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How do you move out of a smarthome?

shkspr.mobi

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Re: How do you move out of a smarthome?

#181

Post by btgeekboy »

cbr wrote: post #123
btgeekboy wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One would think that a new homeowner, if actually locked out of the thermostat somehow, could go to their local hardware store and pick up a cheap $30 thermostat to control the furnace.

Or just remove the thermostat from the wall, and turn the heating on by shorting the signal wires together.

Yes, or that. Point is, the only thing that’s locked/secured is easily removed and replaced by a dumb, easily acquired device. Nobody that has accepted the responsibility of home ownership will be denied access to heat due to a smart home thermostat that they don’t have full access to.

Re: How do you move out of a smarthome?

#182

Post by SnowingXIV »

crankylinuxuser wrote: post #151

Well, you make it a stupidhome. Switch outlets with $1.80 switches. Yank out pretty lights and put in simple cheap hanger cans. Keep your dumb honeywell thermostat and reinstall the 4 wires. Buy dumb smoke alarms and litter them everywhere (they're cheap). Yank out special outlets and put in el-cheapo outlets. In other words, yank out and substitute the smart stuff back to cheap dumb stuff that just works. This isn't…

Yep. It's no different than my studio which I swapped out bunch of lights for Phillips hue lights. They had some plug ones that I went to Home Depot and spent like 1.50 on each adapter or something to make it work. When I leave, I'm taking my bulbs with me and replacing them with basic ones.

Same with a nest thermo. Swap out for a honeywell done. These things are pretty much low cost and minimal time commitment.

Re: How do you move out of a smarthome?

#183

Post by Silhouette »

ensignavenger wrote: post #180
Silhouette wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially things like those. If you can give me evidence they are properly set up, working, and compliant with all applicable advice and regulations, that's great, I'll be happy to have them. Otherwise, get rid of them, and I'll get my own properly fitted by a suitably qualified professional, thanks. Those things save lives, and I'm not going to cut corners to save a few bucks, only to find that your hack job instal…

All smoke alarms use sensors, whether or not they are connected to the Internet.

No kidding...

Re: How do you move out of a smarthome?

#184

Post by friism »

shostack wrote: post #129
friism wrote: post #30

I have IKEA Trådfri (which is ZigBee-based). While the hub does connect to the internet for software updates (using ethernet - no WiFi, and no WiFi password to update), there's no "cloud" component. You can't create an "IKEA account", even if you wanted. If IKEA went out of business tomorrow, my switches and bulbs would keep working. I like that approach a lot. It would be perfectly feasible to leave the IKEA hardwar…

How do you like the IKEA stuff? I've seen their lights that can shift through daylight/evening hues and brightnesses and was tempted.

Works great so far. The iOS app was janky at first (it would forget about the hub it was connected to) but seems better now. I don't really use the app though - a recent update added Alexa support, and that works great. I've mounted the remote control on the wall and either use that or Alexa to turn the lights on and off.

I don't want purple or green lights in my living room, so the fact that IKEA bulbs are limited to warmth and brightness is fine for me (I like to just keep them on "warm").

Re: How do you move out of a smarthome?

#185

Post by 2-4-Flinching »

bdamm wrote: post #161
npongratz wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Clapper never needed to phone home to the mothership.

Modern voice activated neural nets don't either. I don't buy voice activated appliances specifically because they are online, but with a new generation of offline neural nets, I just may revisit that choice.

There will never be a new generation of offline neural nets. AI will need more and more horsepower as it evolves and that is more then what a normal household would want to spend. Cheap end devices are what the average buy is looking for.

Internet bandwidth and speed are increasing and cheaper which was the main reason for offline in the past.

There is also the fact that they don't have to support outdated or multiple versions of a server or distribute updates. The end devices like Google home, Echo and the video fire stick, Chromecast are basic input > send to server > output. That is cheaper to support. Plus you get all the data to improve your product.

