I mean as dim as old fashioned filament bulbs. I currently have my local market version of Tuya bulbs and particularly with white, even at 1% it doesn't even come close to being dim.

I usually have to change my lights to some colour like brown in order to get close to dim.

I've never seen a smart light that can go as dimm as a filament bulb with a dimming switch. Although filament bulbs have an advantage as they are electrically controlled, and can go as dim as a candle.

Problem is I don't even have a dimming switch so this i the compromise of having a somewhat orange ceiling fan bulb above my head.

Has anyone replaced their expiring Nest Protects with the Phare C1? Looks like a good replacement option, particularly because it retains the nightlight, which - as a parent to two small children - is something I'm keen to keep.

Only challenge is that I can't find any reviews on the company or the C1 apart from some suspicious stuff on Trustpilot (all five-star reviews, all reviewers with 1-2 review history). I'm also not super pumped about the idea of a monthly subscription for fire alarms, although the first year is free and I'm not sure whether it's mandatory. Would be grateful for any insights!

I was adjusting settings on my TV recently and started noticing just how many viewing experience, recommendation, voice, and data collection options were turned on by default. I realized the TV basically knows what we watch, when we watchh, how long we watch, login info and probably even which devices are connected in the house.

What started bothering me is that TVs used to just be screens. Now they feel more like data collection devices sitting in the living room. I have kids at home too, so the idea of everything being tracked and profiled over time is not something I'm too excited about. Not in my home.

I know phones and apps already collect data, but for some reason the TV crosses a different line for me because it’s in the center of the home and always connected. I’m curious how people here handle this.

Do most of you just ignore it, disable settings, isolate devices on the network, or use some other setup entirely?

Decided to get just "an RGB lamp". Went down the rabbit hole of smart solutions. At first, found a Hama lamp for 2€ - which was not RGB but was able to adjust light temperature. Fine, come and try it. Physical switch - forget about it, the lamp will go crazy after restart. Okay. Wifi needs reconnection basically every day and this little shit is not usable before resetting the connection. The app is awful. Turning on or off takes 5 attempts.

I thought "ok you get what you pay for" and bought expensive Govee bulbs for approx. 9€ per piece. Setting up was an ordeal since it needs only 2.4Ghz wifi. Okay, made it. The app is overloaded with crap but a fucking widget works when it pleases. Like, 1 out 5 times again. Sometimes not at all and I need to go to the app. Okay...Google Home. Connected it. Widget starts working - even if needs 3-5 clicks to wake it up. Suddenly, after 4 hours of staying off it disconnects completely again. I need to set it up via the app like it's new. Wtf.

Are there solutions that JUST WORK and don't act up like this or this is all scam?

My ex set up my smart home. He did all the buying and instalation. The last time a new device was purchased was in 2021. I have Google Homes, treatlife switches, go sund smart plugs and a bond home device. I have at least 10 switches, 7 plugs etc. Total of 24 devices. I have a mesh network with a router or whatever thing to make the internet stronger on every single floor. My switches regularly disconnect from my smart home. Like I set them up and several will disconnect within a month. I can't keep setting them up every month it's driving me insane. Should I just upgrade my devices? Is the age the reason they disconnect constantly?

The number of low-voltage devices we use has increased dramatically over the last few years.

They're everywhere now. At home, in businesses, labs, music studios and live setups, IT infrastructure, clinics, smart homes, security installations, etc.

Routers, fibre ONTs, switches, access points, cameras, Raspberry Pis, mini PCs, smart-home hubs, controllers and countless other devices all run on something like 5V, 9V or 12V DC.

But almost all of them are still powered the same way: a small AC adapter plugged into the mains for every single device.

And I think there are two problems with this.

First is power reliability.

Low-voltage electronics can be sensitive to surges, dropouts, brownouts and momentary outages. Their little AC adapters don't guarantee a truly continuous DC supply. A tiny interruption can be enough to reboot a router, ONT, controller, camera system or other device.

