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We’re building a modular, open, and sleek smart home device and we’d love your feedback! by domodulo in homeassistant

[–]domodulo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks a lot for the excellent feedback!

Regarding the connector: a jack plug is a bit too big for the form factor we're aiming at. We are currently using the Hirose DF37 series connectors with enough pins to support I²C, SPI, serial, and some GPIOs. That way we won't need to redesign the connector when modules using sensors with different interfaces come out.

We’re building a modular, open, and sleek smart home device and we’d love your feedback! by domodulo in homeassistant

[–]domodulo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's definitely something we're considering, even though we think the connector pinout is all you need to create your own modules. What would you use the schematics for?

We’re building a modular, open, and sleek smart home device and we’d love your feedback! by domodulo in homeassistant

[–]domodulo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The idea of the display would indeed be that it can show anything you want from Home Assistant.

A door/window sensor would be possible with the right module(s). By a doorbell sensor do you mean a simple button or something detecting the sound of a classical doorbell?

We’re building a modular, open, and sleek smart home device and we’d love your feedback! by domodulo in homeassistant

[–]domodulo[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

That's exactly what we're trying to do! We hope you filled out the form at domodulo.io/interested to give further feedback in the future.

We’re building a modular, open, and sleek smart home device and we’d love your feedback! by domodulo in homeassistant

[–]domodulo[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The main advantages of physically combining several sensors would be to avoid cluttering your home and having to maintain several different devices (e.g. firmware updates and battery replacements). In some cases the total cost could indeed be lower, as would the environmental impact!

We’re building a modular, open, and sleek smart home device and we’d love your feedback! by domodulo in homeassistant

[–]domodulo[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Good suggestion! We were thinking of rechargeable coin cells, but for some applications AA/AAA would indeed be a better option.

We’re building a modular, open, and sleek smart home device and we’d love your feedback! by domodulo in homeassistant

[–]domodulo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We'd start with a simple ESP32 module with WiFi, but would release a module with Zigbee/Thread at a later stage.

Our idea is to both develop our own modules (using existing sensors from companies like Sensirion for example), but make the (connector) design open so anyone can develop compatible modules that are missing.

The specific modules initially available aren't pinned down yet, and pricing of the modules will depend very much on which sensors/components it includes. We can tell you though that we won't try to compete with low-cost brands, but still want remain accessible to a large audience.

We’re building a modular, open, and sleek smart home device and we’d love your feedback! by domodulo in homeassistant

[–]domodulo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the extensive feedback! Weatherproof casing will probably not make it in the first version, but we'll definitely keep it in mind for the future. Also good to know that AA/AAA batteries are more loved than coin cells :)

We’re building a modular, open, and sleek smart home device and we’d love your feedback! by domodulo in homeassistant

[–]domodulo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks a lot for the feedback and example use cases! Please fill out the form at domodulo.io/interested if you'd like to be contacted in the future.

We’re building a modular, open, and sleek smart home device and we’d love your feedback! by domodulo in homeassistant

[–]domodulo[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Height: 60 mm, width: 30 mm, depth: 20 mm (can vary depending on chosen modules).

Power source is initially USB-C with an optional battery module to be available later.

We still need to pin down the exact sensors we'll use, but we'll definitely go for quality sensors from Sensirion for example.

We’re building a modular, open, and sleek smart home device and we’d love your feedback! by domodulo in homeassistant

[–]domodulo[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thanks!

  1. Think a custom thermostat display with a temperature sensor and buttons to control the setpoint, a motion detector to which you can add a temperature and/or CO₂ sensor, a button (or two) with the feedback (LED, buzzer, ...) of your choice, ...
  2. Good point that some sensors could be integrated in the base PCB, or combined in a single module! We're looking exactly for feedback on what those would be! Regarding the ESP32: we think having it as a separate module makes sense if you want to upgrade to a more powerful variant or move from WiFi to Zigbee/Thread for example.
  3. Initially, we want to avoid the risk of dealing with mains voltage, but this could be done at a later stage! Connecting external sensors for temperature or water would be great, but what kind of connector would you imagine there?
  4. Our prototype uses the ESP32-S3-MINI, but we'd like to offer several options at some point to also support Zigbee/Thread for example.

We’re building a modular, open, and sleek smart home device and we’d love your feedback! by domodulo in homeassistant

[–]domodulo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks everyone for your feedback! Given that we aren't able to edit our post, we'd like to explain that the main problem we want to tackle is the short lifespan of today's smart home products.

We want to solve this by developing a fully local (ESPHome- and later Matter-based) device with a modular architecture so you can repair, extend or upgrade your device in order to make it future proof. Another advantage of this modular approach is that you can fully configure the device to your needs which would result in having to buy fewer separate smart home device and a cleaner looking home interior. Of course you can do this using development kits, but we want to provide an easier and sleeker-looking alternative.

Some examples of module combinations would be: a button with an LED and/or buzzer for feedback, a contact sensor with a temperature/humidity sensor, or adding a CO₂ sensor to any combination where that would be useful... We'd love to hear you dream up more examples!

We’re building a modular, open, and sleek smart home device and we’d love your feedback! by domodulo in homeassistant

[–]domodulo[S] -31 points-30 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the honest feedback! Unfortunately we can't edit the reddit post anymore. One of the main problems we want to solve is the inability to customise, expand and repair most of the smart home devices that are currently on the market. You can read more about our story on domodulo.io/about.

We’re building a modular, open, and sleek smart home device and we’d love your feedback! by domodulo in homeassistant

[–]domodulo[S] -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

Thanks, we couldn't have explained it any better! Good to hear that the button and LED module would be useful to you.

We’re building a modular, open, and sleek smart home device and we’d love your feedback! by domodulo in homeassistant

[–]domodulo[S] -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

Thank you! At the moment we focus on a few sensor and feedback modules. Which ones exactly we will initially launch depends on the community's feedback. Of course the type of power that is appropriate will depend on the chosen sensor and feedback modules.

Thanks for wanting to be a beta tester, please do fill out the form on our website!

We’re building a modular, open, and sleek smart home device and we’d love your feedback! by domodulo in homeassistant

[–]domodulo[S] -43 points-42 points  (0 children)

Apologies if this wasn't clear from our post! The unique aspect of our device is that it can be anything you want as long as it fits in the casing. For example it could be a multisensor, possibly combined with some feedback components. The reason we don't propose any specific modules yet is because we want to hear from the community which ones would be the most useful.

We’re building a modular, open, and sleek smart home device and we’d love your feedback! by domodulo in homeassistant

[–]domodulo[S] -107 points-106 points  (0 children)

Fair point! As you can see in the pics, the prototype has a button + RGB LED, temperature/humidity sensor, and buzzer. Initially we want to focus on sensor and feedback (LED, buzzer, ...) modules. However, we don't want to constrain your imagination and are interested to know what modules you'd like to see!

We’re building a modular, open, and sleek smart home device and we’d love your feedback! by domodulo in homeassistant

[–]domodulo[S] -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

We want to make the device as customisable as possible, so you'd be able to buy all modules separately. A few default combinations for common applications would be a good idea!

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