The Smart Home Apps I Use

[Chris Savage]

Tapo is the main brand of Smart Home devices I use. The reason? They make the most diverse collection of devices, which means less apps to control more stuff.

You cannot view this attachment.

As you can see, I have a Smart Vacuum named, "Wall-E". It's a really good robot vacuum, much better than my old iRobot Roomba® 671. They made really good cameras that don't require cloud-based subscription services. As you can see, we have a few.


You cannot view this attachment.

Front and back doorbells are Tapo as well. These allow interactive communication with someone at the door. There are two "Smart Bulbs". One is the light strip from under my bed (mentioned in the other thread).


You cannot view this attachment.

These are all the smart light switches. The important thing to note here is that these work without the app as well, so they work even if the internet is down.


You cannot view this attachment.

Next are Smart Plugs. These control fans, space heaters, Christmas Tree lights, etc. The "Offline" stuff is a single multi-outlet strip that I unplugged while moving the 3D printers around and forgot to plug it back in when I took these screenshots.

[Chris Savage]

"Warmer" is another space heater that is in the upstairs bathroom.

You cannot view this attachment.

Sensors are mostly temperature and humidity in many rooms, including the basement.


You cannot view this attachment.

There are also "leak" sensors for the Washer, Toilets, Sinks, etc. Three are not online at this time.


You cannot view this attachment.

We also have some Google / Nest products, like our Nest Thermostat. We also have two Smart Smoke / CO detectors, though they are shown on a different screen.

[Chris Savage]

We have two Kwikset Smart Locks for the Front and back doors.

You cannot view this attachment.

You cannot view this attachment.

These can be unlocked by key, proximity (geofencing), numeric code, app or voice control. Of course, the doorbell cameras see anyone at either door.


You cannot view this attachment.

We have two G.E. brand Smart Air Conditioners (one shown here).


You cannot view this attachment.

There is also a Midea portable air conditioner and a Midea portable dehumidifier on this app.

[Chris Savage]

The only thing not shown, because I don't yet have everything set back up, is my Hubitat, which is a Home Automation Hub. This winter I will be relocating my modem and router and will wait to get the remaining devices connected at that time. There are also about a dozen light switches not shown because I don't yet have them installed.

[granz]

I have been unable to determine if Tapo uses servers for their Home Control systems. Do you know if the data is sent out to servers, or is (or can it be) completely local?

[Chris Savage]

I have been unable to determine if Tapo uses servers for their Home Control systems. Do you know if the data is sent out to servers, or is (or can it be) completely local?

That's a bit of a trick question...for two reasons...most devices regardless of brand require an internet connection, especially if you're using voice control, and everything Google hears is sent to the server to be parsed and then can access your shared Tapo account. Outside your home you definitely cannot use the app to control things, since the data cannot get from your phone to the internal network.

I have heard stories of people who claimed their internet was down, but while they were in the house they could still access their devices from the app. I have not tested this theory, though it would require me to do no more than turn off my modem, my router maintains the internal network (LAN).

What I do know, is that when I was using the Hubitat device for home automation (most apps didn't support automation at that time), you could download code that would allow the Hubitat to access your devices and control them directly. The down side to this, as I later found out, was that as the firmware for the devices is updated, sometimes you must update the control code, which isn't always immediately available, if it is at all.

Google Home devices DO require the internet. I know this because, as soon as the internet goes down, they go into setup mode. They can be connected to the Wi-Fi, but without internet, the screen goes to setup mode. The door locks support both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, so they work from your phone even without internet. The code input also works without internet (stored on the device).

The light switches, smart plugs, smart locks and air conditioners (dehumidifiers) all work without any internet or app. If you have local storage, the cameras continue to work without internet or even network, though you can't access them remotely. You could pull the SD Card and playback video that was captured though.

[Jeff_T]

@Chris Savage that is a lot of devices, I can't ever see me having half that number. You have obviously put a lot of time and effort into your system.

My first job is to take a look at the Google mini's , for some reason I can't get them to broadcast like they used to. We use the broadcast feature a lot and it just quit working properly. If I had to I would switch to a different set of speakers to get that feature back.

[Chris Savage]

@Chris Savage that is a lot of devices, I can't ever see me having half that number. You have obviously put a lot of time and effort into your system.

As I mentioned...I am not done yet. The stairwell, living room, kitchen, dining room, hallway and mud rooms all have 3-way switches, so I had to special order those, some with dimming, some without. I still haven't installed those though. The Den has a 4-way switch system. I haven't decided what I am going to do there.

My first job is to take a look at the Google mini's , for some reason I can't get them to broadcast like they used to. We use the broadcast feature a lot and it just quit working properly. If I had to I would switch to a different set of speakers to get that feature back.

I gave all my minis away, but it should be the same with any Google Home device...you say, "Hey Google, Broadcast". It asks, "What's the message?". You say the message and it plays it across every other device on the network that is on that account. Is that not working for you?