KNOCKI - New Device Spotted... Thoughts?

https://knocki.com/

Just spotted this… Has anyone seen this or looked more into it…

  • Positives/Negatives?
  • Possible to integrate?
  • Unique use cases ?

:slight_smile:

Personally, this seems just odd to me. If I already have SmartThings, I’d much prefer to expand my Amazon Alexa capabilities than to Morse code knock for things to happen. Reminds me of a product in the US several years ago where you could clap to turn on/off stuff.

I don’t know the basis/driver behind coming up with this device, but I just can’t see this take off. I could be wrong, but I’d rather look for other solutions.

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Could work for external doors sending notifications to users or turning a entrance light on

Or

Simple use case for small kids to turn on and off lights and automate stuff so they dont need app access or switches/remotes they can f*** with and loose

Just ideas :wink: x

Well you could use a SmartThings multi, spend less and do the same thing w/o having to write a devicetype, though both would require a special smartapp to handle the knock logic.

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It’s an accelerometer. You can already do the simplest form of this with SmartThings and one of the accelerometer sensors, it’s the basis for one of the knock recognition SmartApps. They’re adding some kind of pattern recognition so you can have different knocks mean different things.

Some thoughts:

  1. Devices in the kickstarter phase that have a “technical specifications” link that just takes you to a glossy picture of the prototype and never give you any real technical specifications are not likely to ever work the way the marketing material promises. Just sayin’…

  2. if you dig deep enough, you’ll find that they’re claiming they can run a daily use Wi-Fi device for 12 months on two AA batteries. Which no one else in the world has ever been able to do. This establishes the level of credibility for any of their other claims.

  3. Lockitron removed basic knock recognition on the second model of their lock for the simple reason that it turned out there were too many local variables to be able to sell it in a mass-market. It did work great on some doors and some conditions. Others were too sensitive. Many didn’t recognize the knock at all. The same issue applies to the smartapp that does doorknock recognition. It does work for some people. It doesn’t work reliably for enough people to be the basis for a commercial product.

This is one where I would definitely wait until it was in regular release with normal consumer protections. The odds of this working as promised are very small. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but I would’ve liked to see a lot more about this patent pending technology before I considered it a credible product.

My basic rule applies: no device is real until you can order it for two day delivery from Amazon under normal consumer protection laws. Up until then, it’s all marketing. :wink:

The following topic about the doorknocker smartapp discusses many of the issues with accelerometer vibration sensing.

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Good points @JDRoberts as always - have to say having read your points id agree

I use the SmartThings Multi sensors on my doors to notify me of knocks. While they do a decent job of that, they also occasionally notify me of:

My kids running into the door while playing
My kids running near the door while playing
Thunder
Tree branches that hit the door during windstorms
The door being opened or closed

Light knocks that are intended to not disturb a sleeper are not always picked up, either. I don’t think I’d preorder something that is supposed to do this.

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Trucks driving by my house set my front door multi off, so does wind buffeting. The timings on the platform on not granular enough at this point to do any meaningful knock recognition. For example trying to detect a simple 3-5 knock pattern. I tried coding this up but could never get it work even 25% of the time.

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Yeah, the “clappers”. And why “Knocki”? They should’ve call these the “knockers”. :smile:

There is exactly such a SmartApp by @Chuck_Norris, called Light on on Knock (Acceleration),

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Thenonly thing i can see this fixing is " knock patterns " ehich multi sensors etc struggle with at the moment . . . Other than that . . . Not a right lot

That might make some sense… otherwise an AEON mini-mote is cheaper and easier to use in my opinion.

But yeah… might make sense for very young kids.

Kickstarter is now live for it.

Not sure what I think about it. Even at $60 seems high.

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Kickstarter is doing very well, too. Over 250K so far!

I think the Knocki is a nice idea and it could be useful in certain occasions. But at the current price and MSRP in the future, in my opinion, it is way too expensive. For $90 you can get an Amazon Echo Dot which can do a lot more than the Knocki (currently at $60 plus shipping). Then, according to them, MSRP would be at $125??? For me, this is comparable to a z-wave switch and it should be price a little bit above that price. MSRP should be around $60-$65 tops.

I was thinking about it, I would probably just get minimotes ($20) with 8 button (short,long presses) I can get 4 or 5 or 6 for the price of one Knocki. Or get 2-3 Fire Tablets and run smarttiles on it.

Interesting idea, but I find it somewhat limiting, especially for the price.

Agree with most about the price point, way to high for functionality.
I do have some interesting use cases, as a smart house consultant who serves a large demographic of elderly population (including normal aging process and various disabilities), I definately see uses with some VERY simple integrations -

  1. Those with weaking voices, speech impairments (strokes / Lou Gehrigs) this is great! or even some dementia/ cognitive impairment, asking them to remember commands and names to alexa, FORGET IT. But to tap say the nightstand to turn on / off light … makes it possible to integrate some technology. (and save falls in the dark).
  2. Those using walkers that using a smart device in hand is difficult.
  3. some simple task’s in “remote” areas of the house in liue of buying additional “DOTS” for every room, if in a bed room you just need a light on etc.
  4. To use when you DO NOT want to use VOICE / or phone to say wake a sleeping spouse or child. (trigger “good night routine”) etc.
    Just food for thought.

Choice is good, and different people have different physicality. Something like the knocki might be useful for some people for some situations. And again, as has already been discussed in this thread, there are already devices now that can do this, including a knock notification smartapp in SmartThings. But I don’t think it would be quite as widely useful as you might imagine to begin with. If so, people would be using one now. As I said, the technology exists.

I myself am quadriparetic. I went through the walker stage–A device like knocki would not have been usable unless I was already sitting down, in which case the Walker is not really relevant.

Knocki is going to cost more than a Dot for a device that not only does much less, but which also is subject to many false events. This was the same problem that the old clapper had. And if you want to have two or three patterns (one for on, one for off.) then the person has to remember those patterns as well.

For someone with significant cognitive issues, I think just a Flic button, at about 25% cost of the Knocki, would make much more sense. You can stick it anywhere, it’s brightly colored to attract attention, and if you have any arm control it’s very easy to use even just with part of the arm. And no false events.

As someone who has learned to use many alternative control mechanisms, I just think there are existing options which solve the same problem more reliably and at less cost.

But again, choice is good. There’s no harm in someone trying the Knocki once it’s actually released to the market, and if it’s useful, great. But I would buy it from someplace with a good return policy. :wink:

BTW, The following thread lists the buttons and remotes which are currently available that work with SmartThings. Quite a few choices there, many suitable for a nightstand. :sunglasses:

Has anyone tried Knocki? Sounds cool but have seen any actual review.

We’re halfway through 2018 now and the Knocki still has no shipping date for backers. Consider yourself lucky if you didn’t back this piece of sh1t.

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