After a few internet outages this year, we lost Bond control of our fans because the app seemed to require online connectivity, even though our Hue lights worked with local control (same Wi-Fi network, but no connection). From what I understand, Bond already has implemented local control, but I’ve also heard some devices are “cloud-only”.
Could that have been our issue?
If we happen to have a “cloud-only” device (not sure how to check within just the app), would Olibra have any consideration to add local / offline control to our Bond Bridges in the future? We’d love the feature: offline control (e.g., using Bond on local Wi-Fi even if the internet is down) could improve reliability, performance, and–I hope–reduce Bond’s cloud expenses over time.
Excitedly, I found some murmurs that v3 might add “fully offline” capabilities. Is that still planned on the roadmap (no need for an ETA)?
EDIT: forgot to add our info!
Bond Home BD-100 (ZZ / Zermatt unit)
Firmware: v2.28.0
Hunter Overton Fan
So it’s possible with v2 for most devices to be fully local.
There’s a way to check via the API (when you’re on the same network as the Bond Bridge, if you look through the API’s “devices” node, anything local will show).
If the device was added early in the V2 firmware, it may have been added as a cloud device, and rerecording as a new device might do the local version automatically.
If not - as in the second device also does not show in the “devices” API node after an automatic attempt adding and template match - then if you add as a manually recorded device (turn off database searching / matching when adding as a third device), and you record each command individually, it will be added as a local device.
That being said, the Bond team has mentioned that there are a few rare devices (weird signal and/or specific state-aware remotes) that are still “cloud only” devices, as you saw scattered throughout the forums.
If all of the steps I mentioned above don’t lead to a local device, what Template do you see under the Advanced details in the Bond app for that Hunter Overton Fan? Maybe someone else from the community, or the Bond team, could confirm if they have local control over a fan using that template?
@residualimages explained the cloud devices very well. If you can see the Template info in your Fan settings (under advanced settings), you should be able to control it without the need for cloud access.
About v3, the “fully offline” capabilities are referred to the Bond having an option to be set as “no cloud connection”, to avoid it broadcasting its config Wi-Fi and other details, but with no relation to the offline operation.
What mobile device (cellphone) are you using to control the Bond? If it is an Android device, try using an iOS one or vice-versa.
Also, sometimes the OS just drops you from a Wi-Fi that has no internet access, in this case, you won’t be able to control the Bond.
If you can do these tests and share with us the results, that would be great!
(Probably you already know, but good to mention that you can force an internet outage by unplugging the internet cables from your Wi-Fi router)
Thank you both for your thorough replies. Seemingly good news!
I do have a template under the fan’s settings. I’m on template RCF142. So perhaps it should be working. This fan was added manually, actually, so it looks like the app is in order.
This is with an iPhone 12 Pro running iOS 15.4.1. I unfortunately don’t have an Android device, but if I can borrow one from a friend & install the app, I’ll try that, too.
During the last internet outage, I did reconnect to the Wi-Fi (how I was able to control my Hue lights), but once I can get some downtime, I will unplug the Internet & run a quick test this weekend.
Thank you for the v2 vs v3 “offline” explanation; my apologies, I dove in too deep into the forums, it seems.