[wakkaflokka]

I have a completely ludicrous amount of IOT devices, some with flashed open source firmware, on their own VLAN (UniFi setup) so I at least have a false sense of some security. I’m talking my washer, dryer, vacuum, thermostat, lights, home NAS, door locks, alarm system, garage door openers, AV system, Ring doorbell, Google Homes, smart outlets, contact sensors on every door and window, RPi Zeros in three rooms for presence detection, motion sensors in every room, among others. I even bought a Geiger counter to eventually hook up.

I’ve always had a dream of living like the Jetsons and Home Assistant is an awesome way of building it out. However.... it seems destined to be an always-beta something-isn’t-working-right project. Right now, my lights turn off when I open my windows instead of flash briefly. Google Home doesn’t connect to several devices, and it lets me know every time I ask it to do something.

The reality is I don’t have time for this, but I’d be lying if I said it isn’t a whole lot of fun to solder some Alitove addressable LED strips to my NodeMCU and have them turn on with Christmas animations along with Christmas music, but only when it’s below 50 degrees outside and both me and my fiancé are home. Just kidding, that’s not setup yet - still trying to figure out why my bedroom lights turn off 10 seconds after the living room lights, when only the living room light Lutron dimmer switch was pressed.

[sumtechguy]

A few years ago I worked at a company that was making a go of IoT (before it was called that). Everyone was trying to do home automation but the bills were paid by large companies just wanting a way to not have to roll out a guy to some remote place at 150 an hour (yeah that much). So the space was crowded with dozens of protocols and hardware hubs that all rarely worked together or promised to glue it all together. It was all kind of stitched together with odd bits of c/python/java/c# code. Each one tied to some proprietary protocol that wanted 5-30 bucks a month that would stop working when the company was either bought out, went out of business, or the product line went EOL.

Your always-beta made me think of this. I went the opposite direction I use as little of it as possible. A good old leviton toggle switch is kind of hard to beat for when you enter and leave a room. They cost basically nothing and work correctly for years.

When done up nicely it is pretty cool. But the cost still seems high on a lot of this and is very bespoke still.