Happy Saturday everyone! What do you guys reckon? Am I getting grumpy over nothing?? Thanks to Huel for sponsoring! If you're interested in trying out some Huel then check them out here! : my.huel.com/paul @huel #huel #Ad
Project Chip / choip have renamed themselves to Matter. www.google.com/amp/s/www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2021/5/11/22430666/matter-project-chip-smart-home-partnership-apple-amazon-google-zigbee. Insert joke about if they do matter here.
Happy Saturday! I must admit that I originally thought that this video was sponsored by "Hue", and I thought that the universe had broken or something 🙈
I feel like this is because of cloud computing. If everything was local and use standard protocols than I think it may have a chance,. It due to poor infrastructure and reliance on legacy ipv4, the internet isn't really able to support devices. If each Lan device got an ipv6 address and could be communicated to directly from other devices on the internet, reverse proxies would be not required and the servers in China would be completely unnecessary.
Also my missus wanted me to let you know she was very impressed with your last video. She's a psychologist and it popped up in her suggested to watch list. Big love from us both🥰
@@PieterCusters1983 he always has been, whether he knew it or not! 😄😉 But I'm sure Paul loves all of us💝. Well except for... well... umm... well you know who! And if not here's a clue ⛵⛵💡💡😂🤣🤣
Same thing popped to mind while I was watching it! (+ "Why am I not skipping this?") Dude is an entertainer, and I hope sponsor money is good. (Screenshot this comment and show it to the sponsors!)
It's a tossup between Paul and internet comment etiquette for best ads. Though Internet comment etiquette took it to he next level when he released an entire dramatic thing that was just an ad.
His new giga-yacht can’t support a helipad because of the three masts, so the support yacht has that. Also, support yachts are used by the super-rich to quarantine and isolate their staff. At least that’s what I use mine for. 😂
Even though the stuff is probably as scary as all the home automation woes combined! I couldn't believe that stuff actually is allowed to exist in this hitherto neat universe!
Funny, yesterday there was a announcement. "Zigbee Alliance" will be called "Connectivity Standards Alliance" (CSA) in the future. The new "Zigbee" is not called "Chip" anymore it will be "Matter".
Home assistant (thrusts air) is a game changer and something I’d not considered until watching your vids. It’s the only thing at this moment in time keeping all these different protocols, hubs and products in sync with the ability to kind of talk to each other.
3 года назад
Agree, I haven given up on everything else, as HA is just only thing that allows me to do everything I want and not cost arm and leg
I have Smarthings but as mentioned in this video - choosing an alternative which is backwards compatible and has a reasonable shelf life is difficult. I tried Hubitat but it did not like most of my legacy Aeotec devices.
I can't say I blame you. I started out, many, many years back, with X-10. I still have many of those devices. But no software that can run them from the interface. Today, I've ended up with Homekit. I thought that making a popular choice would avail me of all kinds of devices and integrations. I already had two Nest thermostats and seven Nest protects. Recentlly decided to "integrate" them into Homekit along with thirty or so Homekit compatible devices (Arlo, Leviton, Rachio, Wemo, Roku) I had sunk money into. So, I recently set up, or tried to set up, Homebridge. Sometimes it works. Most times, no response. All times, frustrating. The one thing I've tried to avoid all along is having to learn new software and having to have hubs for communication. Too much complexity. Too much hardware. Too much wiring. And mostly, all too frustrating. The frustration, plus getting my spouse on board with all these "great automations", just creates so much anxiety. She likes to say, "I'll just get up and flip the switch". Sadly, I don't posses the creative talents that Paul Hibbert does to counteract that. ;-(
@@Darth-.-Vaper As Paul mentions in his video it seems unlikely that the same group of people will come up with a more open standard. At the moment I have Smarthings, Philips Hue and Google Home. If I was to start again I would probably avoid the "premium" branded hardware but having said that I just don't have the time or patience to play around with a raspberry pi DIY solution either.
