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I work in IoT and I don’t install anything on my home that isn’t local first and doesn’t require internet access. As you can imagine, the list of these products
by samtho 3y ago
I work in IoT and I don’t install anything on my home that isn’t local first and doesn’t require internet access. As you can imagine, the list of these products is very small, most of them are things I custom made.
The problem with IoT is that most of the products lose their shit and very ungracefully handle poor or intermittent internet connectivity, all so they can potentially route my button taps and commands through a random server outside my house and back to the internet connected device. When this company discontinued the product, goes bust, or they just change their servers without an update to “older devices”, your $xxx item becomes a paperweight. Some of this is likely data mining, but I would reckon most of this is simply poor or incompetent engineering and management with a slash of vendor lock-in. The company selling you cloud service does not care that it stops working when the go under, and we need to not buy this hot garbage either.
- fy20 3y agoI try to go that route, but for some items there isn't a good alternative. I have a Roborock vacuum which requires the app and an internet connection to use the smart features, but it can still be controlled by the physical buttons if the internet is down. I'm hoping that Thread/Matter will change that, but most likely it'll still be the same walled garden - there are already some devices that use ZigBee but only work properly with their own hub.
- ipaddr 3y agoWhy would you need a vacuum connected to the internet. Love to hear the use-cases
- allarm 3y agoI have a Roborock too. It has an app that shows you the map, collected by the vacuum's lidar, so that you can point the vacuum to a specific area on this map and stuff like that. I absolutely hate that I don't have control over what's actually being sent to the cloud. Though at the time of purchase there were no models with lidar that didn't require the Internet connection. Not sure if that's still the case. I would be happy to replace the damn thing with something that doesn't call home.
- efitz 3y agoI am heavily into smart home; I have over 100 devices in my home. My main requirement for my home is that everything had to “fail normal”. My non-geek family would not tolerate the lights not working if the internet connection failed. To that end, although everything is connected to a cloud service eventually (HomeKit), loss of internet or excommunication by a cloud service provider would simply disable app- and voice control, but stuff would still work normally otherwise. If a device manufacturer bricked a device intentionally then I am fortunate enough to be financially able to hire an attorney. I am currently working with an electrical engineering firm to build my own line of smart home devices, that will be fully open (HW and SW) and will be based on Raspberry Pi (there’s an actual Pi Zero 2W in the light switches). I’ll post here when I’m at the point where I have something to share.
- hparadiz 3y agoI have a few smart power plugs outside that I like being on the cloud so I can control the string lights connected to them from bed without having to go outside and actually hit the physical switch. It's also super frustrating that they all need their own servers and app and infrastructure. You'd think there'd be a standard by now. Last time when the power went out for several hours I had to resync the switch.
- rightbyte 3y agoThey profit from spying on you so obviously they need an app and SaaS per device vendor. In their perspective interoperability is an anti-feuture. Even just pushing one of those IoT buttons tells them you are at home and is probably used for some ad placement or credit score or whatever.
- samtho 3y agoI wonder if home automation is one of those things that eventually gets figured out and we look back at today thinking, “we tolerated that?” or if it never gets solved at a standards level and we just have egregiously subpar experiences delivered by vendors all naively attempting to dominate the market with a crippled product. Also, I think the spying has the potential for being more insidious and more passive. Im thinking of sound beacons, at human-imperceptible frequencies, sent by a TV or smart speaker that lets some data aggregator determine what is being played in a home or who is at home.
- inopinatus 3y agoSurely IoT without the Internet is a NoT.
- samtho 3y agoMaybe we’ve all been getting the “I” component wrong and it’s suppose to be Intranet of Things?
- prmoustache 3y agoIf it is local, it isn't IoT but just T.
- smolder 3y agoOr, alternatively, it's Intranet of Things, a clearly better kind of IoT.