4 ms·

I don't quite see why they want to make this. Remote controllable power outlets have existed for a very long time. At this point, you have dozens of options, a

I don't quite see why they want to make this. Remote controllable power outlets have existed for a very long time. At this point, you have dozens of options, and several home automation industry standards that allow all these options to interconnect with each other. You can combine plugs, light switches, motion sensors, keypads, door openers, thermostats and virtually everything else in your house with any brand's Zigbee or Z-wave hub, or directly from a PC/app over wifi. Z-wave/Zigbee are already low-power mesh networks. I don't think there's any advantage to re-implementing that over Bluetooth with a different protocol, while the disadvantages if you ever want to do more cool home automation stuff than just power plugs are many. If for some reason this all sounds scary and you'd prefer just plugging something into the wall and using an app, that's been on the market for years too. The easiest way to get started is to walk into your nearest Best Buy or Home Depot and pick up a Belkin Wemo switch. It plugs into any outlet just like this Kickstarter but connects to your wifi network instead of BT. There's an Android app to control the plugs (from inside the house or over the internet), but they also speak UPnP so are easy to integrate into your own software.

matthewbadeau 13y ago
I believe they went with bluetooth because all smartphones have it, it doesn't require a special base station and can send simple serial commands fairly easily from an iOS app. Honestly though, I prefer wi-fi over bluetooth because I can connect to an entire network of smart devices. Bluetooth would limit me to one device at a time.
- Someone 13y ago
  This claims to create a mesh network. If that's done well, you should be able to talk to all devices at once, even outside of regular Bluetooth range.
lambda 13y ago
Bluetooth has the advantage of being supported by most computers and smartphones already, with no additional hardware. Zigbee has the problem that its specification's license is incompatible with the GPL, meaning that the Linux Kernel will likely never have full support for it, and thus neither will Android[1]. Given that Bluetooth is already ubiquitous on computers and smartphones, and Bluetooth LE is starting to catch on, it's pretty likely that Bluetooth could supplant Zigbee in not too long if a few hardware vendors started selling Bluetooth controlled hardware rather than Zigbee. So yes, you can get a Zigbee hub and use Zigbee via a hub, or you can use something that connects via WiFi. Zigbee has the disadvantage that you need a separate hub. WiFi is quite complex (and thus more expensive) and doesn't work well for low-power applications. Bluetooth LE has neither of these problems; it's simpler and lower power than WiFi, and already has ubiquitous device support so you don't need some other interface hub to plug into your network. Note that the WeMo Insight switch (the one that's comparable to these, as it provides energy monitoring) costs $60, while these cost $45 each; which is a pretty big difference if you want to wire up a bunch of lights. [1]: http://elinux.org/6lowpan/ROLL_support_on_802.15.4_radios http://elinux.org/6lowpan/ROLL_support_on_802.15.4_radios
Poiesis 13y ago
Maybe there are deficiencies in marketing. I have wanted for the longest time a solution to the problem of "my switched outlet is on one side of the room but I want my lamp on the other side". Seems like everything out there is overkill. I suspect there are decent solutions for this but they're not well marketed, or maybe I just suck at searching for this particular solution.

matthewbadeau 13y ago

I believe they went with bluetooth because all smartphones have it, it doesn't require a special base station and can send simple serial commands fairly easily from an iOS app. Honestly though, I prefer wi-fi over bluetooth because I can connect to an entire network of smart devices. Bluetooth would limit me to one device at a time.

Someone 13y ago
This claims to create a mesh network. If that's done well, you should be able to talk to all devices at once, even outside of regular Bluetooth range.

lambda 13y ago

Bluetooth has the advantage of being supported by most computers and smartphones already, with no additional hardware. Zigbee has the problem that its specification's license is incompatible with the GPL, meaning that the Linux Kernel will likely never have full support for it, and thus neither will Android[1]. Given that Bluetooth is already ubiquitous on computers and smartphones, and Bluetooth LE is starting to catch on, it's pretty likely that Bluetooth could supplant Zigbee in not too long if a few hardware vendors started selling Bluetooth controlled hardware rather than Zigbee. So yes, you can get a Zigbee hub and use Zigbee via a hub, or you can use something that connects via WiFi. Zigbee has the disadvantage that you need a separate hub. WiFi is quite complex (and thus more expensive) and doesn't work well for low-power applications. Bluetooth LE has neither of these problems; it's simpler and lower power than WiFi, and already has ubiquitous device support so you don't need some other interface hub to plug into your network. Note that the WeMo Insight switch (the one that's comparable to these, as it provides energy monitoring) costs $60, while these cost $45 each; which is a pretty big difference if you want to wire up a bunch of lights. [1]: http://elinux.org/6lowpan/ROLL_support_on_802.15.4_radios http://elinux.org/6lowpan/ROLL_support_on_802.15.4_radios

Poiesis 13y ago

Maybe there are deficiencies in marketing. I have wanted for the longest time a solution to the problem of "my switched outlet is on one side of the room but I want my lamp on the other side". Seems like everything out there is overkill. I suspect there are decent solutions for this but they're not well marketed, or maybe I just suck at searching for this particular solution.