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Why Is My Smart Home So Dumb?

gizmodo.com

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Re: Why Is My Smart Home So Dumb?

#41

Post by kissickas »

gambiting wrote: post #3

I have a similar problem with Chromecast and Youtube. My friends literally cannot understand why I would rather use the YouTube client built into the TV and control it with the TV remote, rather than cast to chromecast and control with my phone. Controlling the TV with my phone is cumbersome. It takes time to unlock it,to find the app, to send the command and have chromecast react. What if someone rings and I want to…

I assume you have a keyboard for your TV? That's my main gripe with "smart" TVs. I avoid using a D-pad to type at all costs.

Re: Why Is My Smart Home So Dumb?

#42

Post by arethuza »

GotAnyMegadeth wrote: post #29
kalleboo wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And some of the first computer peripherals were printers and we still haven't gotten those to work reliably.

We will have self aware AI before we have reliable printers.

As long as self aware AIs don't evolve from printer software - can you imagine how evil they would be?

Re: Why Is My Smart Home So Dumb?

#43

Post by Shivetya »

mseebach wrote: post #21
Shivetya wrote: post #4

Having each light bulb intelligent seems like overkill, I can see a per circuit setup where you replace the light switch. First off its not going to go bad like a bulb which will be replaced eventually; even LEDs which still die too soon. Really, who came up with this light bulb idea...its just daft. Security motion detectors can be used to double effect here as well, you would naturally have them facing doors so the…

Current circuit layouts are wasteful, you have to run enormous amounts of wire between the outlets and the switches, just to be able to control the lights. Much better to just run power directly to the outlets. The control logic should ideally go into the socket, but with 50k hour lifetimes of LED bulbs, the lost efficiently of putting it in one over the other place is trivial. Also remember that putting the controls…

Circuit layouts are only wasteful in some circumstances. For the majority of new homes they are just fine, with room switches controlling exactly what one would expect. Must greater finesse over lighting can come from using proper lights, can lights you can aim can make a room completely different from simple ceiling lamps, ditto for table lamps.

Plus you can do wonders using in house wiring for having various items talk to each other. Wireless seems overkill to individual items.

Re: Why Is My Smart Home So Dumb?

#44

Post by xrjn »

semi-extrinsic wrote: post #34
mseebach wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Current circuit layouts are wasteful, you have to run enormous amounts of wire between the outlets and the switches, just to be able to control the lights. Much better to just run power directly to the outlets. The control logic should ideally go into the socket, but with 50k hour lifetimes of LED bulbs, the lost efficiently of putting it in one over the other place is trivial. Also remember that putting the controls…

LEDs may have 50k hour lifetimes, but that's very far from true of the constant current drivers. I've had several expensive (Phillips/GE) LED bulbs fail after a year of sparse usage. That's more like 1.5k hours. The cheap chinese ones I also tried lasted on average four months (I bought 8 bulbs), all of them blew up electrolytic capacitors on the buckpucks (with release of magic smoke). As for the needing an electric…

You might want to check the electrical setup at your home. A friend had issues with incandescent light bulbs going out every few months, he replaced them with LEDs, and they still crapped out too quickly. I'm not well versed on electrical problems, but I'd guess that this was related to brown-outs or a dirty power supply.

Personally at my home, I can't recall a single LED bulb failing since installing some of the first ones in 2010/11 (and these were dirt cheap ones from Lidl). We've also bought some decent e27 8w ones from Aliexpress in ~2011, and of the 6 I bought, they all still work (apart form the cold white one which I took apart). Throughout the past two years I installed a bunch of LED strips around the house, ~20m of which stay on at low power all the time, and I've virtually had zero failures (there may have been a 3cm segment that died, but that's it).

Re: Why Is My Smart Home So Dumb?

#45

Post by jmuguy »

ssharp wrote: post #33
lentil_soup wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That smoke detector story makes me think it could even be dangerous, no?. Could opposite happen and the device fail to detect smoke?

Maybe I'm becoming more of a luddite or cranky old-man, approaching my mid-30's, but I don't see any benefit at all to using the Nest smoke alarm. I'm replacing tried and true, simple, technologies, with a new device that seems way more complicated than it needs to be.

No, there really isn't a reason to use it. It looks pretty, and I have to admit that's basically why I bought it in the first place.

Re: Why Is My Smart Home So Dumb?

#46

Post by microtonal »

Shivetya wrote: post #4

Having each light bulb intelligent seems like overkill, I can see a per circuit setup where you replace the light switch. First off its not going to go bad like a bulb which will be replaced eventually; even LEDs which still die too soon. Really, who came up with this light bulb idea...its just daft. Security motion detectors can be used to double effect here as well, you would naturally have them facing doors so the…

Having each light bulb intelligent seems like overkill, I can see a per circuit setup where you replace the light switch.

We have Hue and I don't agree. Setup is now zero effort, you just replace bulbs and you are ready to go. Since the light bulbs form a mesh network, the distance from the hub is not a problem as long as a light can connect to another. I would have never switched if we had to replace each light socket, even more because we are renting our house. Also, the expected lifetime is 15 years, so I am not sure how much of a problem it is.

In general, we are pretty happy with it, especially since its color is much nicer and more natural than previous LED lights we tried (which were awful). The Android app is a bit flakey at times, especially when the home Wifi signal is weak (we don't use the geofencing options). The feature we use most is different light settings, e.g. relatively warm & low light at night (e.g. when we have to feed our toddler).

Of course, it isn't life-changing. And I would recommend most people to wait until prices go down.

Re: Why Is My Smart Home So Dumb?

#47

Post by solaris999 »

JonnieCache wrote: post #22
viccuad wrote: post #12

I really don't grok why I should want to use my smartphone to move up and down my wifi connected blinders. Yet that's all I see when all of this is pictured: gimmicks. I want to see a demo of a room alarm clock: with rising light (in brightness and temperature), birds chirping, room getting warmer, music/radio a while later.. and the same for going to bed.

>I want to see a demo of a room alarm clock: with rising light (in brightness and temperature), birds chirping, room getting warmer, music/radio a while later.. and the same for going to bed. There's one of those in the latest Black Mirror. I won't tell you the stomach-knotting twist in the tale ;)

And in the second episode, but that one's more obviously sinister from the outset

Re: Why Is My Smart Home So Dumb?

#48

Post by tehwebguy »

viccuad wrote: post #12

I really don't grok why I should want to use my smartphone to move up and down my wifi connected blinders. Yet that's all I see when all of this is pictured: gimmicks. I want to see a demo of a room alarm clock: with rising light (in brightness and temperature), birds chirping, room getting warmer, music/radio a while later.. and the same for going to bed.

Turning off the lights on the other side of the house after you are already in bed is such a nice feature :)

Re: Why Is My Smart Home So Dumb?

#49

Post by ssharp »

viccuad wrote: post #12

I really don't grok why I should want to use my smartphone to move up and down my wifi connected blinders. Yet that's all I see when all of this is pictured: gimmicks. I want to see a demo of a room alarm clock: with rising light (in brightness and temperature), birds chirping, room getting warmer, music/radio a while later.. and the same for going to bed.

I suppose if you have a lot of remote controlled stuff in your house, the phone can act as the single control for all of it, eliminating the need for so many controls.

Those smartphone-connected blinds bother me far less than using your phone as a light switch.

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