master: welcome to my Smart Home
student: wow. how is the light controlled?
master: with this on-off switch
student: i don't see a motor to close the blinds
master: there is none
student: where is the server located?
master: it is not needed
student: excuse me but what is "Smart" about all of this?
master: everything.
in this moment, the student was enlightened
@lritter FWIW I'd really like a timer on closing the window, so I can run the aircon on a timer before I get home.
@GyrosGeier timer controlled power adapters are blessed
@lritter I'd love something triggered by sunlight/temperature to open/close curtains in order to make the most of natural warming/cooling cycles.
But I don't want it enough to sell my soul to IoT companies.
@zeborah @lritter @GyrosGeier
Define "sell your soul"
Because if you can accept selfhosted & open source then you can do alot with home assistant and esphome
@_nibbles Oh yeah I forget to mention I also don't want to spend weeks/months of my life trying to figure out the technical details myself.
There's also the mechanical/electrical engineering on top of the software engineering. If this was the only thing in my life I wanted then sure I could probably learn enough to figure it out but I've got other hobbies and also a job. And if it was the only renovation I needed I could pay for it but I've got a long list for that too.
@zeborah @_nibbles @GyrosGeier my 20 year experience is that OSS is a time-costly buy-in that pays off tenfold in the long run.
@lritter @zeborah @_nibbles @GyrosGeier Frankly, when it comes to basic smart home things, it's at a point where "time-costly buy-in" was already done by others. It's like building from LEGOs now.
That said, it's taking me two years and counting to lay the cables and connect my already LEGO-built OpenTherm controller to my boiler, so I understand the friction very well 😂
