roxanne Smart Home Gateway

All devices will communicate with roxanne’s gateway enabling homeowners to manage, control and automate their entire connected devices and appliances from a smartphone, Wi-Fi console or remotely via the Web and GSM service.

Furthermore, the built-in GSM connectivity will allow remote access monitoring, control, and reception of important notifications such as security breaches, water leaks, or any pre-defined alert rules that were set up in the gateway in places even where internet access is not available.

Unlike most hubs and gateways that look like shiny soap bars with a cheap $2 wall adaptors, we decided go with a reliable industrial approach, after all it will serve as the main brain of the entire automation system! and it does deserve to have a solid aluminum housing, a reliable power supply brick from MeanWell, and antennas from Laird Technologies for a seamless communication with all the devices it manages.    

Hybrid vs. Cloud for the Smart Home

What makes smart homes smart? Processing. For example, voice-controlled devices can only understand you after they’ve processed a sound, and your smart home hub can only tell what’s going on in your house after it’s processed the input from your sensors.

As simple as it may sound, processing is critical, and the “process” takes memory, power, and software. And when it comes to the smart home, the question is, “Should devices process locally or in the cloud?”

There are undeniably more manufacturers looking to cloud-based services to provide the processing power their devices need. Why?

It’s more convenient for them. They don’t need to create lean and efficient software programs and install more expensive microprocessors on each device to analyze complex data. Instead, they upload the algorithms needed for processing to the cloud. Their devices are then programmed to upload data to the cloud where all the processing is done. This, in turn, leads to simple hardware design and low costs.

However, cloud-based only smart devices come with major trade-offs, one is the possibility of a privacy breach. Data does travel from your device out of your home to the cloud, data you might not want someone else to see. This includes video from your home security camera, your arrival/departure times sent from your smart lock, and your home address set within your smart hub. While manufacturers assure us that data is encrypted and secure, there’s no assurance that a device is hack-proof.

Another biggest downside of devices relying on the cloud is that they rely on the internet and the manufacturer's cloud. This makes them slow to respond, and when the internet or vendors server goes down, your smart home goes down. Leaving you unable to control your lights, locks, thermostat, and other cloud based smart devices and if for any reason the vendor goes out of business their servers will shut down, then you are out of luck, because your entire system will seize to function and it will be renderd worthless!  

Hybrid systems that process locally are inherently responsive, fast, most secure and they work even when your internet is down.

Hybrid systems  using good local processing with lean and easy to use software services are still rather rare. The newest trend seems to point to a hybrid solution, devices that use the cloud if you chose to do so( such as using Alexa's cloud services), but aren’t dependent to the cloud to run and manage all of the essential automation servises your home needs.

Battery Backup Power System for Gateway

The optional built-in powerful battery backup system for roxanne’s gateway, related sensors and actuators will provide safety in your home even when the grid power connection is cut off.

With this auxiliary backup power system your gateway will always stay operational and through SMS you will be instantly notified of the power outage and your entire security system, flood detectors, gas sensors, fire detectors, valve controllers, GSM connectivity, and alert system will remain active for up to 2 full days afterward.

This creates the ultimate uncompromised protection and safety for your home and for your loved ones.