It seems that there are a lot of things to consider before even buying the first smart device. How would you start when you would start over?
Are there any good beginner guides that helped you?
Important points for me are
- privacy (everything should be local, no Alexa-Karens in my home)
- use of open source/free software
- a good variety of smart things I can use (I don’t want to be tied Apple-like to only one company)
Is there a golden way to build a smart home with these factors in mind?
I probably would have never started.
Everyone insisted that it was “easy”. I’ve come to realize this community is heavily developer-based and completely unaware of what they average person would consider easy.
My system breaks all the time and I have to spend hours trying to just get it back up and running again.
I was never able to get the app to work.
If I could have all my money and time back I would have just stuck with “dumb” electronics.
Everyone insisted that it was “easy”. I’ve come to realize this community is heavily developer-based and completely unaware of what they average person would consider easy.
This is applicable to every piece of advice I’ve gotten from lemmy and from reddit before it.
No, I can’t work from home.
No, I don’t have a raspberry pi and I don’t know how one works.
I don’t know what podcast you’re talking about.
I have to fight to prevent my eyes glazing over when you say apk.
If you link me to something and it’s just a list of the latest bugfixes without even a summary of what the fucking software IS, I won’t understand.
Poor people are not scary. Some of them wear glasses too.
I don’t even HAVE a PC, just a laptop that I carry with me.
You lost me at “terminal”.
I don’t know what any of those acronyms and abbreviations you’re using mean.
Or the “step-by-step” guides that are missing a step. Or assume a bunch of knowledge. If you don’t tell me I need to download a special compiler to install this thing, it’s not step-by-step.
I found one the other day that failed to mention that I had to put some code in config to make it work. But they had put a screenshot of the code they used, just hadn’t referenced it in the steps 🙄.
I’ve also seen one of the main devs respond to a user on GitHub saying that the bug they were seeing was not a bug because it was caused by the third-party system and “that’s just how it is”. Completely ignored the fact that the user could not achieve the intended behaviour from the integration. Was this information anywhere in the notes? Of course not.
I got into “home automation” during the initial rush. Everything was dependent on its own hub or cloud service. After using some of them, especially the voice controlled ones, I got interested in what all they can see/collect. I quickly dropped everything and have been in a dumb house for a few years.
What I’ve realized I need is cameras to watch my pets and a dumb keypad door lock to let people in when I’m not home.
What I want again is a thermostat I can control from my phone. I haven’t found one that doesn’t need cloud services.
If I wanted to get everything “smart” again I would isolate everything to its own VLAN with no internet access for the whole VLAN. I would have an electrician fix my no neutral drop situation and get wifi switches not bulbs. I would add temperature sensors in each room. Custom build a camera system server. Add network access to my Honeywell security system.
I am in the stage of completely stripping and rennovating my new house.
Here in belgium, pushbutton switches are becoming standard now instead of circuit-breaking switches. Every switch ia routed to the control board and every light circuit also with nothing in-between. Super handy for wiring and tracing wires. The only thing is, with electrical devices increasing in price so much, it is 20-40€ for a single
Since I am rewiring every single bit of wiring in my house, I am putting in a KNX system. A 16 channel smart switch output plus 32 channel binary input is almost the same price now as the “dumb” switches. They are potentialess, so nobody ever has to deal with shocking themselves on light switches like I did as a kid by being stupid.
Definitely recommend KNX and actually putting wires everywhere instead of wireless
I think you’re on the right track considering those factors and others (integrations with HA is another big one for me). IMO it’s always a balance though - a perfect example for me personally is I still use Nest Protect devices because they just freaking work, and work well. Same with a smart display I have and some minimal smart speaker usage. So sure, there’s a little bit of “lock in” there, but as long as your risk tolerance is ok with that (mine is) then you’re golden.
The factors you mentioned, among others like HA integrations (preferably official), company reputation (I’m personally ok with some minimal lock in if the cost/benefit calculation works out), etc. are my first considerations when looking at new products. Wherever possible local first control is a great plus and can be an absolutely huge factor to be sure.
Smaller steps. One at a time. Test.
I started off with HA, integrating all my devices i had at once, totally enthusiastic as I was. There were times where I installed several automations and integrations within just a few minutes, not giving them time to work for them selves, especially not in a „productive“ environment with wife, kids, neighbours, etc. all involved in the system.
Lots of automations broke or did not work as expected and I saw my self confronted fixing so many building sites at once.
I am through the roughest part. But should I start from scratch any time I will most surely start I’d small, test, iterate and move on.
I recently “started over” but it was more of a rebuild in place. I did room by room. Areas were not a thing when i started so i added everything to a new area. Deleted any automations that targeted that area. Renamed all devices/entities in the area to a standard naming scheme. Then creating a dashboard for that area. Rebuilt the automations one at a time. Letting them bake before starting a new automation. And finishing all automations for that room before starting a new area.
If you don’t mind me asking, what is your naming scheme?
Tuya stuff is cheap, but it’s not worth the hassle.
Their zigbee stuff is good
everything using pyscript. again.
