Combined IoT SmartHome topic

Hardware and technical stuff
81


This seems logical. But if I were to set up a separate network for Google Home, for example, would I lose the ability to control anything from my phone?

That assumes it is even practical to do in the first place. It doesn’t appear that many home routers support “micro-segmentation” - certainly not my Orbi.

82

You probably have an option for a guest network. Maybe that could work? I’m going to work on it over the holiday break, personally.

83

I put all my IoT crap on a segmented and strictly firewalled VLAN; it was the major impetus for my rather involved prosumer upgrade to a full-on Ubiquiti Unifi network at home.

Most stuff “just works” on a separate network because it connects to the cloud anyway, not directly to the device.

Sonos is a notable exception, I had to do a fair bit of work with IGMP snooping and such to get those packets to route properly.

Using the guest network on your consumer router should offer similar protection, just much less configurable. For example I want all those various IoT devices to use the pihole DNS (on my main LAN) to block ads and trackers, I want my ShieldTV streamers to access my NAS to play movies, and so on.

84

Easier said than done for many of us using consumer router guest network functionality. I’d quickly find things that need to talk across the barrier & make the whole thing pointless.

Apple TVs want to act as HomeKit hubs, for example, which wouldn’t work fi they can’t talk to the IOT stuff. So then you could move the Apple TVs to the guest network, but then they can’t talk to all the devices you want to stream to/from. It’d quickly balloon.

That’s not to say it isn’t important to be aware of issues, update your device firmwares, ensure you firewall carefully, consider running PiHole or similar, etc etc.

Diego

85

So a bit of a side q from the stuff here but I have a passing interest in smarthomes but I live in a mid-sized apartment and not sure what practical use I would have if I actually went the trouble of setting one up.

Are there any use cases you think that would make sense even in a fairly small space?

86

I’m in a 2BR duplex and yes, absolutely. It depends on what you want to do though and how small your space is (I have ~1000sqft across 5 rooms plus half a basement).

  • Smart lights are useful anywhere - beyond the obvious on/off voice dimming or color/warmth scenes are nice to set the mood.
  • Tie your bedroom lights into phone alarms and Google Assistant can provide a gentle raising of the lights leading up to waking up in the morning.
  • I have a motion sensor set up in the shared entryway that triggers on the door swinging open and turns on the hall lights which is great when you walk in with arms full of groceries.
  • Queue up a movie on your smart TV device of choice (and for bonus points, make it part of a routine that also dims the lights in the viewing area)
  • Smart screen in the kitchen for recipes
  • Smart speakers grouped together for whole home audio so you can listen to your music or podcasts as you move around the apartment
  • Depending on what you mean by apartment, tie in some Wyze cameras to monitor entrances and windows that may be susceptible to break-in
  • Smart thermostat that again depends on your situation, but can drop your heating bill by lowering temperatures when you’re out of the house (geofencing) and learning your schedule.

At the very least you should be able to get some value out of smart lighting then decide if you want to add-on from there.

87

Hah, I live in a 1BR apartment in Manhattan and I have 44 total devices on my network. Couple computers, couch iPad, my infamous PooPad Pro, phone, 3 Wyze cams, couple streamers, TVs, nest hubs, a nest mini for the bathroom, 3 Sonos speakers, tons of smart bulbs and outlets, harmony hubs, separate programmable IR emitters just for my airconditioners, you name it.

88

When the inevitable self-aware Internet monster destroys us all, we’ll know where it started.

89

Alexa, make all the lights blue.
I’m sorry, stusser, I can’t do that.

90

EVERYTHING MUST BE SMART. EVERYTHING!

91

Welcome to Costco, I love you.

92

Anyone not following the Fi thread, but who has Google Fi, you get a free Nest Mini as the holiday gift this year, if you claim it before December 31.

93

An alternative:

94
95

So I’ve got some open USB ports on various power strips and want to wall mount (read: velcro) cheap Android tablets (probably Amazon) for automation dashboards. Any software suggestions? I could stick with Google Home but there has to be something better, right?

Right now my ecosystem is pretty small - Hue, Nest, and Harmony - but I expect to add a few cameras sooner than later.

96

HomeAssistant if you want to cut out the cloud. I’d recommend looking into this sooner rather than later with IOT and SmartHome platforms shutting down left and right still.

97

https://blog.dakboard.com/use-dakboard-on-your-tablet/

I’ve seen a dude on Youtube who made a home assistant HUD thing with a TV mounted to the wall who used this. Seems nice.

Looks like maybe it’s limited to Smartthings though? https://blog.dakboard.com/add-your-smartthings-devices-to-dakboard/

And this summary: https://www.magicmirrorcentral.com/android-app-magic-mirror/

98

DAKboard looks beautiful but I think it’s a bit beyond the level I’m at right now. I’ll strive to get there in the next year or two :)

I’ll give HA and Hassio another look. The Android app still seems very early but thanks to the open nature of the project I found a few others that are worth checking out. Thanks!

99
100

I’ve got a stupid though simple question and hopefully someone could give me some insight.

My sony tv is connected to my router via the 5Ghz wifi network. I’ve been told it’d be better if I’d connect it via an ethernet cable. Since I live on my own there’s no concurrent streaming in my household, so does it really make a difference / improve the data connection to switch to a wire on that tv?

(The only “smart” thing I really use it for is streaming amazon/netflix in 1080.)