Why voice? It is such a bad interface. I have a Shelly I4 with 4 (physical) buttons that trigger different automations in home assistant on my server, e.g. "Switch off everything" -> HASS -> Connects via Ethernet/Wifi to 6 Shelly Plug S in the room and switches those off. The Shelly Plug S use 0.5 Watt and I have Wifi anyway, so why another device or transmission standard?
How to control your smart home without yelling at a dumb voice assistant
21–30 of 140 posts
Re: How to control your smart home without yelling at a dumb voice assistant
#22I've all but given up on smart home tech. Almost all of them use the old 2.4ghz wifi band which nothing else in my home uses, and for some reason despite being connected to (any) router that supports both they'll fail to communicate with anything on the 5ghz band.
Sure, there are going to be ways around it - but there should need to be. The whole point of this stuff is to make things 'easy', and having to screw around enabling a bunch of legacy settings for brand new hardware isn't 'easy' for the end user.
Re: How to control your smart home without yelling at a dumb voice assistant
#23home assistant, dozens of cheap nfc stickers, and ios shortcuts that trigger home assistant actions when you boop the appropriate sticker with your locked phone.
On Android at least, HomeAssistant also supports customised quick settings buttons and widgets, for specific scenes/lights/buttons. It's super handy, since you can access quick settings without unlocking your phone, and have widgets on a dedicated page on the home screen.
Re: How to control your smart home without yelling at a dumb voice assistant
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
IMO this is absurd. If you need a phone in your hands - it is quicker to open the UI and do the thing
I would bet it's not. Based on the same starting point (phone in pocket) how many steps are there actually? UI Option: - take out phone - unlock phone - leave current app - find and open control app - find icon to toggle action - lock phone - put phone back in pocket NFC option: - take phone out of pocket - bump phone against NFC sticker - find NFC sweet spot - put phone back in pocket
It is absurd. Get a button instead. Button option:
- press button
Re: How to control your smart home without yelling at a dumb voice assistant
#25home assistant, dozens of cheap nfc stickers, and ios shortcuts that trigger home assistant actions when you boop the appropriate sticker with your locked phone.
That's a really weird suggestion. Get some buttons. Ikea Tradfri buttons work. Aquara makes some as well but I have no experience with them.
I fully recommend the Aqara Wireless Remote Switch H1 [1]. They are quite cheap, yet feel premium (unlike the IKEA buttons, which are both tiny and feel cheap).
[1] https://www.aqara.com/eu/product/wireless-remote-switch-h1
Re: How to control your smart home without yelling at a dumb voice assistant
#26Why voice? It is such a bad interface. I have a Shelly I4 with 4 (physical) buttons that trigger different automations in home assistant on my server, e.g. "Switch off everything" -> HASS -> Connects via Ethernet/Wifi to 6 Shelly Plug S in the room and switches those off. The Shelly Plug S use 0.5 Watt and I have Wifi anyway, so why another device or transmission standard?
I think voice is a fine interface for a lot of smart home things. If I'm watching TV and want the lights on/off, I don't want:
* To have to reach for my phone * To have a tablet mounted within reach (that's more clutter) * To have to get up to the light switch/nearest controller.
This sounds lazy but that is literally the point of all this stuff - to make things convenient.
Likewise, if I'm in the kitchen and want to set a timer, I don't want to have to use my hands (I'm probably already using them), I just want to yell that I need a imer set.
Re: How to control your smart home without yelling at a dumb voice assistant
#27Why voice? It is such a bad interface. I have a Shelly I4 with 4 (physical) buttons that trigger different automations in home assistant on my server, e.g. "Switch off everything" -> HASS -> Connects via Ethernet/Wifi to 6 Shelly Plug S in the room and switches those off. The Shelly Plug S use 0.5 Watt and I have Wifi anyway, so why another device or transmission standard?
For the enterprise.. look and feel..
Re: How to control your smart home without yelling at a dumb voice assistant
#28I've got an old iPad Air 2 lying around and a full Home Assistant setup, but I haven't bothered doing anything with it - frankly, I don't get it. Unless your place is quite small, a wall mounted tablet just seems like a hassle. Even disregarding all the hassle with the mounting and interface config, what are the advantages? Having to walk to a single position to control my smart home doesn't seem very smart, honestly…
Imagine it in the kitchen used like a smart clock.
Shows time, weather, time until next public transport departures from different stops on different routes, fuel prices at local filling stations, some electricity usage stats maybe..?
Keep yourself on track getting out the door in the morning with a glance?
Some people like to put the phone down with the keys and not use it and be tied to it at home. Walking to a tablet may be preferable than going to a work desk with a laptop or whatever to switch something on or off and we're used to doing that with light switches etc.
Not exhaustive, not necessarily how i do everything either. I bet people are using a tablet as a controller in ways and for reasons that make sense that i haven't thought of too.
Re: How to control your smart home without yelling at a dumb voice assistant
#29The best controller for lighting by far is the light switch. "Smart lightbulbs" behind dumb switches might seem like an easy solution, but it makes everything dumber (If you have a light switch you must not switch off because then you can't turn the "smart" light on, then you have a dumber house not a smarter one).
Smart switches which fall back to regular switches if they malfunction is fantastic. Add some scenarios for double/triple clicks and you can do a lot without even bringing out your phone. E.g. switch off all the lights when leaving either by double clicking the switch next to the front door, or trigger that same "all off" scenario through the alarm being armed or the door being locked.
Making "smart home" stuff is about integration, which requires tinkering. But making a subset of your home smart such as "smart lighting" doesn't have to be so daunting.
Re: How to control your smart home without yelling at a dumb voice assistant
#30I've all but given up on smart home tech. Almost all of them use the old 2.4ghz wifi band which nothing else in my home uses, and for some reason despite being connected to (any) router that supports both they'll fail to communicate with anything on the 5ghz band. Sure, there are going to be ways around it - but there should need to be. The whole point of this stuff is to make things 'easy', and having to screw aroun…
There are very few IoT chips that support 5 GHz. Espressif finally announced the C5 with dual-band but otherwise all ESP32s are on 2.4 GHz.
Thread is 100% 2.4 GHz. Seems the plan is to move high bandwidth applications, and most Wi-Fi users to 5 GHz leaving just IOT devices on 2.4.