I couldn't agree more. I can never understand why people are so ready to give up control of their own lives, but not only that, give away a load of metadata that tells anyone with the means to interpret it, what days you use the shower, what time of day you take a shower, how long you're in there, how much water you use, and how warm you like it. It's a crazy world where people allow themselves to be controlled and manipulated by a third party, and without a moment's thought !
I want my vehicle to have a door and ignition key, my appliances to not talk at me or have any screen now than to display the time, my surveillance devices air gapped on a dedicated server, my telephonic device to have a removable (replaceable) chemical electron storage cell and my elevators to run on relay logic with a disc floor selector. Call me a Luddite if you wish but I like things with a lifespan measured in human generations, not months.
@@whitesapphire5865 Just imagine what MegaCorpCo could learn if they could actually get people to strap a device onto their face that had cameras staring directly into their eyes ("the windows to the soul") and looking out into their homes (and LIDAR scanning everything, and tracking every movement and listening to every sound and...) No... wait. Nevermind.
"Your subscription has been suspended as you violated the Terms of Service and failed to pay your fee. Please submit an apology with an assurance that you will comply with the ToS and pay the £19.99 monthly fee before you can use the flush function of your toilet".
Advanced lovers of IoT should read 'The moon is a harsh mistress' by Heinlein. A prison establishment with all gates/valves/power etc. controlled by computer. And a mutinous group of prisoners that hack it.
"smart" device creators that force you to use their "cloud" service should have to put all of the server code, schematics, and API documentation into some kind of "digital trust" that can be made public when the company goes out of business.
wow I can't believe the company running this IoT had financial difficulties, it's such a crucial piece of technology that revolutionizes the showering experience. It even has RGB
Ive learned - anything with RGB lighting is making up for a lack of engineering quality. I was a new S650 Maybach Mervedes a couple of months ago - its like a Twitch streamer bedroom with the RGB lighting, and the chrome trim is chromed plastic - on a €200k car, look closely and the leather on the dash is moulded rubber
look here, an RGB shower head absolutely improves the showering experience! (it's also not connected to the internet, and directly powered by the water flowing through it so basically having nothing in common with this product except the RGB)
"What cowboy sold you this crap?" Before ripping it out and putting in a more expensive shiny chromed copper setup which gives him a 50 per cent profit.
@@RU-vidcensoredmyusername It won't. The company is dead. There are no parts. Unless you want to send it to someone like Clive to reverse-engineer it in order to fix it. All the while all of your taps don't work.
I found a copy of the manual and looked at the installation instructions. You are correct, it explicitly says do not mount with the pipes at the top, or on the side (for vertical installation), for horizontal it doesn't matter. The manual has specific instructions on what to do if you're using copper or SP/PEX pipes. It's actually a very good manual. As you say, the design had a lot of effort put behind it.
@@Sonny_McMacsson In this application I completely agree. The closed-circuit wireless temp control for our tankless water heater is about as far as I am willing to go.
@@reeddeer793you’d think right, that if it does need internet, you could simply have a router with a local port set up… those automated lights do that at the least, unless you do find the sorry sap of a company which forces a cloud-based network… Well, all until someone with a sniffer wants to have some fun!
My side hobby is home automation using Home Assistant, an opensource software. There is a very healthy push for local-control-only devices that are cloud-free for setup and use. There are people hacking the wifi chips of similar devices to "lobotomize" them from the cloud. I also have a rule that everything I install has to be manually operable for guests and in case of network failure. Having to ask the permission of a chinese server to take a shower is never a good idea 😂
They're doing it for three reasons. Planned obsolescence so you upgrade often. Moving from a pay once, own forever model to product as a service to encourage product loyalty. And control, whereby they can control their product, intellectual property and enforce Terms of Service and Codes of Conduct either for them or for an external party.
we were promised internet of things a decade ago, yet it's still something largely not doable without doing a tech wizard DIY, due to every manufacturer trying to trap you in their very limited proprietary ecosystem, so most things don't work together. Also voice assistants somehow haven't become smarter in a decade.
I can almost guarantee some of them are repurposing source from free projects to do the brunt of their work, too. And while there's never anything remotely (no pun intended) bad about that, you can just tell a lot of these vendors immediately want the maximum return for the least cost/effort possible.