When I was young I setup up my first Home Server. Much like an enterprise server. It had share folders, computers backup to it, print server. Though it was the future and in a decade every house would have one. Now a days they don't but they do have stuff like Google Drive and Google Cloud Print and many more options that give you those options in the cloud.

Re: How do you move out of a smarthome?

#186

Post by 2-4-Flinching »

titzer wrote: post #135

I just. don't. get. it. All of this home automation and internet of things hype is going to end in tears. Computers are just. not. secure. They're not even necessary in these applications. I don't want tech that includes massive amounts of software doing the job of simple things. It just is not necessary. I'll walk over to the lightswitch and turn the lights on. I'll set the thermostat and use its old-school timers t…

Why do you even have a smartphone? If you are so freaked out cause of it why do you leave in it your most private space (your house) with its mic and out of date software. Why don't you save yourself money by not buying a smartphone and get a cheap flip phone for like $30? Which is clearly less hackable then a smartphone. I'm guessing you have wifi, why even pay for a mobile phone when it never leaves your house and use an Internet Telephony which is also way cheaper and more secure then your current setup.

Re: How do you move out of a smarthome?

#187

Post by photojosh »

subway wrote: post #178
Chaebixi wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even Bluetooth is a no-go. What happens if the control is app no longer available or drops support for your model? Something like a sous vide stick should have control buttons. Ditto for stuff like Roombas. I've noticed all the new ones have their schedules set via an app. WTF? My current one has buttons and that works just fine. I'm seriously thinking of getting a spare now. Smartphones are great solution for contro…

I think Bluetooth could be doable; assuming their use of the protocol is well documented and open to 3rd party implementation. For a lot of these devices, the API could be described in AT commands (flung over any of several bluetooth profiles) pretty easily.

These devices use Bluetooth Smart/LE (as opposed to traditional). It provides functionality more akin to RPC and Pub/Sub. But yes, it's easily implemented if documented, I've done a device to replicate another vendor's protocol for some basic IO.

Re: How do you move out of a smarthome?

#188

Post by photojosh »

ghaff wrote: post #139
dawnerd wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I remember correctly there’s a micro usb on the back of the nest specifically to factory reset.

I bought a smoker a few months back. The top of the line model had Bluetooth. A smoker does not need Bluetooth.

We have some Bluetooth food thermometers. They're great, you can monitor the temperature profile of your roast while you're lazing on the couch. :)

Re: How do you move out of a smarthome?

#189

Post by andrewem »

btgeekboy wrote: post #181
cbr wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or just remove the thermostat from the wall, and turn the heating on by shorting the signal wires together.

Yes, or that. Point is, the only thing that’s locked/secured is easily removed and replaced by a dumb, easily acquired device. Nobody that has accepted the responsibility of home ownership will be denied access to heat due to a smart home thermostat that they don’t have full access to.

After I bought a house, I couldn't turn off the dining room chandelier lights for three days while I figured out the box they'd stashed in a cabinet had a radio transmitter that talked to the light. A while later I paid an electrician to run some wire through the ceiling and a wall, and install an outlet with a switch.

There was also an outlet in another room with some complex controls. It stopped working after a while. Turned out the switch - which is connected to a freaking electrical wire - required a battery to work. I had that taken out too, and good riddance to all of it.

Re: How do you move out of a smarthome?

#190

Post by andrewem »

hkmurakami wrote: post #150
lukejduncan wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a home buyer, why is it a negative? It seems like it would represent such a small % of the purchase price and could be easily included in the negotiation as needing to be removed by the owner before you move in.

Yeah I agree. But I still get a negative psychological reaction since I dislike any and all smarthome products, which colors my impression of the property. Illogical I know, but it's a reality for me and other home buyers / home sellers. It's like staging a home right? None of this furniture comes with the house but how it's staged absolutely influences your impression of the home.

I get that psychological aspect - it makes you think the current owners have poor judgment, and so what else did they mess up? That's also why you should do simple maintenance and cleaning when trying to sell a house, because if a person neglected to eg rake the leaves, who knows what else was necessary which they didn't do.
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