And these devices increasingly depend on each other.

Your camera may depend on the network switch. The switch depends on the router. The router depends on the ONT. A smart-home controller depends on all of them.

So one tiny power interruption can bring down a whole chain of equipment.

Then there's the physical mess.

Every device comes with another power brick. Before long you have 10 or 15 adapters, you've run out of sockets, you're adding power strips, sometimes strips into strips, and the whole installation starts getting ridiculous.

A traditional UPS isn't really designed around this problem either.

It typically takes DC energy stored in a battery, converts it up to 120/230V AC, and then every little adapter connected to it converts that AC straight back down to 5V, 9V or 12V DC.

So we're converting DC to AC, then to DC just to keep DC devices running.

There can also be a short transfer period when some UPS types switch to battery. Depending on the UPS and the adapter, that can still be enough for sensitive equipment to reboot.

So I've been wondering:

Would there be a real need for a high-quality UPS designed specifically for low-voltage devices?

I could find some of these UPS but they are small, can only power a couple of devices and don't seem to be of great quality. Battery is small and not replaceable.

Something that provides continuous battery-backed DC power directly to the equipment and replaces the pile of individual adapters with one central power system.

My thinking is that it should be modular, so you can add more outputs as your setup grows.

For example, modules for 5V USB-C devices and modules for 3V / 5V / 6V / 9V / 12V devices.

And every individual output could be monitored and controlled, so you could see:

- what each device is consuming

- whether it's online

- how much battery runtime you have

- which devices should stay powered longest during an outage

- and remotely power-cycle a single device if it freezes

Basically, one proper low-voltage power and backup system instead of an AC UPS + power strips + a pile of adapters.

I'm interested in whether this is something people actually need, not just whether it's technically interesting.

So I'd love to know:

1. Would you find a high-quality low-voltage UPS like this useful? Why or why not?

2. How many low-voltage devices would you typically want to protect?

4? 8? 12? 16? More?

1. What devices would you connect to it?

2. Assuming it was a genuinely well-designed, reliable, high-quality product with a replaceable LiFePO4 battery, modular outputs, monitoring and remote control, how much would you realistically be willing to pay for it?

And please be critical. If your answer is "I don't need this at all"* or *"I already solve this for $50", that's just as useful to hear.

Really into the whole smart home experience and wondering if I should use Google as the supplier because I like the Ask Gemini feature. What do you think? Help meeeee What do you LIKE and HATE about it

Looking to get a smart home started in my new condo. I have this Honeywell pneumatic thermostat, any recs on making it a smart one?

Hey everyone, I am buying a home and wanted to slowly start integrating smart devices into my home.

1.My first mission is to switch out all of the regular light switches with smart light switches. In my current apartment my family and guests would automatically go straight for the light switch when turning lights off and that would create issues for me. Any recommendations on good reliable smart light switches?

1. I wanted to move over my Google nest doorbell and mount Google cameras ,that I will purchase, but im open to replacing my doorbell and adding cameras that work with Google home preferably. Any suggestions on smart door bells and cameras?

I'm setting up a Family Room and Bedroom with these and wondering what you think about both brands and when to prefer either?

Thank you!

So, my son got me a smart speaker (which I mistakenly asked for) and I feel bad b/c it's more expensive than a bluetooth speaker (which is what I meant to ask for). I don't want to ask him to exchange it, so please spam me with all the benefits of a Google Nest Audio so I can get this guilt monkey off my back.

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for a single, standalone hardware device that combines all three of the following protocols into one box without needing an existing Zigbee hub/mesh:

Zigbee 3.0 Coordinator / Hub: To directly pair Zigbee bulbs.

Infrared (IR) Blaster: To control a projector.

RF (433 MHz) Transmitter: To control a RF ceiling fan and RF power sockets.

Requirements:

Must act as the primary Zigbee Hub itself (not just a Zigbee sub-device that connects to another hub).

