HomeKit Google Home to HomeKit switch: electrical plugs and other recommendations

[Komodo Rogue]

Hi all,

I have google home minis all around my house and my family has been using them to control Hue, electric outlets, etc

After various frustrations and security breaches with Google Home and the cheap products that “work” with them, I want to switch everything to HomeKit. To do so, I’ll need to buy at least a few HomePod minis and many electric outlets. Can anyone recommend cheap outlets that are HomeKit compatible? The outlets at the Apple store are stupidly expensive at $40 a plug, because I want to buy about 10 or so just to turn lamps on and off. Can’t really justify nearly $500 for that!

Also, any recommendations for a doorbell camera and two other cameras I want to place around my yard? The doorbell faces the sun and will need to withstand heat in the summer (New York state). I would rather have all of the cameras be the same brand if possible.

Thanks for any and all ideas!

 

[QuietGamer]

My experience with "cheap" plugs has never went well + they all seem to be data mining while in use. They require a log in on the manufactures app, wifi passwords yada yada yada.

The first thing to ensure is that your home network WiFi is extra solid. This is what all of the connected plugs, camera ect. will be communicating over. I had mostly good experience with EERO mesh routers however I recently switched to a Synology RT6600ax which seems to have been an improvement. I switched because Amazon bought EERO and and am TRYING to keep things private. A fantasy I know...

On to your Q: Yes EVE plugs are pricey BUT you can find them on sale. Check the EVE store as they are less expensive when purchased in quantity and with the holidays approaching you may be able to find a deal. If you buy them from EVE then you also may not have to pay taxes.

My experience with the EVE plugs and power strip has been excellent, the app is well done and build quality is high. I also like the company's privacy practices vs the "cheap" manufactures practices. https://www.evehome.com/en-us/privacy

I have no cameras and cannot contribute but the EVE models may meet your needs and keep everything in the same ecosystem.

Hope this helps and as always... YMMV

EDIT: FWIW I also use the Hue bulbs where I need dimming and/or colors instead of just on and off white light.

 

[waw74]

since you're getting HomePod minis, eve would be a good choice as they support thread. They are a little pricy, but you'll make up the difference in price not having to buy aspirin to deal with the headaches cheaper devices can cause. The multi packs can save money, also they usually go on sale for black Friday or prime days. They also have the strip, which has 3 switched outlets in one box.



Thread is just a new type of wireless, basically just an alternative to bluetooth or wifi. It's a self-healing and optimizing mesh network, has a pretty decent range (especially if you have repeater nodes in the middle somewhere), and using it won't clog up your regular wifi network. And for battery powered devices, it's designed to be very power efficient.

for thread devices, you need what's called a border router, which is a device that connects your home network to the thread network. HomePod minis and the 2021 update of the aTV 4k are border routers.

any thread device that plugs into the wall is required to be a repeater node. (Like smart outlets)

even though smart home devices typically don't need much bandwith, the overhead of just having extra devices on your wifi can slow your entire network down, with the hand shaking and other stuff that's happening in the background, even if they aren't passing much data.

it's possible that waiting a bit might help you save some money. With the upcoming release of matter things might get cheaper, as manufactures can develop for one connection spec and be compatible with pretty much all smart home devices and controllers. Matter is just a new language that specifies how devices expect commands and status updates to be formatted. BUT.... it's not expected till the end of this year, or maybe next.

 

[Komodo Rogue]

since you're getting HomePod minis, eve would be a good choice as they support thread. They are a little pricy, but you'll make up the difference in price not having to buy aspirin to deal with the headaches cheaper devices can cause. The multi packs can save money, also they usually go on sale for black Friday or prime days. They also have the strip, which has 3 switched outlets in one box.



Thread is just a new type of wireless, basically just an alternative to bluetooth or wifi. It's a self-healing and optimizing mesh network, has a pretty decent range (especially if you have repeater nodes in the middle somewhere), and using it won't clog up your regular wifi network. And for battery powered devices, it's designed to be very power efficient.

for thread devices, you need what's called a border router, which is a device that connects your home network to the thread network. HomePod minis and the 2021 update of the aTV 4k are border routers.

any thread device that plugs into the wall is required to be a repeater node. (Like smart outlets)

even though smart home devices typically don't need much bandwith, the overhead of just having extra devices on your wifi can slow your entire network down, with the hand shaking and other stuff that's happening in the background, even if they aren't passing much data.

it's possible that waiting a bit might help you save some money. With the upcoming release of matter things might get cheaper, as manufactures can develop for one connection spec and be compatible with pretty much all smart home devices and controllers. Matter is just a new language that specifies how devices expect commands and status updates to be formatted. BUT.... it's not expected till the end of this year, or maybe next.

Thanks for your tips and explanations. Will be waiting for Black Friday sales and on the lookout for devices that use thread. I have not heard of “matter” so I’ll have to look into that. Is it not expected to be compatible with currently available hardware?

Also thanks quietgamer for the tip to check the other store!

 

[QuietGamer]

Matter is just a renaming of thread as I understand it. Here is a good synopsis.

Discover Thread | evehome.com

Thread makes your smart home more responsive and robust, and is one of the pillars of Matter, the smart home standard of the future. This is why Eve is embracing Thread, offering the world’s largest portfolio of Thread-enabled devices.

www.evehome.com

Build With Matter | Smart Home Device Solution

Matter creates connections between devices, simplifies development for manufacturers, and increases compatibility for consumers.

csa-iot.org

 

[waw74]

Matter is just a renaming of thread as I understand it. Here is a good synopsis.

not really

matter is a "language." It specifies how things communicate. How the commands are formatted. For a very basic example, you could represent dim value by 0 to 100, or 0 to 255, and it could be tagged dim, dimmer, or level in the command. If both the controller and device aren't using the same range, and terminology, your command is very unlikely to work correctly if at all. Also for things like color, there are several different standards you can use to represent a color (XY, RGB, CMY, HSB, color temp).
Right now, for stuff to be in home app, it needs to speak the "language of homekit." Apple has specified how they will format commands, and how devices should format status updates that devices send back to homekit. But speaking that language will only allow them to talk to apple devices. If you want your device to work with both apple, and Alexa, then you need to teach (code) your device to speak 2 languages. Or create a skill in Alexa that will teach her how to control your device.
When matter and devices that support it come out. If a device speaks matter, you will be able to control it from any controller that supports matter,

Thread is a wireless spec. Much like wifi or bluetooth. It specifies how devices connect to each other. It's designed with home automation in mind, it forms a mesh to make sure you're covered around the house, it doesn't need a lot of power (helpful for battery powered sensors) And it's designed to handle large numbers of devices on it's network (wifi networks will get bogged down with a lot of devices connected to them, even if they aren't using much bandwidth). It doesn't have as much bandwidth as wifi, but automation commands are typically pretty small.



You can speak matter over thread. You can also speak matter over wifi or bluetooth.

Just like right now, you can speak homekit over wifi, bluetooth, or thread.