It's always funny that things like this, which try to fix a non-problem, adds more problems than it actually fixes. The biggest problem being it requiring the internet to use a physical thing in your own home. It would have been better if the server side stuff would be contained in a in-home smart unit which is connected through WiFi but shielded off from the internet(or at least have the option). The servers going down and it's just reduced to a fancy pansy way of physically turning on the shower/taps.
So many non-problem products associated with IoT and cloud computing, simply to take control away from you and generate personal data for the manufacturer.
Hi Clive, I built a house in 1980, and I have central control for the lighting. I use about 20 General Electric latching relays (RR7) to control the mains. You supply a 24 volt pulse to the "ON" terminal or "OFF" terminal of the relay to control it. The switches provide the pulses and are simply wall mounted momentary rocker switches (SPDT, normally off). You can have as many switches as you want on any circuit because the switches are simply wired in parallel. The switches are connected to the relays with cheap 3-conductor low voltage wire. The relays and wall switches are still available from a company that bought the business from GE. Also, there are newer mains rated latching relays from other companies, but the form factors may be slightly different. I've been in several office buildings that use the GE system. I originally wanted some home automation with the GE relays connected to a home computer. I purchased a bunch of DPST reed relays and a few other relays (Radio Shack) to interface the GE relays to a home computer, but back in the day, this was very complicated. So, my lighting has just been working like any other GE system with only one relay going bad in all these years. A while ago, I started to play with microcontrollers, PIC programmers, Arduino, USBasp, ESP8266s, etc. I realized that adding computer control to my lighting was getting much simpler. I assembled an ESP8266, the old Radio Shack relays, and a handful of DIP ICs to control the GE relays over my LAN (WiFi). I keep it all within my LAN and behind the firewall to avoid outside hackers, and I don't use any 3rd party services, known to go bust! The ESP8266 provides a WEB page that has buttons to control the relays either singly or in various combinations. Any device on my LAN can control my lights. But my real wish was to have a few simple buttons next to my bed to control the lights. For example, when you hear some sort of disturbance at night. Interfacing it to Alexa would make me wake up folks by shouting, "Alexa, turn on the light." And using a smartphone meant I had to put on reading glasses, turn on the phone, access the web site, and pust the right button. So I used another ESP8266 to build a client with a few switches and pushbuttons. It sits on my night table, and I can control it by feel. There's an ON button, an OFF button, a few toggle switches to select the light, and a dim status LED. Really simple, I don't have to wake anybody up, and I don't have to fool with a smartphone. It took over 40 years, but I got what I wanted.
A friend's family lives in a 1950s-era house with latching relays controlling all interior and exterior lighting, with low-voltage at wall-mounted pushbutton switches, much like you describe. When I lived there for a time (around 2007) it was like a game to me: which lights will work properly (less than 5%), which lights won't work at all (around 90%), and lights that will only work for a split-second when the button is first pressed (the remainder). Switched receptacles in some of the rooms were completely dead. I offered to help them rewire the house, but they weren't interested. It would have been incredibly easy, since every single cable run in the house was done through individual conduit runs that led to one major trunk tray in the basement, leading directly to the circuit breaker panel/relay box.
It amazes me how easily people will give up their own autonomy, security and freedom for the sake of having fancy gadgets and baubles. The epitome of "just because you can do something doesn't mean you should."
My current shower has an excellent HMI which offers excellent reliable local control of flow and temperature. It’s called a handle. All the best Clive.
the three outputs are normally the bath spout (the single control which is placed near the spout which for a large bath can be distant from the shower and in reach of someone sitting in the bath), the overhead fixed showerhead and a handheld shower wand on a hose for 'cleaning down below' (the dual control thats placed on the wall for use when standing under the shower)
Don't think I would ever install a SMART device that controls something like water flow unless it was outside of the property or maybe in an industrial setting. Just sounds like a costly incident waiting to happen
Screw the "incident" - this mind virus results in needing electricity simply to have running water. The equivalent of constructing an apartment building without stairs, relying only on a single elevator.