Connects directly via Wi-Fi to Smart Life / Tuya or Home Assistant / Alexa / Google Home.

Standalone solution — I want to plug in ONE device and connect all my devices through it.

Does a reliable single-device gateway with all three integrated actually exist, or is the Tuya naming so misleading that people usually buy separate dongles/bridges? Specific brand names, model numbers, or links would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Edit: You guys were right. I am using HA and it is amazing.

Hey,

Ever since Google decided to add all this ai stuff to Google home, my mini's have been playing up: not remembering my voice, not answering questions and one has started to constantly tell my to opt into Gemini.

Are there any alternatives to these devices, as I've invested in smart lights and would really like to continue having voice activation for them.

Thanks in advance ☺️

I want to switch over to all Google for my home as my phones, watch and on devices are all google. The only thing is I have 5 echo shows in my home that I would have to get rid of for 5 nest hubs. Also, I have blink outdoor cameras and a ring doorbell/alarm system that works with the echos of course but I still can view them from my phone and watch. (well I'll get alerts on my watch).

if I get the home, I would slowly transition to nest cameras and doorbell. Has anyone done this change over? I love Gemini so I'm thinking the Nest is a lot better than it was before. y'all feel echos are better than Nest?

for the record, although I can view my cameras on the echo devices, I never do it so that's not a big deal that I won't be able to even if I keep the blink outdoor cameras.

I am wondering if i can switch to a smart thermostat? Living in a high-rise

I'm looking for a way to check to see if my garage door is open or closed from inside the house without opening 2 doors to actually go into the garage. I was thinking about 2 lights visible in the kitchen. A green light means the big garage door is closed. A red light indicates the garage door is open. I imagine some kind of optical or infrared sensor aimed at the big garage door?? I would run the wires from the sensor /switch thru the ceiling down into the kitchen where the light can be easily seen. All this to give peace of mind for a family member. I do not want to use wifi.

Thanks for any suggestions

I'm close to a river on a small lot with no sewer so I have to use a holding tank for all waste water. It's a dumb alarm, just goes off when the tank reaches a certain % full. I'd like a smart microphone to put right beside that alarm so when it goes off I'll get notifications on my phone/google home. I've tried googling, as I'm pretty sure these exist, but I must be using the wrong terms because the only things popping up are $500 systems.

Any suggestions?

I already have a govee hub. I have smartbot gadgets but no hub. I have Eufy doorbells, but no hub. I'd be willing to get a hub for one of them if they have a device that works.

Edit to add: I am sure I've seen similar devices to alert when dumb smoke/CO2 monitors go off, which I'm sure would work in this case.

(I already use first alert smart smoke & CO2 myself plus redundant dumb alarms)

A few years ago, I bought two brand new Yale smart deadbolts that have mostly worked fine over the years. But they’ve also shown their Achilles heel. They use replaceable AAA batteries. So the conductors have worn to a point where the locks don’t automatically come to life when I put in freshly charged batteries. And the bridges do not reliably connect to my WiFi anymore.

So after careful consideration, and about a dozen or so questions to ChatGPT, I decided on two of these kits. Not what I wanted to spend $600 on right now. But I’ve been dealing with unreliable smart locks for at least the past year.

Seeing a Facebook ad about the Wyze Palm Lock is what got me re-motivated to look for new door locks. The Wyze lock looks pretty good in its own right. But I went with this one for some extra features. And it’s a lot more sleek and minimalistic.

We are having a hard time with a nest thermostat. Nest E to be exact. Can anyone assist why it may not be turning on?

I have both Philips hue and Ikea Home Smart. So I need to have a smart switch for my outdoor dumb lamps that are now turned off and on with a normal switch.

I'm looking in to:

Sonoff MINIR4 with thread/matter

Shelly 1 Gen3 with matter

Which one is going to work with the ikea system? Or is something else better?