this post was submitted on 01 Nov 2023
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I don't hate this, but I also don't like it.
Not because it's a bad idea, or it should have been better, but because, to me, it seems like any obvious idea about how to make smart things do stuff that's actually practical like this is usually behind some walled garden, and different walled gardens don't really work with other walled gardens.
Like with having smart things (the Samsung product line) and Google home, and Philips hue smart bulbs, you now have three things all working "together" ... "In the cloud". And you're entirely limited to whatever those cloud services and/or manufacturers want you to be able to do with them....
What if I want my smart speaker to play "Ice ice, baby" whenever I leave the freezer open, and have the lights go blue and blink or something? It's two back to back horribly complicated processes to get SmartThings to talk to the "works with Google" system, same with hue, then a cludge of weird commands that work today, but next week might entirely break, all dependent on whether anything is still talking to eachother, and even if I can do all that, there's no guarantee that I can use "freezer door left open for x minutes" as a trigger for the activity.... Additionally, I need to find a way to source the song on my Google assistant, so now I need to tie in Spotify or YouTube music, or something to my "works with Google" crap... It's just a lot of work to even get to the point where you can see what options you have.
This is a fairly simple example, but still... And then I have to ask, why the hell does it need to bounce around the "cloud" so much just to perform an action on the lights in my house, for the alert from the fridge that's also in my house?
Then I also have to wonder, how many fracking devices do they expect me to put on my wifi, and how much more do I need to spend so that I don't need to reboot my wifi doesn't every other day, otherwise it drops my "smart" home things?
I can't drink the Samsung Kool aid exclusively, they don't make lights or smart speakers, I can't do the same with Google, they don't make lights or fridges, and I certainly can't with Phillips. So I'm stuck with some internet reliant thing to do the same job as a $1 magnetic sensor, a cheap speaker, and a cannibalized novelty get well soon card that plays music when you open it.... I can add blue lights that react to sound for a few dollars more and get the same effect, and not have to shell out thousands of dollars on a fancy fridge, fancy lights, hours of my frustration, and a fancy wifi system to make it all go.
..... To be fair, I've done all those things, I don't have a smart fridge, but I use home assistant, and this gives me an idea. I just need to buy one of those door/window open sensors, and I can get it done.
To clarify, I started in "smart" home stuff with some hue bulbs, partly to see what all the fuss was about, then the Mrs, while away from the hue system, complained that she had to get up from bed to turn off the lights one night and I knew I was done for. Now I have nearly 100 smart home devices, and I still have those hue bulbs. I'm waiting for them to die so I can buy smart bulbs that don't require the cloud, which I've already replaced most of the other lights in my home with. I've added smart light switches, so I can trigger scenes and automations from the wall (and keep the power to the smart lights from being turned off), and many many sensors (mostly temp/humidity/air quality)... Everything I've installed recently (about 60 IoT things) have been locally controlled via zwave, directly to home assistant, so getting something like the above done, should only need a sensor to know if the freezer/fridge was not properly closed all the way.
Anyways. Prior to migrating to home assistant, I was doing the "works with Google" dance and it was not fun, and suddenly, anytime my internet went out, I lost control over half the stuff in my home. I hate how reliant we've become on the "cloud" to do simple stuff like turn on the lights. I'm not a fan. Thus, home assistant. I have, and will continue to seek out alternatives to stuff like SmartThings, that I can control and manage locally.
My final note is: being able to adjust the thermostat, and turn on the lights from the bed/couch/wherever, is the tits. Carry on.
This is why I will only ever support open standards
First genuine Too Long/ Didn't Read for me in a long time.
Leftist meme
My life is a leftist meme.
🥺 m-m-mine too
Have you looked into home assistant? There is a pretty solid and mature community around you managing all these different smart systems yourself.
That said, in not sure this is relevant, I'm too sleepy to read all of what you wrote. Apologies
He talked about it towards the end
You actually can have complete offline with Samsung Smart things and Hue, not that it's not a PITA to set up.
I've heard of this with hue. From what I understand, you basically need to take the bulbs and connect them to another ZigBee hub, since they're ZigBee under the hood.
But you have to do it using some pretty frustrating methods because they are programmed to only connect to their own hub.
IDK. Only my TV is "SmartThings" so, hopefully I can work on that. I'm not a fan of ZigBee since it shares a band with WiFi. I'd rather just get rid of them, but I have a hard time justifying the cost of replacing that many smart bulbs with basically the same thing because my brain gives me the happy chemicals when everything is organized and works the same way.
Also, the Mrs uses the hue app and I'd have to get her over to home assistant instead, it's a whole thing. Basically, I don't have very good reasons to change it, and I don't have good reasons not to, so I'm at a bit of an impasse.
I think the hue box is acting as a zigbee hub tbh, but it's been a while since I set it up.
As far as I know yes, it is. It's just locked into the custom software that binds it to hue. Otherwise it's a fairly unremarkable ZigBee system.
Relative to ZigBee, hue is the more expensive option, and you would think that expense would get you higher quality in terms of longevity, reliability, quality of craftsmanship, extra features.... Etc etc, but not really.
There are so many very very good ZigBee options out there that completely outshine hue, and cost less. The only caveat is that you have to do a bit more work up front to get it working, since hue's own hub/app is the big plug and play thing you get with the system (and the clouds seamless connectivity outside of your home). Beyond that, hue doesn't do anything special, and in many ways, it's more limited than alternatives.
It's brain-dead simple though, and their brand recognition makes it easy for people to jump on board, so I'm not going to knock it... There's a subset of people where hue is a great choice... Just be careful, since Phillips has introduced smart bulbs that are not hue, and don't require the hub, and the two systems are kind of confusing, and both related and not related at the same time. It's relatively expensive, but for someone who can't be bothered to fiddle with their lights to get them working just right, and want something fairly simple/plug-and-play... Then, if you have the money, hue might be the right fit.
Anyone looking to save a bit of cash, or someone who wants more control or local control, or needs lights that integrate specifically with a thing.... Hue might not be the best option, even when limiting the discussion to ZigBee.... Once you get away from ZigBee, it becomes a much more complex discussion about short and long term plans.
I also like how you can make your whole house change color with the lights during the day. Blue and bright at noon, red and dim in the evening.
Or how the lights dim when I turn on the TV. Or how the curtains can be opened by just yelling open the curtains. Node Red is super nice with Home Assistant, if you want to do something more complex with the automation.
Why are your lights on during the day?
Ummm to see something? It's winter and dark...
And who can forget the classic of only having terrible layout for windows as well
Natural light is not easy to get into my apartment
Bundle that with it being winter and dark and those lights need to be on
Day raves duh