@@dindu42 - I like you don't want to be spending my free time diagnosing issues, instead just getting on with using it - that's why I'm sticking with SmartThings for now - but with half an eye on alternatives. There's no way I'm paying a fee as things stand right now, but would consider doing so in the future, primarily because I don't have to teach my wife anything with things the way they stand.
Was that last video about mental health cathartic? Looks like you are fresh and better somehow. More of you here with us. I don’t know, something just seems different like you were holding back before. Either way this is great.
"Every single week I'm bringing new things to your attention . . . . " Yes I know Paul, every single week I end up buying them. The production values of your episodes are getting better each time, it's like Smart Hub Heroin, totally addictive. BTW that sock puppet should get more credit . . . .
I totally agree that fragmentation is putting people off. I've been looking at expanding my wi-fi setup into zigbee, mostly for motion sensors, but I'm utterly baffled as to which sensors will work with which hubs and which ones will integrate with Alexa and routines. Can't get Smartthings/Aeotec anywhere, so I'm almost considering Philips Hue... 😬
Great video Paul. Project CHIP is called matter and they have a logo and expect some devices to be released. The update was released few days ago. For now, I guess shelly have the best Wi-Fi products since they support multiple protocols and tuya have the most products including zigbee 3.0 devices which are also compatible with other systems. Most of tuya new Wi-Fi smart home devices can't be flashed. Try to stick with shelly and tuya zigbee 3.0 devices, these are the most future proof.
Thanks for this Paul. I am looking to get started in Home Automation this year. As a retiree, I cannot justify spend hundreds of pounds on things that will be obsolete in a couple of years. I have been binge watching your channel, and several others, (but not necessarily in the right order) to help me decide how to achieve this, and I am so confused! Hopefully your listed items will help!
Great video as ever, and the reason I now have a smart home. Things to look at for future might be (things in my home) :- MoesGo light switches Le Pro lamp Nuki Lock Flic (waiting for it and the condoms to arrive)
This channel just keeps getting better and better its funny and informative at the same time.Keep it up Paul you need more subscribers come on people sign up. Commission in the post 😉😉🤣
Amazon Alexa is the best for home automation, it has the most skills. Echo dot 4th generation has zigbee builtin (to control my blinds, doorlock, etc.). Also, Google can't add a device to more than 1 room or group; example: kitchen and family room are adjacent to each other and I want the lights in both room to turn off if I say all, as well as independently turning off either room. Alexa is inexpensive so I bought 8 to equip every room with Amazon Alexa for voice control so that I can just ask 'turn off the lights' and the echo in that room knows to turn off those lights and not other lights in the house. Google app's fonts are really really really tiny for my old eyes. All 8 of my Amazon Echo devices have a clock... very convenient to tell the time or see a timer's countdown. or better sound, I have a few of my Amazon Echo dot 3 with clock output the sound via its 3.5mm headphone jack to my Denon HEOS speakers. New home automation users who want zigbee to communicate with blinds, door locks, lightbuilbs, etc. can just buy the Amazon Echo 4th generation with builtin zigbee.
My gut is hurting from laughing so much on the first view. I needed a second viewing to get to your well-presented points. I’m a newbie to smart home - hopefully CHIP gets everyone on the same page. I’ve only gone with Nanoleaf Essentials with Thread so far. Hoping it’s the future.
I don't know why they didn't stick will HAL-9000 - he hardly ever made a mistake and he promised not to kill again. OK - so it was a little tricky to get the pod the bay doors to open but apart from that it was fine.
I started HA 2 weeks ago. And it's true. (Trusting hip movement - Home assistant - home assistant) I can finally control al my devices without using 10 different apps. There are no limitations to automations. You can think it, you can automate it. I have a tablet on the wall to control everything, start mucic, broadcast something to another room, ....
