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Hacking into Internet-Connected Light Bulbs

contextis.co.uk

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Re: Hacking into Internet-Connected Light Bulbs

#11

Post by cromulent »

DanHulton wrote: post #8
easy_rider wrote: post #3

I just bought 3 Miilight bulbs, and obviously after installing them I was like. Man my neighbours could probably control my lights... I also have a RF remote which operates on 2,4ghz and does not require network authentication. The Wifi bridge does require authentication however. I was thinking of building an RF "cannon" with a directional antenna and see how far I can go. I also got a DVB-T dongle. I should be able…

I can't seem to find anything on the Googles for that product. Is it spelled correctly? Can you give me a link to it? I'm interested in home automation, but all the ones I've looked into so far don't really do it for me.

Probably a typo. Try http://www.milight.com.

Re: Hacking into Internet-Connected Light Bulbs

#12

Post by Udo »

That reminds me of a little accident I had with my home automation interface.

In an effort to make the UI accessible from the outside (for me), I forwarded the Raspberry Pi's HTTP server port to the server where I host my normal web stuff. Only I screwed up the proxy rule in the NginX config. All of a sudden, lights and blinds went haywire all over the house.

Turns out whoever visited any of my domains at the time got the HA control panel instead. And people clicked on the devices!

Re: Hacking into Internet-Connected Light Bulbs

#15

Post by vfclists »

What is the purpose of internet connected light bulbs? Is the internet of things a way to spy on people who remove the batteries from their mobile phones or what?

Is it just some excuse to con investors into buying stocks in some insanely valued IPOs?

I don't mean to be negative and I understand the value of information in our economic life, but how much info is required from the internet of things to support our home life of eating, drinking, fornicating, watching TV and going to bed at the end of day?

who keeps all this info and what to they do with it?

Re: Hacking into Internet-Connected Light Bulbs

#16

Post by sp332 »

a3n wrote: post #9
pling wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just remember that back then your computer was unreliable and your light bulb was reliable. Now your light bulb is unreliable as well as your computer :)

The light bulb halting problem, pre-IoT: Will it turn off? Yes. The light bulb halting problem, now: Will it turn off? Impossible to say.

"Lightbulb, compute to the last digit the value of pi!"

Re: Hacking into Internet-Connected Light Bulbs

#17

Post by egypturnash »

vfclists wrote: post #15

What is the purpose of internet connected light bulbs? Is the internet of things a way to spy on people who remove the batteries from their mobile phones or what? Is it just some excuse to con investors into buying stocks in some insanely valued IPOs? I don't mean to be negative and I understand the value of information in our economic life, but how much info is required from the internet of things to support our hom…

I am pretty sure the purpose is mostly "have cool multicolored lights you control with your phone".

Re: Hacking into Internet-Connected Light Bulbs

#18

Post by easy_rider »

DanHulton wrote: post #8
easy_rider wrote: post #3

I just bought 3 Miilight bulbs, and obviously after installing them I was like. Man my neighbours could probably control my lights... I also have a RF remote which operates on 2,4ghz and does not require network authentication. The Wifi bridge does require authentication however. I was thinking of building an RF "cannon" with a directional antenna and see how far I can go. I also got a DVB-T dongle. I should be able…

I can't seem to find anything on the Googles for that product. Is it spelled correctly? Can you give me a link to it? I'm interested in home automation, but all the ones I've looked into so far don't really do it for me.

Thanks guys, typo indeed. [0]

Here is a article [1] describing a setup involving this type of RGB light and the raspberry. It also covers some other type of RGB lights.

The wifi bridge has been sitting on my desk for a while now. not bothered yet since the remote is sufficient for now. So can not really comment on that. Otherwise happy with one of the cheaper alternatives. No problems as of yet. Waiting for my lights to get switched on and off though :D The remote doesn't require line of sight as its RF, and already has quite the range.

[0] http://www.milight.com/

[1] http://iqjar.com/jar/home-automation-using-the-raspberry-pi-...

Re: Hacking into Internet-Connected Light Bulbs

#19

Post by me1010 »

Timmmmbob wrote: post #14
userbinator wrote: post #4

A light bulb has more processing power than the PC I used in the early 90s. What an interesting world we live in.

Not really, unless your early 90s PC was really shit.

Yes really. The 50 to 100 MHz 486 processor was the state of the art consumer computing platform of the early 90s.

The bulb in question here has not just one, but two processors that both run faster than the 100MHz 486. Also, when Windows 95 came out - in 1996 - the minimum required RAM was 4MB. The ST processor in the light bulb has built in RAM of 1MB. So, in theory, it would be possible with a few hacks to get the bulb to run MS Windows 95...

EDIT: I guess it was OSR2 in 1996... still, the light bulb is a decent computing machine in comparison to early to mid-90s consumer tech...

Re: Hacking into Internet-Connected Light Bulbs

#20

Post by PeterGriffin »

vfclists wrote: post #15

What is the purpose of internet connected light bulbs? Is the internet of things a way to spy on people who remove the batteries from their mobile phones or what? Is it just some excuse to con investors into buying stocks in some insanely valued IPOs? I don't mean to be negative and I understand the value of information in our economic life, but how much info is required from the internet of things to support our hom…

This is why Nest didn't start, like many, with internet controlled colored light bulbs. It's a very lazy product with a small market (namely, people so bored with their life, they want internet controlled colored lightbulbs).

You gotta admit thermostats have a purpose for being connected though. It's nice to have your thermostat know you're coming home or going away, and adjust things accordingly.

Also doors with locks of all kinds. It's very interesting to have your key be your smartphone.

It's also very interesting for thiefs to unlock said doors without physically breaking in, causing noise and so on.

Which means you can sell internet connected home alarms.

When all is said and done, we'll be all "internet of things". Things that do stuff, and things that protect us from the side effects of the first things. The possibilities are endless.

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