Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API • Hacker News Board

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#361

Post by sarchertech » Wed, Nov 08, 2023, 5:55 PM UTC

vel0city wrote: post #334

sarchertech wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife works nights and she likes to be able to check in occasionally. It’s also got a millimeter wave radar that shows a breathing graph. My wife is a pediatric ER doctor and she thinks the breath tracking radar is stupid, but I like to be able to look over and see the graph because I’m a crazy person and otherwise I’d zoom in on the camera and stare at it until I see movement.

We went with an Owlet sock that we got pre-nerfing from the FDA to track breathing/O2. The internet connected monitor was actually the Owlet cam. It worked decently enough, but just headaches from it being a cloud connected camera pushed us to get an RF-based system when we wanted a second camera. If it works for you, that's great. I'm not trying to yuck your yum, just sharing my own personal experiences.

>If it works for you

It used to lol! But it’ll be a cold day in hell before I pay to use the thing I already bought.

We’re about to have our next baby and I have no idea what solution we’ll end up with. I might end up trying to hack the Miku. I used to be an embedded software guy long ago.

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#362

Post by jasonjayr » Wed, Nov 08, 2023, 5:57 PM UTC

seanalltogether wrote: post #346

Nextgrid wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should the garage door manufacturer take a cut if a third-party wants to use/access my garage door (which sells for real money and isn't advertised as a rental). If a homeowner wants to let Amazon, Walmart, etc to open their garage door, it should be up to him to provide them with an access token/secret/etc to enter, just like you can put a door keycode in the order notes. The interaction should be purely between…

1. Company wants to sell an iot product. 2. Through research they find user wants to interact with their smart device while outside of range of wifi/bluetooth. 3. Company builds device firmware and cloud infrastructure to support this goal. 4. Company wants to simplify business logic and doesn't provide local (wifi/bluetooth/zigbee) support. Online only can service both on-premise and off-premise. 5. Company needs to…

7. insecure, opaque devices that have always-on internet connections, that owners cannot upgrade/fix/defend against and require external actors to protect (ISP's blackholing bad traffic)

Remember, the S in IoT is for Security.

They could simplify their business logic by making sure local first is reliable, and internet access can be turned off, and supporting vendors making (user-controlled, upgradeable, etc) gateways that handle the cloud/internet/local handoff

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#363

Post by madeofpalk » Wed, Nov 08, 2023, 6:01 PM UTC

ur-whale wrote: post #124

lvh wrote: post #15

Based on my local big box store and garage installer availability, Chamberlain has a de facto monopoly. They also pulled the rug out from under customers: that behavior had been in Home Assistant since 2017, and it's their own recent changes that caused the alleged "DDoS". They say it's to promote official products, but the company previously had a local hub that didn't require their cloud service and discontinued it…

>The API breakage coincides pretty well with their brand new CTO You can go and engage him directly on the topic, maybe he'll present a perspective we haven't seen, or maybe he'll listen to your arguments and reconsider: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-phillips-9a33831/ (and no, this is not doxing: his profile is public).

Still, linking out to socials and encouraging brigading is pretty gross.

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#364

Post by scottlamb » Wed, Nov 08, 2023, 6:01 PM UTC

chris_wot wrote: post #291

The ratgdo says it work with “dry contact”… what does that mean?

"Dry contact" is what a button does—connect two leads together when it's being pressed, otherwise not. Older garage doors simply have a pair of wires for this that gets run to where you mount the button on the wall. You can just splice into that and have the microcontroller connect them when it wants to open/close.

I thought all garage doors had this, but from ratgdo's website I learned that the newer Security+ 2.0 ones don't. Possibly as part of the same money grab to prevent local/third-party; paulgerhardt's comment nicely explains the motivation for that. [1]

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38191712

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#365

Post by andrewaylett » Wed, Nov 08, 2023, 6:02 PM UTC

tuckerman wrote: post #201

twicetwice wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good suggestion, but where and how does HA receive callbacks? I would guess that almost all HA instances are behind residential LANs and most aren't accessible on the public internet. You could use dynamic DNS and forward ports, but that's flaky, you might run into CGNAT, etc. And anyway, it's best if your HA instance isn't publicly addressable; mine is only accessible over my personal WireGuard VPN and I intend to k…

If you pay for the home assistant cloud subscription (built into HA, ~5 USD/mo) they can provision custom callback URLs for you so you don’t have to expose your HA instance. I have this setup for certain integrations such as Samsung Smart Things. It’s not a perfect solution since it costs money but it’s a nice alternative to exposing your HA instance or some other front end proxy to the internet.