Smart home industry is a real mess. The corporate greed completely ruined my smart home concept. I gave up on this. :( Will come back to the smart home concept when it become a better world. :)
Conspiracy theory: CHIP knew that they'd be critiziced in this video so rushed out their weird rebrand to "Matter"... I have no idea why they'd need to rebrand, but now ima just assume it's because they are scared of Paul Hibbert. P.S. kudos on two awesome videos in one week Paul 🙂
Oh my gosh how true this is. I recently bought a kwickset lock for my door. Not knowing it was a Z-Wave lock. I bought it because it was a little cheaper and was a less modern design for my old farmhouse. Nothing in the packaging or the instructions told me that I needed a Z-Wave hub to run it. And it took me days to figure out. The box said home connect and neither the home connect, or kwikset app would work either. My smart things app showed it but said I needed a hub. And Samsung quit making their smartthings hub so I couldn't find any in the stores. Or online. Finally bought a used one. Which I had to get deactivated and reset so I could activate it under my account. Ahhhhhh!
Yes, the industry has always been a mess. I used to be "in it" 20 years ago and even then nothing talked to each other (rs232, IR,IP) unless you went for Crestron! Back then Philips (yes them!) had the best universal remote (Pronto) and was miles ahead of everyone else, then one day Philips shut down the entire product line. Ultimately the smartphone was the reason to kill a dedicated remote so a little surprised that Logitech still have one (but still the best way for IR). I always hoped that Google,Apple, etc. was going to make the perfect system and yet 20 years on still NOTHING! Keep the content going, loving your channel :)
I have to say I agree with everything except what you said about Philips Hue. They totally could have said "Oh.. you want this fancy new CHOIP do you? Buy a new hub!!! Give us MORE money!!". Or ever worse, buy all new light bulbs! But instead they are rolling out a free upgrade to the existing hub to work with a new standard. While they could totally (and probably will) F it all up, as it stands it seems almost like the opposite of corporate greed.
Love the creative ad content 🤣 don’t like huel, but love your enthusiasm! I love your videos the content and it cheers me up (my partner hates it so I turn the volume up) I agree like many things the market needs oversight to control some of the larger entities. It’s my birthday today and I spent the morning so far trying to get my sonoff zbmini to turn the wall light on at a particular time with my hubitat...the goal is to eventually have the two opposite the tv turn off when the tv is on to prevent reflection in the screen. Then I would like to find an automated blind solution for my south facing conservatory/dining room with no power supply...I’m attempting to smarten our first home as much as possible 😊 I then found out from your videos we live in the same town....if you have any smart zigbee etc sensors or tech you no longer need I’d love to help you clear that spare room by taking them off your hands ? 😄 it would give me a chance to learn how to add them in to my new smart home system...which I decided to go for a deep dive in with hubitat as I’m a physist (research engineer) and decided I could handle it lol.
What's missing from the list is the Hubitat hub. It only needs to be connected to your hones network so it's a local hub that isn't cloud based. This means you have more control. I have a Harmony Elite remote and hub because telling Alex to change channels doesn't always work so the remote is my go to. Have a RM4 Pro and have some routines on it and may get into it more in the future. I have a few smart switches but the rest are zigbee bulbs Sengled. So basically the Hubitat and Alexa paired together are what I use for everything. Hubitat has a few of its own routines that Alexa can't do and Alexa has a few routines on it that I run flawlessly. My main goal is to not have so many different smart home devices that need their own service. As an IT guy this might just come more naturally to me but it's all about the planning. At the moment I don't use IFTT because Hubitat makes it so easy.
So true Paul. My wife went around our house a few weeks ago and pulled out all of our smart home devices, plugs, light bulbs, hubs, etc, and put them into a surprisingly large box. She said she was fed up going around all the time and yelling “hey Google” and then a command and sometimes it worked, sometimes a device at the other end of the house responded, or quite often, Google would respond in German for some strange reason. My wife was fed up telling light bulbs to go to 100% brightness and then change colour from purple to white. And a lot of other stupidities too. She hated talking to her mother on the phone and the hubs around the house would keep repeating “sorry I didn’t catch that “ or numerous other banalities. We had different groups, different sub-routines set up, but that annoyed here more. Now she goes into our kid’s bedrooms to wake them up in the morning and just flicks a light switch and well, it just works and she’s happy. A happy wife is very important. And of course, having a chat about an issue, or watching the news on TV about an item, and then suddenly all the ads you see on devices is now about what we were chatting about. So no more smart devices in our home. And I’m very happy about that too.
