Author Topic: What if we could no longer access the likes of Ecowitt.....  (Read 1359 times)

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Offline Bashy

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What if we could no longer access the likes of Ecowitt.....
« on: April 22, 2022, 10:46:41 PM »
Hi folks, I cannot find the rules to check on political even though its not my intention to be political and i dont want it turning political, as you will see, its a legit question and would like to keep it on topic with regards to the actual question, i hate politics.


As you all know about the war in Ukraine and this has led to sanctions with Russia throughout the world.


A scary thought has just popped into my head, what if China and Taiwan start up and we then sanction China, cause we will, thats a given.

I am sure one way or another, we will get cut off from many Chinese services be it we ban them or they ban us form using them, either way, one of those could be their servers thus killing access to Ecowitt, do you think that this is a possibility?

For me, its not just Ecowitt, I have a few differrent wifi cameras that are also China based.
The same with some smarthome devices i have such as switches (Ewelink) and sensors (Aeotec), various bulbs and plugs that use  Smart Life, Meross, Govee etc. it could make them all obsolete, see what i mean about scary?
Kind regards
Bashy

Offline CW2274

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Re: What if we could no longer access the likes of Ecowitt.....
« Reply #1 on: April 22, 2022, 11:33:13 PM »
I think your concern is completely justified. Granted, it can be challenging, but this among many other reasons is why I knowingly avoid buying from the CCP like the plague.

Offline box

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Re: What if we could no longer access the likes of Ecowitt.....
« Reply #2 on: April 23, 2022, 04:57:37 AM »
Hi folks, I cannot find the rules to check on political even though its not my intention to be political and i dont want it turning political, as you will see, its a legit question and would like to keep it on topic with regards to the actual question, i hate politics.


As you all know about the war in Ukraine and this has led to sanctions with Russia throughout the world.


A scary thought has just popped into my head, what if China and Taiwan start up and we then sanction China, cause we will, thats a given.

I am sure one way or another, we will get cut off from many Chinese services be it we ban them or they ban us form using them, either way, one of those could be their servers thus killing access to Ecowitt, do you think that this is a possibility?

For me, its not just Ecowitt, I have a few differrent wifi cameras that are also China based.
The same with some smarthome devices i have such as switches (Ewelink) and sensors (Aeotec), various bulbs and plugs that use  Smart Life, Meross, Govee etc. it could make them all obsolete, see what i mean about scary?
buy shares in Davis? AFAICS all the other manufacturers depend on China to some degree

Also backup your data either by downloading from ecowitt regularly or better, invest in some independent logging/analysis software like Cumulus MX or weather display

Offline Mattk

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Re: What if we could no longer access the likes of Ecowitt.....
« Reply #3 on: April 23, 2022, 05:29:48 AM »
Then it will just become a little bit more expensive to buy other hardware made by other countries, we really need to get over China.

Offline vreihen

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Re: What if we could no longer access the likes of Ecowitt.....
« Reply #4 on: April 23, 2022, 07:42:45 AM »
Considering that home automation companies iHome and Insteon have both shut down their cloud servers and left customers holding houses full of electronic bricks this month alone, I'd say that your fear is justified.

Personally, I don't buy anything whatsoever with cloud dependencies unless there are absolutely no other options.....
WU Gold Stars for everyone! :lol:

Offline box

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Re: What if we could no longer access the likes of Ecowitt.....
« Reply #5 on: April 23, 2022, 08:59:26 AM »
Considering that home automation companies iHome and Insteon have both shut down their cloud servers and left customers holding houses full of electronic bricks this month alone, I'd say that your fear is justified.

Personally, I don't buy anything whatsoever with cloud dependencies unless there are absolutely no other options.....
luckily the cloud dependencies with ecowitt are quite well defined and relatively easily avoided or mitigated

Mind you, replacement sensors would be tricky

Once they stopped working you would have to start an alternative

Offline davidmc36

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Re: What if we could no longer access the likes of Ecowitt.....
« Reply #6 on: April 23, 2022, 09:44:42 AM »
...., we really need to get over China.

And the realistic chances of that happening ant time soon  to any measurable degree is pretty much nil.

Made in USA or Made in Canada?  Replace that with "Assembled in...." with majority if components Made in China would likely be more accurate.

Offline Bashy

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Re: What if we could no longer access the likes of Ecowitt.....
« Reply #7 on: April 23, 2022, 10:44:22 PM »
At the moment i am more concerned with my smart home and Ecowitt, although, Ecowitt can be mitigated by running a 2nd WD as my 1st is running the Davis.

Smarthome not so easy, i had to go the route i did as it was the low cost option, but also I added different products along the way, I have about 10 wifi bulbs of different makes but all use Smart Life (China) I've added 2 wifi switches, Ewelink (China), then theres about 10 wifi smart plugs, Smart Life, Meross (both China). Thankfully Smartthings is Samsung thus South Korea, Ring and the 7 Echo devices are Amazon product's that use their own servers in the US and poss EU and there is the Hive heating and smarthome setup, again, thankfully they are a UK company but not sure where their servers are based :/ I do know that most electronics have Chinese components in them so i highly doubt that that side of things will ever be sanctioned but they could be blocked by China, we would then have to look elsewhere thus driving up the costs. It would be a more expensive world for sure!
Kind regards
Bashy

Offline broadstairs

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Re: What if we could no longer access the likes of Ecowitt.....
« Reply #8 on: April 24, 2022, 04:54:40 AM »
I must admit that I don't have any Smart Home stuff, mainly because my wife hates tech and always says it leaves too much to go wrong! She says that's what switches are for and it just makes folks lazy (her opinion!) she even turns the central heating on/off manually despite having a timer on it  :roll: ;) So that would not bother me. A concern on Ecowitt yes because WD and CumulusMX rely on that for catch up as most of the Ecowitt stuff has no logging capability or battery backup.

