That's still ridiculous.
Amazon servers have no business being between my phone and my vacuum. At least when I'm in the same local network.
Ideally it should let me set up port forwarding on my router to talk to the vacuum from the outside too.
Ideally it should let me set up port forwarding on my router to talk to the vacuum from the outside too.
Of course, you should build your own bridge to connect them to (rather than using the bridge of a big tech company).
For Zigbee you can use the Conbee [0] and for Z-Wave you can use the Z-Stick [1] to build your own bridge.
Furthermore, some of the cheaper WiFi devices that are based on the ESP8266 chip can be flashed with a custom firmware called Tasmota [2] to make them cloud-free.
[0]: https://www.phoscon.de/en/conbee2
If both the phone and the device are in the same network, they can communicate just fine.
Devices based on the popular ESP8266 can also frequently be freed from their cloud overlords with community-made firmware [0], [1] and used as proper Intra-o-T devices.
I decided a while back that I would have no part in this Inter-o-T madness and I think it was a good choice.
[0]: https://github.com/arendst/Tasmota
[1]: https://esphome.io/
Heh, just noticed you linked Tasmota as well while I was writing this. Good project, I use it too!
I dumped my Wink Hub for one after they did their bait-and-switch for subscription fees. Never been happier with home automation.
Nah, Internet is great for updates.
The problem, while it doesn't fit a description as slogan-friendly as yours, is the reliance on centralized servers as essential for routine operations rather than just for optional (though potentially important) updates, and this isn’t an engineering problem but a deliberate business decision to enable X-as-a-Service business models (whether paid for via recurring subscription, ongoing user data, or both.)
Imagine having to fiddle with iptables to use your vacuum. I think I'll just get up and press that button manually...
In a cloud-bullshit-free world, a UPNP-style autodiscovery/port could be useful, perhaps with Urbit-style access control.
Actually, that's exactly where their business exists.
I think you're both right.
I'd explain, but it's none of my business.
Ah, hell, why not. You see, he made it his business to point out that the phone-vacuum communication has no business going through Amazon servers, there's simply no need.