Do you know what? I have a twisty little thing on the wall, above the sink. You twist it one way and the water flows. Twist it the other way and the water stops. You can also select a point in between to choose a rate of flow that you prefer. It's been there for at least forty years and works every time - no electrics, no electronics, just grip on to it and twist. Just the way a water tap should be. What was that famous quote from Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott, when he nobbled the USS Excelsior? "The more you overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain"!
But you can't get likes on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok etc, sharing pictures and videos of a classic water tap unless it's made of gold and the handle has diamonds 😉
Joints still have to be changed from time to time. Corrosion and wear is still a thing, especially after 40 years of service. Though manual thermostatic mixing valve (or a non-mixing thermo valve for hot water radiators) are way more convenient than messing with old taps.
This is one of the reasons why I am hesitant about buying smart energy monitors or locks, If the service goes down it basically becomes an expensive paper weight. Thanks for the tear down Clive. :D
Single button is remote start - push it as you enter bathroom and the shower dumps all the cold water out of the pipes and gets to temp before you get under. Outputs of main head are probably handset, rain head and bath filler
There should be a law or a mandate, where if a company goes belly up or "dissolves", they have to provide the server-side functionalities in some sort of a repository... Or when the company gets bought up and the service essentially disappears overnight, there needs to be a requirement, that the new company either provides further support, until -it- goes belly up, or until they discontinue the product. After that, same thing- they have to push out either the server files or unlock all functionalities, that tie the device to an outside source... For anything that "phones home" for any task should be required to provide the server files for the devices to remain operable... And as a sort of closure, the devices should get a last "EOL update", where specific details (server address to contact, login credentials, ip-address, etc.) are wiped from the device. I hate it when stuff like this happens. Fridges, washing machines, door locks, vacuum robots... ~ 2 years of service and after that one can throw away half of the bought inventory...
"Internet of things specialist contractor": Usually that's that single person in the family that can switch on anf off a computer, or "does something with computers" at work. In the old days we were abused each holiday to repair printers or wifi, now it is about repairing the smart home stuff.
yes. you learn enought to stand on your own two feet with IT and keep up enough to keep your own stuff going, then everyone else in the family who couldn't be arsed thinks its your job for the next two decades to fix evey piece of chinese crap with a blue LED on it. I have family members who haven't spoken to me for 10 years because I eventually told them to take their computer to the local computer shop insted of turning up at my house every other saturday night.
As someone who has worked in IT for decades, this is why I have limited connected devices in my home. The ones I do have don't rely on a service somewhere else. All local.
Reminds me of the old saying by Scotty in the third Star Trek movie, "The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain." Prophetic .
Another REALLY fun failure mode for IoT stuff (and Starlink made this mistake too) is how stuff now factory-resets by turning power on/off 2-3 times in a row. It can be hard to do as a person, but it seems power company line-reclosers are GREAT at a consistent on-off-on-off as they attempt to reset the grid with a tree or something on the wires, and can quickly factory-reset every smart-bulb and Starlink router in the area! Then you get to spend time one by one re-pairing each bulb to its base and reprogramming your Starlink router until the next time it happens again.
Tbh it's better then some of the over complicated methods that I've seen. Power on for 1 second, off, wait 1s, on 1s, off, wait 5s, on 2s, off, wait 10s, on 3s, off, wait 5s, on. Congrats you have now factory reset your bulb, if you were off at all during this you failed and try again. The stupid fuck took me over an hour to reset.. And then it forgot the WiFi network a day later.
You go to have a shower, turn on the tap, there is a small leak pushing the corrosion over the edge on the motor/encoder while you shower. You are done, and it cannot turn off again. Fun!
While the geek in me loves the concept of home automation, I use it very sparingly. I have a ZWave raspberry pi controller, but it only does a few things. I have a pocket door that prohibits mounting a decent electrical box so I put a wireless button to control the room lights (and if turning them off will also turn off the ceiling fan). It also makes a hall switch into a faux 3-way (I already had z wave and it was easier than running new wire). In both cases, it works even if the controller dies - you just have to walk across the room to shut off the ceiling fan 😂
ZWave has been great, I wound up with a whole bunch of Monster branded Leviton ZWave products and have been using them with the Monster remote control for many years but I’ve been wanting to upgrade to an RPi so that multiple devices can act as controllers now that I’m in a house instead of a small studio apartment.
