Solving your IoT puzzle ! How to setup your devices at home !

Understanding and creating your IoT ecosystem at home can be painstaking and sometimes confusing.

A year into this long lasting lockdown, I thought to myself, maybe I should start adding some gadgets to my house.

The reasons where numerous: firstly, being more efficient (ie: reduce my consumption for gas, water and electricity or increase the security around the property). Secondly, was obviously to reduce the bills, and lastly, was to play with some new toys!

As an IT and new technologies enthusiast, I had to put my hands into it and create my personal IoT network. I want to give you some ideas and hints on how to set up your own.

Where to start from and what to start with ?

After spending a couple of days reading carefully through product reviews, it became apparent that not many providers (or constructors) had a great variety of products. Working in WiFi gave me an advantage. I can’t imagine the pain one must go through if they are not so tech-y, trying to understand all the details and differences between the products, the frequencies etc... in the market. It’s a right headache!

I have short-listed a few products for you to explore, alongside some pros and cons with my humble opinion. Choice is yours to continue with what you have or make the change. I am happy to hear your feedback too! Always looking to increase my knowledge in the field… 

First thing first ! My project:

I am in the process of making some changes around the house. With a remodelled kitchen and a new garden office space all coming soon, the options for IoT’s are endless! 

I want to add more devices to control the heaters/boiler but also add CCTVs, a connected doorbell, some speakers and sensors into my home. So tech-y, I know! 

With the addition of the garden office, I will need to add WiFi coverage in order for the IoT to work effectively and integrate some appliances correctly. To connect all the IoTs, or smart devices, I will need a Hub pushing the Zigbee frequency.

I will mention later how some contractors only allow their Hub to connect to their devices. Hence why the choice of devices you want to implement is important from the beginning.

Statement:

I am lucky enough to have one of those Virgin Media Hub 3.0 with a 100Mb fibre. I don't need more than this but I know some people may struggle with an old 15Mb Adsl line. It’s possible you will need to increase this in the future or you could find it difficult for too many devices to rely on this ageing technology- with a small throughput and high latency broadband.

I dug into my account and found quite a lot of interesting things: the Virgin Connect App allows you to play with your network. You can create a guest network, for example, which I would highly recommend to create for the IoT devices. Creating a guest network avoids the guest messing around with your ecosystem once setup. Putting your IoT network in others hands increases security, adding one layer of complexity for the hacker. Useful if you are doing a lot of AirBnB!

The App also allows you to do some very basic Wifi coverage tests, letting you know if you may need to increase your coverage for further devices to be connected in or out your property. In my case, adding a simple WiFi booster will suffice. I probably need to wire it directly from the main router vs connecting it via Mesh. 

One little trick I didn't know is that from your VM account you can go to your Web Safe settings to disable some websites / contents etc…for my kids to avoid all gambling/weapons etc... websites they may inadvertently connect to while playing their games, this is a very important setting.

Wifi coverage and identifying the right Hub:

With my house being pretty straightforward, an add-on Wifi booster will be sufficient to cover the garden office and rest of my house. In some cases, you may require stronger boosters, if not a Mesh network. (Wi-Fi extenders typically connect to your existing wireless network, broadcast a new network name, and blindly relay traffic back to your wireless router. Where a Mesh is a complete new network allowing you to roam seamlessly between all your rooms: much more stable, faster, etc.)

Before making an investment in a mesh Wi-Fi system, check to see if you have any signal strength issues in the places where you need to use Wi-Fi. Maybe bringing your router out of the closet or moving it out from behind the TV could help. Check for the thick walls too! Thicker is the wall, weaker will be the signal behind.

I looked at many options and one caught my attention: the TP-Link Deco M9 Plus was a bit of an overkill for my project but I would recommend to have a look at it for bigger houses. Count around ￡350 for 2. They also act as a Hub (providing Zigbee / BLE / WiFi5 standards).

The DECO M9 Plus.

You could also look at the Google Nest Wifi router + point, for smaller size and Mesh, but careful this one only allows the BLE (Bluetooth Low Emission) and not the Zigbee, which are 2 different frequencies…

Sorting my Wifi coverage was now done but, I still needed my Hub! To do so, I looked at the Hive devices (see below). Having been  recommended by word of mouth, I opted for the Hive Hub with the Active Heating to manage the boiler. On top of it, I will add the Hive Radiator Valves. The goal is to manage and reduce whenever possible the heat consumption. Of course you can test and try with different flavours as we all have specific requirements!

I chose the Hive range as I could not find all my devices from other vendors/constructors. Hive only works on the Zigbee band.

Google is more into audio/video/camera, even though the Google Nest Hub was really interesting. Same with the Samsung SmartThings Hub, it is one of the most advanced but again, Hive wouldn't allow my devices to connect through it so I need to buy the native hub. And within the pack, I am being given the Alexa Echo Dot which could allow me to control all my network with my voice. But not being an Amazon fan I will opt for another platform like Google Home or Apple Homepod.

This is still the tricky bit as you can see because you can use a myriad of solution and some may not work together but I've seen that some improvements are already in progress. *

I would be happy to hear your comments and feedbacks on this point!

