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Why Is My Smart Home So Dumb?

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Re: Why Is My Smart Home So Dumb?

#131

Post by morley »

gsteinb88 wrote: post #113
x1798DE wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of my biggest problems is the all-too-pervasive attitude that #2 means that users shouldn't be able to control things that "do the right thing", rather than that the device defaults to doing the right thing. I find myself all too often in "edge case" situations that would be very easy to fix manually if I could dig around in some settings panel, but modern design philosophy seems to consider including a setting l…

FYI, if you have an iPhone there's now a couple manual focus camera apps. Free: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/manually-manual-focus-camera... and $2, but I've been happy with it: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/manual-custom-exposure-camer...

As far as I know, if you're in the stock camera app, you can tap a portion of the screen for the camera to focus on that area. My girlfriend has an Android phone and can do the same.

Re: Why Is My Smart Home So Dumb?

#132

Post by thebiglebrewski »

Not sure I agree with the article's title. He's basically bad mouthing the entire smart home industry when this really seems like more of a Quirky/GE/Wink mess up. Literally every single product he tested is by them.

I actually LOVE all of the stuff in my smart home! All I have is 6 hue bulbs, a Nest, and an Amazon Echo that I've programmed to control everything with my voice with the help of a Raspberry Pi.

Nothing feels better than walking in after a long day and saying:

"Alexa, turn on all the lights, color blue, brightness 9"

"Alexa set nest to 72"

Then sitting down on the couch and saying:

"Alexa play some jazz music"

pours bourbon

If you're interested in this, check out my Alexa Home project alexaho.me or the YouTube video below) ​. I'm turning Amazon Echo into a smart home controller and people seem to be pretty jazzed about it. Frankly, if we can get stuff to work like this where it doesn't rely on your smartphone, people will use it a lot more. I also have a small switch next to my bed that turns on and off the overhead light and desk lamp in my room for when I don't have my phone on me.

I think success in the home automation biz is going to be all about untying it from your smartphone...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AmxiGVBekE

Re: Why Is My Smart Home So Dumb?

#133

Post by alistairSH »

fps wrote: post #77
alistairSH wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're in bed, how do you know those lights are on? Also, why wouldn't you turn the light off as you left the room? Most of these "smart home" devices really do seem like a gimmick at this point. Maybe in the future, they'll be well enough debugged and refined to be useful, but for now, I just don't see a benefit in a normal* home. My dad uses Nests, "smart" locks, and remote cameras alarms (off-season) on his bea…

I live with my wife and two kids, and I'm the only one that cares about the size of the heat and electric bill. I know the lights are on because they've been left on every night since we've lived there, and if I don't walk around the house every night before bed and shut off the lights, they're still on in the morning. I don't know a single person with kids that doesn't have to do this wonderful nighttime ritual - vi…

Fair enough. My "kid" is fast approaching 21, so it's been a while since I had to follow him around turning off lights (and picking up toys, and wiping up smeared food, and ...).

Re: Why Is My Smart Home So Dumb?

#134

Post by javadocmd »

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…

>I can see a per circuit setup where you replace the light switch.

Agree with this completely. As the article mentions, with a wireless bulb the wall switch actually becomes a point-of-user-failure and he wound up taping them 'on'.

I have a WeMo brand wall switch (actually a button) on my front porch light which solves this elegantly. Porch light goes on and off timed with sunrise and sunset (it updates its schedule over wifi) and if need be I can control it manually from the wall switch or the app.

I wouldn't replace every circuit in my house with one, but in the right application it's golden.

Re: Why Is My Smart Home So Dumb?

#135

Post by romaniv »

bjt2n3904 wrote: post #123
romaniv wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Open standards are a real issues in the industry. I find it ridiculous that you often have to pay thousands of dollars for software that simply understands those protocols. Not only that, it requires you to jump through ridiculous hoops to do stuff that you could easily do with a reasonably simple Python script. (Look up Niagara AX as an example.) Another problem is APIs and connectivity. Tuning a light on or off sho…

Right, open standards. I think there's an XKCD comic about this... There's no "open standard for wireless control of a light", because there's not one standard way to do it. For a dollar in parts, I can build a wireless light switch that uses 433 MHz, just like your wireless doorbell. Oh, you wanted a network of addressable lights? Well now it's a dollar fifty. We'll move to 900 MHz and switch to a ZigBee radio. Oh,…

You would be surprised, but there are already standards for automation of almost anything you can think of. The problem is not with the lack of standards or network-enabled devices. The problem is with them being proprietary and tied to software that costs thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars. Some of that software is licensed in such a way that you cannot even install it without being an "authorized" vendor with an established relationship with the manufacturer/provider.

