31–40 of 140 posts
The 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…
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?
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…
The examples you name are somewhat exceptions where I can imagine, if someone is really lazy, that a language control could be better than buttons, but in most cases I think the difference is minuscule. I have to walk 2 Meters from the couch to the button ("and I wanted to get a new drink anyway").
On the other hand, I can see that language is really good for information/knowledge retrieval. Ask ChatGPT to help you with something.. and get the answer via voice.
"Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant: They demand that you learn specific device names and structures for commands, while they frequently get even the most simple command astoundingly wrong".
I set the device names in the Ikea app, and then I command these devices with my voice in almost free form. Sometimes it's even fascinating, because Ikea knows the names of all the colors of their light bulb, and I just don't remember them.
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?
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…
Sorry, I don't understand "Imer", can you repeat?
Typo serendipity ;)
sensors along with lots of automation rules will make the home works for you, instead of requiring you to shout at the assistant.
I'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…
2.4GHz has better range and is ubiquitous. 5GHz has better throughput, but my lightbulb doesn't need 500MB/s of transfer.
Most routers will just create two networks with the same name on both frequencies by default, which will work out of the box for 95% of the people. As other commenters have mentioned, usually devices can communicate with each other across those networks without issues.
I'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…
It’s not like devices can detect what frequency the other device on network is using, just like it can’t detect if the device is connected via Ethernet, plugged into power, or running on a battery.
I would check to make sure your router is properly propagating broadcast packets around your network. That’s the number one cause of smart home discovery fails.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Yes, I hear these arguments over and over. Yet, in cars, it is already increasingly recognized that touch screens (another interface) are worse than physical buttons. The examples you name are somewhat exceptions where I can imagine, if someone is really lazy, that a language control could be better than buttons, but in most cases I think the difference is minuscule. I have to walk 2 Meters from the couch to the butt…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Yes, I hear these arguments over and over. Yet, in cars, it is already increasingly recognized that touch screens (another interface) are worse than physical buttons. The examples you name are somewhat exceptions where I can imagine, if someone is really lazy, that a language control could be better than buttons, but in most cases I think the difference is minuscule. I have to walk 2 Meters from the couch to the butt…
Your view I think works where the device is static or always on you like a watch but not when the device could be misplaced.