Up to a week ago many of my Automations relied on Cloud Services.
Finally today I took off from equation everything what was relaying on Cloud Services.
(I live in Sunny Isles Beach, FL. We love Sun and hate Clouds.)
I really don't like any automation based on Cloud Services.
To my engineering eyes having the entire Internet Infrastructure between
Light Switch and Light Bulb in the same room is absolute nonsense.
For the same reason I am not using any Voice Assisted automations.
Everything must be 100% local.
And I am saying a BIG Thank You for the Hubitat Team (@bravenel, @bobbyD
and all other nice HE guys).
Initially all my Curtains/Shades/Blinds and Ecobee Thermostat automation was based
and relayed on Clouds.
For my "Home Arrival -> Automatic Door Opening" project I started to use
HA (Home Assistant). As a side effect I quickly learned, I can remove Cloud Integrations
and make things working 100% locally. Yes, this involves extra HW plus
some integration effort but this is absolutely worth it.
-
Switchbot Curtains (5 of them) originally used nice and very well working
@tomw Switchbot Integration. But it still was Cloud-based.
HA has native built-in 100% local Switchbot integration.
And thanks to HADB (Home Assistant Device Bridge, also design by @tomw)
all 5 Switchbot Curtains are visible and controlled by HE. -
Graywind Vertical Blinds originally used even two Clouds: HE<-->Alexa<-->Tuya
I found a Tuya Local Driver designed by @holand.ivar and ask him for tweaking
his driver for controlling my Vertical Blinds. Big Thanks to @holand.ivar help
now my Tuya Vertical Blinds are 100% controlled locally directly from HE.
(Driver is working just fine but still needs minor corrections.) -
Graywind Window Shade has a Zigbee Motor (I bought a Zigbee version on porpous).
Originally I could not find a HE Driver for controlling this Shade.
Integration was done through the Alexa in a middle.
Now I tried again to pair it directly with HE and Generic Zigbee Shade Driver does the job.
Good Bye Alexa. -
Up to yesterday Ecobee Thermostat integration was using native HE Ecobee integration.
Thanks to HA, Home Kit and HADB now Ecobee integration became 100% local.
Plus, now HE can see Ecobee Temp Sensors as a Motion Sensors as well.
MS capability was not exposed to HE with native Ecobee Integration.
It looks like custom Ecobee driver did expose Sensor's MS capability but I never
tried custom driver. Plus it still is/was Cloud-based integration.
So, as of today only my Delta Faucet with VoiceIQ has Alexa based integration.
This is used only for automating Garbage Disposal to make sure water is
running when Garbage Disposal is turned on. As of today Delta has only
integration with Alexa. But for this specific thing I am OK to use Alexa.
