Arch Diagram

A little explanation

If this diagram is confusing, don’t you worry. I will break it down. But, before I proceed I want to disclose that my setup might be different from many others and there are plenty of brands in the market with different offerings that may make sense for different needs. This is just the setup the works best for my home.

Low level controls

I refer to low level controls as things that I interact with directly. They include sensors, smart bulbs, smart switches, smart plugs, smart button, door sensor, security camera, smart door bell and smart assistant. Every low level control needs to be tethered to a smart hub or a cloud service that doesn’t require a physical hub which I call the control tier.

Control tier

The low level controls can be controlled over the internet via the control tier. Sometimes, a control tier hub can control another control tier hub. For example, SmartThings hub can control Wemo devices by connecting to Wemo cloud. Google assistant can control Wemo and SmartThings gadget.

Control channels

To me, the best way to control devices are NOT to control them. Let me explain. There are multiple ways to control devices and the most common way is to by providing hard inputs including pushing a button, opening an app or explicit voice command. But, the second way, which makes the most sense to me is by controlling through my behavior. For example, lights turn on when I walk into a room and turns off when I leave, lights above my coffee machine turns on when I am ready to make coffee, night time routine that closes my door, checks all the door sensors, turns off all the appliances in the house when I go to bed and a night lamp in the living room that turns on when the sun sets and garage door that closes automatically when I am away from home in my car.