I have been into home automation for about 4 years now and I have 3 basic rules that I always follow. 1. Every smart device must have a physical switch in addition to being controllable by voice or HomeAssistant. 2. every smart device must be easily removable and restored to the basic non-smart tech that it replaced. 3. Every device must have local control not cloud based control.
I saw someone else post some rules for home automation so I thought I'd put mine (based on theirs): 1. Home automation should always fail to the dumb equivalent 2. Home automation should always be able to be used without the internet at levels of "smart" that don't require the internet (i.e. phone in wifi network to device) and ideally should just allow full open source self-hosting like Home Assistant 3. Home automation should always be built such that parts are modular and replaceable even if the company that originally manufactured it fails. (Documentation for components so that if the logic fails, you can swap in a custom ESP32 board or the like) 4. Home automation should always have dumb physical overrides (i.e. a light switch that ensures the light stays off and a button that ensures it turns on)
IT TAKES TWO BABY 🎵🎵 To make a IoT device. We love it when Clive goes in deeper. 😃 Its a right waste of materials when you think about the components and time thats gone into R&D. Its got a good action on the knob we like to feel some feedback. nice update 2x👍
"Should we add an LCD screen just in case the network goes down so the thing still works" "Nah, that's an extra 50 cents and our network will never go down"
The only automation I'd want in my home is a cooking and dish-washing robot. Everything else, I prefer doing myself and not worry about cloud-based services randomly being inaccessible or discontinued.
This thing reminds me of that Dilbert skit about a voice activated shower, and the subsequent issues with the user accidentally saying a number while showering.
As a home owner, a good handyman is invaluable. The wife and I had this Croatian guy recommended to us. He has never let us down (if he can't do a job, he knows someone who can). He The best part is he'll give us a discount if we pay in cash. Naturally, living in Chicago, we count ourselves lucky to have found him. I've heard horror stories from some of my friends about less scrupulous repairmen.
That EVE 9V disposable battery is also quite interesting as it has PCB inside with diodes across the cells to stop reverse charging when one of the 3 cells gets empty before others._
Me= Alexa flush the toilet, Alexa=Just one moment, have you seen whats in there, I'm putting less greens on your shopping list! I will continue to monitor your output!!! , 😂 Smart home stuff it's great.
Nicely modular design to this thing's hardware (if overly complex). Pity they had to go & do the server connectivity instead of allowing it to run locally over at least some kind of open protocol. Could probably replace/augment the switches with cannibalised Zigbee (etc.) relays to resmartify it with a little soldering though. Harder to give it a manual override for the taps, but that should also be possible by adding a thumbwheel around the taps that could be controlled through a hole in the case.
For a person who has always even preferred a "manual two tap mixer" to even "thermostat mixers" this "cludgeContraption" is beyond hilarious. And the proverb " a fool and his money are soon parted", comes to mind. :) Best regards
That rattle 2:10 is a servo stalling (I know you knew this)... 🤣Love your uploads, Big Fella! 👍 3:50 Had to leave. That servo self destructing is too painful.
IoT devices are the bane of my existence. Irrespective of the technical gaffs that seem to plague all of the kit, there's several networking rules you have to setup in your routing - VLANs for specific IoT devices, special filters, rules, etc. It's imperative that people realise the danger and general silliness of handing over control of basic amenities to anywhere remote. Hell, I'm sticking with analogue everything despite being pretty damn clued up on tech. I think it speaks to a wider problem of convenience and security, and how many people are willing to go all in on convenience to the severe detriment of security - and, obviously, in the case of this remote shower thingbob, functionality. Irrespective, another cracking video Clive.
That’s only on the consumer-grade side - if you DIY a contractor-only system it’s much better. I did a DIY crestron system and know people with DIY Control4 systems and have never had issues.
