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GE's smart light bulb reset process is a masterpiece of modern techno-insanity

theregister.co.uk

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Re: GE's smart light bulb reset process is a masterpiece of modern techno-insanity

#101

Post by Taniwha »

Retric wrote: post #34
janekm wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reset button is actually a safety issue, as the bulb would have to be plugged into the mains to register the reset. A metal paperclip inserted into the body of the light bulb would be very problematic from an electrical isolation point of view. The big failure arguably is not testing the firmware sufficiently (or building in recovery algorithms) to necessitate a reset procedure in the first place.

Lightbulbs don’t get handled in operation. So you can have a huge reset button and no need for a paperclip. As to firmware, cosmic rays for example randomly flip bits. Which means for any large scale deployments you want a reset option.

Let me think - the reset button can only work when the light is powered up (and maybe too hot to touch) - you can't mount it on the metal base because that's live when it's on, and so the light fitting is designed so you can't touch the base. you could mount it in the glass but it would cast a shadow ...

any solution has to cost less than a penny ...

Re: GE's smart light bulb reset process is a masterpiece of modern techno-insanity

#102

Post by TeMPOraL »

ses1984 wrote: post #82
pdkl95 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In the 90's Bill Gates had networked house and automatically adjusting lights and it was the peak of luxury. Nonsense. X10 devices cost a bit more than regular outlets/switches/fixtures, but not much more. I know many people that added dimmers/timers/remote-control to their lights for a few hundred dollars in the late-80s/90s. Home automation has been a solved problem with cheap and easy solutions for decades.

Solved for me, the expert, but not solved for thee, the lay person. Even if this was technically within financial reach, my personal experience was that the knowledge of how to do it was intentionally obfuscated because installers wanted to make money.

Solved for thee, the lay person. You find your local home automation company and ask them to set up a system for you. Extra benefit: the company performs a one-time service for you and you end up with products you can optionally get them (or someone else) to maintain. Contrast with IoT, where you subscribe to a service that's most likely ephemeral, will brick your devices when the service ends, and exposes you to security risks.

Re: GE's smart light bulb reset process is a masterpiece of modern techno-insanity

#103

Post by rusk »

qball wrote: post #55
rusk wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know its not quite as “smart” but we have had timers for lighting circuits for at least 50 years ...

Sure, but wall timers (for lamps) have a garbage user experience, and for the price of one wired-in fixture timer (where a wall switch would go) + new bulbs you might as well have bought a smart hub. The problem is badly designed interfaces, not the underlying technology itself.

as far as I can make out, most "smart" devices have garbage UX and reliability, not to mention they'll sell you out to any intelligence agency you'd care to mention.

Re: GE's smart light bulb reset process is a masterpiece of modern techno-insanity

#104

Post by TeMPOraL »

Taniwha wrote: post #101
Retric wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lightbulbs don’t get handled in operation. So you can have a huge reset button and no need for a paperclip. As to firmware, cosmic rays for example randomly flip bits. Which means for any large scale deployments you want a reset option.

Let me think - the reset button can only work when the light is powered up (and maybe too hot to touch) - you can't mount it on the metal base because that's live when it's on, and so the light fitting is designed so you can't touch the base. you could mount it in the glass but it would cast a shadow ... any solution has to cost less than a penny ...

> Let me think - the reset button can only work when the light is powered up (and maybe too hot to touch)

A capacitor that is kept charged during normal operation, and that powers the reset circuit which you close with your metal pin once you unscrew the bulb. The circuit flips some bits in persistent memory of the bulb.

Re: GE's smart light bulb reset process is a masterpiece of modern techno-insanity

#105

Post by TeMPOraL »

Freak_NL wrote: post #66
_nalply wrote: post #42

Here the reset procedure for Awox color light bulbs: 1. If possible, put your bulb in white (hot or cold no matter ...). The reset procedure works better when the bulb is white rather than color. 2. In the steps below, the power is turned off. It is not ON / OFF done using the remote control or the application, but electrical ON / OFF. 3. Your light bulb is off. This is the beginning of the procedure. 4. Turn it on b…

> The reset procedure works better when the bulb is white rather than color. So it doesn't just work or not, it works better .

What. One would think that a reset procedure is binary, it either works or it doesn't...

Re: GE's smart light bulb reset process is a masterpiece of modern techno-insanity

#106

Post by hmd_imputer »

serpix wrote: post #92
hmd_imputer wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no, you cannot. Not everyone can. At least, not in Germany. People pay 60% of their net income to rent while working 40 hours a week. How do you expect the rent to be paid with just 15 hours of work per week in Germany?

The big con is working 40 hours a week to afford to rent/own/buy a place to live so you can continue working said 40 hours a week. Cut it to 15, move to cheaper residence and cut out gadgets, buying useless shit and owning lots of things. This frees up huge chunks of time and creativity and freedom. The freedom you thought you were working towards toiling 40 hours of your life per week.

yeah, see what happens to the economy if half of the people take this way. Let me call bs on that.

Re: GE's smart light bulb reset process is a masterpiece of modern techno-insanity

#108

Post by undecisive »

r3bl wrote: post #94
undecisive wrote: post #68

> For some reason, GE decided not to install a physical reset button – you know, one of those tiny holes that you have to stick a pin or paperclip into. Hmmm... Nope, I can't see a problem with getting people to stick a paperclip into holes around mains electricity! Sounds perfectly safe. Seriously though, this is bonkers. Power cycling patterns are by far the best method for initiating a reset - and no, sending a re…

> and no, sending a reset command via apps is not feasible (what if you've lost the account password and you've accidentally paired it to your neighbours wifi?) Hubs save all the pain with smart lighting system. No need for an account, system works locally. If you wanna control them remotely, you can (but you don't have to). Connected to the wrong wifi? Reset a hub instead of individual bulbs. You pair bulbs with hub…

I have a few problems with hubs; you need to store the physical thing somewhere, and as a house with difficulties in getting a wifi connection to corners, I can't guarantee that the coverage will be good enough before committing to a whole system. Then there's interoperability - I don't really want to be locked in to Phillips bulbs (though I'm sure some are a little more interoperable than others)

So I'm left thinking: I already have a wireless signal hitting most of the house, why complicate things? I'm not sure ability to reset is worth it...

Re: GE's smart light bulb reset process is a masterpiece of modern techno-insanity

#109

Post by undecisive »

gus_massa wrote: post #90
undecisive wrote: post #68

> For some reason, GE decided not to install a physical reset button – you know, one of those tiny holes that you have to stick a pin or paperclip into. Hmmm... Nope, I can't see a problem with getting people to stick a paperclip into holes around mains electricity! Sounds perfectly safe. Seriously though, this is bonkers. Power cycling patterns are by far the best method for initiating a reset - and no, sending a re…

> e.g. on-off 5 times with no more than 5 seconds in either state Until you get a small kid that has just learned how light switches work, probably around 2 or 3 years.

Yep! And we have cheap wifi lightbulbs that have a reset mechanism similar to the one I described. He was less than 3 before he worked out that he could make the lights flash by switching on and off repeatedly.

Unfortunately, ours made the mistake of just forgetting everything when placed in reset mode, not being recoverable. Still, thankfully the phase was short-lived.

Re: GE's smart light bulb reset process is a masterpiece of modern techno-insanity

#110

Post by esseeayen »

Sometimes the physical reset button would be the worst way to reset. I have lifx gen 1 bulbs (post Kickstarter) throughout my house and they are in high places/not easy to access without renting a large ladder/scaffold. Even the worst on/off procedure to reset would be easier than climbing to get to a physical switch.
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