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My personal take on smart home advice for techies: 1. If a device isn't open and managed locally, you're renting it. Some IoT companies will die off within a fe

My personal take on smart home advice for techies: 1. If a device isn't open and managed locally, you're renting it. Some IoT companies will die off within a few years, so try to buy devices you can DIY or control locally. 2. HomeAssistant is amazing. Try to get hardware that can be compatible, though most things already are. 3. Spend some time to make your home network reliable and secure. In particular, most of my smart devices can't connect to the internet, especially when it comes to network cameras and more risky devices. 4. Think about safety. If it is in any way dangerous - don't automate. The risk to human life and property isn't worth it. 5. Start small - outdoor lights and lights in public areas are a great example since you can get them to work well without too much frustration. It is better to pick your battles than dive too deep. Lights for your bedroom are a bad choice, an alert when the washing machine is done is relatively easy. 6. Your smart home should work for you. No need to do something that's cool but isn't valuable.

benrow 4y ago
I've just learned this lesson. I'd like local control of lights (rather than going through slow vendor phone app which uses an internet API as common point with the hub). Works well for remote control but slow and cumbersome for when at home. Trying to gain access to the ZigBee network or hub is probably not worth the effort, compared to using a more open stack in the first place.
- Semaphor 4y ago
  ZigBee is actually pretty open and easy to get access to. Just not if you use some vendor hub.
  - benrow 4y ago
    Good to know, thanks. I didn't know much about ZigBee so did some reading - seemed it's used for things like smart locks so I was pessimistic about it being very accessible. Glad I mentioned it here, I now have a steer in the right direction - thanks.
- Thlom 4y ago
  Huh. I bought a cheap usb Zigbee device and it found all my hue lights and zigbee sensors no problem.
  - benrow 4y ago
    Thank you, I'll give this a try!
    - Semaphor 4y ago
      Just as a tip: They are all affordable, but don’t get the cheapest stick. The more powerful the stick, the more devices it can support before it starts crapping out. There are recommendations online on which chips you want.
- hotpotamus 4y ago
  Back in the great AWS outage of last December, there were people who literally couldn't turn their lights on. Things like that make me want to tear every network cable out of my walls. I thought the point of all this technology was to put me in control, not sacrifice it to some computing proto-monopoly.
  - knightofmars 4y ago
    Did these people run "always on" sockets in their houses? Any time I have an issue, I flip the physical switch off and then on and lo and behold the lights turn on.
theshrike79 4y ago
#0 Your automations must still work even when the internet is down. Just skip all of the SmartThings and IFTTT online only crap for day-to day operation. If the internet goes down and you can't turn on the lights anymore, your setup's WAF goes down FAST. Just pull the plug on your internet and see what happens. Use online features to enhance the smart home experience, don't rely on it. Apple HomeKit is good, it works local only, but it also allows secure remote access when needed. You can still use your phone to control everything when the internet is down. Same goes for Home Assistant. Just pay the fiver for the Nabu Casa cloud if you want remote access, no point in hacking it together yourself. Alexa and Google Home are very bad at this, when they go offline, they just say "sorry" and can't do anything.
- qwerpy 4y ago
  Agree with everything you said, but I'd like to describe what I did to get Home Assistant working remotely: Set up wireguard on my home network and on my phone, and have the home assistant app (or mobile browser) access home assistant through the local IP address. I wanted wireguard for other use cases, so I basically got remote home assistant for free. That being said, Home Assistant is worth financially supporting.
  - theshrike79 4y ago
    You do get other stuff besides remote access with Nabu Casa, you also get Alexa/Google Assistant integration and Text to Speech features that need the cloud. But supporting the development is worth the price alone =)
BryanBeshore 4y ago
Timely post as this is something I have been quite interested in, and starting to explore. I'd love to see some sort of list of smart home automation/devices that would fall into the safety buckets, and why. Something like: - Safe - Medium safe - Not safe - Do not do
- Nextgrid 4y ago
  Anything that doesn't have a (reliable) safety interlock. Electric heaters or cooking appliances for example. Life-critical devices such as smoke alarms, etc (you wouldn't want a malfunction of your smart home controller or a malicious attacker to cut the power to your smoke detectors).
  - outworlder 4y ago
    Generally, being able to cut power is a good thing for many devices. You shouldn't want to turn on dangerous devices automatically, but some of them might benefit from the ability to have power cut off. The very first smart plug I ever bought was because one day I went on a trip and, after arriving from my flight on the other side of the country, I started to wonder if I had turned the coffee machine off. I had, which I confirmed with an indoor camera. That coffee machine got a smart plug as soon as I got back. Others followed.
outworlder 4y ago
> Some IoT companies will die off within a few years That is a concern. An even larger concern is companies just sunsetting products. Like Amazon did with the Cloud Cam. > 4. Think about safety. If it is in any way dangerous - don't automate. Excellent point. I like to automate things that are dangerous but to try to make them ever so slightly better. For example - cutting power to the 3D printer after it's done printing or a couple of minutes after a serious error(couple of minutes to allow for the nozzle to cool down while still under active cooling). Automating a pool cover would be a bad idea indeed.

