Hacker News Reader

Comment by pmg | Hacker News Reader

10 years in the trenches here.

Apple’s smart home protocol famously does not support multiple users. Amazon is choosy on what features you can implement (turn on alarms but not turning them off, locking doors but not unlocking them). Google loves using radio hardware no one else supports. Zigbee has delightful legacy security vulnerabilities and consortium drama.

I look forward to these groups putting aside their differences, coming together, and creating a new standard that combines the best of all these anti-patterns.

View on HN

That was very well put. I eager await the new standard, released in 2033, that allows me (but not my wife) to lock our door using handcrafted 1.38GHz radios that require FCC licensing on the per-unit level.

> Amazon is choosy on what features you can implement

Allowing someone to holler into an open (or recently broken) window to open my front door sounds terrifying.

I, on the other hand, am on the 17th floor. Anyone who can holler at a smart device in my apartment has already compromised something important, and could probably get in anyway.

Also, just require a passphrase? To go full star trek, "[Alexa/Google/Siri], unlock the front door, authorisation singingboyo Alpha Pi Pi Zulu" sounds workable.

IIRC Amazon does allow for this. I use Smartthing + Homebridge for operating my lock (Prompts me on my phone to unlock the door when I get near the house and locks the door when I close it) but I do have Alexa as well and I at least looked into using it to lock/unlock. For the unlock I have to read off a pin, it will lock without needing a pin.

We truly live in the future.

I’m not sure if you are joking/mocking but for me at least it’s super convenient to tap a notification on my watch as I pull into my driveway and way directly into my house (detached garage I don’t park in so I enter through the front door). It’s also nice to know anytime I close the door it will lock behind me. I quite enjoy living in the future.

Or you could use voice authentication... or require that known phones are within range, or best yet don't link your smart speaker to your door lock (when do the pros outweigh the cons here?)

I use a password to deactivate my Ring via our Echo.

I bet you sleep fine knowing anyone can simply pick your locks to get in using knowledge easily obtained on YouTube and using tools readily available.

That statement is equally true for fancy "smart" systems.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32815036036.html

sleep tight.

Yes. So they are both susceptible to being compromised. So it'd be up to user preference as to what method they want to lock / unlock their door with then?

To sleep fine you can use the type of a lock that only opens from inside with turn of a knob (deadbolt?).

I keep thinking back how in the dark ages my parents never locked the door. Much less windows. No one had time for that.

If they broke your window they’d probably crawl through it.

What about throwing a small speaker through the window that blasts out “Alexa, unlock front door ... Siri, unlock front door” ? (I’m no criminal mastermind, but just a random thought)

> Apples smart home protocol famously does not support multiple users.

Can you clarify this? I set up my "home" and was able to share it with my wife, who sees all of the same controls in the Home app that I do. We don't have any family sharing, etc set up.

I think that they mean there is no way for your wife (or more practically, a kid) to see a different set of controls, it's all or nothing.

> Apple’s smart home protocol famously does not support multiple users.

It does? I'm added to my dad's account and can access everything just fine along with my own stuff.

>everything

Is there an alternative today, like a de facto standard based on open specs/protocols?

When it comes to smart home tech cost-cutting it's all about simplifying the small-but-many pieces. That's where RF 433 Mhz comes in.

Why should I pay $40+ for a zigbee/z-wave/smart-things/wifi-enabled door sensor when I can get a $35 RF Sonoff bridge and get each sensor for around $4-$8 from china.

So you can save a lot of money by using that tactic with door sensors/window sensors/PIR Sensors/Alarm systems/Sirens/Switches etc. because those will add up massively. You can't use that for TV/Speakers/Cameras ofc but you can bring everything together onto home assistant.

As far as I'm concerned, only the community can decide which protocol will win and these big techs should just put their weight behind a protocol built with the community instead of closed-door-consensus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfSbIFIJPuc

https://www.home-assistant.io/components/

How about Bluetooth 5.0 (with mesh)?

Z-Wave?

Z-wave is about as far as you can get from open. Until 2018 when SiLabs acquired it from Sigma, all silicon had to be purchased directly from Sigma.

The hardware is far from open, but the issue of the interface being 'licensed' was cleared by SiLabs, which was very nice.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com