Stuart
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Offline Bashy

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Re: What if we could no longer access the likes of Ecowitt.....
« Reply #9 on: April 24, 2022, 06:08:20 AM »
I must admit that I don't have any Smart Home stuff, mainly because my wife hates tech and always says it leaves too much to go wrong! She says that's what switches are for and it just makes folks lazy (her opinion!) she even turns the central heating on/off manually despite having a timer on it  :roll: ;) So that would not bother me. A concern on Ecowitt yes because WD and CumulusMX rely on that for catch up as most of the Ecowitt stuff has no logging capability or battery backup.

Stuart

What about remote controls for the TV etc, I bet ya Mrs doesn't get up tp turn the TV over any more ;)
There is more to it than just being lazy, although, that's a big part of it for me as I have a bad back, but thers the cost factor, most of my lights are 9w ivae a some 14w but only where needed, also the control factor when you're away, or if you use Alexa or Google or ios home kit, you can have those wake you up to lights on in the rooms needed or use sensors like I do to turn them on and the go off again after 10mins of no movement, they're great for mimicking people at home if you're away, and some can dance to music lol or set the mood colour or set the colours to what you're watching on TV and so on, so there is more to it than just laziness, it's progressive, like the TV remote, even my floodlights are  now, biggest is 50w, the other 3 are 20s, its a cost saving too in the long run
Kind regards
Bashy

Offline zoomx

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Re: What if we could no longer access the likes of Ecowitt.....
« Reply #10 on: April 24, 2022, 02:58:23 PM »
Despite wars or ban my concern was that the cloud used will sumply closed for many reason, as it happened before for some "smart" home devices.

Ecowitt will be not a great concern since I can use local server like CumulusMX. Anyway I just noticed that data from January and previous days in Ecowitt servers are not 5 minute data but 30 minute data.

As "smart" devices I have some Sonoff. Inside there is an ESP8266 and there ia an alternative firmware called Tasmota.

Offline ConligWX

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Re: What if we could no longer access the likes of Ecowitt.....
« Reply #11 on: April 24, 2022, 03:11:16 PM »
Just a thought

if we sanction China, are you going to turn of all your electrical appliances because they were made in China?  the vast majority of electrical components are made in China.  PC's, laptops, monitors, keyboard, TV, Phones, Routers, 4G masts.
« Last Edit: April 24, 2022, 03:14:31 PM by ConligWX »
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Offline alanb

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Re: What if we could no longer access the likes of Ecowitt.....
« Reply #12 on: April 24, 2022, 03:57:25 PM »
My Internet service was out for a couple of hours yesterday, so I had local connectivity but no cloud. Most of my smart devices stayed online so I could turn them off and on with the SmartLife app, but couldnt change the settings such as color and dimming of the lights. Of course, I also could not control them with voice control of Alexa or Google Home. My smart garage door openers did go offline and wouldn't work without Internet. That isn't a big deal because the remotes and wall buttons still work to open/close the doors.

Some of my smart lights are Bluetooth mesh with a WiFi hub. Others are strait WiFi. I prefer the Bluetooth mesh devices with a hub. For those lights, I have a handheld remote which still worked to control dimming and color even with the Internet down.
« Last Edit: April 24, 2022, 04:00:27 PM by alanb »
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Offline ocala

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Re: What if we could no longer access the likes of Ecowitt.....
« Reply #13 on: April 24, 2022, 05:39:12 PM »
Interesting discussion.
I guess I'm in the don't really worry about it category. There is nothing I can do or say that will change anything. If my phone, camera's, remotes etc stop working then so be it. I understand how the internet has changed the way we live our lives but they don't run my life either. Sure, I would miss them but you learn to adapt. What ever happens, happens.   
The blues had a baby and they named it Rock & Roll

Offline Bashy

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Re: What if we could no longer access the likes of Ecowitt.....
« Reply #14 on: April 25, 2022, 02:12:10 AM »
Just a thought

if we sanction China, are you going to turn of all your electrical appliances because they were made in China?  the vast majority of electrical components are made in China.  PC's, laptops, monitors, keyboard, TV, Phones, Routers, 4G masts.

Uh? now why would anyone want to do that, its more of, if the Chinese decided to stop us using them because of us sanctioning them.
Kind regards
Bashy

Offline Mattk

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Re: What if we could no longer access the likes of Ecowitt.....
« Reply #15 on: April 25, 2022, 03:12:45 AM »
Just a thought

if we sanction China, are you going to turn of all your electrical appliances because they were made in China?  the vast majority of electrical components are made in China.  PC's, laptops, monitors, keyboard, TV, Phones, Routers, 4G masts.

Uh? now why would anyone want to do that, its more of, if the Chinese decided to stop us using them because of us sanctioning them.

Once santioned then they don't have a choice, anything they decide then is rather irrelevant

 

anything