There must be some way to remove the "smart" controller from a device and replace it with a dumb one, like an arduino or something. I want to lobotomize these devices.
this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2025
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I bought a washer that has wifi connectivity. It want to texts me or something when the cycle is finished and doesn't even seem to have a 'play a loud beep when done' option. How does this make any sense at all?
My brother in christ, you bought the machine
I think we aren't yet used to machines fucking us over in unexpected ways for that sweet sweet spying/ad revenue.
Like, who would have asked 10 years ago "will my TV show extra ads?". Now it's hard to get one that doesn't have them. And dishwashers are next
How does this make any sense at all?
I bought a washer that has wifi connectivity.
I mean there's heavy water
I'm still trying to figure out my network settings so that I can have my IoT one one network while still being able to access my home assistant from the other network.
Unfortunately, my ISP is also my cable company, and I have to use their modem/router combo else the cable boxes won't accept the cable signal. I'm using my own wireless access point (which also doubles as a switch for the handful of Ethernet devices I have), and it can split off a separate SSID, but that's not really doing much.
I have a separate IoT network. It's basically just a guest wifi for IoT. Anything coming in on that network gets a VLAN tag and only previous & established connections can get out. Honestly, it's kinda a pain in the ass with homeassistant because I keep HA on the other network so I have to manually find devices. It might be easier to just block it at the ip level or blacklist outgoing ip ranges to Tuya or whatever.
I have HA on a separate VLAN from IoT devices and have set up mDNS reflection so it can find them.
But does it have AI?
You joke but my dehumidifier has an automatic comfort mode of some sort.
I guarantee that next run will have that button with screen print AI something something above it instead.
If I can turn it on remotely, that's a good feature. I have solar, I want it to work when the sun is out and I'm producing excess energy.
Yes, I know I can use other peripherals to do this (sometimes) but its always nicer if its just built in so I don't need to waste carbon on other things.
The only thing I want when manufacturers add wifi to these things is to appeal to open source principles like allowing us to connect to it and communicate with it openly and not tie it down to some cloud service they run.
Why not plug a dumb dehumidifier into a Home Assistant controlled outlet?
Yes, this is generally what can be done. Disadvantages include:
- having to buy yet another device
- knowing which dehumidifier will start working as soon as it gets electricity. The ones sold in my country are all no name brands with little information if they will work or not and few spec sheets.
I got new appliances a couple weeks ago and they're all "smart". Turns out a smart microwave just sends you a phone notification when it's done. By default.
As someone with multiple people living in the house, I can confidently say this is the dumbest "smart" feature ever. Promptly disabled.
As someone who hates appliances beeping, I love push notifications
I'm so tired at things beeping at me
How long are people microwaving things to the point where that is useful??!
Any appliance with IoT is a value-subtract.
They do it so in the future they can monetize you in perpetuity in some way
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My appliances are ‘smart’ but I didn’t bother actually connecting them to my WiFi. I guess preheating the oven remotely could be cool(?) but nah.
The stuff I do use…
The microwave above the stove can talk via Bluetooth(no app or phone involvement at all). Turn on a burner and you can set it to turn on the light and/or vent fan. Another nicety is being able to set the clock on the stove with the full keypad and it just syncs to the microwave.
Remote preheating sounds like a terrible idea. What if you mistakenly left something in there?
The only smart thing I'd want an oven to do would be to turn itself off. That's it, really. Did I leave the oven on after I left the house? Easy fix. Otherwise everything else is pretty much useless.
I don't know, I wouldn't mind also being able to tell it to start to preheat while I'm on my way home. Would save a chunk of time if I could literally walk in the door and throw the food in the oven without the extra wait for it to preheat which is usually long enough to be annoying but not long enough to do anything else.
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I’ve looked into many WiFi dehumidifier’s and the one thing I wanted from it was to notify my phone if it’s full. None of them do that. All they do is let you change speed and stuff. Nothing that is important to me. I just want to know if I need to go to the basement and empty it or not.
I put mine on a zigbee plug into my home assistant (docker on nas), and created an automation to notify me when the power consumption drops below 1 W or so (lower than when it's only running the fan when the hunidity is near setpoint). All local, works so far.
That's really interesting, i was looking into Zigbee plug documentation, could not find if i can program them myself. Do i need to use their propritery app for whatever it does ?
How did you integrate the plug into existing home automation system ?
I'm using "home assistant" and add them there via the zigbee integration.
Edit: I have the Nous zigbee sockets, never used any other app than home assistant to do anything with them. They also have a small button with a light so you can still switch them on/off without any app. Via home assistant you can read out various info like power, current etc
Right? Like half of what I want from these things is when is the battery low? When is the outbox full? When is the feeder empty? And metrics to verify the device is generally operating safely.
Controlling the device? We've known how to do that for 50+ years. Help me maintain the device.
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welll........ devils advocate.. i could see the wifi being used so the device can be incorporated into the home automation system [climate control]. its not about dehumidifying, its solely about engaging the dehumidifying as needed.
Yeah, or the manufacturer bricks the device bcz they want to sell you a new one.
That's why projects like this are great: https://github.com/Hypfer/esp8266-midea-dehumidifier
My Midea Cube dehumidifier can never be bricked and will never send data outside of my home. It talks to Home Assistant via MQTT and nothing else.
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Dehumidifiers already do that. They're equipped with hygrometers that kick the machine on or off depending on the relative humidity. It's old tech and it's pretty reliable, wifi isn't really necessary for it.
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Meanwhile here I am installing ESP32C3's into everything in my house to automate everything.
I can turn on my floor heat, hallway light, or even open a vent from an app on my phone. And bonus, no shady manufacturers to spy on me. Just China.
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