Fewer home automation postings? What's behind it?

[alexsh1]

Just my 2 cents
What @NeverDie is saying is true - it may be seasonal or just a decline trend very hard to say.
I do see this across all HA forums.
Firstly, a normal temp/hum node is not exciting any more - it has to be more intellegent. Like Alexa, please tell me ...
Another thing is that generally with social media development, I did notice a lot of forums activity has declined or simply stopped.

Let’s not forget that there are many plug and plug HA solutions and DIY may not appeal to all people

[gohan]

DIY in HA requires a lot of skills to be put together: I don't know many people with programming background, electronics, soldering, electrical work, computers, networking and so on. In addition if you start looking at machine learning to make stuff actually smart, that would kill everyone enthusiasm :sweat_smile:

[Sergio Rius]

@gohan +1 to that.

My father was electrician and tought me something. I'm programmer and I also do lots of database and network design and management... And I can assure you that combining skills needed for today's ha development is not trivial.

It's because microcontrollers language and flashing methods. If powerful and efficient ones that could run any Java or lua like language, loaded through simple Bluetooth were developed, the situation would radically change.

[alexsh1]

@gohan That's true, but I am talking about "Wow" factor. Remember the first iPhone? When I got my first iPhone 4, it was quite something. Now, I am looking at the same phone and saying how come I liked it? The same is here. 5 years ago a remote temperature sensor was - WOW! Now, this is just a sensor. I am sure you have plenty of these around.

The question is what incentives newbies have to learn all those skills you mentioned vs plug&play devices available where no learning/DIY is required. There is a video on the youtube about a guy doing DIY mobile iPhone from components in China upgrading a flash memory from 16Gb to 128Gb just to prove that this can be done.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leFuF-zoVzA

[gohan]

sure sonoff e xiaomi devices are indeed cheap and ready to use (sonoff allow some hacking though) and in fact they allow to do some DIY HA for less skilled people

[Sergio Rius]

@alexsh1 Truly, but that's what it's meant to be.

[alexsh1]

When I was doing electronics at school, Plug&play devices just did not exist.

There is choice right now.

[gohan]

Actually zwave, x10, zigbee and enocean devices have been on the market for some years if you wanted some HA and they are plug&play (they stil require someone with Electrical skills), but 50$ a piece didn't make them very affordable for everyone

[NeverDie]

I think what most people wanted wasn't actually HA but rather remote control. And now they have it, via the myriad of devices that can now be controlled via their smart phone or Alexa.

[alexsh1]

@neverdie This is how I started. I needed a remote for hot water heating (when returning from vocation)

[alowhum]

I've been working on a small demonstrator site to get some discussion going about how to make MySensors more appealing to beginners. It's meant as a discussion piece for now. Curious to hear your thoughts.

http://www.cloakingcompany.com/home/

[alexsh1]

@gohan my school days were long before that. Even 486 was not out yet.
The PC I used at school had 16kb of memory and I used a Hifi tape to load a simple program for 5 mins

[gohan]

I had a C64 with tapes

[alexsh1]

@gohan said in Fewer home automation postings? What's behind it?:

I had a C64 with tapes

Commondore was a luxury (64Kb of RAM!!!!). Only one out of many had it at home :-)

[tbowmo]

@gohan @alexsh1

I had a lambda8300 (zx81 clone) as my first computer 2kb ram, I had a expansion module with a whopping 32kb of ram. this was mid 80's. In 1988 I got a C64. Ahh the nostalgia :)

[zboblamont]

@tbowmo Hah, you were lucky, I finally upgraded from the monochrome to colour...

[Nca78]

@tbowmo said in Fewer home automation postings? What's behind it?:

I had a lambda8300 (zx81 clone) as my first computer 2kb ram, I had a expansion module with a whopping 32kb of ram. this was mid 80's. In 1988 I got a C64. Ahh the nostalgia :)

Enough to run MySensors, we should have a Z80 version with serial transport. Or infrared for a full wireless experience on the Canon X-07 I typed my first programming lines on.
That thing was awesome, very well built, portable and with advanced features allowing some very original use:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=eAAAAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA56&dq=Canon+X-07&hl=sv&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjmvILvtoXSAhXJAMAKHfYhBQ0Q6AEIJDAC#v=onepage&q=Canon X-07&f=false

[Yveaux]

@nca78 First port Arduino to it ;-)

Btw, nice magazine link :+1:

It show Tesla's predecessor:

and some saw add-on (not sure if it would pass today's safety standards though ;-) )

[alexsh1]

@zboblamont Good for you. I still play with these:

[NeverDie]

@alexsh1 By "play" I hope you mean making them, not riding them!