You have hit the not so smart home nail right on the head. The lack of true open standards that can benefit everyone is really holding back what could and should be a huge market. The customers are there but they are not as dumb as some companies think. It would be great if a lot of the smaller manufacturers collaborated on interoperability so they could bypass the greedy corporate. The trouble is that many potential customers seem to think that it is only smart if you can control it through a smart speaker. That is a big reason why Amazon and Google can keep control and also keep the money rolling in. I would include Apple but at the moment Apple seem happy to have Homekit only talk to Homekit so that will stay as a small market unless they change and I cannot see that happening any time soon.
Yeah, you're not wrong. My whole house is full of tech that worked a couple of years ago but is now so laggy that it's not fit for purpose. I can walk into my kitchen, grab something and walk back out before my Smartthings motion detector has told Lightwave to turn the lights on. The Blink XT anti porch pirate camera that might catch the back of the postman's head on a good day, and an empty path and cats the rest of the time. Smart plugs that lose connection for hours every time the router changes IP. Please hold off dumping on the Harmony Turd Elite until my Ebay listing has finished! It took a week to program, by which time I hated it so much it never got used.
i cant understand why ppl hate you. your my go to guy for smart stuff, i dont watch anyone else, ur videos are too funny and you are brutally honest which i totally respect
Fantastic! Love how you call out the corporate nonsense. Been a geek for over 50 years and still frustrated on the lack of true reliability in home automation.
The answers simple, Shelly + Home Assistant = Low Cost, No Special Protocol, No Cloud, No Hub (other than Home Assistant). That way you can make everything smart, rather than having to rely on many different manufacturers and potential poor implementations. The only other product I have used in my smart house is a Konnected board to convert all my PIR's and contact switches to Home Assistant too which works great!
Don’t forget that Philips ditched the Pronto remote a few years ago just as it was getting good. Personally, I have a Control4 system but bypass it for some functions, e.g Google Home talking to a BroadLink RM4 Pro to control my RF blinds. However, I found that even my IFTTT (Pro) became unreliable and many of my routines stopped working for no reason. This uncertainty in the “off the shelf” home automation market is what keep Crestron, Control4 etc in business despite the price tag.
I have messed with home assistant. I bought a Hubitat (C5) about two years ago. And it is all pretty much working with what I need for now. As home assistant moves forward, I may try it again just for the heck of it.
I recently dipped my toe into the world of home automation by buying and installing a Meross smart garage door opener, and them somewhat integrating it into Google Assistant on my mobile device. That is, sometimes it works great, other times GA is painfully lagging, or just ignores me when I tell it to open the garage, eventually giving me a list of several wonderful things it can do aside from opening my f***ing garage. Then of course it wants my PIN for security every time, meaning I have to trust that anyone riding with me won't one day steal my phone in the process of gaining illicit entry when I'm not around. I'm not super keen on using Google, Siri, or she who must not be named for voice activation as these companies already know enough about me without listening in on my conversations and stalking me across town. (Which they still largely do despite my efforts to block them.) So I'm hoping to find a homebrew way to process speech recognition through a VPN tunnel to my home network from mobile devices. But that isn't exactly an off the shelf solution either. The type which I worry about steadily picking my pocket until the one day they decide to abandon their project and I have all that much more e-waste filling up the garage. Which leads me to the open source tools like Home Assistant and Node-Red for which I feel like I need an engineering degree to install and configure. I'd just like to turn on the AC or preheat the oven on my way home, learn immediately if the water heater springs a leak, or just turn on/off the lights from bed without reading documentation written by Linux whizzes who'll bluntly tell me to just RTFM if I don't fully comprehend what they're talking about. "Send the ARP through the subnet of the IRQ of the what now??"
In terms of Zigbee; Home Assistant can control Zigbee devices with a $/£5 Zigbee antenna, it is actually very easy and cheap to bypass software locks like phillips, you just need to know how.
I finally gave up on it. And I’m a true tech head. I’ve removed 95% of my smart home setup. Too much inconsistency, sometimes working, constant hardware reboots and monthly fees (IFTTT). I have a few Amazon plugs for lamps and holiday stuff. It’s amazing how much frustration this removed.
