This’s happen with wireless speaker (Bose SoundTouch 10) and I found out it has an app, wireless and http server inside with api that can programmable to adjust the sound, choose the channel I save in speaker and more and then I add hue bulb and then convert my DIY router (yep, I have DIY router before for plex and vpn service that connect to DO instance all the time, so I can remote ssh back to my home) and sensors and now I’m still thinking to customize my router to do more.
Conclusion for few weeks after the first device
- Almost everyone has there own hub and if I want to mix devices from different brands e.g. Samsung with Hue with another light bulb brands I probably will end up with 2 or 3 hubs
- Most of wireless speaker has api (which mostly small http server) and can control remotely, it just need to build hub by yourself (or can use Samsung smartthings hub!)
- HomeKit automation is suck and it’s relied too much on Apple TV which when it goes sleep, everything is not reliable or broken. I’m not sure will Apple fix this in the future (or be able to fix it) but at least I can understand a bit why it’s not getting that much traction.
- Homebridge is awesome! Every router should put it inside!
- There’s two main open source projects (openHab and Home Assistant) for home automation, didn’t try it yet but I probably build my own base with Homebridge.
- I believe all IoT hubs should combine to single device or become a software module that can install inside the wireless router. It doesn’t make sense to have many hubs in home if I just want to mix different devices and each devices will last quite long e.g. 5 years for light bulb, if I don’t change everything in the same time and I want to try another brand this will end up by locking down to same brand or have another hub in my home. Wifi router is already become the home infrastructure, everyone should reuse that as a base hub instead of building the separate thing to lock down customer.
- DIY sensor with Arduino is cheap but finished product is expensive (probably for now)
- Currently I use Elgato Eve as main sensor source, good thing is no hub required, bad thing is expensive and app ui is not nice.
- Again, HomeKit is suck, I don’t get why Apple discontinue Airport product line instead of try to put HomeKit hub inside the Airport and release new product instead of kill it. The automation is broken once it goes sleep mode for sometime and that made me frustrating and thought devices has some issue and it seems can’t handle so many devices too (7 shouldn’t be that much tho)
and that’s for current home automation, I’m still working on my router hub box and probably move all automation to my custom code. It’s still far from done with many features that missing e.g. detect presence from my iPhone when it join to the wifi network and activate light and play song in room (and this thing cannot work without custom router!) also, still looking for replacing hub with more powerful wifi.
One problem for DIY wifi router is wifi signal is not that good and has less channels can choose because of driver limitation. Current wifi adapter in the market mostly are using the same chipset (e.g. ralink 8812au for 1300ac or ralink 8814au for 1900ac as marketing wording) To get a better performance with better driver support, have to look to ath9k/ath10k driver from Qualcomm or BCM4301 from Broadcom which mostly has only mini pci-e interfaces adapter and in Singapore has at least one company selling that adapter which probably I will try later.
Here are embedded system store list I found out that probably can buy easily
- Compex Systems for Qualcomm base chipsets and embedded base
- Solid Run for ClearFog computer and use wifi chipsets from others
- Gateworks I tried reach out to them for GW5300 but seems they’re not willing to sell single board. 😞
- Gigabyte yep, the one that’s selling motherboard. They selling embedded system too!
My requirement for this system is has at least 3 pci-e, so I can add wifi module for three bands (I require 3, 1 for wifi bridge, another 2 for devices, this can change later too and use first one as mesh) another optional requirement is it has m.2 or sata for internal disk, so this hub can become my NAS too.
And that’s all for now.
