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ZWave is another option here too. I wouldn't recommend devices that don't have at least a "500 series"[0] chipset, but pretty much any device you'd buy today or moving forward will contain this or a newer chipset.

[0] https://www.silabs.com/wireless/z-wave/500-series-modules


Z-Wave is also nice because it's in the 860/900 MHz band. Better propagation through walls and so much less contention than 2.4 GHz.


Yes, ZWave is good too, though I haven't seen many devices in the wild myself - this might depend on your local market.


Shelly devices are great. They have a "cloud" that you can optionally use, but the settings (at least on the switchable plug and the in-wall energy-monitoring switches that I have) default to that cloud connectivity being OFF. They seem to be aligned with those of us who prefer local data, interoperability and despise vendor lock-in and surveillance capitalism.


I've been using Privacy.com for this "create single use credit card" for years now. They make money via the interchange fees, afaik, and not by selling your data stream.


Just seconding Privacy.com, I use them for all my online payments and it is a super easy workflow.


Do they still require that on your side it is a debit card?


Sadly they are not available in Belgium (Europe) :(


Commercial Chef makes a 600W model (CHM660B) with exactly this configuration. Not what you're looking for exactly, given the power, but maybe helpful to others who share your sentiment.


I suspect this is because with "smart stuff" we often have the associated cellphone app which gives <corp> much deeper insight into your life. This stream of data from your personal life and home can be monetized in various ways. You can help _be_ the product when you _buy_ the product. Cool. /s


Hugely popular original posting of this - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31261533


Schlage makes some that use ZWave Plus (500 series or better, didn't check the spec sheet). I have an older model that works nicely for this.

https://www.schlage.com/en/home/smart-locks/connect-zwave.ht...

This would give you the "is locked or not" capability you seek here, but obviously requires a replacement of your door lock (perhaps not trivial if renting, but is a very easy DIY otherwise).


I wasn't aware of the purported regulatory radio limits on power, but I can report anecdotally that I found a huge jump in usability/signal strength/ownership satisfaction when I started replacing my old ZWave 1 stuff with the 500-series or above hardware (ZWave "Plus" is the name for these sometimes).

This "LR" stuff you mention is what I think some are calling the Z-Wave 800 series. It more than doubles the radio range of the 500 series stuff and greatly reduces power draw for battery devices. However, I have 500 and 700 series sensors that only need a battery change once every ~2 years or so. I don't find that to be too much, and the signal strength has been no problem for me in an old brick house. I do have a handful of powered zwave devices around though, and these act automatically as repeaters for the other devices in the mesh.


More details:

https://www.silabs.com/documents/login/presentations/design-...

I’m having a surprisingly hard time finding EU regulatory limits for Z-wave non-LR. ISTR some source saying that the FCC had a much stronger limit on power spectral density, which is where the -1dBm limit came from, and the EU may allow something higher.


I have a mix of 700 and 800 series Z-wave gear, and I find it borderline useless — a mesh hop struggles to reach one room over.

LR is a rather different thing — slightly different frequency, very different topology, and it requires explicit controller software support. As far as I can tell, most or all 800 series hardware supports LR, 700 might with appropriate firmware, and earlier chips do not. node-zwave-js does not yet support LR, but someone seems to be working on it (slowly).


As another sibling suggested you should seriously consider HomeAssistant here. A main selling point is it's ability to seamlessly integrate with an arbitrary mixture of Zigbee/ZWave/Matter/Kasa/<etc> devices under one management interface.

I've been running it for years, keeping up to date with the regular new versions, and haven't had any major complaints for basic use cases like: "I want to turn on <set of lights> when <arbitrary condition occurs> (e.g. sundown, certain sensors detect < X lux of light, wifi device is seen by access point based on its MAC). Super useful. Huge world of possibilities, limited only by your hardware and imagination.


Is it possible, as a licensee of the Rivian vehicle system, to disable the automatic OTA updates without having expert-level knowledge or tooling?

Also, yes, I'm specifically avoiding using the word "owner" above for obvious reasons.


Rivian "licensee" here. So far all updates have required you to press a button (in the car or on the app) to launch the update installer. Not sure how many weeks you can ignore it for as I never tried.


Confirming that updates are not automatic, and can be ignored indefinitely. For now.


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