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I Ripped Out a £6k Lighting System

robdobson.com

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Re: I Ripped Out a £6k Lighting System

#71

Post by m4tthumphrey »

VBprogrammer wrote: post #38

I stayed clear of smart appliances for a long time for the reasons I'm sure we're all well aware of. However, recently we had our central heating boiler changed and my partner was very keen on having Hive. It's almost useless. I can't believe how incompetently it seems to have been designed. Essentially there are three parts, a receiver connected to the boiler, a network bride connected to the router and the thermost…

I have to say my experience with Hive has been nothing but exceptional. All the way from having it installed back in 2016 (when we moved in) to this day when it came on for an hour this morning. The controller is right next to the boiler in the eaves of my house and is connected via ethernet through a TP-Link TL-PA9020P powerline adaptor. In all fairness the thermostat is very close to the receiver, in the landing, so maybe that's why it's never been an issue. I don't think I've ever once had a single issue with using the app, whether that's from downstairs or from the other side of the Atlantic. It will be the first thing on the shopping list when/if we ever move.

Re: I Ripped Out a £6k Lighting System

#72

Post by WalterBright »

dwighttk wrote: post #60
lqet wrote: post #12

What is a wireless lighting system? What is the advantage of such a system over a switch next to the door? E: A wireless lighting systems seems to be a light bulb with WiFi capabilities.

The author mentioned that his house is made of stone, so running wires to the lights is less easy than in a hollow walled house.

It's not hard, you just run the wires in conduit. Yeah, you can see the conduit, but make it part of the decor. You'll see this in a lot of retrofits.

Re: I Ripped Out a £6k Lighting System

#74

Post by WalterBright »

mattlondon wrote: post #29
lqet wrote: post #12

What is a wireless lighting system? What is the advantage of such a system over a switch next to the door? E: A wireless lighting systems seems to be a light bulb with WiFi capabilities.

I have found it useful when you have your hands full (e.g. hands full of shopping, or carrying a baby with a dirty nappy/diaper to a changing table are just two examples where you can just shout to google/alexa to turn it on), or turning stuff on/off when you are away from home (e.g. automatically at sunset, turning heating on when you are on your way home etc), or you left the lights on and you are already in bed et…

> you left the lights on and you are already in bed

1970's technology to the rescue: https://www.amazon.com/Clapper-Sound-Activated-Switch-Each/d...

As for when my hands are full, elbows work just fine.

If/when I become bedridden or crippled, I'll probably get Alexa. Until then, I get up and walk to the switch. It's a privilege to be able to do that, and I'll do it as long as I can.

Re: I Ripped Out a £6k Lighting System

#75

Post by FeepingCreature »

tokamak-teapot wrote: post #43
Semaphor wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For example, not having to get up and go to the door. I find that extremely convenient when lying in bed, about to sleep. I usually read for a few hours with dark red light, when I’m ready to sleep I can just turn the lights off.

There is a technical solution for this which might need some research and I’m not sure it’s been proved out yet but if you search for ‘bedside lamp’ you might find a starting point.

Right, but then you have to go to the bed, turn the bedside lamp on, go to the door, turn the room lamp off, go to bed. Bit of a round trip.

I wound up with a LED strip attached to a RPi under my bed, driven by a clapper script. Doesn't work completely reliably, but well enough.

Re: I Ripped Out a £6k Lighting System

#76

Post by narism »

lqet wrote: post #52
Xylakant wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are some reasons to go for a wireless system, for example when you can’t just go and run new wires to have switches in places you’d want to. Either because it’s an old house or a rented unit or something like that. But when planning a refurbishment or new construction, pulling (ethernet) wires is the safe bet.

So what powers the switches then?

There are switches that use the kinetic energy of the button push to work. No batteries, no wires.

https://www.enocean.com/en/products/enocean_modules_24ghz/

Re: I Ripped Out a £6k Lighting System

#77

Post by pydry »

physicsguy wrote: post #69

Stuff like this is the reason the only smart devices I have got so far are a Chromecast Audio, a Chromecast TV and a 2nd gen Google Home Mini (free from Spotify Premium). Those things are low impact if they don't work properly, and they do stop working with alarming regularity. I have spent less than £80 on the set up. The Home mini has trouble with my regional British accent. The Chromecasts are within 2m of my rout…

I don't think we'll start getting reliability like that until manufacturers 1) stop trying to hook them up to the cloud 2) default to wired and 3) implement failsafes (you can still turn off the light switch manually).

Until then it's the internet of malware infested broken toasters.

Re: I Ripped Out a £6k Lighting System

#78

Post by bleepblorp »

Never send a consumer IoT (where the 'q' stands for 'quality') product to do the job of a commercial lighting control system.

The right tool to automate a house with 100-150 lighting fixtures is something along the lines of a Crestron system.

Re: I Ripped Out a £6k Lighting System

#79

Post by Fumtumi »

My Philips Hue stuff in my flat works very very well and i like it.

When i will buy a house, i will put in cables as i still think cable controlled is more reliable.

Nonetheless, i like my system but it could be better especially the heating: It is actually quite useful to control my radiators digitally. It also makes a lot of sense to let my radiators measure room temperature and let it detect open window.

Normally when i activate a radiator, in 2-3h the room is always way too hot and i do only put it to the middle number (3).

Is this critical? No Is this important? No Can i live without it? Yes

But i do think its here to stay and in the long run, IoT will become the default.

Light atmosphere actually works very well when you can activate it by one click Light switches are were you need/want them Voice command feels much more natural and is quite useful

I like to think how my future house could incorporate something like alexa (a smart agent) in every room but 1. with powersavings 2. privacy in mind.

Something like the line in I, Robot where the main computer can see everthing.

Re: I Ripped Out a £6k Lighting System

#80

Post by WalterBright »

baybal2 wrote: post #3

Worked on a project for Kazakhstani real estate company to make a cheap "smart home" solution. Went for 100% wired installation exactly because of that. Second problem was every "star" topology hugely increases wiring cost, so a bus it was, and with bus came a problem of software MAC not being performant enough even to send audio, electrical isolation, CSMA... Long story I can't wait for 802.3cg

It took me several days to do all the drilling for the star in my house. It was a lot of wire. But it was all worth it.

Tip: get a Milwaukee right angle drill. Worth every penny.

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