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I built an offline smart home

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Re: I built an offline smart home

#31

Post by CharlesW »

corethree wrote: post #28
Gyrantula2 wrote: post #18

>Building my offline smart home took the better part of a weekend Yeah, right. Nobody in their right mind should be making their home "smart" for the convenience or efficiency. It's a hobby. A frustrating, inconvenient, burdensome, potentially expensive, challenging, neverending hobby. It taught me to love light switches.

It's actually easier now then ever before. Buy smart bulbs for cheap off of temu. They all integrate with alexa or google home automagically. I now never touch a light switch. "Computer dim lights to 40%." I never bother touching a light switch. This guys set up is too complicated. The easy way to do it nowadays is to buy smart devices that integrate with the google or alexa echo system and you just talk to alexa or…

> It's actually easier now then ever before.

Agreed, but Alexa fails hard if you have no internet, and my understanding is that Google Home also becomes mostly inoperable.

I've tried Home Assistant but could never get it to work reliably. HomeKit is great and works offline if you have a home hub (an Apple TV, a HomePod, or an iPad).

Re: I built an offline smart home

#33

Post by moandcompany »

efitz wrote: post #29

Smart Home has kind of been my hobby for the last 7-8 years. I have well over 100 devices controlled by my smart home setup. Before I installed the first smart device in my home, however, I had a single requirement: EVERYTHING MUST FAIL NORMAL. By this I mean that if the internet went out or a vendor went out of business or I rage quit a vendor, then the device in question had to act like it was a normal non-smart de…

> EVERYTHING MUST FAIL NORMAL This is a solid principle.

Another rule I include with this is that the "Smart Home" should still be able to operate and be controlled like a non "Smart Home" by a regular person. (e.g. light switches, thermostat, door locks)

Re: I built an offline smart home

#34

Post by petemir »

CharlesW wrote: post #31
corethree wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's actually easier now then ever before. Buy smart bulbs for cheap off of temu. They all integrate with alexa or google home automagically. I now never touch a light switch. "Computer dim lights to 40%." I never bother touching a light switch. This guys set up is too complicated. The easy way to do it nowadays is to buy smart devices that integrate with the google or alexa echo system and you just talk to alexa or…

> It's actually easier now then ever before. Agreed, but Alexa fails hard if you have no internet, and my understanding is that Google Home also becomes mostly inoperable. I've tried Home Assistant but could never get it to work reliably. HomeKit is great and works offline if you have a home hub (an Apple TV, a HomePod, or an iPad).

> Agreed, but Alexa fails hard if you have no internet

It also fails hard with Internet. I’m sick of being on my living room asking Alexa to turn on the light just to get the bedroom light turned on (each room has its own Alexa/Light pair, so there should be no confusion).

Re: I built an offline smart home

#35

Post by CharlesW »

rawgabbit wrote: post #26
Aloha wrote: post #20

I went with the Apple HomeKit compatible camp, because it does indeed all work locally across your local LAN without a network connection - its not foolproof, but it mostly just works, and works well at that - and more importantly works when the internet is out. The biggest thing with Apple is they get that houses have more than one person living in them, and provided everyone has an Apple device, it all just works.

Can you please elaborate? It works when the internet is down?

Yes, if you have a home hub (an Apple TV or a HomePod¹). https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT207057

Homebridge is a great addition to a HomeKit setup, too. https://homebridge.io/

¹ EDIT: Removed iPad mention, since as @js2 notes, "iPad as a home hub" support is being deprecated.

Re: I built an offline smart home

#36

Post by corethree »

The futuristic idea of a smart home is that you can talk to your smart home.

"Computer, dim lights by 30%"

"Computer, open curtains."

"Computer, vacuum the floor."

"Computer, play some jazz"

All of these are phrases are actual literal phrases that I use in my home, some on a daily basis. It can only be done, with current consumer tech, through the internet. All you need is a roomba, some 4$ smart bulbs, a spotify account, a 30$ auto curtain robot, and an alexa. For google home you can do the same but you can't call it a "computer."

In the future they will most likely be hooking up some LLM super computer to the home. In that case it can only be online.

The idealistic version of a smart home involves what we see in Star Trek TNG. Talking to the computer and only an online version of that can fulfill this vision currently and in the future. If you go offline, what you get is what I term a "programmable home" more than a "smart home".

Re: I built an offline smart home

#37

Post by tcfhgj »

corethree wrote: post #28
Gyrantula2 wrote: post #18

>Building my offline smart home took the better part of a weekend Yeah, right. Nobody in their right mind should be making their home "smart" for the convenience or efficiency. It's a hobby. A frustrating, inconvenient, burdensome, potentially expensive, challenging, neverending hobby. It taught me to love light switches.

It's actually easier now then ever before. Buy smart bulbs for cheap off of temu. They all integrate with alexa or google home automagically. I now never touch a light switch. "Computer dim lights to 40%." I never bother touching a light switch. This guys set up is too complicated. The easy way to do it nowadays is to buy smart devices that integrate with the google or alexa echo system and you just talk to alexa or…

Alexa and Google Home are literally microphones with connections into the cloud

Re: I built an offline smart home

#38

Post by corethree »

petemir wrote: post #34
CharlesW wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's actually easier now then ever before. Agreed, but Alexa fails hard if you have no internet, and my understanding is that Google Home also becomes mostly inoperable. I've tried Home Assistant but could never get it to work reliably. HomeKit is great and works offline if you have a home hub (an Apple TV, a HomePod, or an iPad).

> Agreed, but Alexa fails hard if you have no internet It also fails hard with Internet. I’m sick of being on my living room asking Alexa to turn on the light just to get the bedroom light turned on (each room has its own Alexa/Light pair, so there should be no confusion).

Try google assistant. Google assistant actually has a little bit of an LLM in it, so it's a bit smarter.

Re: I built an offline smart home

#39

Post by throwawaydhshs »

XorNot wrote: post #21
smeej wrote: post #6

I keep trying to talk myself out of wanting to do this. I live in a very small studio-style home with a total of four lightbulbs in it. It takes fewer than 20 steps to get from any one corner of the house to any other. But every time I read an article like this, I can't help but think how cool I would feel if my house could tell I was coming and turned my lights on and my heat up, or dimmed and then turned everything…

Motorised blinds has been the game changer for me. I never want to adjust blinds, but natural light is nice. Now my blinds automatically go up at 8.30, and close at sundown and I don't have to think about it - but my rooms are pleasantly exactly how o want them at all times.

So you mind me asking how you set that up, or what you bought? Have they been reliable?

Re: I built an offline smart home

#40

Post by efitz »

moandcompany wrote: post #33
efitz wrote: post #29

Smart Home has kind of been my hobby for the last 7-8 years. I have well over 100 devices controlled by my smart home setup. Before I installed the first smart device in my home, however, I had a single requirement: EVERYTHING MUST FAIL NORMAL. By this I mean that if the internet went out or a vendor went out of business or I rage quit a vendor, then the device in question had to act like it was a normal non-smart de…

> EVERYTHING MUST FAIL NORMAL This is a solid principle. Another rule I include with this is that the "Smart Home" should still be able to operate and be controlled like a non "Smart Home" by a regular person. (e.g. light switches, thermostat, door locks)

Yes, this was the natural consequence of my rule. I have to travel on business from time to time and didn’t want a tech support call in the middle of the night when I’m halfway around the world because my family couldn’t turn the lights on :-)
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