This week’s show has lots of updates and small updates. We start off with a story about a golf course near San Diego that has saved millions of gallons of water using connected soil sensors. And then we review what changed with Zigbee PRO 2023 and cover the NIST efforts to create practical framework for protecting medical device privacy and security. In other medical news we talk about a new device from Cherish Health, which will use millimeter wave sensing to track falls and movement in a home, and the rise of ambient sensing as well as the launch of a new smart scale from Withings, which lets you track your weight without ever having to confront the numbers on the scale. Then we discuss the UK’s competition regulator opening up an investigation of Amazon’s deal to buy Roomba maker iRobot, before also talking about a new feature on certain Roomba vacuums. In small news HomePods can now listen for smoke alarms going off and Google is adding Matter to its most recent Nest thermostat — and only that thermostat. And speaking of Matter, Kevin tested out the beta version of Matter support on Home Assistant, and was impressed. Finally, we answer a listener question about smart breaker panels and GFCI outlets.
Our guest this week is Robert Pile, the head of real estate strategy at Homma, a company that is building smart homes. The company started out building smart homes but has since switched to building townhomes and multifamily units for rentals thanks to the changing real estate market. Pile talks about the technical challenges of building the infrastructure for smart homes and what types of buyers are choosing their properties. He also discusses the price premium that people are paying to buy or rent a smart home that’s built smart from the first foundation pour. I’m not sure if I’m done with my DIY efforts, but it does sound nice to have everything already smart when you move in. Enjoy the show.
Thanks for the kind words. We can talk about Zigbee pro 2023 more once we get closer to release.
(It wouldn’t be me if I didn’t add a highly technical sidenote, though, so I will just say that Zigbee’s data rate in the 2.4 GHz frequency is literally 6 times bigger than in the 915 MHz frequency. There’s a reason Wi-Fi uses the higher bands. Will that matter for messages sent from a light switch? Maybe not. But it’s the way it is now for a reason.)
On to some of the other points…
2) I can’t disagree that right now it might be better if you try to keep all your thread devices on the same network, but if that turns out to be true, it’s going to be really disappointing since the whole point of matter is to be able to create a fabric with devices from multiple different networks. Having two different thread networks shouldn’t be any different than having a Wi-Fi network and a thread network as far as the Matter fabric goes. I’m not saying you’re wrong with the current advice, it may be that things just aren’t really working the way they should, but I really truly hope it doesn’t stay that way for the long term.
(And, technical sidenote, I’m pretty sure Kevin meant to say “thread border router“ not “thread router.“ Those are two different things. “Border Routers are Routers on the Thread Network with an off-mesh route.” From the examples he was using, it sounded like he was referring to TBRs.
https://software-dl.ti.com/simplelink/esd/simplelink_cc13x2_26x2_sdk/3.30.00.03/exports/docs/thread/html/thread/thread-protocol.html
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3) Now, GFCI. The reason it’s so hard to find a smart outlet which is both GFCI and RF home automation is because you’re talking about two incompatible functions. That’s true regardless of the particular home automation platform. That’s because the whole point of GFCI is to kill all current being transmitted through that device. But as soon as you do that, there’s no current left to run the radio which would be listening for the next on command. Or even just reporting that the power’s been cut.
Leviton makes a lot of different GFCI models, as well as one called “smartpro” which runs its own self diagnostic, and they make a lot of HomeKit compatible devices, but I don’t think they have any GFCI models which work with HomeKit. And neither does anybody else.
There are two good approaches, one of which Stacey mentioned on the show: use a regular dumb GFCI outlet, then plug a smart plug into it. The radio still won’t work if the GFCI pops but at least you won’t be expecting it to. but I understand that the caller doesn’t want the plug-in kind.
So… the other approach is to get a Smart relay module and put it upstream of the in wall dumb gfci outlet. Now you have smart control of that circuit branch as well as status information, and you get GFCI protection from the outlet itself. You probably won’t be able to turn it back on without physically going over and pushing the GFCI button, that’s an intentional part of the safety code. But, like I said, at least you’ll get information about what’s going on. that’s the approach that many people take now for outdoor outlets which have to be GFCI because of their local safety code.
OK, that’s quite easy to do with zwave or Zigbee, but getting one that works with HomeKit is really tricky. At the time of this writing, there are only two inline relays I can think of with official HomeKit certification. One is from freedompro, and it can only handle 5 A. which means it’s fine for light switches, but it’s not to code for an outlet, which in the US almost everywhere has to support 15 A.
And fibaro makes one intended for the European market, which is limited to max of 8 A. So if the caller happens to be in the EU, that would be a good choice to control a wall socket, but not in the US.
Shelly makes a really nice line of WiFi inline relays that are UL certified and can handle the higher loads, but right now, the only homekit integration would be through homebridge or Hoobs. And I think Sonoff has some with the same integration issues. Definitely doable, but not simple off the shelf solutions.
My personal recommendation would just be to wait until there are more Matter products available if that’s possible. You’ll be able to add those directly to the Apple home app without having to jump through hoops and there should be quite a wide variety available within six months to a year, although I still don’t think you’re going to find a GFCI outlet because of that radio issue I mentioned. But you should be able to find an in-line module that’s UL/ETL certified.
4) and for Stacey… Regarding keeping the dog off the bed, as we discussed about a year ago, eventually you’re probably going to have to get an automated door control if you want to be a truly up-to-date Smart Home. LOL! The ones from Olide have very good safety features and can be connected to any smart relay/switch. Or Alexa. So that way you wouldn’t have to drive home again. Or maybe that in-home Alexa robot will solve both issues and can be made to shut the door. I haven’t looked into that option, I don’t know how controllable its path is or if it can be made to push or pull something. Someday, probably.
As always, I enjoyed the episode, and appreciate your covering the industry indepth from a consumer point of view.