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Comment by undecisive | Hacker News Reader

> For some reason, GE decided not to install a physical reset button – you know, one of those tiny holes that you have to stick a pin or paperclip into.

Hmmm... Nope, I can't see a problem with getting people to stick a paperclip into holes around mains electricity! Sounds perfectly safe.

Seriously though, this is bonkers. Power cycling patterns are by far the best method for initiating a reset - and no, sending a reset command via apps is not feasible (what if you've lost the account password and you've accidentally paired it to your neighbours wifi?)

But all bulbs have a "first-use" setup procedure. So a simple power cycling routine (e.g. on-off 5 times with no more than 5 seconds in either state) - indicate with a flashing light when it's in the first-use state. Save the previous settings so that if the kids have done it (because they like the flashing lights) a simple power cycle will restore the previous settings.

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> e.g. on-off 5 times with no more than 5 seconds in either state

Until you get a small kid that has just learned how light switches work, probably around 2 or 3 years.

I'm 28 and still enjoy doing that.

Yep! And we have cheap wifi lightbulbs that have a reset mechanism similar to the one I described. He was less than 3 before he worked out that he could make the lights flash by switching on and off repeatedly.

Unfortunately, ours made the mistake of just forgetting everything when placed in reset mode, not being recoverable. Still, thankfully the phase was short-lived.

that is exactly why the GE reset process is how it is, so you cant accidentally reset all the bulbs in your house, by flicking a switch 3 times. Ive even had bulbs reset being unscrewed while the power is on, because they flickered.

I have a lot of different brands of smart bulb, and I appreciate the GE procedure. The people complaining about it dont see why its the less bad alternative that 3-5 constantly timed power cycles.

That or the Cheat decides to throw a light-switch rave

> and no, sending a reset command via apps is not feasible (what if you've lost the account password and you've accidentally paired it to your neighbours wifi?)

Hubs save all the pain with smart lighting system. No need for an account, system works locally. If you wanna control them remotely, you can (but you don't have to). Connected to the wrong wifi? Reset a hub instead of individual bulbs. You pair bulbs with hubs and have just one device spamming traffic to your router.

Ikea and Philips Hue seem to be the only systems that got this solution down properly.

I have a few problems with hubs; you need to store the physical thing somewhere, and as a house with difficulties in getting a wifi connection to corners, I can't guarantee that the coverage will be good enough before committing to a whole system. Then there's interoperability - I don't really want to be locked in to Phillips bulbs (though I'm sure some are a little more interoperable than others)

So I'm left thinking: I already have a wireless signal hitting most of the house, why complicate things? I'm not sure ability to reset is worth it...

Note that the Philips system is a mesh network, so you communicate with the bulbs via WiFi/LAN to hit the hub, but the hub communicates via the mesh network, which lets it reliably reach distant bulbs out of WiFi range so long as there's a bulb chain it can bounce the signal along.

> I have a few problems with hubs; you need to store the physical thing somewhere, and as a house with difficulties in getting a wifi connection to corners

The hub only speaks WiFi to the app.

All the smart units (hub included) use Zigbee mesh-networking for cross device-communication, which is self-extending and only gets more reliable the more units you add.

At no point in time does IKEA or Hue bulbs depend on WiFi to function.

>Hmmm... Nope, I can't see a problem with getting people to stick a paperclip into holes around mains electricity! Sounds perfectly safe.

Assuming you would have to unscrew the bulb to get to the reset, which seems likely, yes it would be perfectly safe.

Ah, so you're thinking a switch that you depress, and stays depressed until you screw it back in? I guess that could work. I still don't have enough faith in humanity that someone might ignore the instructions and start poking around the electrical socket with a metal paperclip though...

Yep, this is people we're talking about! They'd be balancing 2 chairs on each other whilst randomly stabbing a paper clip in the direction of the bulb's screw, with the power on to be sure it worked! Product designers have to design for the stupidest of us.

I don't think it would need to be that complicated. Just a hole to put a paperclip into that completes a circuit and, I don't know, discharges a capacitor or uses one to clear something.

Also, light bulbs are only powered on when they are installed, oftentimes in inaccessible locations which can get pretty hot! A reset power cycle is hopefully an annoyance you only deal with once or twice.

Instead of a simple 8/2 second cycle they should tell the user "play the song 'Tubthumping' and turn the light off when you get knocked down, and turn the light on when you get up again!"

> Hmmm... Nope, I can't see a problem with getting people to stick a paperclip into holes around mains electricity! Sounds perfectly safe.

What say it needs to be in the socket? A battery or a capacitor is all you need to make sure it can still a bit outside its sockets (you don't need much to clear the memory either).

It could be a physical button too, no need for a pin.

The last thing I want to do is have to change the battery in my light bulbs.

A rechargeable battery can easily live just as long as the LEDs inside it.

I would still use a capacitor personally, but I said batteries because they could certainly work and Ikea does have a battery-powered light bulb with a button on it [1].

[1] https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60440888/

You have a lot of faith in rechargeable battery durability.

No need of faith, there are so many products that proved that you can trust rechargeable batteries. I'm considering buying a Volt right now and seems like that even the 2012 models are still keeping their ranges. I wish I could say that about many of my LEDS lightbulbs that are rated for tens of thousands of hours.

I have much less faith in any lightbulbs ;).

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