I agree, Zigbee is a massive own-goal and Choip is heading the same way. Thankfully, Homeassistant,Tasmota ESPHome etc are there to keep us on track, but otherwise things are messy (read flaky!) for beginners and general consumers. They'll end up just ignoring it all or following the main brands and that's bad for all of us.
Well said. When the average consumer turns a certain direction it affects even the most cloudless of consumers because the whole market gets geared a certain way and the products that make up that market change in tandem. Its bad news all round.
I would not worry about the Logitech services. Logitech discontinued their Squeezbox media players in 2012 (which is a shame, because they were great internet radio receivers). However, the mysqueezebox cloud service, necessary to run these media players, are still up and running free of charge.
The same thing happened with light bulbs back in the day afaik, only bulbs with a certain lifespan were allowed and you were fined if you made something that lasted longer lol.
Excellent video again. And no, you are not grumpy over nothing. I share your utter frustration - I have devices which are registered with 4 different apps just to get them on my network and I then try to tie them together with Home Assistant. As I commented on your video about that I agree with the criticism but honestly I think it's the best hope. My big concern is that some of the integrations are bespoke by 1 developer - if they get bored or find someone to have sex with - who will update the integration to work with new home assistant versions... Oh - my other terminal frustration is devices which seem to randomly drop off my network and need to be re-added. Automation is great but I need to know it's going to work reliably. Cheers Grumpy 2
Started off with Philips Hue, then with Homekit, then branched off to HomeAssistant but that was a pain to mess with and I don't like the interface. I'm back to Homekit. Sure, it has limited support but it works and simple to use. Here's hoping CHOIP will allow for more compatible products in the future.
I got burned by this same crap today. I decided to setup home assistant. I thought I did the research. I thought I was ready for home assistant bliss. Got my raspberry PI, installed Home Assistant, and boom none of my devices work with it! Most of my devices are TP-link Kasa and as of July 2021 they have zero support for local control. Arg!!!
i dont know why everyone mention only Home Assistant and never Openhab when they talk about agnostic home automation software....anyway nice video Paul,you speak the truth mate!
Agree with it all Paul, and yes when companies say oh it's for your security, you just know it's corporate greed. Same as when yearly you get letters from broadband and mobile suppliers and the like, rambling on about "improving things for your benefit" or "simplifying your plan", you know it's gonna just mean a price rise. They think we're all idiots.
Nah. They know we have limited choices. And, that switching isn't really that easy. That's why capitalism can be so great. Competition=More choices. What we need are more capitalist entrepreneurs to offer us more and better products. If Phillips can be cowed by Paul, then just think what a bit of competition for market share can do.
Great video Paul my debate over my Philips Hue bulb not working continues Philips in the end sent me a new replacement bulb FOC which I paired to Amazon Alexa and after four on offs that stopped working as well Ive tried several times to repair it but no it’s also now stopped working? so I’ll given up and throw in it the bin!! Good riddance to Philips Hue that’s all I say!!
Please just keep improving the assistants. That’s all I ask. For example I use Alexa and just wanna see regular updates on assistant quality responses, quality execution on commands and just keep expanding the capabilities overall.
The trouble always was that there is no money in hardware. I have a load of smart devices at home and they work great, but they are so reliable that I don't need to buy more. I use SmartThings and wonder just how long before Samsung shuts down that service or starts charging me. I also have Harmony Hub (which I love, but you're right: it was too expensive and Logitech will probably shut that down soon enough - like a fool I also bought the Logitech Zigbee hub they made and dropped like a hot potato when they realised SmartThings was far better). What really aggravates me about SmartThings is that some of my Zigbee devices are not controlled locally and my Z-Wave ones are all over the cloud. Local control is the answer to much of this, but Hubitat and Home Assistant are just not yet user-friendly enough. Not to mention that they are horribly ugly (yes, it does matter). Whatever the outcome, with increased reliability of products and soaring investment needed to innovate new technologies, money will always be key. ...well, until corporations realise that perhaps they could take their time and develop quality items more cheaply...
