Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why does it matter that it’s a Korean company?
The idea behind it was probably "Some company on the other side of the world"
Exactly. I’m not racist against Koreans. I’m racist against foreign conglomerates.
It takes 5 cloud services to hear my doorbell
211–220 of 282 posts
Re: It takes 5 cloud services to hear my doorbell
#212I fail to see the relation between a video doorbell and stopping a burglar. Burglars wear masks. Also, a doorbell ringing on the outside of the door is not only silly but in case of an apartment complex highly annoying for your neighbors. And make sure your neighbors like being monitored through your five services. Personally I have a button outside my front door. It is connected with a copper wire to the other side…
I think you should complete the decision matrix regarding mask wearing:
Wear a mask and the victim is home: they know you are about to rob them and can prepare. Run away before the police come
Don't wear a mask and victim is home: make up a fake reason you pressed the doorbell, or up the ante to a home invasion and risk getting shot.
Don't wear a mask and the victim is not home: proceed with burglary but face is recorded for police.
Wear a mask and victim is not home: profit.
It's not as simple as covering up. Plus you still risk leaving finger prints and DNA
Re: It takes 5 cloud services to hear my doorbell
#213Earlier quoted context omitted.
You completely missed the part that the chime needs to be user-configurable, ie. play a custom MP3 file. You don't provide that.
I didn't miss it. I have acknowledged the requirements and have challenged them. What I am stating is that "it was in the requirements" is not a "get out of jail card" when someone says it's over-engineered. All I'm saying is that it's a very comfortable position to abstract away personal responsibility and say "I'm not over-engineering, that's what X wants", but that's exactly how we get the over-engineered Linux-pl…
> "it was in the requirements" is not a "get out of jail card"
How do you define objectively as an engineer if "play MP3" is too much? A doorbell is a sound outputting device only, being able to select the sound seems like a reasonable extension. Is a digital doorbell overengineered when analog electric ones worked just fine for almost 2 centuries? Or were these overengineered when mechanical doorbells worked for many more centuries before? What if I attach a light to the doorbell, is that over engineering?
Or are you just fighting to save face after missing the point completely and making that tasteless Nurnberg trial parallel?
Re: It takes 5 cloud services to hear my doorbell
#214I haven't tried it, but with newer ESP32's supporting Matter and Zigbee, you could potentially create a device with ESPHome that Alexa can "trigger" when the doorbell rings, which in turn can trigger HA, eliminating both the VPS and SmartThings in the process.
Re: It takes 5 cloud services to hear my doorbell
#215Re: It takes 5 cloud services to hear my doorbell
#216The part where it worked for 18 months before something software broke is perfect 2020s tech.
I had a smart plug by Kasa that I used to turn on the espresso machine from bed. It all worked offline via wifi. One day out of the blue the app required you to create a user to be able to use it and that was the end of it. This should be illegal.
I think I spend more time debugging my "smart home" (which is mostly used for turning lights on&off) than any time saved from using it.
My dad had the old Radio Shack plug 'n power stuff when I was a kid and it .. just worked for decades.
Lesson there.
Re: It takes 5 cloud services to hear my doorbell
#217Dumb appliance: You buy it, it works as expected for 30 years and then you replace it.
Smart appliance: You buy it, it works more or less as expected for 1 year, then it fails in new and exciting ways, and then you replace it with a dumb appliance.
Re: It takes 5 cloud services to hear my doorbell
#218I built my own motion activated stairwell lights using an ESP32 and Home Assistant. Works pretty well. So then I decided to set up some LED strip lights for my office with really nice wireless buttons from IKEA. I confirmed that the buttons and the lights both were zigbee compatible, but I missed that one supported only Thread and the other only Matter. So now I have two identical antennas, each handling a different…
Matter is a communications standard, not a protocol. You can have Matter over Thread, Matter over WiFi, etc.
WRT IKEA, if they’re the Thread-only device, I found one page [0] claiming that some of them can be forced into Zigbee mode.
0: https://automatedhome.com/the-hidden-trick-inside-ikeas-new-...
Re: It takes 5 cloud services to hear my doorbell
#219Earlier quoted context omitted.
I recently exchanged with a police agent in Belgium who specializes in the topic. Their heuristics is opportunity of action, namely how easy it is to get in and out without being caught on the spot. They said they do not really care about being recognized, only being noticed and stopped in action. Consequently the advice is to strengthen physical security first, i.e. have a big door with proper locks and close your w…
I remember reading somewhere that the one thing burglars are terrified of is finding someone home. They will spend a lot of effort to avoid that.
Yes they mentioned that too, advising in fact to act on it. Obviously this is something home automation can very conveniently help with, e.g. if you are away, turn on a very visible from the outside light few minutes after sunset, turn it off few hours later. It's just another automation and you can switch it off when you are back from holidays.
Re: It takes 5 cloud services to hear my doorbell
#220Earlier quoted context omitted.
OP stated it requires a user configurable chime. This is not a regular doorbell.
Yes, and the person engaged with them is pointing out that more complex solutions exist because someone added other requirements. Maybe “I want a configurable chime” is just a less popular requirement than “I want to be notified on my phone even if I'm not at home.” Also, Excel is famously complex because, despite most users only using 20% of the features, no one uses the same 20%, so if you want cover close to 100%…
> Excel is famously complex because, despite most users only using 20% of the features, no one uses the same 20%
I think you're comparing 2 very different scenarios here.
Excel is solution engineered to meet every requirement under the sun, for every possible user.
"The doorbell" is something designed and built by 1 person to meet exactly their own requirements.
whstl (the other commenter) insists that he is better suited than the benefiter and builder of that doorbell to decide what is a good requirement and he's willing to make tasteless jokes comparing anyone who doesn't agree with his assessments to Nazis on trial at Nurnberg [1]. You'll notice that whstl didn't even ask why the requirement exists in the first place, just concluded it's wrong (it's something they teach you on day 1 of engineering school, build whatever you want, better if you don't ask questions where the answer might inconvenience you).
When you have a requirement would you take the word of someone on the internet just saying it's not a valid one?