Unfortunately it's not actually that different in effect -- Nabu Casa proxy the encrypted TCP connection, rather than terminating TLS and proxying HTTP, which is great for privacy but not so much for providing an extra layer of security on top of HA itself.

It is also much easier for those without easy access to extra static IP addresses. Given the target audience I think it's probably the right approach.

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#366

Post by rootusrootus » Wed, Nov 08, 2023, 6:02 PM UTC

lock-the-spock wrote: post #246

oskapt wrote: post #128

Something that I don’t see people talking about here is that MyQ is the core/required integration component for Amazon Key in-garage delivery, a service used by millions of people to have their packages delivered to their garages instead of having them stolen off their porch. That’s why it needs Internet access. All the talk about how Chamberlain will go bankrupt because a comparatively small number of tech people st…

Somewhat off topic but it is quite stunning to me that American carriers just leave the package at the door. I lived in different European countries and in all of them the expectation is that the mailman (official mail, or any of the services like dhl, ups, etc) will ring the bell. If you don't answer they will ring the neighbour and then take it back and either try again another day or you can go to a pickup point.…

UPS used to do that. I hated it. If I'm not at home I have to wait another day to get my package, or drive across town to get it from the depot.

Just put it on the porch. Not everyone lives in an area with a package theft problem, let those folks work out their own solution but don't punish the rest of us.

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#367

Post by dormento » Wed, Nov 08, 2023, 6:02 PM UTC

causi wrote: post #67

PinguTS wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are lots of devices these days that rely on cloud infrastructure, like Apple devices, Teslas. Its becoming more devices. The same for software. Even Microsoft is going fully Cloud. Just had problems to activate my MS Office for Mac Business 2019, which I bought in physical. They now require on @outlook.com email address to be able to activate. Otherwise I can't use my "box" software.

The same pirated copy of Office 2007 has been doing me fine for well over a decade at this point.

Once again, the paying customer has a worse experience.

The Gaben has spoke: "piracy is more about convenience than price"

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#368

Post by dormento » Wed, Nov 08, 2023, 6:06 PM UTC

rhplus wrote: post #72

causi wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Devices that rely on cloud infrastructure should be required to carry an expiration date right on the box. "This item guaranteed to receive support until XX/XX/XX"

The date should at least match the expiration date of any root CA public certificates installed on the device.

I remember reading about someone who could not brew coffee anymore because the cert on their "smart coffee maker" had expired and the business had gone under.. they discovered that by attempting to use wireshark, of all things, to take a peek. I thought "this moment right here is where people will catch up to it, no way we can go even further".

This was like 7+ years ago.

https://twitter.com/internetofshit

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#369

Post by rootusrootus » Wed, Nov 08, 2023, 6:07 PM UTC

lxe wrote: post #355

Why hasn't a non-crappy iot/smart hardware line and ecosystem emerged after years and years of "internet of shit" catastrophes such as this one? So many angry users are a market ripe for capturing, aren't they? Or maybe there aren't as many angry ones as it seems, and it's just a small portion of power users?

> just a small portion of power users?

It is exactly this. Average Joe just downloads the MyQ app for remote control. Or uses Wyze, or Tapo, Kasa, etc, for whatever they buy. The number of people trying to get everything integrated into a single environment like Home Assistant is low. Which makes sense, because HA is a pain in the ass if you're not already technically inclined. Regular folks just don't have any appetite to deal with that.

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#370

Post by scottlamb » Wed, Nov 08, 2023, 6:12 PM UTC

kelnos wrote: post #292

bluGill wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For retailers I want someone to verify that they are legitimate. I don't want random people in my garage. If someone enters my garage when I'm not home they better really be agents for WalMart/Amazon/target/UPS (as opposed to WolMort/Amozan/targit/USP...) , and whatever company does that does background checks on drivers. Probably they also need to have other cameras in their vehicles so that drivers trying to steal…

> as already pointed out, most people have an unlocked door from the garage to the house Not sure where you live, but every house I've lived in (USA, a few different states) during my entire life has had an exterior-quality door with exterior-quality lock, including deadbolt, between the house and garage. In the one house I lived in that had a security system, that garage-to-interior door was also wired into the syst…

> Not sure where you live, but every house I've lived in (USA, a few different states) during my entire life has had an exterior-quality door with exterior-quality lock, including deadbolt, between the house and garage.

Likewise, but even if it's actually locked, no lock is impenetrable, and a closed garage provides a thief with the privacy to pick it at leisure or even break down the door. Burglary deterrence advice sometimes includes tips like adjusting your landscaping so your front door is visible from the street and locking gates to your back yard. Letting the thief into your garage thoroughly defeats the point of that...

Also, I keep stuff (bikes) in the garage that I don't want stolen.