Smart Homes

1. Best smart lock overall: Level Lock+
2. Best smart lock for a range of options: Yale Assure Lock 2
3. Best smart lock for Apple home key: Schlage Encode Plus
4. Best smart lock for existing deadbolts: August Home Wi-Fi Smart Lock (4th Generation)
5. Best value smart lock: Wyze Lock
6. Best smart lock for renters: SwitchBot Lock
7. Best smart lock for Airbnb: Lockly Vision Elite

In the context of the numerous announcements this week, one little thing has unfortunately been somewhat overlooked. However, in case of an emergency, this little thing could be worth its weight in gold for all of us. From October, Philips Hue will finally offer spare parts for its products.

“Lose a power cable in a move? Need new mounts for your Play gradient lightstrip? ” writes Philips Hue on its website. “Find the replacement parts you need to extend the life of your Philips Hue products.”

The consumer champion Which? found companies appear to be gathering far more data than is needed for products to function. This includes smart TVs that ask for users’ viewing habits and a smart washing machine that requires people’s date of birth.

Rocio Concha, director of policy and advocacy at Which?, said: “Consumers have already paid for smart products, in some cases thousands of pounds, so it is excessive that they have to continue to ‘pay’ with their personal information.”

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For smart cameras and doorbells, Which? found Ezviz devices, sold by major high-street retailers including Argos, had by far the most tracking firms active. This included TikTok’s business marketing unit, Pangle, Huawei, as well as Google and Meta.

Every single smart camera and doorbell brand Which? assessed used tracking services from Google, while Blink and Ring also connected to parent company Amazon. Google’s Nest product demands a user’s full name, email, date of birth and gender.

I'm looking for a smart power strip, which allows me to remote control and schedule on/off.

Last year I bought Hey!'s smart power strip. Hey! is a UK brand, but turn out its products are just branded Chinese products. I used it anyway but it just bricked itself last month.

For quality, safety, and security reasons, I would prefer a non-made-in-China smart power strip.

Compatibility with Home Assistant is prefered, but not 100% required. I'm interested in switching to Home Assistant but I haven't yet.

Thanks for any suggestions!

cross-posted: https://lemmy.world/post/4556320

Home Assistant integration for energy consumption data from UK SMETS (Smart) meters using the Hildebrand Glow API.

This integration works without requiring a consumer device provided by Hildebrand Glow and can work with your existing smart meter. You'll need to set up your smart meter for free in the Bright app on Android or iOS. This will only work when using the Data Communications Company (DCC) backend, which all SMETS 2 meters and some SMETS 1 meters do (more information). Once you can see your data in the app, you are good to go.

Self-described technologist and "dreamer of optimistic futures" Danilo Campos has put together an open source Espressif ESP32-based controller and home automation terminal for heat pump systems: the ThermTerm.

"I love my heat pumps. They're energy efficient and the fastest way to heat or cool any room," Campos explains. "But I've always hated the remote controls that come with heat pumps. They're clunky and hard to read, especially in low light. In theory, you can program schedules for your heat pumps, but in practice the remotes are too frustrating to use for that. ThermTerm solves all the problems I've had with these physical controls, while integrating the heat pumps into Home Assistant via MQTT."

cross-posted from: https://radiation.party/post/94095

Nest Aware prices have increased to $8 a month or $80 per year, up from $6/month or $60/year, as first reported by 9to5Google. This is the first price hike for the video recording plan since 2020. Users still get 30 days of event video history, which records when the camera detects something.

Nest Aware Plus, the higher tier subscription, now costs $15/month or $150/year, up from $12/month or $120/year. Users still get the same 60 days of event history and 10 days of 24/7 video history.

The best home security systems constitute a series of interlinked devices that users can remotely manage through their smartphones or computers. The typical UK home would have two or three cameras with motion detection and at least one door or window sensor. SimpliSafe’s The Tower package, for example, includes enough components to cover an three-bedroom semi-detached home and offers an affordable, user-friendly home security solution.

Our researchers have considered 61 different packages from 17 providers, and refined these down to leave ten best home security systems suitable for a range of homeowners.

The other approach is to buy smart light switches that replace your existing wall-mounted switches. These attach to the existing wiring of your home and act as regular switches, but also connect to a smartphone app via your Wi-Fi network for enhanced lighting control. With such devices, you can install a regular-looking switch, but one that has smart functionality baked in.

Things are looking brighter for smart home owners. After months of delays and uncertainty, the Philips Hue Bridge is finally being updated to support the new smart home standard Matter. A software update will roll out in September, letting users connect their Hue systems with other Matter devices and apps. This means that every existing Philips Hue product will now work with Matter, all the way back to their original bulbs launched in 2012.

cross-posted from: https://radiation.party/post/93465

[ sourced from The Verge ]

Aqara, today announced its participation in this year’s IFA show, where it introduces an array of new smart home devices. Among these innovations are the Smart Lock U200, Camera E1, Dual Relay Module T2, Ceiling Light T1M, and an EU-style wall outlet.

