A lot of luddites get a bad rap discussion going on right now. I don’t know if I’m just noticing it now and it’s been around a while, but it feels like it’s one of those topics that just bubbles up from a lot of sources because the time is right. There’s been Cory and also a couple of podcasts in the past few weeks. They make a handy analogy for AI discussion.
Edit: one was an ep of 99PI:
Whilst my current lightbulb is generic manufacturer one, the recent wifi plugs i’ve been buying are these which are flashed with open source firmware and can operate entirely locally.
I’ll probably pick up the lightbulb version if my current one dies.
I have a dozen or so 120vac timers of various levels of quality.
The good ones have a switch on them, that allows you to also turn the light off or on without changing the programming. if you anticipate using the switch a lot, you need to put the timer on an appropriately sized extension cord, and mount the timer reasonably securely at an appropriate point of use. For me this doesn’t take any more time or work than I’d spend on setting up controls, monitoring and updates for a wifi based system, and it’s more secure, energy efficient and reliable.
Ooh, Tasmota is an interesting project. Thanks!
I just took a head count, I have 40 smart plugs, switches, and outlets.
They are split between Wyze (I jumped on that bandwagon way back when they were a Kickstart) and Kasa. Kasa has flawless switches and outdoor plugs. I love the outdoor plugs because they have dimmers. The outdoor stuff is very handy at Christmas time instead of bulky timers.
We have shelves in our living room, each one has an outlet for our Christmas decorations and village, and lamps the rest of the year. The smart outlets really took all the bulk of plugs off the shelves.
There are also Alexa devices in 5 rooms and the garage.
Not to mention the 14 cameras inside and out. Those are mostly to keep an eye on the cats.
Do I need all of that? Yes, okay, no but a guy needs a hobby.
I’m certain that they’ll treat their Mesh on/off setting with the care that Microsoft does with their Windows Telemetry on/off one. 
Next step in the business plan, no doubt, is to start including microphones and cameras in every lightbulb. No, don’t worry, there is no way those could be hacked, or used by the company to track your every move and conversation. Just go about your daily lives as if no one was watching, listening, indexing, and preparing blackmail material or just selling the raw data to the highest bidders.
aka Alexa, Nest, or any of the other dozen home control devices.
I don’t know… I’m pretty happy with my hue and Google setup. But the hue price tag is crazy I agree.
I do integrate some cheaper IKEA bulbs, generic led strips, and generic smart outlets when appropriate. Everything works great and I have zero desire to go to… timers? Lol.
I also have zero desire to spend x number of days/weeks to learn how to diy and be my own ongoing IT dept.
And everything has an app now and often an account is required. Why is adding hue to the 20 other apps I already have going to be the one to cause me problems?
I’m not trying to sell hue to anyone. I just don’t understand the panic and I do get a lot of benefit from the system.
This very site steals more of your data than Hue. Probably.
Perspective.
giving a private company information on when you are home, and what your routines are is … well, it’s something you’re allowed to do if you’re into that sort of thing. but not everyone likes their privacy violated that way.
The Hue system only uses wifi to the hue hub, and then all the lights/devices communicate via zigbee. This is a huge security advantage over having every light be wifi connected. Philips only has one device to manage security updates for, and the size of the ecosystem means they have resources to keep on top of that security. Much better than a random wifi bulb from China that will be discontinued in a year. I will take having to sign in over that.
More proof that we are all characters in a Philip K. Dick novel. “Philips”… it’s right there.
And hopefully Google is happy too.
:: crackles knucles ::
Go Zigbee / Z-wave. Dump the wifi mess entirely.
You can get a USB with both Z-wave and Zigbee radios for cheap, and it’ll run on a raspberry pi or other low-end / power efficent device. Install an appropriate flavor of linux, and install HomeAssistant.
Alternately, get a Hubitat C7/C8 hub, which has the radios backed into it along with their software.
Home assistant’s ‘app’ is a wrapper around a web site; Hubitat is more or less entirely web site for UI.
(WARNING: both have moderately confusing UIs for the beginner, but there are tutorials and a good amount of documentation and community-based support on their respective web sites.)
I chose Hubitat because it has a built-in connector for Amazon’s bug devices (coughAlexa), whereas on Hubitat, there’s a seperate fee-based connector.
Both will support the Hues bulbs, although I don’t recall if they demand the hue hub or not; I don’t use any of the Hue products. (this was after dumping the Kaza, Wyse, WiZ, and Amazon wifi-based smart lights and outlet controls wholesale after getting tired of having to re-add them to me setup several times every year, with the WiZ app essentially forcing me to re-build the entire house setup from scratch each time. Shit Gets Old FAST.)
for lights, I have Sengled products; they work well enough, I’ve not had one die on me (yet), and they respond rather faster than the wifi products ever did. They also make outlet controls, so I have a handful of shop lights and other devices that hang off those. Adding them was very easy and straight forward in Hubitat.
There are a number of companies that also make controllers that speak Z-wave and Zigbee; I use an 8 button Z-wave controller for my living room to make simple adjustments for the lights in there, a couple buttons that (when coupled with a Heroku-based app) can kick off timers at the push of said button, and other fun things.
I have a very much backburnered project to replace the alexa devices with Pis running Rhasspy and some glue code to make it talk to the Hubitat, but eventually it’ll get there, even if the boxes end up looking butt-ugly.
Or you could just use regular, far cheaper bulbs and appliances and have no IT costs either way. It’s not an either/or question.
It’s not “panic” to point out the inherent flaws of such insecure systems, their costs, and how they are designed to not solve an actual problem while making your home wifi network more easily hacked.
The first use case for home automation is typically lighting. Turn lights off when you leave, turn them on when you arrive, turn on a security light at night, add a motion activated light in a closet, etc. I started down the path of home automation to turn grow lights on and off with sunrise and sunset (ensuring diurnal changes in the length of the day which is essential for inducing certain plant species to flower.) My system grew from there. I can also tell you there are many disabled people who rely on home automation for more than mere convenience.
The important thing to remember is that while you may not have a compelling reason to automate your home, millions of people have made their own choice to do so. Everyone has different reasons.
As far as “wifi lights”, that’s a slightly different angle. If you’re a homeowner trying to ensmarten your home, you have a choice: you can install smart switches, or buy smart bulbs. But if you’re a renter or live in a commercial building, you can’t do the electrical work to install smart switches. Smart bulbs are your only option.
Smart bulbs are primarily designed for people to control with their phone. If they talk WiFi they don’t even require a smart home hub; they connect directly to their cloud, and allow you to use them via a custom phone app.
Smart switches usually use a private network technology, such as Z-wave or Zigbee, to communicate with a smart home “hub” device that coordinates your smart home stuff. Being on a private network Zigbee devices don’t leak data directly to the cloud, but of course the hub still can leak data.
Phillips Hue bulbs speak Zigbee, not WiFi, so they do require a smart home hub. Not coincidentally Phillips also sells a smart home hub (a “Hue Bridge”) that speaks Zigbee to control the bulbs and WiFi to the internet so you can control your lights with your phone. This hub that works just fine offline today is what will soon require an online account.
As @ikeOnABike noted…
Others have written about the Luddites that told the truth about who they were (labor activists, not technophobes). This book is from the 90s…
Even before one had to sign in to an account to take advantage of proximity or remote controls.
Yes, but it was optional if all you were doing was local control of the lights. NowSoon even that will require an account.
