Smartphone Automation

K

Thread Starter

Ken

Anyone familiar or have experience with home automation with Smartphone capability?

I'm looking for residential solution and ideally DIY. Something that I found is this

Seems it is fairly simple and easy to install, and not that expensive.

Does anyone know where we can get something like this?

Thanks in advance.
 
I'm a cynic, borderline paranoid, maybe.
I wonder why we would want to use Skylink or anything remotely like it?

Oh, wait, the marketing people will spin us a whole lot of apparently good reasons. (when did marketing or sales people ever bullet point all the bad things? ever tell you the downside?)

So, nice Youtube and I get to the garage door opener.

I'm wondering "what makes the most noise opening the garage door? The remote control or the damn motor , un-lubricated tracks and the odd bicycle that gets tangled up in it because the kids never put stuff away properly. Or the sound of you hitting a pile of paint tines when you drive in trying to avoid the fallen bike?"

Well apparently Skylink solves all these problems and the baby sleeps on.

Off course, you shouldn't be using your mobile when you are driving. And presumably you have to touch screen menu search till you get to the garage door opener. With a dedicated garage door opener you just reach up and press the button as you approach the gates/door etc.
I can see myself sitting in the driveway (or the road) for a few minutes working through the menus and the cursed touch screen and then getting a phone call interrupt half way through from the wife wanting to know why I'm just sitting in the driveway (the curse of phones - she could always open the door and yell at me).

Here's the thing.
Once everything in your house is remotely operable by you via Skylink, there is a fair chance that you won't be the only one able to access your home appliances.
Some hackers will think it vastly amusing to run your appliances for you.

Worse yet, the eco-warriors or you local utility trying to avoid brownouts will take charge over your appliances whether you are home or not. And able to monitor everything you may find yourself getting rather more "Energy efficiency" mail-outs that everyone else.

I've seen one paper - referring to "smart meters" (which will be able to access pretty much everything the same way) - which suggested that terrorists might find it amusing to take over your appliances/electricity supply. I couldn't see that terrorists or anyone else except every day low life scum hackers would have any interest in targeting individuals, but a collective assault - that's something else. Infect everyone's phone with a virus and let everyone's appliances go berserk at the same time - maybe induce nationwide brownouts?

Heck, for those of us who wonder just how far China has gone in the cyber-espionage wars, how many of those little pre-installed apps that escape anti-virus software are little sleeper programs? In this day of Stuxnet and its successors, anything seems possible.

But say we at least get smart meters and, because they can (and because that might be why everyone is so keen on smart meters and smart junction boxes in the first place) is indeed a way to prevent brownouts by selectively isolating all those kettles that go on at half time in the big game. A missed kettle is better than a brownout when you don't get to see the rest of the game.

Of course, when utilities and government start collecting real time data on what appliances you have and when and how you use them you need to ask if you are happy that these devices are one more way for someone to know all about your late night opening the fridge freezer. And your mobile phone lets you be tracked anywhere and everywhere as it is.

Now, when the utilities start selectively shutting down individual circuits in selected homes or individual appliances, who will be chosen? My suspicion is that Al Gore will be able to make tea or coffee any time he likes but anyone in the projects might not be so fortunate.

You know. whenever the government thinks something is good, I think the opposite and I want to know why.
They like smart meters? The I am not so sure.
So is Skylink something the population has been desperately waiting for or is it designed as a new trojan horse?

I'm sitting here with a mobile phone wondering why it isn't just a mobile phone. Do I really want all those pre-installed "apps" that automatically seem to connect to premium rate services when you happen to brush the touch screen by accident?

I just want a phone. Well, OK, a built in camera is OK but not much else.
 
Top