That's absolutely critical thing that most people don't unserstand at all.
I was originally worried about the "up is on, down is off" mantra being broken, but it really is not a big deal.
That thing annoyed me all the time. :)
Personally, I have found all of this effort to be far more than a gimmick. Being able to turn off all of the lights in one go from the bed after laying down is very nice.
Really, I turn off light only when I want dark in that place for some reason. Most time lights are on all the time. LED bulbs (lower the working current a little, changing the LED current setting resistor, they will last forever) eat too little power to care about. So, there are no any reason to turn off the light now. I even don't have a switches in some places like toilet or bath.
Being able to set it to randomly turn on lights when I am on vacation provides some degree of peace of mind.
That is nice feature for towns, I suppose.
Not a substitute for a proper alarm system, but it's something.
We rarely lock the doors here, but I guess it could be useful in less calm areas. However, I have some IP cameras and simple DVR program "motion" that analyse stream and record if something moves to watch on animals and weather events.
turn on all of my outdoor lights at once.
I just installed a photorelay, that turn on all outdoor lights on dusk and turn off on the dawn. No need to do anything at all. But may be it will be better to do it with timer that calculate time of sunset and sunrise for every day. Photrelay could turn on light during severe thunderstorm, when it come dark and then periodically dim the llights on lightnings.
Yes, and it bothers me how few customers understand it. I believe that the FTC should be enforcing false advertising laws against devices that require a connection to the cloud. Consumers deserve to know before they purchase a product, that their device can be made into a paperweight if/when the company decides to not run the servers or, worse, deem your device too old and artificially stop support for it. It's not enough to just say "requires connection to the internet." This should be as "in your face" as surgeon general warnings are on cigarettes.
Outdoor lights turning on dusk and off at dawn
I can do this, too, with my setup very easily with everything how it is. In fact, this happens in my "vacation mode." But when I am home, I do not want the outside lights on all of the time at night. And I don't like motion sensors because sometimes I want to enjoy the darkness outside.
Consumers deserve to know before they purchase a product, that their device can be made into a paperweight if/when the company decides to not run the servers or, worse, deem your device too old and artificially stop support for it.
It is a next level of "planned obsolescence", and I'm in doubt they will easily drop it anytime soon. You sould avoid such devices at any cost. It it is something very necessary and unreplaceable, as a way out I could propose replacement of firmware in such products with your own. In many cases you could reflash that "cloud devices" with your code, or, in the worst cases or non-eraseable ROM in MCU, replace MCU with a model with flash ROM and upload your code.
The same is with old-style mechanic "planned obsolescence". Replace the purposedly weak part with your own, made from decent material.
And fuck all that IP, patents and licenses shit. While you are not openly sell that fixes, you will be perfectly safe.
And I don't like motion sensors
Mee too. PIR sensors (ones that feel changes in temperature, with that white segmented IR lenses) make me feel weird and uncomfortable. Don't know why. And they turn off light if you are still here, but don't moving. Microwave sensors, like ones on the automatic doors in supermarkets and gas stations are better, but still there is feeling that it works not like it wold be correct. May be most discomfort is from quick and unexpected change in illumination. You approach dark place and your eyes adapted to the dark. And the sensor turns light on unexpectedly, you not control it, unlike with switch. May be with smooth turning on in sync with your approaching, the feeling would be much more pleasant. However I never saw ready devices with such feature, may be should try to make one to check.
That's absolutely critical thing that most people don't unserstand at all.
That thing annoyed me all the time. :)
Really, I turn off light only when I want dark in that place for some reason. Most time lights are on all the time. LED bulbs (lower the working current a little, changing the LED current setting resistor, they will last forever) eat too little power to care about. So, there are no any reason to turn off the light now. I even don't have a switches in some places like toilet or bath.
That is nice feature for towns, I suppose.
We rarely lock the doors here, but I guess it could be useful in less calm areas. However, I have some IP cameras and simple DVR program "motion" that analyse stream and record if something moves to watch on animals and weather events.
I just installed a photorelay, that turn on all outdoor lights on dusk and turn off on the dawn. No need to do anything at all. But may be it will be better to do it with timer that calculate time of sunset and sunrise for every day. Photrelay could turn on light during severe thunderstorm, when it come dark and then periodically dim the llights on lightnings.
Yes, and it bothers me how few customers understand it. I believe that the FTC should be enforcing false advertising laws against devices that require a connection to the cloud. Consumers deserve to know before they purchase a product, that their device can be made into a paperweight if/when the company decides to not run the servers or, worse, deem your device too old and artificially stop support for it. It's not enough to just say "requires connection to the internet." This should be as "in your face" as surgeon general warnings are on cigarettes.
I can do this, too, with my setup very easily with everything how it is. In fact, this happens in my "vacation mode." But when I am home, I do not want the outside lights on all of the time at night. And I don't like motion sensors because sometimes I want to enjoy the darkness outside.
It is a next level of "planned obsolescence", and I'm in doubt they will easily drop it anytime soon. You sould avoid such devices at any cost. It it is something very necessary and unreplaceable, as a way out I could propose replacement of firmware in such products with your own. In many cases you could reflash that "cloud devices" with your code, or, in the worst cases or non-eraseable ROM in MCU, replace MCU with a model with flash ROM and upload your code.
The same is with old-style mechanic "planned obsolescence". Replace the purposedly weak part with your own, made from decent material.
And fuck all that IP, patents and licenses shit. While you are not openly sell that fixes, you will be perfectly safe.
Mee too. PIR sensors (ones that feel changes in temperature, with that white segmented IR lenses) make me feel weird and uncomfortable. Don't know why. And they turn off light if you are still here, but don't moving. Microwave sensors, like ones on the automatic doors in supermarkets and gas stations are better, but still there is feeling that it works not like it wold be correct. May be most discomfort is from quick and unexpected change in illumination. You approach dark place and your eyes adapted to the dark. And the sensor turns light on unexpectedly, you not control it, unlike with switch. May be with smooth turning on in sync with your approaching, the feeling would be much more pleasant. However I never saw ready devices with such feature, may be should try to make one to check.