221–230 of 282 posts
I do find it doubtful that OP couldn’t skip most of their setup, though; if you have HomeAssistant (which they do), and there’s a direct path from Blink -> Alexa, I’m fairly certain HA could then handle triggering the Google Home Mini devices on its own.
Or, you know, doorbell chimes.
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I disagree. IMO this mindset is not how you make good engineering or good products. As an engineer (the traditional kind), I don't really appreciate nor can I afford the "not my problem" attitude of doing engineering in a vacuum, because in the end it's my responsibility.
> As an engineer (the traditional kind) Isn't everybody? Your whole case rests on the insistence that OP's core requirement is no good. Not for any objective engineering reasons, just because you think so. I have a simple question that any engineer can answer in a heartbeat. Is a Christmas tree light installation with a bunch of series connected incandescent lights (I'm talking literally one of those classic Christma…
I never said it wasn't good.
I just said it led to over-engineering a doorbell.
"Good" or "bad" are words you're putting in my mouth.
I am super sensitive to over engineering. For my doorbell I wanted something that lets me play a custom bell sound. You would be surprised that 99% of the solutions out there are complete over engineered stacks that depend on wifi devices, Internet access, connecting to various cloud services... So I built my own: a basic wireless button sends a radio 433 MHz signal, and my receiver is plugged inside the house and tr…
Almost any smart product these days starts with a couple of basic assumptions: - All consumers own smartphones and like using them - Consumers have no idea how their home networking works - Consumers could not move a file from their computer to an SD card (or something similar) So, everything is done by the app: you install the app, the smart device broadcasts a wifi network. This allows you to use your phone to give…
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As a former embedded systems engineer, my door bell is two long bits of wire, a bell, a push button and two C cells. My light switches are similarly complicated.
Is it still easy to get C cells? I probably would've used an 18650 or some AAs.
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I don't think there should be a line. But it should be considered fair to say that some things are over-engineered in relation to others. It should also be considered ok to call things over-engineered. OP himself did.
Of course you can call things over engineered, but seem to want to include questioning the requirements, specifically also those of the example we're talking about. Once you start that, you also need to stop somewhere. For example, we could even question the need for a door in the first place. Not saying that we should, but if you want to take over defining other people's requirements, you're putting this on yourself…
Some other people mentioned the doorbell project was over-engineering and I just agreed with them.
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Godwin's law was invoked quickly. It's not very hacker spirit to hear a story of somebody putting together a cool hardware solution to do something they wanted, and then complain that they wanted the wrong thing. > check out my hand-embroidered curtains, it's got exactly the flower pattern I wanted > yeah well you shouldn't want flowers on your curtains, just buy plain white ones from the store
I'm not really passing judgement on the project itself, or its validity, and I think it's cool. I'm perfectly fine with someone saying "I over-engineered this" or "I hand made this". I do this all the time myself... I'm just pointing out that "it's in the [my own] requirements" in this case does not really make something "not over engineered".
You point that out without providing any context or criteria. So you're just pointing out your personal opinion, nothing resembling fact. In this case everything is over engineered. The doorbell is overengineered before even discussing mp3.
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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 s…