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So, not like the "slightly intelligent home" is a term of art or anything like that, but what the author means is simply that he doesn't have as much home autom

So, not like the "slightly intelligent home" is a term of art or anything like that, but what the author means is simply that he doesn't have as much home automation as some other folks, good for him, but perhaps a nicer kind of slightly intelligent home would be one where no matter how much home automation you have, everything gracefully degrades or is invisible to the inhabitants, e.g. you still have physical switches, your lights do not suddenly all switch on after power loss, you can still get in the house if your Raspberry Pi dies, if you're tired of an automation you can easily rip it out, etc.

jrm4 4y ago
In other words, a smarter-than-Smart Home, no?
- taylodl 4y ago
  An intelligent home!
cbsmith 4y ago
A lot of intelligent lighting solutions still give you physical switches, although that can create some annoying behaviours when recovering from power loss unless the devices also had some solid state memory of their last on/off state.
- stdbrouw 4y ago
  Yeah, a lot is possible with current tech (e.g. you can tell Hue lights what to do after power is restored) and I think my own home automation gets pretty close, but I guess I was hoping to see a blog post from someone who had really thought it through and had come up with some "slightly intelligent" home automation do's and don'ts re: graceful degradation, avoiding lock-in, ease of use for other people in the home who may hate the idea of home automation, security, how to deal with hardware that fails, what automations are likely to be brittle and need frequent reconfiguration vs. what'll just keep on working, when to go with proprietary vs. DIY, how to document things etc.
- tlavoie 4y ago
  Really, that recovery after power loss is one of those minor-but-irritating things that seems to come up often. Couple examples: I bought a "smart" power bar, mostly for shits 'n giggles. Other than being able to control it with an app, and I don't, it could be any power bar. Except when we get a power blip, and every outlet returns to the default state of OFF when it comes back. An LED light fixture came with a remote. OK, fine, I don't really care. Our bedroom has four hard-wired multi-way switches, so I can turn it on or off from any doorway and beside the bed. The only problem is that while the fixture has controllable brightness and white balance, its default power-on setting is full brightness, "daylight" white balance. The only way to turn the light off and get it straight back to the desired settings is to do so solely via the little remote.

jrm4 4y ago

In other words, a smarter-than-Smart Home, no?

taylodl 4y ago
An intelligent home!

cbsmith 4y ago

A lot of intelligent lighting solutions still give you physical switches, although that can create some annoying behaviours when recovering from power loss unless the devices also had some solid state memory of their last on/off state.

stdbrouw 4y ago
Yeah, a lot is possible with current tech (e.g. you can tell Hue lights what to do after power is restored) and I think my own home automation gets pretty close, but I guess I was hoping to see a blog post from someone who had really thought it through and had come up with some "slightly intelligent" home automation do's and don'ts re: graceful degradation, avoiding lock-in, ease of use for other people in the home who may hate the idea of home automation, security, how to deal with hardware that fails, what automations are likely to be brittle and need frequent reconfiguration vs. what'll just keep on working, when to go with proprietary vs. DIY, how to document things etc.
tlavoie 4y ago
Really, that recovery after power loss is one of those minor-but-irritating things that seems to come up often. Couple examples: I bought a "smart" power bar, mostly for shits 'n giggles. Other than being able to control it with an app, and I don't, it could be any power bar. Except when we get a power blip, and every outlet returns to the default state of OFF when it comes back. An LED light fixture came with a remote. OK, fine, I don't really care. Our bedroom has four hard-wired multi-way switches, so I can turn it on or off from any doorway and beside the bed. The only problem is that while the fixture has controllable brightness and white balance, its default power-on setting is full brightness, "daylight" white balance. The only way to turn the light off and get it straight back to the desired settings is to do so solely via the little remote.