph 7y agoThe Zigbee protocol the devices use is a standard, but from what I picked up from between the lines of the article is that the firm locked the devices because of liability fears. If someone DIY's their alarm system and then it fails to work during an actual home-invasion, they don't want to be sued.
- Silhouette 7y agoSurely a reasonable solution to this kind of problem is to change the law if necessary so that businesses aren't on the hook for damages that weren't their fault? I suspect this may be a particularly US-based problem anyway given the excessively litigious environment that seems to persist there. The idea that we're deliberately bricking useful technology devices because of lawyers is abhorrent. Realistically, their owners are probably then dumping them in many cases rather than sending them for any useful form of recycling, which is hugely wasteful. You'd think with the increasing awareness of issues like environmental protection and right to repair, we'd have been more enlightened by now.
- hanklazard 7y agoI think you’re right but this would require and thoughtful and functional Congress.
- clairity 7y agoit's pretty functional and thoughtful for the wealthy. instead we need a congress responsive to the long-term common interests of the citizenry and not beholden to the singular interests of the rich.
- brokenmachine 7y agoGuillotines don't need a network connection.
- mrr54 7y agoThey should still be responsible for damages if they were their fault, though. Just like you shouldn't lose the warranty on your car because you get the tyres changed at an independent garage.
- rco8786 7y agoI can’t think of a single piece of consumer electronic on the market today that meets your criteria
- pmlnr 7y agomysensors.org devices, but old 433mhz with rflink does a good enough job as well.
- theK 7y agoOh there are masses of zigbee enabled components that are perfectly compliant with those constraints. From big labels to Chinese knock offs. Sure the Sonoses of the world have much more visibility and don’t but who searches will find :-)
- neilalexander 7y agoIndeed - ZigBee is quite good for this. I know from experience that a Philips Hue bridge will gladly pair with and manage non-Philips bulbs (e.g. I have some IKEA ones in addition to Hue), and similarly that Philips bulbs work fine with a non-Philips bridge. You can also block the Hue bridge's access to the Internet and it continues to work fine.
- mondoshawan 7y agoHow about the zwave alliance systems?
- bmgxyz 7y agoSonoff devices don't do this out of the box, but with some basic equipment you can flash [open source firmware][1] on them and make them work even better than stock, and no packets leave the LAN. [1]: https://github.com/arendst/Tasmota https://github.com/arendst/Tasmota
- choward 7y agoYou're right. I have the same criteria so I rarely buy electronics.
- ethbro 7y agoThese standards won't be adopted by the market for at least 10 years, because it's not in anyone's financial interest to do so. The hub manufacturers all want to lock people into a proprietary garden, even if they're using open protocols, so they can sell accessories and "Certified for X" marks. The only thing that would really push adoption would be a killer paid service that ran on top of one of the open platforms. Expect after 10 years everyone will be fed up with sunsetting and interoperability issues that standards-compliance will be a product feature. But then again it took 20 years + the EU to nudge the market towards USB connector chargers?
- deadbunny 7y agoWhile the interoperability of IoT devices sure does suck there a projects like Home Assistant[1] which make this less of a pain my advice is stick to locally controlled devices that follow existing standards (ZigBee, Zwave, WiFi) and shit like this can't happen. There are of course alternatives that have been around for decades like Control 4 but they cost serious money. 1. https://www.home-assistant.io/ https://www.home-assistant.io/
- fxtentacle 7y agoThe Charter devices in question here do support ZigBee, but they deliberately locked other standard-adhering vendors out.
- Silhouette 7y agoLikewise. Last time we renovated, we avoided "smart" technologies like the plague. No regrets, and so far no obvious disadvantages either, but apparently many dodged bullets when it comes to longevity, privacy, security, etc.
- stanferder 7y agoI can't even imagine a scenario where I'd want a "smart home". When I leave a room, I turn the light off. When I enter it, I turn it on. When I leave the house, I turn the heat off. When I enter it, I turn it on. If I had pets, I'd just dial it down to "pet comfort" level while away. Am I missing something? EDIT: I do have a Roomba and think it's great. I hit the button when I'm about to go out for an hour, and there's a clean floor when I get back. I appreciate that. No internet required as well.
- wvenable 7y ago> I can't even imagine a scenario where I'd want a "smart home". You get hit by a truck on the way to work and you're not longer able bodied enough to do these things.
- stanferder 7y agoFair enough, but these things aren't marketed as assistive devices.
- wvenable 7y agoI have smart lights in the bedroom. They come automatically as a light-alarm and it's fantastic. It would be hard to go back to waking up in the dark and turning on a massively bright light. It's also remote controlled at night so I can turn it off from bed. These are all useful features.