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The unbearable fussiness of the smart home

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Re: The unbearable fussiness of the smart home

#161

Post by throwawayboise »

londons_explore wrote: post #104
h2odragon wrote: post #2

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…

Mechanical timers aren't as reliable as you make out. 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...…

You can buy timers specifically designed to handle high current, heaters, motors, etc. True that the typical timer you'll find at a department store will be meant for room lamps or other light loads.

Re: The unbearable fussiness of the smart home

#162

Post by dotancohen »

ninkendo wrote: post #97
dotancohen wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I did my whole house in Lutron’s smart switches Sure, but how do you turn the lights on when the power's out and the router is down? Lrf, V'z wbxvat.

I actually have a natural gas generator that powers the majority of the house, and I was happy to see the lights all worked fine during an outage when the internet was down along with the power. The switches all obviously worked, but the Home app worked too so I could continue to set scenes/etc. It was quite nice!

Interesting, thank you.

Re: The unbearable fussiness of the smart home

#163

Post by frosted-flakes »

input_sh wrote: post #26
vnxli wrote: post #6

This is entirely on the author. Sure these vendors make awful products and poorly maintain them - but nobody is forcing anyone to buy them or integrate them into their house. I have yet to hear, or especially see, these devices make anybody’s life easier than doing the task manually. I never think about light in my home, I flip the switch if I need it - lights seem like such a chore to my friends who have to issue co…

> I have yet to hear, or especially see, these devices make anybody’s life easier than doing the task manually. Let's fix that, shall we? I have a Philips Hue system and also a physical switch[0] that I can move around. In my hallway and my kitchen (high traffic rooms) lights turn on via motion detection, making it absolutely unnecessary to ever turn touch a physical plug (with my wet hands after washing the dishes f…

[0] is an electronic switch, not a physical switch. A physical switch is hard-wired into the wall and you physically switch the circuit open or closed.

Re: The unbearable fussiness of the smart home

#164

Post by ubermonkey »

ec109685 wrote: post #153
ubermonkey wrote: post #139

I cannot be the only jaded nerd to have looked at all the highly integrated "smart home" crap on the market and scoffed. I have absolutely NO desire to sysadmin my goddamn house. I've been in this game a long time, and I know none of that stuff is going to be made well, or coded well, or be able to interoperate well, and that means HEADACHES. And people buy them! Like, they buy internet-connected LOCKS for their door…

SmartLocks are actually really convenient. Being able give a temporary code to someone instead of a key is really nice and our children know how to lock and unlock without needing to remember their key.

It would also be "convenient" to leave your door unlocked, but "convenience" must be balanced with security.

No lock company can be expected to harden their online systems enough to justify "unlock with an app" level access. It's bananas.

The same goes for alarm companies. ADT has been trying to get me to "upgrade" to an Internet-connected alarm brain for years. Hard pass.

Re: The unbearable fussiness of the smart home

#165

Post by tunap »

ggcdn wrote: post #146
londons_explore wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To take this further... To mean anything, this guarantee needs to apply unconditionally and forever. Even in 50 years... Even when the manufacturer is bankrupt. To do that, There could be a "Will Work Guarantee" organisation. The organisation will administer refunds to all customers with claims, (and combat fraud). Companies who want to be members of the scheme must pay into the scheme to cover payouts for their own…

That’s why I like buying things from Costco when I can. they have a 100% satisfaction guarantee on most items. And I’m willing to bet on the longevity of Costco more than any manufacturers of goods.

Back during the 'Capcitor Plague', when HP lied and denied there was a problem, Costco replaced 3 out of warranty HP laptops for my clients who bought them there. Their customer service, quality meats and they pay their employees well, are a few of the reasons why I prefer to give them my money.

Related: MSI replaced 15 OoW mainboards without proof of purchase, too. They merely asked for serial numbers and shipped them out in a timely manner. Can you guess who's boards I used exclusively when building towers over the last 15 years?

Re: The unbearable fussiness of the smart home

#166

Post by timc3 »

tga wrote: post #84
arcticbull wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Philips Hue lights are sadly not on the same seriousness level as the Lutron hardware. After a time away, I tried to turn on lights with my phone -- only to be greeted by a message like "There is a mandatory update available for your bridge. You can use your system again after 10 minutes". I found not being able to turn on the lights for 10 minutes because they were installing unprompted updates completely unacceptab…

I have two hue bridges ( because I have over 60 lights) that have been working for a long time now and I have never seen this problem. It’s worked flawlessly.

I also have another zigbee dongle with zigbee2mqtt and zigbee2mqtt is what gives me problems particularly if the power goes out over the house.

Re: The unbearable fussiness of the smart home

#167

Post by teddyh »

> Tech Enthusiasts: Everything in my house is wired to the Internet of Things! I control it all from my smartphone! My smart-house is bluetooth enabled and I can give it voice commands via alexa! I love the future!

> Programmers / Engineers: The most recent piece of technology I own is a printer from 2004 and I keep a loaded gun ready to shoot it if it ever makes an unexpected noise.

— https://imgur.com/6wbgy2L

Re: The unbearable fussiness of the smart home

#168

Post by throwawayboise »

My home is my escape from tech. I use software and computer technology all day at work. Yes I have a PC at home but it's an isolated system. I don't want this stuff in every facet of my life. My light switches are all conventional mechanical ones. My thermostat is digital (I didn't choose it) but unprogrammed. It is set to hold whatever temperature I select, until I change it. My locks are all key-operated. Same with my cars, I buy older cars with minimal or no electronics. I will never buy an appliance the requires an app to operate it, and will never have any devices that listen or talk to me. Alexa, Echo, etc. seem utterly pointless and invasive.

Re: The unbearable fussiness of the smart home

#169

Post by whatshisface »

brudgers wrote: post #137
moffkalast wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

A realtime clock for a mechanical timer of the type I believe the comment alludes based on reference to the 1970's would require stepper motors, solenoids, rigid frames and such to turn the dial. Maybe a camera too to determine the state of the timer. ...and hence the fussiness of home automation. Or to put it another way, clockworks are inherently so complicated that features are literally called "complications." TA…

>would require stepper motors, solenoids, rigid frames and such to turn the dial. Maybe a camera too to determine the state of the timer.

Huh? Electric analog clocks have small electric motors to turn their dials and that's it.

Re: The unbearable fussiness of the smart home

#170

Post by fredophile »

throwawayboise wrote: post #168

My home is my escape from tech. I use software and computer technology all day at work. Yes I have a PC at home but it's an isolated system. I don't want this stuff in every facet of my life. My light switches are all conventional mechanical ones. My thermostat is digital (I didn't choose it) but unprogrammed. It is set to hold whatever temperature I select, until I change it. My locks are all key-operated. Same with…

I think there's a happy medium to be found here. I don't have a tonne of smart home devices but I have some that have been very useful for me.

The deadbolt on my front door can sense my key fob. This means when I come home and my hands are full of groceries I just touch the deadbolt and it unlocks instead of having to juggle bags while I dig out my keys.

I also have smart light switches in parts of my home. They aren't set up to be smart though. I bought them because they always return to a central, neutral position. Instead of toggling randomly for a three way switch I know that up is always on and down is always off.

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