The lack of customization is my biggest hurdle from biting the bullet and starting, I don't want to say google or alexa, i want custom wake-up words and I want different voices but no company seems to offer that which blows my mind, why doesn't one of them just double down on customization?
Control 4 makes a great smart home remote but that is a professional setup/installation product and not a DIY product. Logitech dropping out is a positive thing for those who work in the low voltage/smart home/AV industry. On the flip side this creates a nightmare for a good amount of our customers who preferred the Harmony remotes.
HAHA, the Corporate greed song should be released :) I'm getting more and more confused about what I need to buy (hoping I understand more when we are at a stage to fit it) and finally, we've been using Huel from the start and couldn't recommend it more so very happy to see you doing so :)
Yep, you covered this well. I had invested in the GreenWave 'Connected by TCP' only for them to completely abandon it. It was a good product. I ended up writing software to control the lights and put it on GitHub... But then IFTTT added subscription costs undermining the voice control. Can't win
Governments should pass an e-waste law. As part of this law, it should be illegal for companies to brick their devices. That is, it's fine if they want to sunset support for a device, but they should then allow a way for it to connect to any server which would allow someone to set up a compatible service. Best example may be ReplayTV whose servers shut down in 2011, but I still have ReplayTVs running almost 10 years later because people have figured out how to set up servers which can support the devices and fortunately I didn't suddenly have a whole bunch of expensive door stops.
I've dived into the smart home fun. Home Assistant is very nice. Added a Zigbee USB stick and tada... Home Depot had a bajillion dusty boxes of "EcoSmart" Zigbee light bulbs at about $5/bulb and not bad. Sad they now only make these with a light switch in the boz. But since older boxes were there dusty on the shelf and had about a bajillion of them; I lit half my home with them. Dimmable and Light Temperature adjustable, not RGB but very nice. Now looking into mains powered zigbee switch for my ceiling fan with stupid candelabra bulbs.
Paul .. they are NOT CHOIP alliance => Connectivity Standards Alliance [csa-iot.org], waiting for some specs, hopefully tomorrow at IO. The language Thread/Zigbee devices speak called dotdot. So technically they just replacing radio portion of Zigbee and switching to IPV6. This provides for use of broadcasts, UDP and TCPIP as a networking layer. Proposed chips implement both Zigbee 3 and Thread 1.2 / 1.3. So technically a vendor can define dotdot do either Thread / Zigbee - my thought are they they would not want to certify both. I do not know the cost. At no cost it will help Zigbee to get more devices because the vendors will certify both as lest for now.
Tell me about it, a while back I bought a bunch of Xiaomi/Yeelight bulbs that control through the Xiaomi/Yeelight apps and voice using Google, but if the internet drops they drop, and then maybe half come back again, so need to be re-added. It was suggested that Hubitat will allow use of these bulbs and also allow adding of sensors so some rarely used lights can be automated. I do some reading and this information all appears to be correct and it'll also allow other stuff to connect from other manufacturers, the hell it will. The Hubitat will recognize about 75% of the bulbs, which according to their apps all appear identical. So I think, point the Hubitat at the IP address on the local network, that should be a simple thing to do, it's such a bloody obvious solution, point to URL and tell it that you are looking at a bulb ... SIMPLES ... bollox. Hubitat needs a manual to understand the instructions on the website (assuming they are supposed to be instructions). I get the impression that Hubitat was made by Linux coders/developers, because like Linux if you are wanting to do something that up until now on other systems is simple, they will throw so much jargon/technical information at you that assumes you have spent the last 10 years learning Linux and understand it all (eg just download XXX and recompile???). Hubitat feels the same, it looks really powerful but unless you have done the quest to unlock the skills you can only use basic spells. And then last week, VirginMedia started playing sill buggers (which is it's own story), so internet spends half a day coming and going and I know something will break. And yep, Hubitat can still see all the lights it had before (minus the ones it couldn't), but the Xiaomi/Yeelight can now only see half of them. The only way to re-add them to Xiaomi/Yeelight is to reset them, and then they will need to be added to Hubitat again which actually seems pretty good at spotting stuff it had listed previously like the Mi Sensors that also drop for no apparent reason every so often. Add to this, early on I bought a bunch of SONOFF stuff, the really basic plugs and inline power switches, really cheap £5-10 per device cheap. Do you know what happened to them during the VirginMedia downtime, nothing, they are back and working just as they were previously. Add them to Hubitat, of course, but be prepared to jump through a ton of hoops and it might just work. I have found one device that allows me to control everything though ... Google Home Mini (the older cheap one). I tell it to turn a light/device on and it just works but it needs the internet to do so. I do have a spare Pi4 somewhere and will take another shot at Home Assistant to if its any better, but it shouldn't be this difficult, everything has an IP address so you should be able to connect to it and send it commands. Anyways, sorry for the rant it just sort of kept coming.
