Smart Devices Longevity

[chuckalicious]

Right. I'll try and explain this one as clearly as possible .

I'm a big geek. I love smart home products and own an Echo Dot and a Google Home Mini.

The next logical step is to install things like smart light switches around the house.

However, I have a concern with such devices.

Amazon Alexa devices communicate with Amazon's services .Google's Home devices communicate with Google's services. Both are *unlikely* to just disappear overnight and stop working .

However, if I buy 10 smart light switches from some unknown Chinese manufacturer, which most seem to be, and set them up, what are the chances of them stopping working if the company that made them goes out of business or stops providing the service?

What I don't understand is, when Google or Amazon assistants are set up to connect to a new device, be it a light bulb or a switch or plug socket, is it connecting directly to that device, or is it connecting to a third party service provided by the device manufacturer? If it is the former then great, there's no worry. If it's the latter your devices devices could stop working at any point .

Does anyone know the mechanics behind this?

Cheers .

 

[Doggit]

I have a basic idea of how they work (reading Jan 18 computer shopper) but some will work direct, and others require a hub, just as some will change colour, and others just turn on and off. If you buy a cheap bulb, then you'll get what you buy, but it's unlikely that neither service will disappear soon. Googles the late comer to the the party, but it's more intuitive to talk to, so will start to leapfrog Amazon soon, but obviously, Amazon has the most apps to hand, so if you're really a geek, you may well start off with them, and change over later (just for the fun of it).

But whilst you'll have fun doing this, and showing it off to your friends, I reckon you'll find you use it a few time, then go back to normal use.

 

[bernardgreen]

The killer for many "smart" devices" will be when the radio channels they use become congested by the proliferation of wireless devices.

 

[Doggit]

I always suspected that, but with the increase in speeds that they are now getting, I think it'll be a long time before the air channels get congested for smart devices. WiFi is a continuous stream of data, but the smart devices are just micro bursts.

 

[chuckalicious]

Thanks for the replies. Most things I use are WiFi so not an issue. It is just whether or not there is a reliance on a third party service for a device to work, other than that supplied by Amazon/Google etc.

 

[ericmark]

I use Mihome devices, and I have played to find what happens. For example after setting up, turning the hub off, in the main everything seems to continue to work, however clearly there will be no correction of clocks.

With my camera it will work direct to phone or tablet in the house, but requires a server from a PC even in the house.

There is a problem with internet in the house when using Smart devices, your house often does not have a static IP address, so the work around is to get the device to ask a central server with a static address what shall I do, and the phone to tell the central server next time the device asks tell it to do whatever.

So with my MiHome devices using built in timers etc there is no need for a server remote to the house, however using IFTTT very likely a remote server is used. This is a worry to me as I want to let out mothers house, at the moment there is a router, a LAN switch, and a hub as well as the devices. But these are not fixed in any way, they are simply sitting on a book case, if it was all in a cupboard like your electric meter or gas meter then no problem, but if a child and assess and play with the devices unplugging them, then really it needs bypassing in some way.

My idea was to remove

these TRV heads and replace with these

TRV heads as the terrier i-temp is all self contained, it does not have any wifi to it but does the same thing, however my supplier electrofix has discontinued them.

 

[wwwebber]

Non wifi based smart devices tend to be either Zwave or Zigbee based. I have the Samsung Smartthings Hub which is excellent and connects to ALL of my devices which are a mixture of Hive (Zigbee) and Zwave products. There's a huge community behind this hub which means that most smart devices will work after a bit tweeking if you're up for it.

 

[chuckalicious]

Thanks for all the replies. I had wondered if the non-wifi products generally worked without the need for a connection to a third party service.

I guess the best way to find out is to monitor the network traffic from the router to see what is being accessed when you control a device.

 

[^woody^]

They tend to work locally between the hub and devices, and the internet is only used for the away from home operation and some specific features.

Any technology product has an inherent limited life span. You will tend to want to swap it for something with better features or performance long before it becomes unusable.

 

[chuckalicious]

Any technology product has an inherent limited life span. You will tend to want to swap it for something with better features or performance long before it becomes unusable.

Very true, but for things like switches and sockets, what more could you be looking for other than on and off? I'd be pretty ****ed if I spent £100s putting in light switches and smart sockets only to find some of them stopped functioning a year or so down the line.

 

[^woody^]

Very true, but for things like switches and sockets, what more could you be looking for other than on and off? I'd be pretty ****ed if I spent £100s putting in light switches and smart sockets only to find some of them stopped functioning a year or so down the line.

Most things come with a two year guarantee, so you should expect at least that.