See, I like this cautionary tale. Personally I love automation, I love the idea of telling my house what to do, but I'm also very wary of connecting my house to who-knows-what server in who-knows-where. This is why I like to make my own automation stuff. I don't need to automate turning on my shower, but I like my volumes going up and down according to the time of day or if I get a phone call. Things that are actually convenient to *me*, and mostly stuff that you just won't find. I like to integrate things that aren't already inherently integrated, or in ways that weren't necessarily intended. It's a lot, and I don't get anything near as polished as this, but the upshot is that if anything breaks, I made it so I know how to fix it. I've been watching your videos for years now and I'm still excited for a new one every time. Thank you for what you do, you've inspired *SO* many of my projects it would be impossible to thank you enough.
A lot of connecting wire for a device that is connected to the internet.. I agree with you fully about connecting things in the house to the internet. BTW The same goes for cars with all the electronics in it.
RT32EI -> TRSF3232EIPWR: 3-V TO 5.5-V Two-Channel RS-232 1-Mbit/s Line Driver and Reciever 4551B -> BU4551BF: Quad 2ch Analog Multiplexer/Demultiplexer ATH444 -> @alexv3780 already identified as AT24C04C: 4kbit i2c eeprom Z1361DI1 -> AOZ1361DI: 28V/2A Programmable Current-Limited Load Switch 363ABB -> MLX90363: Triaxial Magnetometer IC with High Speed Serial Interface The inductor on the opposite side of the hall angle sensor could be to extend the magnet's field by focusing the field lines throught the ferrite spool. Would have liked to be able to see the part number on those switching power supply ICs though ;)
No doubt had a subscription fee on top of the £800 product itself. I do see value in a few possibilities of this product: being able to turn the faucet off if you forget you had it running and leave the house; being able to turn the water on and get up to temperature while you’re grabbing your clothes for a shower, then turn it off so you don’t waste water; automatically turning the water on at a slight trickle when it gets below freezing so the pipes don’t freeze; I’m sure there are other things I could think of. The problem is, I just don’t see many people wanting to spend ~$1000 on something that adds so few minor conveniences. Smart home devices are prominent because they’ve become cheap or they add value worth the price. People will buy a smoke detector that costs 4 times that of a normal one when it’ll call both you and emergency services when it detects a fire while you’re not home. You’re not going to be able to run a business off of the sort of consumer who will buy a faucet with Alexa integration. I’d see much more value in an individual unit that could attach to a handle and turn it for you, kind of like those deadbolt turners. Then, even if one failed, you can pop it off and turn the knob yourself. At the very least, this sort of system should be per-faucet, not whole-house.
I love watching these videos, it's so Relaxing. My family and I prefer to turn on the taps and shower on ourselves. Including the lights. It's not that hard.
Hey, I find home automation quite helpful. The key is that everything can still be controlled manually, is hosted locally, and integrates with Google Assistant so I can just talk to most of my rooms and also program a small number of helpful automation flows (e.g., "do these things when I get home").
This is why you monitor the network traffic and reverse engineer it while it works so you can then continue forever running a local clone of the service you control! :P
And speaking of my box o' tat, in it was an ex-British Telecom torch with an interesting battery, a 6v NiCad lantern job with built-in mains & DC chargers, built right into the battery itself, I never knew such a thing existed, but I'm too wussy to dare try recharging it, old batteries don't always want to come back to life after all... :D
I really don't understand why stuff like this even exists. Is reaching out and turning on the shower by hand (when you are in it) really that much of a chore? Why do I need app control for my sink and shower?
It's kinda amazing how different consumer and industrial approaches to IoT has become. In industry, there's a big focus on running the servers locally, usually with OPCUA support. That way, even if the manufacture goes under, you can still for the most part run the hardware until an alternative solution is found. But you wouldn't want to continue using the software unless the security updates are handled by a third-party service.
I could see something like this being useful in certain cases like those with disabilities or mobility issues. I think the single button was meant to be installed outside the shower so you could manually turn it on before getting in.
I'm someone with a disability, who could theoretically benefit from technology like this. I avoid it like the plague. Do you know how many million times more enraging it is when this shit inevitably fails?! 😂 I'm trying to make my life easier and not have to deal with the broken whatever it is, try to arrange repairs or fix it myself, and interact with some company's customer service. Not even worth the possibility of a hassle because I learned my lesson the hard way(s). 🤣
Can't help remembering a scene from Not the Nine O'Clock News. It was Rowan Atkinson playing a deaf person and the voiceover talked of a new invention where the phone had a flashing 'ringing' light - it seemed plausible until he picked up the phone and couldn't hear. About as useful and sensible as this thing. Is the second nob for remotely turning off the shower when your child has been in there for a hour?