Ngl, The fact that you’re willing to talk shit about so many companies and products that deserve it, is the reason I trust and watch pretty much every video you put out. 😂💯 I feel like most of the other tech channels, even though the people seem nice, the videos are usually just advertisements for whatever they’ve been sent lately. When I see anyone else putting out a “oh my gosh, look at this awesome new thing!” video, I know to skip theirs and just come to your channel to find out what’s **really** going down. I would have spent thousands of dollars on disappointing crap that I regret if I were just watching all of the other channels, and I didn’t have yours to trust and give me the real scoop. Thanks for being the real one ☺️💗 (i’m just going to pretend I didn’t see the three other tech videos put out this morning about the “amazing new chip protocol” 🤣🤣🤣❌)
Here I am happy with my Hubitat hub, completely isolated from any cloud issues other than where it touches the Google ecosystem. I have ZigBee, Zwave, and wifi devices from Lifx and Tuya (flashed with new firmware). Any solution that needs internet connection to turn on a light does not belong in any house.
Well said Paul. The same propriety cloud issues exist with PV panels hybrid controllers, clean air systems and the rest of the big stuff in your "smart" green home.
Oh, hell. I am looking to add rooftop PV panels this summer to my house. To help support my always on, home automation stuff. Like my repurposed Dell Precision turned into home server. I hadn't thought of the proprietary issues that I'll encounter. I was only thinking of the various hardware involved. Thanks for the warning!
I think these companies are trying to be monopolistic because that's what they are used to. But they forget that no matter what they do, they are competing with light switches which have: 1. 0 latency 2. Always works 3. Perfect UI 4. No subscription fees 5. Cant be turned off by a server 1000km away
You know... It's funny you mention you can't get your company A contact sensor to talk to your company B lightbulb. I have that happening all over my house, and have for years now. I have 3 different brands of contact sensor (Aqara, Tuya, eWeLink), at least 3 brands of bulbs (Sengled, Linkind, LEDvance), several motion sensors (Tuya, Sonoff, Aqara), and plugs (Amazon, Seedan, Allsun), and whacky devices, like my doorbell chime (by Sage) and Linkind 1-key buttons. And yet, my motion sensors turn on lights in my rooms, by doorbell sends alerts, and it all works just fine. But that's because of my Zigbee controler/hub. My hub is a Sonoff Bridge Pro FLASHED WITH TASMOTA (upgraded to a Pro recently, but prior was also Tasmota flashed). And that one hub not only talks to just about any Zigbee device I've thrown at it, but has no problems setting up bindings between devices of various manufacture. On some occasions, I've had to route signals through the hub, because one of them decided to use a non-standard cluster (cough cough TUYA), but it still all just works. And that same hub, with no other server interaction, or HA running on a Pi, or any other mess, emulates a local WeMo presence. That means Alexa can talk to it directly on the local network, and see all the devices without 14 different apps for each vendor getting access to my Amazon profile. Don't get me wrong. It's great that vendors want to build their devices, and make apps, and ecospheres, and be the cloud servers for all that to simplify it for the masses. But with one tiny fix (Tasmota flashed to a hub or a ZigBee stick as controller), you can bust down that door. And it's so simple to do now, I really don't get why it's not super common.
