2 out of the 3 smart plugs I’ve bought in the last couple of years have shit themselves for whatever reason. One just doesnt turn off, the other bricked itself after moving house (???)

If anyone here has used any smart plugs that havent died within a couple of years I’d love to know. I’m only using them for lamps that are a prick to reach. Bonus points for any that dont require bullshit apps to set them up

PS: UK But I guess I can find similar models if you got em

  • blobjim [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    0·
    7 days ago

    using some bespoke IoT protocol instead of wifi seems like it’s less compatible than more. Why use some specific low tech technology instead of a widely used system like Wi-Fi which uses existing hardware people already have in their home? If people start using Thread and Zigbee and Z-Wave and so on everything will just be a mess.

    apparently zigbee doesn’t even use internet protocol.

    • ANarcoSnowPlow [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      0·
      7 days ago

      • most wifi devices are cloud based, which means they can go out of business or start charging you for access to your device. Or stop updating their app… Or… Etc. Etc.

      • wifi is accessible remotely, combined with the cloud point, you increase your surface area for someone accessing your home network without your permission

      • adding 20+ iot devices will bog down pretty much all your consumer grade routers. You will degrade performance across your network.

      • matter, thread, ZigBee, and zwave are not bespoke or “low tech”. They are standards developed to mitigate the above listed points. They use completely different frequency bands than wifi, they are not designed for high throughput applications.

      • you mitigate the “mess” by running locally controlled software on a hub that aggregates all the devices in a communication agnostic way.

      • blobjim [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
        0·
        7 days ago

        Yeah the wireless bandwidth utilization is definitely a problem with Wi-Fi since the smallest channel bandwidth is 20 MHz. I guess if you’re going to have tons and tons of devices then using something specialized that is really low bandwidth is necessary, but it’s more of a burden to learn about and less future proof since it’s using a more specialized technology that isn’t shared with lots of other use cases that will keep it maintained and improved for a long time. I think (or at least hope) that Wi-Fi HaLow (802.11ah) will replace Thread, Zigbee, and Z-Wave. Last thing the world needs is even more wireless communication standards that do the same stuff as existing ones. We already have 4G, 5G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (and some bespoke ones for wireless mice and headsets)!

        I think once IoT devices start using Wi-Fi 6 (and it looks like the ESP32-C6 chip has Wi-Fi 6) that may allow for more devices because it uses bandwidth more efficiently. Same for Wi-Fi 7 and 8. I really wish Wi-Fi HaLow would be supported by Wi-Fi access points and IoT devices, because it was designed for that. U guess the reason that Thread and Zigbee are getting adoption is that they use the 2.4 GHz band so it can share hardware with 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi (as seen in the ESP32 product line which now also supports Thread and Zigbee).

        Tasmota and ESPHome-based devices are non-cloud alternatives to the weird proprietary stuff a lot of companies have, so you don’t have to use non-wifi devices to avoid the online stuff. The Tasmota-based devices I have don’t auto-update, you can manually update them by going to their web server and tell it to do an OTA update (or you can upload a file yourself). I’ve done about 3 to 5 updates to the three devices I have (two different device models) and have had no issues.

        Wi-Fi is also not remotely accessible, it’s just a wireless link to the LAN created by a router. Using Wi-FI/IP/LAN is a good re-use of existing network infrastructure.

        • ANarcoSnowPlow [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
          0·
          6 days ago

          For the people who can’t be bothered to deal with ZigBee or zwave, the wifi is always connected to the Internet. Which means that those devices are possible threat vectors.

          If you could properly configure a vlan to isolate your untrusted iot devices you would also be entirely capable of configuring a zwave or ZigBee mesh network.

          I’ve built my own esphome sensors and have tasmota compatible devices (Shelly, I endorse all of their tasmota capable devices), but the use case is different.

          There are different tools for different jobs, that’s why we have these different standards. It’s not about fracturing markets or some other capitalist end goal, it’s about having the right tool for the job. Wifi ain’t it.