When I bought my no-brand coloured smartlight a few years ago I explicitly passed up on Philips Hue because it now seemed to require some smartphone app, and I just wanted to use a remote control. It's simpler to use, faster to use, has a lot less moving parts, and generally "always works". While there are some use cases where an app might be a bit more convenient, I'm willing to bet that if you asked people on the s…
They still do switches, what remotes are you referring to?
Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account
191–200 of 338 posts
Re: Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account
#192When colleagues, friends, and students say they are getting into IoT it's becoming hard for me to feign interest or excitement when this is what that industry is moving towards.
There are plenty of smart home devices that supports reasonably open protocols. This includes Hue devices (Zigbee) The problem tends to be that all of them want to sucker you into using their apps or bridges to tie it all together. It's entirely avoidable, but most users don't know what to look for.
Flashing those devices to more open software (thanks to the fact vast majority is just esp8/32 with some extra electronics) also often requires opening them which is pita.
Re: Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account
#193In the Polish comedy film "Miś" ("Teddy Bear"), released in 1981, there is a famous line: "We don't have your coat, what are you going to do about it?" This line is uttered in a cloakroom scene. In the scene, the protagonist Ryszard Ochódzki goes to a cloakroom to retrieve his coat. He hands over his ticket to the attendants. They search but claim they can't find his coat. Ochódzki becomes agitated but the attendants…
Maybe one day we'll speak about these silos and systems the same way we speak about the communist bureaucracies of old. Minus the crimes against humanity and all.
Perhaps centralization is the problem? I can't help but think all those people in crypto that said "we buy into the protocol, not the coin!" were onto something after all.
Re: Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account
#194Earlier quoted context omitted.
Word of warning about Netatmo cameras - even if you buy the HomeKit Secure Video ones, they stop working if the memory card dies. And it dies a LOT on their cameras. I've got 3 of their outdoor security cameras, and two of them stopped working while I was away on holiday. I had a very long conversation with them about this massive flaw in their system, they kept just saying "it needs the memory card to save the video…
Good to know! I have been using Logitech circle view with HomeKit secure video with no problems other than needing to make sure wifi strength is plentiful. Ideally, there would be a wired HomeKit secure video option, but I have yet to see it.
Depends on how DIY you want to go - i got a Dahua VTO-something doorbell that is powered by PoE that in turn is bridged into HomeKit/HKSV via Scrypted - works pretty darn well :)
Scrypted supports quite a few cameras, doorbells etc...
Re: Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account
#195[deleted]
Re: Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account
#196Earlier quoted context omitted.
They still do switches, what remotes are you referring to?
Like this https://www.amazon.com/Philips-Hue-Installation-Free-Exclusi...
Yeah, but with the ability to change the colour as well, and stuff like that. i.e. basically do everything you can, except without an app.
Something like this: https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1bweoSVXXXXbHXFXXq6xXFXXXG/New...
Maybe I missed it, but from the material that was available to me without actually buying one of these things, this seemed impossible: the boxes and stores didn't have any remotes, and I couldn't find anything on the website. If it is possible, then it's hidden pretty well and people are steered towards that app pretty strongly.
Re: Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
you basically need to recreate the scenes in home assistant and use the hue bridge as as dumb of a bridge as you can. There should be little to no things that home assistant scenes can't do that hue scenes can. I'll still probably recommend hue light bulbs with the caveat that I don't recommend their bridge/app, compared to the other bulbs I've used they are much more reliable and handle color changes much more smoot…
I haven't used anything but Hue, but I've been looking to get off them because they're so unreliable. Like clockwork, one or two bulbs go bad every year and will still be dimly lit even when "off", or worse still they will start flickering constantly when "off". It's kind of depressing if something with such poor quality is the most reliable option out there. :(
The type of behavior you describe might be related to your electricity setup in combination with generic LED behavior.
I've had this behavior on a physical dimmer switch and an ordinary cheap LED. It couldn't be turned off. Somehow the dimmer always feeds it some power, which the LED responds to. If that low power is at the edge of its "activation power", you're effectively rapidly turning it on and off.
This kills any LED. LEDs die from actuations far before they die from hours in use. Hue bulbs are praised for their reliability, so something is off.
In my case, I changed the physical dimmer into an ordinary light switch. That fixed it.
Re: Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account
#198Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe that's why the number of smart devices that work with Homekit is so limited? I really don't understand many of the "smart" device manufacturers. They clearly aren't capable of running the services required to manage their devices, so why do they keep insisting on doing so? My parents have a smart radiator that couldn't be managed for over a month because a server in Norway was down. Why not just have it be mana…
I really don't understand consumers who, despite companies clearly demonstrating this, will just buy the next IoT thing anyway. Why don't companies offer better, longer-lasting products that can be community-driven after EOL? Because money.
Money for one but there is little actual standarization that have enough clout for it to happen.
99% of IoT devices would be fine with just "here is MQTT address" and a way to push updates (preferably with gateway downloading updates and devices updating only from gateway)
Re: Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account
#199Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think a wired Apple TV and lots of wifi coverage for the cameras help a lot. Wireless home hub does not perform the same.
True, I have a wired Apple TV which I try to ensure is always my primary HomeHub but it does seem to just change on a whim from time to time - there's about 15 candidate hubs in the house!
> Apple TV which I try to ensure is always my primary HomeHub
How?
I was under the impression that you cannot actively decide which device becomes the primary one?
I 'only' got a wired ATV and a HomePod mini - and the mini is the primary hub way more often that i'd like it to be (like... none of the time, at all :) )
Re: Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account
#200Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, we need more regulation. Or a better system to begin with.
Do you think its a coincidence this came right after the ban on incandescent bulbs? Regulation got us here. It won't help when government is captured.
Yes. This is idiotic theory, Regulation is only about power efficiency