Yale has launched a new line of its home security products specifically for the European market. In addition to a new video doorbell, the company revealed the next-gen of its smart alarm system, plus new indoor and outdoor smart cameras — all of which integrate with its line of smart locks.

Using the Yale Smart Video Doorbell, you can keep tabs on your doorstep with 1080p footage and a 154-degree field of view. The device comes in wired and wireless options, offering two-way audio talk, live viewing, and night vision. You’ll receive a notification when the doorbell detects motion and when someone rings the doorbell. The Smart Video Doorbell itself costs £129.99 / €159.99.

Meanwhile, the Smart Indoor Camera offers 1080p footage, a 110-degree field of view, night vision, and motion-triggered recordings. You can program the camera to enter a privacy mode whenever your door is unlocked, stopping it from recording while you’re at home. The device also offers customizable coverage zones, AI-powered human detection, and motion scheduling “to exclude notification triggers from regular occurrences.” It’s priced at £59.99 / €59.99.

Additionally, Yale is releasing wired and wireless versions of a new Smart Outdoor Camera with 1080p footage and a 154-degree field of view. For a price of £119.99 / €129.99, the device comes with a spotlight that turns on when it detects movement, motion-triggered recordings, and “enhanced” color night vision.

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While companies such as Ring and Nest offer similar smart home security products — in Europe and the UK, Yale’s has the advantage of a tight integration with its line of door locks.

Anyone have any experience with Yale?

SamMobile had a SmartThings Week, so I thought I might as well use it to kick off a general SmartThings thread:

• Samsung’s home automation app has evolved
• All about managing your smart home
• Automating your smart home
• Doing house chores has never been easier
• Never lose your settings and Routines

I've never used it (back in the early days it didn't sound so great) but I also understand that using Home Assistant and its ilk are (or were) more for hobbyists who didn't mind tinkering and some people just want a system that is a little more user-friendly. I'm just not sure I'd recommend it to such a person over HomeKit but I've used neither, so...

I was thinking about getting a presence sensor for the living room (so I don't wake up in the dark because I fell asleep in there) and I stumbled across Smart Home Scenes articles covering a few of them, so I thought I might as well bundle them together.

In November last year, they did a comparison of three, then current, examples - Aqara's FP1 and Tuya's ZY-M100 and PS-HPS. It's a lengthy breakdown but they conclude:

As far as pricing goes, nothing can beat the ZY-M100 and the features it offers for half the price of the Aqara FP1. Considering the PS-HPS is around the same price, I would not regard it as a viable alternative as it falls short in so many categories.

Since then, Aqara have released the FP2 which they reviewed in April this year:

When it comes to price, naturally the Aqara FP1 is cheaper than it’s successor. The real question is, is the FP2 worth it’s price tag of $82.99? Obviously, that’s up to you to decide.

• Is multi-person detection something you need or want?
• Is native HomeKit and Matter support important for your setup?
• Is cloud dependency okay with you, perhaps until the FP2 is completely jailbroken?

I feel like the Aqara FP1 is still a capable mmWave presence sensor, if implemented correctly. Better yet, the Tuya ZY-M100 is an incredible alternative at a really low price. I may be biased, because I love local communication (Zigbee) and don’t really like to depend on Wi-Fi for these types of devices. The choice is yours.

They also compared the Everything Presence One to the FP2:

In comparing the EP1 to Aqara’s FP2, I could not decide for certain which one is the more capable static human presence sensor. In each test, they clocked in at the same second, making them almost identical as far as presence detection speed goes. The FP2 was faster by around 30 seconds in clearing presence though, so it might be able to save you a few bucks by turning the lights off earlier.

Regarding static human presence in a room, they both performed similarly with no clear winner. I suffered false positive triggers on both devices from my curtains, until I turned them to face the other direction. This is something that you will need to optimize yourself, as it’s largely dependent on your installation area/room.

It came up in the discussion about smart home set-ups but is important enough to flag up in its own post as this can be the key ingredient in your smart home network.

Before deep diving into the list, it’s important to differentiate between the types of Zigbee dongles available.

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The easiest of the lot are USB Zigbee sticks, you simply plug them in your server and you are good to go. LAN/PoE coordinator allow for a more versatile installation, you can attach the dongle anywhere on your network. Hybrids are a combination of the two with interchangeable operation/power modes.

The second important difference between current Zigbee dongles is the type of chip they carry. The EFR32MG21 [Datasheet] is newer, more powerful but is still labelled as experimental in many Zigbee applications, such as Zigbee2MQTT. The CC2652P [Datasheet] is a bit older, although still relevant and powerful enough to form a sizeable Zigbee network. It’s supported in all Zigbee applications.

