What happens if there is no internet?

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Patrick Castleberg

So I am looking to invest in smart vents but I have seen many tech companies come and go in the past 10 years.  Is there any ability with Flair to operate in an "off grid" mode if internet were lost?  

And if, God forbid, Flair went out of business what would happen to the functionality of the smart vents and the required Pucks I invested in?

I have a large house and I would likely be looking at several thousand dollars to make the full conversion, the fact that everything is cloud based makes me quite nervous to make such an investment in a relatively new company.  

Is there any consideration to having at least a base "offline" mode of operation that would allow the system to still be functional?

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    Kruse Ludington

    I have seen very little interest or response from the company on this, which is really discouraging - they don't even realize the huge sales opportunity they are missing with this - 

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    Michael

    2 years later and we are still waiting for this. I won't buy any further expansion units until this is implemented. Expect these to become bricks at some point.

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    Kevin Summers

    They went to all the trouble to make a "hub" that STILL doesn't make it capable of offline operation. Clearly they don't give a crap and have no interest in taking away the cloud dependency.

    For all we know they're using it to tap in to your local network and gather all kinds of data that they turn around and sell to God knows who.

    If you are desperate to have non cloud vents, buy Keen, but don't buy their hub. The vents are Zigbee and can connect directly to your home automation hub.

    It's sad really because I like the Flair pucks,

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    Patrick Nelson

    Just commenting as an interested potential buyer. I'm sure I'm probably only the 1%-5% of folks who land here while researching who actually comment.

    Just to be clear, to Flair:  I will not buy this if I cannot have the option to control it locally.

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    John LeNerd

    I was initially intrigued by Flair's offering, but learning that it requires an internet connection was a dealbreaker. I am now designing my own open-source smart vent system, complete with 3D-printable PETG models. My goal is to ensure full integration with Home Assistant, as there’s absolutely no justification for a smart vent to rely on the internet for control.

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    Senthil Babu
    • Edited

    Glad, I found this thread before putting money into this. I will be better of making a motorized damper smart with an esp32, pressure and temperature sensors.

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    pomonabill220

    I would LOVE to have local control of my new vents.

    I have waited a couple of years before buying them, just because of the cloud only operation.

    I, like all the others here, really do not like to rely on cloud based operation, and the possibility of Flair going away, leaving us with useless bricks that cost us all BIG money!

    I have been burned by companies going extinct and turning my devices into paperweights, and loosing MONEY too!

    PLEASE give us local control of our vents!!!

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    Erik Eidt
    • Edited

    I am also concerned about loss of internet, but the main reason I want local control is so that I can integrate Flair vents into Home Assistant where all of my automations are local. All I need is the local ability to open & close the vents.

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    Kruse Ludington

    Erik Eidt there is a flair integrationb but it is cloud based (and therefore slow)

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