Brief representation of what it could look like. (This won't be exactly my scenario but let's keep it simple!) The IoT Router will be my Hive Hub, for example.

OR more visibly:

Endless possibilities... imagination is the limit !

And this is completely scalable !

Choosing the doorbell:

Everybody would go for the Ring Doorbell. Easy set up / not too expensive / Good quality for the product. Therefore I would change my strategy seeing that it's a company owned by Amazon and many hackers have breached their security protocols. Many owners are now complaining.

I was looking at the Hive View Outdoor but, this one requires a subscription fee. Instead I decided to go for the Eufy Video Doorbell 2K, wired version to avoid any battery issue. The doorbell has a 4GB eMMC built-in storage, which can store up to 30 days of video, assuming you’re recording 30 videos a day and 30 seconds of each video. This is more than enough in most cases. Also, it’s only one fee and you're good to go!

Again, there is nothing written in stone here, and you can look at all the options on their website : https://www.eufylife.com/uk/.

But for me the main drivers were: local storage, pricing and the fact that it’s wired.

Choosing the CCTV:

I won't spend too much time on this since the choice will be between Eufy and Hive. One good point depending on the Eufy you choose is the Home Base, acting also like a Wifi booster. So this can reduce your first step above ;)

Brief summary:

You'll need one connection to the Internet + one Hub + your end devices (IoT) + your phone or Alexa to control them all.

1. Make a wish list of the end devices you need and select the right Hub(s) also depending on the protocol used (Zigbee / Bluetooth etc...)

• https://www.philips-hue.com/en-gb/p/hue-hue-bridge/8718696516850
• https://store.google.com/product/google_nest_hub_max
• https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/accessories/all/homekit (Homekit works directly from the Apple TV for example or iPad until you have your Apple ID)
• https://www.smartthings.com/ (Samsung)
• https://www.amazon.co.uk/all-new-echo-4th-generation-with-premium-sound-smart-home-hub-and-alexa-charcoal/dp/B085G58KWT/ref=sr_1_6_mod_primary_new?crid=VFG8Q3XRN591&dchild=1&keywords=echo+dot+4th+generation&qid=1609363612&sbo=RZvfv%2F%2FHxDF%2BO5021pAnSA%3D%3D&sprefix=echo+dot%2Caps%2C187&sr=8-6

2. Check your broadband and home network + wifi coverage.

3. Increase your security protocols and setup your network adequately. Add Wifi Access points if necessary.

4. Buy the products from the constructors:

• Hive
• Eufy
• Philips
• https://www.tuya.com/
• https://www.legrand.co.in/eliot/
• https://www.lutron.com/europe/pages/default.aspx
• https://www.tado.com/gb-en/
• https://www.honeywellhome.com/us/en/
• https://www.minut.com/
• https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/cat/home-smart-hs001/
• Google etc...

5. Deploy, setup, and Try!... #error... ok, re-try you've forgotten something. Now is it good ?! Cool ! Enjoy !

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Some technical terms for those who want to learn a few things:

BLE / LoRa / Zigbee / IFTTT etc... what are those stuff?

Both, Zigbee and BLE mesh work primarily in 2.4 GHz frequency band which is already crowded due to multiple other technologies’ presence in the same band. Zigbee, however supports other frequency bands (784 MHz in China, 868 MHz in Europe, 914 MHz in USA and Australia) also in some part of the world. Since 2.4 GHz is comparatively a crowded band, it can be a good choice to use Zigbee in lower frequency bands wherever it is allowed. Hence, Zigbee provides more flexibility from frequency band selection perspective in certain jurisdictions. It also consumes less power compared to a Wi-fi connected device (batteries can last longer).

LoRa on another hand cover much larger distance and consume less power. You'll require LoRa gateways and end devices.

IFTTT stands for If This Then That. Meaning you can automate your actions upon another one.

The automations are accomplished via applets — which are sort of like macros that connect multiple apps to run automated tasks. You can turn on or off an applet using IFTTT's website or mobile apps (and/or the mobile apps’ IFTTT widgets). You can also create your own applets or make variations of existing ones via IFTTT’s user-friendly, straightforward interface.

What about privacy ?

Indeed this is a hot topic. Hence why you need to be careful on how you'll setup your network. Adding an extra layer such as a firewall or gateway can be useful but sometimes to tech-y to setup and maintain.

I have seen this device provider: https://www.minut.com/ which is more focused on the end user's privacy if you need to rent on longer terms your house or flat.

They also give you access to one platform.

*And what will happen in the future?

You remember at the very beginning when I was saying it is a bit difficult to manage all those actors and vendors? Well, a big consortium with most of them is taking place to discuss how to implement best practices and make sure the end users are best served.

The Project aims to make it easier for developers to build a device that is compatible with smart home services such as Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, Google Assistant, and others. This may include a proposed standard for lifecycle events such as provisioning/onboarding, removal, error recovery, and software update.

I hope you enjoyed reading this article! I took a real pleasure putting together these elements and details. There are too many sources to list them all but many of them are here.

I look forward to hearing your comments and discuss around this incredible topic ! I will give you more updates once all is setup in my home :)