101–110 of 375 posts
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Or buy them online for $15 https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12708 Following hobbyist-directed instructions that are, also, readily available online https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/embeddedlab786/real-tim...
So, order electronics from the internet for my non smart, non internet connected devices. Got it.
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Ah yes, the trivial to build, ultra simple crystal oscillator real time clock. Every hobbyist can just fab them right up, or just dig around in the garden to find a few.
Or buy them online for $15 https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12708 Following hobbyist-directed instructions that are, also, readily available online https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/embeddedlab786/real-tim...
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Or buy them online for $15 https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12708 Following hobbyist-directed instructions that are, also, readily available online https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/embeddedlab786/real-tim...
Or just buy a finished product for the same price as a single part: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01G6O28NA
In that same time period, my "plant light" timer, a $15 mechanical item of a design unmodified since the 1970s, has worked flawlessly, requiring attention only when the clocks change or my schedule does. It has not informed Google, Amazon, or anyone else about its job or anything else in my home. It has generated no royalties nor invoked any support or ongoing maintenance costs. It has never needed a software upgrade…
For example, if you attach loads with high startup or inductive currents, like fridges or big motors/fans to them, then they'll wear out very fast and typically stop working in a few months.
If they jam for any reason, they'll usually overheat and melt all the little plastic gears inside. This happens if you tell them to turn on and off every 15 minutes all day...
Both these failure cases sound unlikely, but of perhaps 10 mechanical timers I have used in my lifetime, I have had 3 fail. That isn't great really.
The functionality can be controlled via scripting, and there are optional links to services like Alexa that give you a lot of control over what words will trigger scenes or scripts. Most of all, it just works — the device and software aren’t super complex, it’s just a triggering system that programs your non-IP devices and adds support for additional triggers and multiple scenes.
(I have no connection to this company other than as a pretty happy user).
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I've got the same old-fashioned mechanical timer. I actually attached it to one of those "box fan filters" that people talk about here from time to time. (So I can filter on a schedule) It works perfectly, and I've never had any issues with it. I'm thoroughly convinced that if I tried to replace it with a "smart" device I'd have no shortage of issues. I like your thinking regarding the lack of reliability with these…
Whats needed is a much stronger guarantee. For example, "If this device ever , even once, shows an error message or misbehaves, then we'll give you a full refund, plus $100". If there was some logo and brand associated with that guarantee, consumers would prefer it, just like today some only buy organic or freetrade. Then manufacturers would want the extra sales generated by that logo/brand, and have a massive financ…
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As a counter point, I've lived in places with frequent power disruptions and smart timers that use the internet and NTP and figure out the time work _so much better_ than the mechanical timers.
I hate to be the tiktok pokerface simple solution meme guy, but that's a solvable issue by just adding a RTC module, no complex internet garbage required.
I did my whole house in Lutron’s smart switches (close to 50 of them), and I think it’s good? It’s been about 2 years now and I really haven’t had any issues. The switches aren’t Wi-Fi connected, because Wi-Fi would be an awful choice for 50 devices that you only communicate with a few times a day. They use their own wireless frequency and communicate in a really simple/reliable way to the bridge, which is wired to m…
I was about to say the same thing. I set up all my non-standard lighting fixtures with Lutron Caseta switches, and replaced all the standard bulbs with Philips Hue bulbs. They've both been working flawlessly, together, with my 3 HomePod Minis for about a year and a half now. It really is a brand thing. Most are bad. [edit] > My favorite aspect is that the pico switches can be programmed to switch whole rooms of light…
The hack is worth it for the reliability of Lutron. The Caseta system never fails for me.
In that same time period, my "plant light" timer, a $15 mechanical item of a design unmodified since the 1970s, has worked flawlessly, requiring attention only when the clocks change or my schedule does. It has not informed Google, Amazon, or anyone else about its job or anything else in my home. It has generated no royalties nor invoked any support or ongoing maintenance costs. It has never needed a software upgrade…
Also, I get a kick out of designing the system to withstand the usual challenges of staying running in the usual house: power outages, kids playing with light switches, etc. Its basically got to always work.
Has to be said I don't understand "smart devices" one bit. I simply don't understand how pulling out a phone and launching an app is preferable to an ordinary light switch. In fact I would say it's in every respect worse. And I don't want something that sits in the room listening to everything I say and uploading some unknown part of that to an unknown cloud service.
But the phone home stuff is just insane to me. I bought an Insignia garage door opener trigger that works with Homekit natively without an app, figuring that would be the simplest possible setup (and cheaper than RF-based physical remotes). I Wiresharked the traffic it was sending out (in order to block it) and it phones home over a *Wireguard VPN tunnel*. I've seen some shady phone-home behaviour from cheap Chinese devices but never this.
So now it is totally blocked from accessing the internet and it does open the garage door, but I am told "there was an error communicating" every single time.
I will mention one device I absolutely love: CloudFree Smart Plug 2 for energy monitoring. As I mentioned on my Twitter※: [CloudFree Smart Plug 2] are the first IoT product I've ever used with zero friction whatsoever. First time usage, from unboxing to pulling power stats over HTTP API in under 3 minutes. No other products come close.
※ - just copy/pasted my Tweet, no need to hyperlink it