Long time ago there was a Greek philosopher called Socrates. One of his most famous quotes is “I know that I know nothing”. Socrates lived in fifth century BC so he had no idea that over 2400 years later computers will know more about people than anybody else. As you most likely know, openHAB does not collect any data about its users. This means that in quite many cases some things are assumed and not backed by facts.
In order to throw some light into what community is - I would like to start few polls which will let you answer but also see results for questions which I mined this evening. If you have your own, place it below.
Often discussions on forums around specific topics are dominated by people from one or another edge of community. While long lasting arguments allow to nail down issue, they frequently do not make a proper base for decisions. That’s why I come with idea of very rough survey.
Hopefully next edition will be more precise! Let’s numbers speak!
All polls will expire at May 24th, 11:59 PM, meaning results will be available for Smart Home Day in Darmstadt.
Number of openHAB installations maintained:
1
2
3-5
More than 5
0voters
Kind of primary area under openHAB(s) controll:
Apartment.
House
Office
Industrial
Other
0voters
Number of regular users having access to openHAB (browser, phone, tablet, touchscreen):
1
2-3
4-5
More than 5
More than 10
20 and more
0voters
Number of people which openHAB makes impact on:
(below 2 option stands for “2 or less”, I can’t edit poll options - sorry!)
below 2
3-5
More than 5
More than 10
More than 20
Hundreds
0voters
Integrated systems:
Lighting
Power outlets
Alarm
Heating
Ventilation
Air Conditioning
Media systems (tv, speakers, radio etc)
Cameras
Sprinklers
Intercom (count in doorbell)
Meters (electricity, oil, gas, water etc)
Weather station and environmental sensors
0voters
Do you still use any openhab 1.x binding?
Yes
No
0voters
Do you use text configurations?
Yes
No
0voters
Do you use a rule system?
Yes
No
0voters
Do you use groups for your items?
Yes
No
0voters
Do you use tags for your items?
Yes
No
0voters
Which operating system you use to run openHAB?
Linux
Mac
Other unix
Windows
Something else
0voters
What is your primary hardware platform for running openHAB?
Raspberry PI 3
Raspberry PI 2
Raspberry PI A/B (first one from 2012)
Pine 64
Rock 64
Other single board computer
Synology
QNAP
Other NAS
Desktop PC
Embedded PC
Apple/Mac
0voters
What is your internet kind/speed?
My openHAB is offline.
3G
LTE
ADSL
Cable operator
Fiber
0voters
How do you access openHAB from outside?
I do not, told you its offline.
myopenhab
self hosted myopenhab
something else
VPN
0voters
Used wiring methodology.
Mark “some” when you have at least one system of given kind. For example - if you have KNX and ZWave at home then you are kindly asked to mark “Wires and some radio”.
Wires.
Wires and some radio.
Mixed installation.
Mainly radio, some wires.
Only radio
0voters
Number of items (elements displayed in UI):
below 20
20-50
50-100
100-200
200-400
400-800
… more
0voters
User interfaces in use:
Basic UI (mark if you use official OSX and Android app)
Classic UI
ComeVisu
HABmin
HABot
HABPanel
Paper UI
Paper UI NG
Custom
0voters
Would you be willing to pay for additional online services openHAB (data storage, online configuration backup, etc.) - namely other than existing myopenhab features:
Yes
No, I would rather sign for complete telemetry to keep service free.
No
0voters
If you would opt pay, how much monthly would you be able to pay for extra services available to your home automation system (in euros, 1€=$1.12)?
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
0voters
Would you opt in for completely anonymous telemetry collecting (given that there is single person on globe who would manage to adjust it to GDPR requirements):
Yes.
As long as data is not sold.
Only for research purposes.
If I could control what is collected.
No.
0voters
Your primary concern / observation / complain:
In other words which two elements from below list in your opinion require instant action in order to make end user life easier:
Question 4 (Number of people which openHAB makes impact on) the options are ‘below 2’ (so that would be 1 or less) and 3 (or higher). For me this is exactly 2 which I cannot select
Question 12 (What is your primary hardware platform for running openHAB?) I guess some people will be using a laptop. I’m using an Intel NUC so I’m assuming this will fall into the Desktop PC category.
