IoT - all the hype but where are the products?

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Zeon

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#191965 22-Feb-2016 19:24

Hey guys,

With winter approaching I'm thinking about how I want to keep my house nice and warm. I'd really like to have a system:

I can set the times of day and temperature to heat various rooms to
I can manually start the heaters in various room from my smartphone (website or app)

I need a controller, internet controlled power switch and internet thermostat. I can see some exist but there isn't a merged system and looks very expensive for that setup. Are we yet at the days where I can buy these things for $10 each on Aliexpress - I just can't see it, maybe I'm searching for the wrong things!

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sbiddle

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#1497273 22-Feb-2016 19:30

There are heaps of products out there - z-wave for example now has over 1500 commercially available modules. You won't however see these for $10..

Zeon

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#1498904 25-Feb-2016 00:46

sbiddle:

There are heaps of products out there - z-wave for example now has over 1500 commercially available modules. You won't however see these for $10..

Ah - I see. Will wait till price drops a bit further I think.... bring on the inexpensive hype of IoT!

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sbiddle

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#1498929 25-Feb-2016 07:32

I spent a lot of time looking at IoT gear at CES and a lot of time talking to quite a few vendors. I think it's a technology concept that has a lot of potential (and will be big) but I also consider there to be a lot of hype surrounding it. I certainly don't think 5 years from now that the average house will be full of IoT kit as many industry analysts would have you think.

One of the biggest issues right now is vendors still building kit that doesn't have universal frequency support or products for all the different global bands. Out of those 1500 Z-wave products there are potentially only a few hundred that can (legally) be used in New Zealand or Australia as many vendors seem ignorant of the fact a market exists outside the US, and uses different frequencies.

Fragmentation of the market and the fact the best standards aren't necessarily the ones being adopted. Z-wave is huge and still growing, but depending on your view is by far from the best protocol.

hairy1

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#1498940 25-Feb-2016 08:14

I have discussed this with a mate who works for a large whiteware vendor. Multiple standards are slowing uptake. VHS vs Betamax all over again. The problem is working out who to run with....

My views (except when I am looking out their windows) are not those of my employer.

Jeeves

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#1498952 25-Feb-2016 08:56

Hopefully Microsoft and Qualcomm joining the Open Connectivity Foundation (The one that Samsung, Cisco, Intel et al started last year) will get some progress towards standardisation.

speshnz

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#1515214 17-Mar-2016 21:24

Zeon:

Ah - I see. Will wait till price drops a bit further I think.... bring on the inexpensive hype of IoT!

you can make basic IoT Control stuff easily for that price, but commercial units are a lot more expensive.