Low Budget DIY Automation

[crackers8199]

Dang....I'm happy I came across this thread R2 is arriving tomorrow

here's my post on the actual swap of the intermatic timer for the R2. it's pretty straightforward, but i had some questions and things to watch out for in there that might help you if you come across them: Sunday project: wiring help needed for replacing intermatic timer

 

[plnewb]

our several thousand dollar intellicenter comes with a slow buggy app that never stays connected, occasionally glitches its circuit groups, and doesn't even work with Alexa

Financially it will never make sense to use a proprietary system if you are handy and enjoy DIY

Engineering and manufacturing costs a lot of money and attempting to run a profitable company based off discretionary spend items like pools that only a fraction of homes even have in the first place is a recipe for a downward spiral. Keeping spare parts on hand and having them manufactured on a predictable schedule further puts stress on the financials. The only way to survive is to jack up prices over time - which further incentivises end customers to become handy themselves and leave the ecosystem as they get squeezed. There's no way to run a profitable company in this environment

A company, to make a profit needs to be able to amortize the cost of engineering and manufacturing over time - so older the designs, more profitable it is for the company, so when I discover 20 year old technology in pool equipment that is inefficient and costs a lot of money to run, wasting the customer money, I am not surprised.

Perhaps I'm saying that unless you were OK with your system provider jacking up prices over time or downright obsoleting products on you, there's no way other than building systems out of bog standard parts that can be sourced from any commodity supplier

 

[matthewsunshineflorida]

Financially it will never make sense to use a proprietary system if you are handy and enjoy DIY

Agreed... I'm actually using nodejsPC now - very very happy with it as everything intellicenter SHOULD have been. Since the tablet stays on the wall, I set up Alexa integrations through nodejs via Tasker and Auto Voice. Also overlayed volume controls for the amplifier/chromecast and the pool alarm (SwamCam). Pretty sure you could also use nodejsPC for your interface as a standalone controller, but I don't know much about it. In any case, it's frustrating to pay so much and still have to DIY things to get a professional modern looking solution - but I'm super happy with it all now.

 

[plnewb]

In any case, it's frustrating to pay so much and still have to DIY things to get a professional modern looking solution

frustration is a great signal for product designers to build something new

Thank You for sharing your frustrations - I will keep looking for more people who are upset at what they can buy off the shelf and document what they would like in a new product

One priority I have is the new product should use easy to replace and buy, commodity parts instead of proprietary ICs that cannot be replaced by the end user

 

[crackers8199]

Agreed... I'm actually using nodejsPC now - very very happy with it as everything intellicenter SHOULD have been. Since the tablet stays on the wall, I set up Alexa integrations through nodejs via Tasker and Auto Voice. Also overlayed volume controls for the amplifier/chromecast and the pool alarm (SwamCam). Pretty sure you could also use nodejsPC for your interface as a standalone controller, but I don't know much about it. In any case, it's frustrating to pay so much and still have to DIY things to get a professional modern looking solution - but I'm super happy with it all now.

how has your experience been with njspc? that's the path i'm going to be going down, but i've been buying the parts a little at a time due to budgeting constraints. also, it took me months to find the pi4 in stock...but at least i have that now, so i would imagine i can run the system with that as the brains and just add the rest as i go. i have the pi, the temp probes, and not much else at this point. next things i'm looking at buying are the industrial automation hat and the actual enclosure, although i haven't settled on an actual enclosure yet...i also haven't decided yet if i want to try to make this a separate enclosure or completely rip out my existing load center and do everything all in one.