Re: Why Is My Smart Home So Dumb?

#136

Post by bryanbuckley »

morley wrote: post #131
gsteinb88 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FYI, if you have an iPhone there's now a couple manual focus camera apps. Free: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/manually-manual-focus-camera... and $2, but I've been happy with it: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/manual-custom-exposure-camer...

As far as I know, if you're in the stock camera app, you can tap a portion of the screen for the camera to focus on that area. My girlfriend has an Android phone and can do the same.

tap is to autofocus. So if the autofocus is wrong, enjoy your frustration, miss your picture, or enjoy your blurry picture.

Re: Why Is My Smart Home So Dumb?

#137

Post by rhino369 »

linker3000 wrote: post #52
arethuza wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

All your base are PC LOAD LETTER

Hackernews: Our Overloard Printers are still using US Letter sized death blades, do they hate math!?!

Re: Why Is My Smart Home So Dumb?

#138

Post by x1798DE »

gsteinb88 wrote: post #113
x1798DE wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of my biggest problems is the all-too-pervasive attitude that #2 means that users shouldn't be able to control things that "do the right thing", rather than that the device defaults to doing the right thing. I find myself all too often in "edge case" situations that would be very easy to fix manually if I could dig around in some settings panel, but modern design philosophy seems to consider including a setting l…

FYI, if you have an iPhone there's now a couple manual focus camera apps. Free: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/manually-manual-focus-camera... and $2, but I've been happy with it: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/manual-custom-exposure-camer...

I don't, but good on Apple for exposing that functionality. My understanding last time I looked was that in Android it's not even exposed to developers (though I didn't look too deeply into it - there may just be no native API functions for manual focus).

Re: Why Is My Smart Home So Dumb?

#139

Post by mikeytown2 »

It seems like the vast majority of the issues with the current generation of products on the market has to do with speed & reliability; thus hardwired is the only way to guarantee those 2 work all the time. Also by going the hardwired route, the sensors and controls will be vendor neutral; thus ensuring that it will be future proof.

After doing a bunch of research the conclusion I came to was Opto-isolated relays [1] are the way to go for lighting control [2]. This allows for simple logic boards to control line voltage things without the risk of the line voltage killing your logic board. Best way to do this style of home automation would be in new construction, as retrofitting it would be hard to do if the house is more than 1 story tall as you need access above and below. Would be labor intensive as well. Will also allow for manual control because you'd put a current sensor on the wire so the hardware can tell when the circuit is on/off.

I would also want to put in some thermal cameras, as motion sensors are not as useful when your sitting on the couch, to tell when you enter/exit a room for auto lighting control. Put temperature sensors in every room and have motorized dampers & air flow sensor allowing for the control of the temperature in every room. Now your lighting and hvac can be manually or automatically controlled. Wire all the sensors and controls to a hardware/software brain that can be upgraded at any time. If that hardware/software brain is disconnected, all the light switches will still work and the normal hvac system will still work; just less efficiently.

Have the thermostat be controllable from the panel when the house is occupied (thermal camera) and auto controllable when vacant.

All of the above is possible right now; it just would cost a lot of money. Every relay/current sensor is $80 bucks; every damper control is $100; every thermal camera is $500; add it all together and you got one very expensive home automation system. But it will work right now without a lot of user frustration.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opto-isolator [2] http://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/46601/home-light-auto...

Re: Why Is My Smart Home So Dumb?

#140

Post by outworlder »

zippergz wrote: post #120
ssharp wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There's a difference between "there's no benefit at all" and "the benefits don't outweigh the downsides." There are many benefits of the Nest smoke detector. Easier to test. Easier to silence a false alarm. Less likely to wake you up in the middle of the night with a battery warning. Built-in night light. Integration with the thermostat home/away features. Notifications of an alarm when you're not home. Easy identifi…

> Easy identification of which room the alarm is from when you have multiple interconnected alarms.

Now, this is just fantastic. It's what basically every movie portrays when they want to show a security station, but it is almost unheard of.

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