benrow 4y ago

I've just learned this lesson. I'd like local control of lights (rather than going through slow vendor phone app which uses an internet API as common point with the hub). Works well for remote control but slow and cumbersome for when at home. Trying to gain access to the ZigBee network or hub is probably not worth the effort, compared to using a more open stack in the first place.

Semaphor 4y ago
ZigBee is actually pretty open and easy to get access to. Just not if you use some vendor hub.
- benrow 4y ago
  Good to know, thanks. I didn't know much about ZigBee so did some reading - seemed it's used for things like smart locks so I was pessimistic about it being very accessible. Glad I mentioned it here, I now have a steer in the right direction - thanks.
Thlom 4y ago
Huh. I bought a cheap usb Zigbee device and it found all my hue lights and zigbee sensors no problem.
- benrow 4y ago
  Thank you, I'll give this a try!
  - Semaphor 4y ago
    Just as a tip: They are all affordable, but don’t get the cheapest stick. The more powerful the stick, the more devices it can support before it starts crapping out. There are recommendations online on which chips you want.
hotpotamus 4y ago
Back in the great AWS outage of last December, there were people who literally couldn't turn their lights on. Things like that make me want to tear every network cable out of my walls. I thought the point of all this technology was to put me in control, not sacrifice it to some computing proto-monopoly.
- knightofmars 4y ago
  Did these people run "always on" sockets in their houses? Any time I have an issue, I flip the physical switch off and then on and lo and behold the lights turn on.

theshrike79 4y ago

#0 Your automations must still work even when the internet is down. Just skip all of the SmartThings and IFTTT online only crap for day-to day operation. If the internet goes down and you can't turn on the lights anymore, your setup's WAF goes down FAST. Just pull the plug on your internet and see what happens. Use online features to enhance the smart home experience, don't rely on it. Apple HomeKit is good, it works local only, but it also allows secure remote access when needed. You can still use your phone to control everything when the internet is down. Same goes for Home Assistant. Just pay the fiver for the Nabu Casa cloud if you want remote access, no point in hacking it together yourself. Alexa and Google Home are very bad at this, when they go offline, they just say "sorry" and can't do anything.

qwerpy 4y ago
Agree with everything you said, but I'd like to describe what I did to get Home Assistant working remotely: Set up wireguard on my home network and on my phone, and have the home assistant app (or mobile browser) access home assistant through the local IP address. I wanted wireguard for other use cases, so I basically got remote home assistant for free. That being said, Home Assistant is worth financially supporting.
- theshrike79 4y ago
  You do get other stuff besides remote access with Nabu Casa, you also get Alexa/Google Assistant integration and Text to Speech features that need the cloud. But supporting the development is worth the price alone =)

BryanBeshore 4y ago

Timely post as this is something I have been quite interested in, and starting to explore. I'd love to see some sort of list of smart home automation/devices that would fall into the safety buckets, and why. Something like: - Safe - Medium safe - Not safe - Do not do

Nextgrid 4y ago
Anything that doesn't have a (reliable) safety interlock. Electric heaters or cooking appliances for example. Life-critical devices such as smoke alarms, etc (you wouldn't want a malfunction of your smart home controller or a malicious attacker to cut the power to your smoke detectors).
- outworlder 4y ago
  Generally, being able to cut power is a good thing for many devices. You shouldn't want to turn on dangerous devices automatically, but some of them might benefit from the ability to have power cut off. The very first smart plug I ever bought was because one day I went on a trip and, after arriving from my flight on the other side of the country, I started to wonder if I had turned the coffee machine off. I had, which I confirmed with an indoor camera. That coffee machine got a smart plug as soon as I got back. Others followed.

outworlder 4y ago

> Some IoT companies will die off within a few years That is a concern. An even larger concern is companies just sunsetting products. Like Amazon did with the Cloud Cam. > 4. Think about safety. If it is in any way dangerous - don't automate. Excellent point. I like to automate things that are dangerous but to try to make them ever so slightly better. For example - cutting power to the 3D printer after it's done printing or a couple of minutes after a serious error(couple of minutes to allow for the nozzle to cool down while still under active cooling). Automating a pool cover would be a bad idea indeed.