Question 12 is just about hardware - virtual machines needs to be hosted on something. You can run VMs on NAS, desktop, even on raspberrys. If we would have this option we could obfuscate hardware results. VM is a proper option to compare with Docker/openhabian - which could be a nice question for next “edition” (if we will have any).
You’re correct answers for 4th question miss “exactly two” - I added a note on this poll to mark first option if you have 2 or less subjects which are controlled by openHAB. Maybe some administrator will be able to update poll to avoid confusion later on.
On hardware platform - I don’t know NUC to well, as long as Intel allows you to swap memory and disk it is a compact PC platform. By size and extensibility it does not match a typical “embedded PC” where part of components is soldered upfront. Feel free to adjust your answer if necessary - we could add NUC as option in next run.
I also added question about software version in use. Thank you for suggestions and answers!
I’m running a separate development system at recent version, but have chosen to only describe the “production” system, guessing it is actual usage that is of interest.
Eh… docker is not an installation method though. TMK, the current containers all use a manual installation. I agree though… it might be interesting data to collect and fits well in the installation methods.
Would be good to have an option in the vote that is along the lines of. Low usage is free but those that go over a threshold need to be foundation members. Google tts has used this model in the past/present and I like the model. New comers and people trialing a service get to use it for free and when someone starts using a server that may cause more bandwidth to be needed that raises costs it can be covered with a yearly membership and not monthly.
From the end user’s perspective it is. The acquisition , set up, and configuration is sufficiently different as to need it’s own installation instructions. You can’t just say “see the manual insurrections” to set up oh in Docker.
I’m not sure the laws that govern the non-profit status of the foundation would allow that.
I am controlling a property with multiple buildings, and other things on it (like tanks, pumps irrigation, etc.); not a problem at all; either have sitemaps per building or one for all
Question 13 is , IMO, a bit confusing. Is it about my internet connectivity? Or about my openHAB setup? I selected the answer ‘My openHAB is offline’, since I’m not using myopenhab or an similar service to bring my setup online. But yes, I’m using an cable operator for my fixed internet connection…
Its question about speed of Internet in network you have openHAB running. This impacts how fast or slow is access from outside which is asked in next point.
An alternative solution would be for an enterprising OH user to set up their own cloud service–completely separate from myopenhab and the foundation–and start charging for access. myopenhab.com could then be maintained for people who aren’t ready to pay for it, or who are less concerned about reliability and on-demand support.
Mine is running in a VM on “serious” server hardware, so a matching category is still missing.
As this has proven to be the most reliable and managable setup to me (far superior over my previous struggles with the Raspberry Pi) it might have been a good idea to add this to the options.
Another point I’m missing is “stability and reliability” which I think is key for an automation system - something that is currently not one of the strongest arguments for OH (its been better before and I’m sure it will become more stable again in the future).
Nevertheless this poll is a good idea to get to know more about what is important to the community and where the focus should be set on.
I’m sorry to hear that I missed VM as installation method (?) and limited hardware selection to you. Polls hosted on forum have limitation to maximum 12 answers, we can’t have more and can’t edit poll after first 5 minutes. I haven’t had idea about that when I started writing above questions down. Due to limitations I had to adjust options after few hours of writing and trim them down.
Hardware should indeed have “Other” option and not only “Other NAS”.
With all above, I am really thankful for all suggestions, hopefully survey idea will evolve and within next run we will get better selection of answers. It was difficult to define all possible hardware platforms. This lead to placement of exotic platforms such MacOS, Rock 64 and RPi 1 which do not exist in community deployments. Next time we will be able to simply omit these and book place for serious hardware.
Cheers,
Łukasz
2 Likes
MDAR
(Stuart Hanlon, UK importer of Velbus hardware)
19
I’m sorry I missed this thread when it came out.
Now that a few years have passed, could we do it again and compare the results?
Can we add a vague Global Location location question too?
I think we could, its already 4 years since this poll. Seems that we are being asked more often on forum by random researchers to fill questionnaire about HA than OH.
It might be a nice new year resolution to organize it once again.
