zlacker

Per the one tweet in the article that says they only bought one of these appliances because of the HA plugin: the lesson is don't buy smart devices that have cloud control. Whether or not they have local automation plugins (like HA), or just that have apps/cloud services, expecting those capabilities to remain for the life of the device is a fool's errand. We have a host of examples of cloud services being killed and open integrations getting taken down, and none of the examples where this hasn't happened have existed long enough for us to say anything besides "so far".

If you want smart functionality, it had better run entirely locally, or else you should not care about or depend on that functionality.

-edit- I also had to learn this lesson (somewhat) painfully. I chose the EVSE that I did for 2 reasons: it was on the list of devices my power company would help pay for and it had an HA integration. less than 6 months after I bought it, the company killed the API that the HA integration relied on.

Luckily for me, the HA integration wasn't that big of a deal, more of "nice to have", but I learned my lesson to never use non-local cloud functionality as a selling point.

>>Mostly+(OP)
Philips Hue did run locally, and now they are rolling out updates where a cloud account is required.

>>Tomte+r
Yeah the second rule is: for anything that runs locally and for which your use doesn't require an internet connection: put it on a separate network without WAN access.

I also had to learn that lesson painfully when my network connected Brother printer got a (unasked for and unapproved) firmware update that disabled the 3rd party toner cartridge it was using. It's now blocked from the internet in my router, but it's unfortunately a case of shutting the barn door after the cows are gone.

>>Tomte+r
Hue bulbs and strips run fine on HA. For a couple of reasons, I have a completely offline system running in a Docker container with a ZigBee dongle (mainly I have no control over my LAN). I don't use the bridge any more. You don't get some of the scenes and other functionality that the bridge offers, but 90% of the functionality is there.

The bridge already has some weird requirements like refusing to work unless you connect an ethernet cable. As far as I know the update is to force you to use an account with the app, but the devices should still be compliant with other controllers.

>>Tomte+r
That is only for the Hue app. You can still just put them in pairing mode and use any zigbee controller you like.

>>Tomte+r
I’ve also been annoyed by this but thankfully the local hub still accepts HTTP requests just fine. The first party mobile app is all that’s affected.

>>jabron+V5
You can also still use the Hue hub. It accepts local http requests for all functionality.

>>Mostly+(OP)
Totally correct.

Furthermore: reject them not only when the regular use goes through a cloud, but also anything that needs a specific app download or cloud connection just to change settings. All functionality available on local network and with standard tools or nothing.

I saw that a lot with cameras. "It has ONVIF, you just have to download--," nope, that's it, next candidate.

>>Tomte+r
Thankfully it's not much of a loss, and there's actually a lot to gain by not touching Philip's cloud.

If you use HomeAssistant and have some Philips Hue equipment, you can pick up a $30 coordinator and you'll be in full control. It's a nice bonus that compatibility with other zigbee devices expands dramatically.

I got rid of my Hue Hub ages ago.

>>Tomte+r
And I don't know if it's just me, but responsiveness seems worse in recent months (using iOS app, don't know if it's the app or the bulbs or the hub). And sometimes the app is out of sync with the actual light states. I haven't seen this in years of using Hue bulbs and app.

Plus finding I'm logged out and having to log back in when I just want to turn a light on/off in the middle of the night (because baby) is a PITA.

>>vosper+Tn
I haven't had Hue login troubles, but the quality of the light control has gone down a bit. If I tell it to turn the lights to the fireplace mode, that gets turned into multiple instructions to the light bulbs, but sometimes it drops some of them for no reason. So I get half-brightness daylight-white instead.

>>devmor+e8
Aren't they removing that?

>>privac+QJ
So far mine keeps working with Home Assistant

>>jprete+er
Yeah that sounds about right, too. Sometimes I move the slider and it doesn't adjust. Sometimes the slider is in one place and jumps to another without me touching it. Not often, but I'm pretty sure it never used to happen.

I'm probably going to ditch Hue in favour of smart switches and dumb bulbs in my next house, so not too worried about it.

>>privac+QJ
I haven't heard anything about that - but, if you have disallowed it from accessing the internet, it can't update to remove any features.

>>privac+QJ
No, they're just enforcing that everyone must have an account to use the Hue app. But big parts of the whole Hue ecosystem depend on local access, so it's out of the question that they'd remove it.