I hope that I am posting this in the correct place…
I am an IoT Maker, basing my developments on the ESP32. I have a smart home system installed at home (by a company called MOX), controlling about 50 devices. I developed the code on the LilyGO T-Display-S3 to manage the system and looking for cloud support + mobile app for Android and iOS.
I have a few questions regarding the Arduino Cloud that I was not able to find complete answers to and will highly appreciate getting the answers:
As I have many controlled devices, does the mobile app supports grouping? Can I define groups (e.g., Kitchen, Salon) and assign the relevant controlled devices to their group?
Does Arduino Cloud support other languages in addition to English? Is that included for the same price as the plans show?
Is there a way to build the mobile UI dynamically during the mobile app loading, by the mobile app getting the setup remotely from the ESP32, instead of hard coding up-front?
I understand that the price is based on the number of controllers (e.g., ESP32) that I want to use. Is there a limit to the number of devices (lights, switches, blinds, etc.) that can be controlled by one controller/thing?
Does the platform fully support Google Home and Alexa for the same price or is there an additional payment for that?
Is there an option to also manage the thing and its controlled devices locally, without going to the cloud?
Hi Gil, I did not fully understand what you meant. My smart home system is a wired system that I can operate manually when the internet is down. Can we talk?
I am disappointed that no answers were provided by anybody.
I will highly appreciate answers to my questions as I beleive that they are relevent to all IoT Makers.
Thanks!
As I understand it you are using the cloud for control. That fails when the internet fails. Apparently you have to go into manual mode if the internet fails. My system is not even connected to the internet, it is wired.
I think the answer to 1 is Yes, by using a dashboard for each group. A kitchen dashboard with all the kitchen widgets on it, etc.
The answer to 3 is No, but it would be a good feature, albeit an App coding nightmare.
The answer to 4 is depends on the plan. The number of variables could be the limit. For example the Entry plan supports 10 things, each with 10 variables. So simplistically you could control 100 garage doors. With the maker plan there is no variable limit, so you can control everybody's garage doors.
The answer to 6 is No. Everything goes via the internet. No internet, no cloud updates.
Hi,
I ave a question about: "The answer to 6 is No. Everything goes via the internet. No internet, no cloud updates."
Reading the documentation, it seems to me that is possible to run the arduino sw locally, controll it by a local HMI and then, have ALSO a remote controll by Arduino cloud platform.
I'm wrong?
because I tink no one will accept a "real" solution that goes down if internet goes down. (for shure to run without wi-fi is necessary to have all things wired to the controller)
This is why I did not go with Arduino Cloud and developed my own solution which depends on HTTP APIs when running locally and on MQTT when working over the cloud. My app checks if the app and my controller seat on the same subnet and if so, used HTTP. If it's not, which means that I am out of the house, it works through the cloud using secured MQTT.
I think I stand by that statement, but I'd be delighted to be proved wrong.
It doesn't preclude control via other means if you can organise them.
It also doesn't preclude a Thing from behaving well during internet outages. That's down to the designer and is good practice in any case. Outages will happen.
Certainly with access to a LAN you have many more options. I connect my Things to the Arduino IoT Cloud and a local MQTT Broker. They're perfectly happy together.