- Posted on
Wed May 27, 2020 3:40 pm
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spiv
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- Posts: 190
- Joined: Jul 15, 2014
Yet another slow moving standard just creates a lot of confusion in the short-term. Small companies can't jump on every new thing and too much ends up being DOA or thrown away along the way, no matter how lofty or humble the goals are.
In terms of your specific question, it really depends on what the standard manages to actually accomplish and then what each company, like Indigo, feels is their core expertise and value. Everything on the market today does a little bit of everything - interactive control, automation, user interface, remote access, security, hardware bridging, hardware gateways, protocol conversion/adaptation, voice control, etc.
In the long run, it would ideal if a few standards converge and make it clear which things will be built into the hardware, supported by major platforms, or provided as value added service.
For example, Indigo and most smaller companies are not trying to build voice interfaces. Instead, they interface, if at all, to Amazon Alexa, Google Home, or Apple Siri (really HomeKit) or leave it to 3rd parties or the community to provide that link.
Some companies specialize in being an "Everything" hardware bridge with some automation and UI. These products have both Zigbee, Z-Wave and often other radios built-in or are Pi based just multiple hardware interfaces can be plugged in.
Some companies specialize in integrations like IFTTT, Yonami, NodeRed but not the primary UI or device drivers.
There is room for a lot of this, but some of what is built is being done by necessity, not desire. If CHIPS, for example, provides all the physical layer bridging between IP and Zigbee, then it might easier or worthwhile for Indigo to be able to control Zigbee devices and not just Z-Wave.
If there is a (finally) a common API and device profiles, then maybe Indigo could be more of a UI design and automation engine for a lot more products with less time diverted on finicky device drivers or hardware control?