The top 5 dongles;

1. Home Assistant SkyConnect
2. Sonoff ZBDongle-E
3. Sonoff ZBDongle-P
4. SMLIGHT SLZB-02 Coordinator
5. ZigStar Stick v4

There's a lot more information over on the Smart Home Scene page (where I was looking something else up when I stumbled on this).

A year ago at Berlin’s IFA tech trade show (think European CES), Verge reporter Jon Porter witnessed a Google Nest Hub control an Apple HomeKit smart plug. This “lightbulb moment for the smart home” was the first public demonstration of Matter. The new smart home standard is designed to fix the biggest issue facing tech in our homes: interoperability, and witnessing two fierce competitors in the space working together was exciting. Twelve months later, on the eve of IFA 2023, we’re still waiting for that lightbulb to turn on across the industry.

The smart home remains fragmented. Despite being developed by the biggest names in the industry — Amazon, Apple, Google, Samsung, and more — Matter has yet to deliver on its main promise. You still can’t just buy a smart light bulb, screw it in, and have it work with every other smart light you have (no matter who made it) and with any ecosystem you want.

Today, if you want the full benefits of home automation, you still need to pick a smart home platform and largely stay within its walled gardens unless you want to tinker with more hardcore DIY options involving Raspberry Pis.

But trade shows like IFA, which kicks off this week, are about tomorrow. And I’m hoping the future that’s on display at this year’s show is more connected and less fragmented than what we’ve seen from the smart home so far.

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Or what about SwitchBot’s new robot vacuum and mop, which will not only refill itself with water directly from your water lines but can take that water to a humidifier to fill it up, removing another boring chore from your To-do list? The company also tells me it has plans to use the robot’s battery as a roaming charger for different household products.

If this works, it could make for a device that you can delegate chores to entirely, rather than needing to supervise, and it’s not hard to imagine a future where this charging functionality could even take over chores relating to other gadgets like charging smartphones or wireless air purifiers.

cross-posted from: https://radiation.party/post/84177

[ sourced from The Verge ]

Under data protection laws there is a responsibility to take precautions when processing the personal data of other living individuals, including when using video and audio recording devices.

These rules do not apply if your security camera or doorbell films solely within the boundaries of your private property.

If you have a camera that just points at your private driveway, for example, or covers solely your back garden, then you do not need to worry as you won't be capturing any other private individuals (although, it is worth considering invited visitors and guests when using these devices).

If the camera records outside that boundary, such as the street or neighbouring homes or gardens, then you do have responsibilities under the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). This is because you could be capturing audio and video containing other people's private data.

cross-posted from: https://radiation.party/post/80931

[ sourced from The Verge ]

The articles summary

THE GOOD

• Easy to install
• Responsive touchscreen
• Intuitive interface
• Built-in motion sensor
• Alexa voice control
• Works with Ring, Google Nest, Sonos, Hue, Ecobee, and SmartThings

THE BAD

• Expensive
• Lacking some integrations
• No Siri or Google Assistant
• Some devices can be sluggish to respond
• No Matter support

Devices the Discord Crew and I have found to be compatible with Home Assistant and ESPHome Bluetooth Proxies

Most of these devices are plug and play auto discovery right into Home Assistant utilizing the Bluetooth or Bluetooth Proxy integration with ESPHome. Need to turn your ESP32 into a BT Proxy? ESP32, ESP32-C3, ESP32 Solo, or use the prebuilt flasher on ESPHome.

Even the most experienced hardware hacker would have trouble building something like the Xiaomi LYWSD03MMC. For as little as $4 USD each, you’ve got a slick energy efficient sensor with an integrated LCD that broadcasts the current temperature and humidity over Bluetooth Low Energy.

It’s pretty much the ideal platform for setting up a whole-house environmental monitoring system except for one detail: it’s designed to work as part of Xiaomi’s home automation system, and not necessarily the hacked-together setups that folks like us have going on at home. But that was before Aaron Christophel got on the case.

We first brought news of his ambitious project to create an open source firmware for these low-cost sensors last month, and unsurprisingly it generated quite a bit of interest. After all, folks taking existing pieces of hardware, making them better, and sharing how they did it with the world is a core tenet of this community.

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Certainly one of the most appealing aspects of Aaron’s “ATC” firmware is how easy it is to install. You’d expect something like this would require cracking the case and attaching a USB to UART adapter, and while you actually can go that route if you need to, 99% of users will be using the extremely clever “Web Bluetooth” flashing tool.

cross-posted from: https://radiation.party/post/72418

[ comments | sourced from HackerNews ]

cross-posted from: https://radiation.party/post/72242

[ sourced from The Verge ]