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[HA Dave]

Disconnect your cable line, but leave the router on. Try to use the WM100.

Your kidding me. I had no idea X10 would be that inept. There was some cable line upgrade/construction this past summer. Several times cable was out briefly. Never did I lose any of my major automation functions. I guess I just assumed the WM-100 continued to work as well.

[Knightrider]

Um, Dave, this is what we've been pursuing since day 1.

It just won't work without routing all its commands through an Alibaba server.

There's absolutely nothing local about it. When my net goes out, so does the WM100. I can be on the same wifi and it doesn't work.

That server went down early last week. My X10 wifi went with if. Was connected to the same wifi and internet connection. Nothing worked due to a problem in California.

I'm not saying to ditch the cloud connection, just don't make it the primary means of communication.

For every command to the willie, a piece of data goes out and another comes in. Nothing happens behind the firewall(s).

[Knightrider]

Which leaves another slight concern for those who are paranoid.

[HA Dave]

......And you have to realize that's not how the WM100 works, which is why it's a clunker.

That quote is kind of the point of this entire discussion.

No. I was under the impression that most of this discussion was about "fixing" the WM-100. And what I've been screaming all along is... the WM-100 was created/made without a vision for the future. It doesn't matter the skill level or design abilities of foreign manufactures.... or the big brains here at the forum. The quality of future technology products will determined by the vision of it's use. Turning lights on and off.... are a fractional part of HA use... even today. I can't imagine how remote control of lights will become more important... in the future. And the future of Home Automation, and virtually almost everything else in modern life... is dependent on the cloud.

Before the WM-100 gets fixed.... it needs a vision to model it's re-creation/re-design. We already know what a WM-100 without a future vision looks like.   

[HA Dave]

Which leaves another slight concern for those who are paranoid.

There are countless human failing and illnesses. I don't know of ANY (with maybe the exception of amputation) that are cured with Home Automation products.

[Tuicemen]

You HAVE to realize... it doesn't work that way. Anything that can use the Internet via your router... will use the router for LOCAL control... when you are local.

Not every thing

Yeah... if your in a area of the home not easily accessible to the your thermostat you could make your HVAC changes from your phone.... or merely tell a digital assistant (Alexa or google). And that would remain local.... 

Alexa nor Google will work if the internet is down you can't do local control via an assistant. At least they don't in either of my places.

The discussion is not about fixing the WM100, the hardware is fine!
What we're looking at doing is expanding on the software which given the developers stance will require a complete redo.
In order to do that we need to understand the inner workings of the Willie

[HA Dave]

I got up this morning (early) with the idea of testing my WM-100. And sure enough... it is totally cloud dependent. I had no idea it had no local control.

It should have local control.

That said.... WTF is with the deal that it doesn't have a Alexa skill? It has a wifi connection, and a server. They could have introduced the WM-100 with a Amazon skill and had access to 39 MILLION AI users. Thousands of the those users are already X10 customers.... many have visited this forum and many other Home Automation forums looking for an X10-AI solution. I've read MANY of the posts. Is X10 TRYING to limit thier customer base?

This is so stupid. A cloud based device that doesn't exploit the advanages of using the cloud. And the solution being offered.... is taking it off the cloud? Are you kidding me? Why not begin with just exploiting the server use... and then point the WM-100 to another server? Then mimic everything and make changes via server provided updates. 

Don't take this wrong. It sucks big time that many rural HA users are limited by their lack of quality Internet connectivity. But that problem ain't going to be fixed by government action. The federal government has done what it does best about such things.... it made empty promises. I don't think that many remote Internet users world-wide... can push their square peg in the same round hole the rest of us use. They require different solutions. But don't forget... those remote users are the few.... and not the bulk of the customer base.

[Tuicemen]

It should have local control.

This is so stupid. A cloud based device that doesn't exploit the advanages of using the cloud. And the solution being offered.... is taking it off the cloud? Are you kidding me? Why not begin with just exploiting the server use... and then point the WM-100 to another server? Then mimic everything and make changes via server provided updates. 

The solution being offered to take it off the cloud is just one possible option only and may never materialize.
There are a few ways to go about getting local control and we may be able to still use the existing cloud server.
 
I believe a cloud server will still be required to open this to the masses and Authinx may be convinced to take that on if we can't make use of the existing one.

[JeffVolp]

This is so stupid. A cloud based device that doesn't exploit the advanages of using the cloud. And the solution being offered.... is taking it off the cloud? Are you kidding me? Why not begin with just exploiting the server use... and then point the WM-100 to another server? Then mimic everything and make changes via server provided updates.

I NEVER said it should not support the cloud.  My point is that it should be able to provide basic functionality without having to rely on the cloud.  There was a long list of features that we created back when it was introduced that we hoped the developer would add.  Obviously, that ain't gonna happen.

Since the developer is refusing to provide information necessary for us to add those features ourselves, the only option is to take the developer out of the picture and roll our own firmware/software that includes the features we wanted.  I have always said that should include WiFi, but it should be implemented so the cloud is ONLY necessary to provide features that REQUIRE cloud access.

Jeff

[dhouston]

I think I'm also approaching the same twilight as the XTB line - were I not, I'd opt for replacing the daughterboard holding all the above with one holding an RPi Zero W plus RTC. That's also complicated since it requires disassembly, desoldering and soldering. Rather than mess with the (already messy) RPi options bandied about recently, I'd create something resembling a clean sheet using the BBC Basic compiler available for Raspian as well as most mobile platforms.

I won't be doing this as it appears that BBC Basic doesn't run on Zeros.

[petera]

I imagine something like Python would be an ideal candidate. Probably not No 1 choice of programming language here but certainly very capable for a project like this on the Raspberry Pi if that was the chosen route.

[HA Dave]

I NEVER said it should not support the cloud.  My point is that it should be able to provide basic functionality without having to rely on the cloud.

Sorry for any misunderstanding Jeff. I would think cloud connectivity would be the basic... with the limited local control as backwards compatible (no offense to knightrider). 

[BackAgain]

A server doesn't need to be in the cloud to be successful. True, these are much more powerful Computers then you or I have (in most cases) However I have had several servers running over the last few years handling my own personal automation.

That's the part that keeps getting missed in these threads.  I (we?) want all this in house, with remote access as an option, but NOT required.

[dhouston]

I imagine something like Python would be an ideal candidate.

I suspect I'm probably too old to try learning a new programming language even though I do have a copy of a book titled Learn Python in one day and Learn It Well. I keep dozing off after a few pages so it will likely take me months to get through it.

Also, I have no need for the WM100 so can't see spending $110 for one to play with.

[ceedee]

A server doesn't need to be in the cloud to be successful. True, these are much more powerful Computers then you or I have (in most cases) However I have had several servers running over the last few years handling my own personal automation.

That's the part that keeps getting missed in these threads.  I (we?) want all this in house, with remote access as an option, but NOT required.

100% agree. I thought this was how it worked. Shame on me for assuming!

As I mentioned before, my TP-Link bulbs and plugs work locally, with an option (per unit) for remote access.