The furthest I'm willing go with home automation is PIR-controlled lights for non-critical applications. Anything more just adds potential points of failure.
Just get a Japanese tankless hot water heater. They offer perfect temperature regulation; separate programmable max temperature controls for kitchen and bath and have normal faucet controls that even your grandmother can understand. They even have a cute, soft feminine voice that announces when the bath is ready for use and an automatic reheater/recycler to keep the water warm while your family uses the tub. They're also very efficient gas users, last for years with no maintenance required and seldom, if ever, break down. As every house and apartment in Japan has one the companies are not likely to go out of business, too. The only downside is that you might have to wait 15-30 seconds for the shower and tap water to warm up, but it will keep that temperature perfectly for as long as the water is running.
I've been reading about magnetic encoders and some of the have a "magnet in the right place" output that can be used to tell if the magnet is too close or too far - and they suggest you use it for a push button.
A similar product is an internet connected Shower valve. My customer said, "Why would anyone need that?". "Well your kids... they are 3, 5 and 7 yeh?" "Yeh?" "You can get them out of the shower rapid when they are teenagers!" "Ohhh, that's evil and I love it!"
Yet another prime example of why governments really need to get on top of this and mandate that any companies selling IoT hardware must release enough information/local api control to keep it alive before switching servers off. Failure or obstruction of this release should somehow end with a criminal offence so companies can't just vanish into the ether if they go bankrupt or get bought out. Even though I would never allow cloud only devices any where near my place I'm dismayed by the amount of perfectly good pieces of e-waste that are being generated because of "interlectual property", laziness and greed.
The single button is a 'remote' start that would be mounted somewhere outside the shower so you can turn it on before getting in. The three outlets are likely for a tub filler spout, hand held shower and rain head. I have a Triton digital shower in one bathroom and there are some advantages with accurate water temperature and plumbing/servicability, however I don't think I would fit one again and stick with mechanical valvles instead.
This seems like a good design. Just keep the control on local wifi and keep the last settings stored if you can't be bothered to pull up the app. It might become antiquated in a few OS updates if the app is unmaintained, but still much better than a cloud-based solution.
These units use the internals of 1/2 turn ceramic taps/faucets to control the flow to the shower/basin/bath, I did a review of a whole load of ceramic taps/faucets for the tenants panel of my housing association, and I settled for for 1/4 turn ceramic taps/faucets with lever top as the renters of the housing association properties were slowly getting older and lever top ceramic taps/faucets would be easier for the to use.
Encoder knob likely uses the MT6701 magnetic angle sensor as it's cheap, i2c, outperforms more expensive types and has the ability to detect magnet proximity for 'push to switch' control.
Nice thoughts on home automation then and now. My core rules would be: 1. automation is nice but never rely on it - always have manual override / backup control; bells and whistles may be gone but core functionality has to be available no matter what 2. any IoT devices should run on open-source protocols with no reliance on proprietary software 3. keep all automation in house, including an on-prem hub/server (Domoticz, HA etc.), expose only necessary controls and monitoring, secure them accordingly
I agree with all except number 2 - a HA system really can’t be sold with the house, while DIYing a proper/established system like Control4 or Crestron can.
This is why local control is very useful for 'smart' homes. Im not against things like computer controlled lights or speakers as they can be useful but there are times when IoT goes too far. Im saying this a network engineer and tech geek.
I often wonder what the purpose of this kind of device is? Like...are you also putting some kind of smart thing in the bathroom to give it commands? Or are you turning on the shower from a lay-z-boy in the livingroom wasting a ton of water until you get up to the shower? Or like having to find your phone, unlock it, find an app, open the app, and push buttons...instead of just turning the knob? The usecase for these things where you have to walk to it ANYWAY is lost on me. I can twist my basic bath knob to the right temp 99% of the time the first try and the water is hot by the time I get my clothes off to climb in, with minimal waste.
