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How did these Twist bulbs account for differences in time zone? If I have some of these lights and I move hundreds of miles to a new time zone, plug the same li

How did these Twist bulbs account for differences in time zone? If I have some of these lights and I move hundreds of miles to a new time zone, plug the same lights into the new home, how do they lights know?

__turbobrew__ 4y ago
I wonder how much it would cost to put an gps receiver in every lightbulb? If you can get a gps signal you can get a rough guesstimate of the bulbs location and time and therefore adjust to fit the local circadian rhythm. Or maybe you could sync to a local radio time station?
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- Duhck 4y ago
  both GPS and radio time receivers are very expensive. LED bulbs are a commodity product and thus have little room for margin. Our low power clock + super cap added $1.25 of BOM which translates to $2.50-$3 of cost to the user. Led bulbs at Home Depot are $3-5 on the low end.
  - bboygravity 4y ago
    I would easily pay 30+ USD per bulb if it had time-sync and NO internet connection (LAN optional and not a must-have). Actually I already did. LIFX day night bulbs cost more than that and don't have the functionality that you had in your product out of the box. Actually personally I would pay as much as 50 USD per bulb for standalone bulbs that just follow a cycle pre-set by myself over BLE or wifi or even a freaking USB port :p Maybe they exist but I haven't been able to find them.
- ilyt 4y ago
  $2-3 but GPS antenna is pretty bulky so forget it. Local radio time is generally iffy if you can't afford bigger antenna. Syncing my watch is basically impossible indoors, althought you might be able to get a bit bigger antenna in a bulb... but they will also be in much worse locations (near walls and inside metal enclosures)
- throw827474737 4y ago
  Too much still, also usually no GNSS reception in the usual bulb locations, except maybe for those wooden cardboard houses everywhere in the US (: Those radio time services over AM/FM better and cheaper for thst.
Duhck 4y ago
Yea great question. The bulbs were provisioned via an iOS app and there was a Wifi bulb sold that had a speaker in it (part of our pivot towards more marketable products) The bulbs could have been updated either by A) having a wifi bulb that then synchronized each other node via a low power mesh network, or B) by opening the app and connecting to the network. We effectively used the BLE radio to make a mesh network and a BLE device (phone) could connect and send and receive over the mesh.
- bboygravity 4y ago
  This is exactly a product idea I had and a product I have been desperate to find and buy. Included the "no cloud connection or hub needed" being a desired feature. Instead I now have a crappy overly complex setup that involves a bunch of lifx bulbs, a flic hub and buttons and a synology NAS running some python scripts from task scheduler every few minutes to set the desired temperature at certain time ranges (hard coded). That Twist idea sound(ed) perfect. What a bummer that it didnt work out.
  - ilyt 4y ago
    I kinda wish industry would converge on one standard for the devices themselves and compete on "IOT cloud/hub controller" instead of trying to build tiny closed ecosystems around eachother. MQTT + some schema for typical devices would be a dream. Maybe have some of those devices be able to act as hub themselves with option to connect to "bigger" controller (whether cloud or on premise) but still be able to handle basic functions when say internet is down
    - striking 4y ago
      That kind of already exists with Home Assistant. Granted, it often feels like a thin wrapper around lots of tiny closed ecosystems, but the fact that most things interoperate well enough means I can recommend it. Matter/Thread exist as well, and some smart device makers claim to already have adopted it, so we'll see how that all goes.

__turbobrew__ 4y ago

I wonder how much it would cost to put an gps receiver in every lightbulb? If you can get a gps signal you can get a rough guesstimate of the bulbs location and time and therefore adjust to fit the local circadian rhythm. Or maybe you could sync to a local radio time station?

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
Duhck 4y ago
both GPS and radio time receivers are very expensive. LED bulbs are a commodity product and thus have little room for margin. Our low power clock + super cap added $1.25 of BOM which translates to $2.50-$3 of cost to the user. Led bulbs at Home Depot are $3-5 on the low end.
- bboygravity 4y ago
  I would easily pay 30+ USD per bulb if it had time-sync and NO internet connection (LAN optional and not a must-have). Actually I already did. LIFX day night bulbs cost more than that and don't have the functionality that you had in your product out of the box. Actually personally I would pay as much as 50 USD per bulb for standalone bulbs that just follow a cycle pre-set by myself over BLE or wifi or even a freaking USB port :p Maybe they exist but I haven't been able to find them.
ilyt 4y ago
$2-3 but GPS antenna is pretty bulky so forget it. Local radio time is generally iffy if you can't afford bigger antenna. Syncing my watch is basically impossible indoors, althought you might be able to get a bit bigger antenna in a bulb... but they will also be in much worse locations (near walls and inside metal enclosures)
throw827474737 4y ago
Too much still, also usually no GNSS reception in the usual bulb locations, except maybe for those wooden cardboard houses everywhere in the US (: Those radio time services over AM/FM better and cheaper for thst.

Duhck 4y ago

Yea great question. The bulbs were provisioned via an iOS app and there was a Wifi bulb sold that had a speaker in it (part of our pivot towards more marketable products) The bulbs could have been updated either by A) having a wifi bulb that then synchronized each other node via a low power mesh network, or B) by opening the app and connecting to the network. We effectively used the BLE radio to make a mesh network and a BLE device (phone) could connect and send and receive over the mesh.

bboygravity 4y ago
This is exactly a product idea I had and a product I have been desperate to find and buy. Included the "no cloud connection or hub needed" being a desired feature. Instead I now have a crappy overly complex setup that involves a bunch of lifx bulbs, a flic hub and buttons and a synology NAS running some python scripts from task scheduler every few minutes to set the desired temperature at certain time ranges (hard coded). That Twist idea sound(ed) perfect. What a bummer that it didnt work out.
- ilyt 4y ago
  I kinda wish industry would converge on one standard for the devices themselves and compete on "IOT cloud/hub controller" instead of trying to build tiny closed ecosystems around eachother. MQTT + some schema for typical devices would be a dream. Maybe have some of those devices be able to act as hub themselves with option to connect to "bigger" controller (whether cloud or on premise) but still be able to handle basic functions when say internet is down
  - striking 4y ago
    That kind of already exists with Home Assistant. Granted, it often feels like a thin wrapper around lots of tiny closed ecosystems, but the fact that most things interoperate well enough means I can recommend it. Matter/Thread exist as well, and some smart device makers claim to already have adopted it, so we'll see how that all goes.