[xxpor]

I wish Zwave/zigbee were more practical to use. I'm not too worried about someone local pulling readings out of the air, but giving all of this crap access to my wifi, relying on cloud services that could go down at any time, and even adding a bridge straight in (your SIM comment) is just rediculous. For things like cameras or other high bandwidth applications wifi makes sense, but for the usual sensor/switch stuff, there's no need for a full IP network.

Plus, all of the stuff controlled locally means the latency is sooooooooo much lower. It's awesome being able to hit a switch in the homeassistant app and have the corisponding plug or light turn on instantly. It's like you're flipping a physical switch.

[conradev]

> I wish Zwave/zigbee were more practical to use.

That is essentially what Thread is:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thread_(network_protocol)

It takes the Zigbee protocol, but adds encryption and makes devices IP-adressable. All of the major players are committed to supporting it, too!

[xxpor]

That's not entirely what I mean though. The real issue is having people like my parents get used to using a hub.

[conradev]

Totally. I believe that one of the goals of thread is to integrate the “border router” capability into newer routers

[aftbit]

Can you recommend specific parts? I'm hoping to build out a smart home lighting and sensor solution soon using local protocols. Part of it will be an IoT wifi network & VLAN without internet access but I'd like to experiment with Zigbee/Zwave as well.

[fingerlocks]

Not OP, but I’ve been happy with everything made by Aeotec. My whole house is outfitted with their products on a raspberry pi + homeassistant setup. Entire process was really simple and easy, no need to “experiment”. You’ll be done in half an afternoon.

https://aeotec.com/