Hi, i have been using smart lamps from aliexpress for awhile now.
But these lamps force me to connect to an android app that phones-home to Beijing. Without the chinese yeelight app, i cannot change the color of the lamps.
I find that kind of creepy.
Is there a good smart lamp system that is privacy respecting and hopefully opensource?
One that is locked to my local lan instead of a chinese trojan horse that spy's on me 24/7.
I'm an arch linux user and i know some basic python scripting.
Buy a zigbee stick and use zigbee lamps; they are widely available (Ali, Ikea, Philips etc) and this solution doesn't cost a fortune. It also prevent you from needing to throw the lamps away whenever the app stops working or the manufacturing company goes bankrupt.
ZigBee is low-power radio (think Bluetooth but simpler), so there's no Internet involved at all unless you connect it to an Internet-based device, and there you have many choices including open source or home-grown solutions.
Most Wifi bulbs work locally with home assistant for example. And you can stop their communication with the internet with some basic network administration. Otherwise, Zigbee bulbs do not communicate over the internet, they can't. You will need a zigbee router, but there are open source solutions for that.
zigbee and/or zwave with a self hosted router like HA is the way. It even works if your internet is out snd nobody can just shut down the servers if they dont feel like paying for them anymore
Shelly makes smart bulbs. They can be used only locally if you want or connect to homeassistant.
I have some Shelly plugs and they're great.
If I ever buy a house, I plan to populate it with Shelly devices. I do want to try out Zigbee, but I don't have a need yet as I rent right now.
If you're really old, odds are you have experienced physical pains that have made "forgetting to turn off the light/appliance/device" a difficult experience rather than just inconvenient. I never liked the idea of IoT devices until chronic pain fucked up the whole mobility thing for me, now I realise it's a total necessity. Especially for societies with rapidly growing older demographics, increased rates of chronic illness, and inadequate social and medical systems.
I'm not that old but I grew surrounded by older people with several degrees of mobility and other painful conditions amd none ever required go to such points.
Issues with lights were solved by moving the height at which the switches were placed. Certain potentially dangerous appliances were placed with timed mechanical sockets or a special purpose circuit breaker was put in place. Low power night lights for safety during dark hours.
Simple, very cheap and as safe as possible solutions.
IoT is not a solution for me, unless you can make sure your entire network can live fully disconnected. Otherwise, no thank you.
Nothing absolutely needed, it's just a convenience factor. For example you can program them to turn on when your phone connects to the wifi, which will probably be a couple meters from your home. So the light is already on when you get home. Or you can program them to turn on and off at certain hours when you're off vacationing to simulate a presence.
Eh you get what you pay for. I have a "kamija" branded one that I use on my nightstand daily for about 5 years now. Has an aluminum base and weighs a ton. Looks like they didn't survive covid though, RIP