Last time I did a blog talking about why it was a good time to automate your house, we said that the technology was mature enough to be able to purchase and use comfortably in your places, so why are we now saying that you need to future-proof your investment?
Don’t take me wrong, the technology is indeed in a mature state, however, there are many devices that continue to sell to the public that are not and will not be upgraded to the latest automation standards because manufacturers have to sell what they produced while the technology was still growing to maturity (see how ideas are linked?), so, we’re going to give you a few tips and advice on purchasing your new home automation gadgets.
1
Look for independent devices: devices with technologies such as ZigBee, Lora, ZWave, cannot connect to the internet by themselves, and require a central office to receive their signals in order to work, this limits their reparability, and prevents them from being compatible with other platforms.
2
It handles only one brand: this is a little difficult, so if we do not find a brand that can satisfy all our needs, we must look for compatible brands (here the importance of the previous point). But you must look for a brand that has the most solutions you need, less applications, less configuration problems, better compatibility, for example, U-WIGO and the U-NIVERSE ecosystem, have solutions for your entire home in one place.
3
Compatibility with 2.4GHz WiFi: While it is true that there is 5GHz WiFi and now WiFi 6 with its speed improvements, IoT devices do not transmit much information to take advantage of these new speeds, however, they benefit from the extra distance that 2.4GHz WiFi signals provide, this will allow you to connect devices further away from your router.
4
Support and upgrades: I know we can get many inexpensive IoT products in the Chinese market with an X brand, however, these generic brands do not have support or upgrades, which will prevent your devices to keep up with security patches, or to acquire new features as technology advances.
5
Compatibility with other platforms: try to find devices and brands that are willing to integrate functions with other devices not necessarily IoT, to increase your control arsenal at home.