I know it's not a "smart remote" perse, but the Switchbot hub mini can essentially be used as a smart remote to control your TV and a cohort of other IR powered devices (like fans, AC, and all of Switchbots devices), AND then controls to Google Home and Alexa to give you touchless control over those devices! Who needs a physical remote when you can use your voice to control it all (or a UI based interface on your smartphone if you absolutely have to)?
I tried to get the devs behind Homebridge or Hoobs (don't remember which 😂) to give us a better library to find plugins, to find stuff now you need to know what you are looking for, there are no ways to find that one thing you never knew you were missing ^^ (So if there is a software-based plugin that is really good, you will never know unless someone that knows about it tells you about it ... 🤓)
You can control philips hue bulbs, or pretty much any other brand and any type of zigbee device, if you use home assistant. I turn on my hue bulbs with my xiaomi wireless button everyday.
I was looking at a product recently that worked with Alexa and Google Home. I contacted the company and asked if it would work with Home Assistant and they said they had no intentions of working with any open protocols. I told them I will never buy their products. I don't even have Home Assistant but I want to know how the company thinks. If their intention is to lock me in then I'm out.
This is the only place where I see the truth of home automation. Indeed very helpful for people who get enthusiastic and have huge expectations of home automation solutions
If I said disconnect to Alexa, I be worried that she would transform into a robot with arms and legs and then start to rip all the wires out of the wall. All The while being closely protected by a dystopia attack helicopter
Hey Paul, Great vid! This video will be the one I send to everyone who asks me "Why are you tinkering with your own circuits, code and servers instead of buying smart home stuff off the shelf?" This video explains it all.
I have a Xiaomi Gateway Hub v3, two motion sensors, a temperature and humidity sensor and a ZigBee power socket. I also have a Broadlink RM4 mini that's been taught how to control my air conditioner, ceiling fan, NAD amplifier and Samsung television. For a bit of fun and mischief, I also have Home Assistant running on a Raspberry Pi 3+. But I'm some far distance away from achieving smart home Nirvana and the reason is obvious. The companies involved want a walled garden for themselves and a gulag for their customers
Great video Paul! Question, the description doesn't has links for making donations to you. I guess that is because this video is sponsored? Found them in your older video's now but I though I should mention just incase there should be links. :)
Yep, it's all true. It's a shame the first thing most people buy is a load of smart bulbs as once they know better they're invariably stuck with a house full of philips hue that they paid way too much for (like myself)! DIY is the only safe way to not get shafted but it's so hard to get things just how you want them. It does turn you into a tech whizz though. Building a smart home taught me linux, sql and python!
Samsung bought Boxee years ago and I made an app to link the Plex Media Server to the Boxee. In order get apps to install on Boxee they needed to be signed before I released them. Samsung just pulled the plug on the signing server keeping all perfectly good working Boxee Boxes from being able to update to new software. They, as a big company just didn't care because it wasn't making them any money.
My issue with smart home crap is I spent over a grand on ZigBee and Zwave devices, NOW everything is wifi. Prizes on zX stuff is often 3-5 times the price of wifi devices and they are now taking over. Get ready for the shittiest clogged wifi ever no matter how many routers you have or what you do.
Yeahh... This and $$$ is basically why I've held off getting any smart home stuff... It's web standards before they managed to put something relatively cohesive together (yay for HTML 5).
Hi Paul you know it's not CHOIP or the Zigbee Alliance anymore, The Zigbee Alliance is changing its name to the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) as it launches its Project Connected Home over IP (CHIP) IoT smart home project as Matter.
Home Assistant has the Blue now, which is their hub, hopefully it's gets upgraded to include ZigBee built-in rather than needing a dongle. I've recently found out Tuya updated their firmware to stop easy OTA cracking for local use which is annoying!
Thanks Paul. Brilliant as usual. Happy weekend. Thanks for introducing me to the Smart Home industry about 2 years ago. I have since started a Smart Home Tech Company here in South Africa, Cape Town and we are growing steadily. Just thought to let you know that you are truly brilliant sir. Take care
