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using 1000+ ESP32 units with Google Home Assistant

Posted: Sat Nov 07, 2020 12:53 am
by societyofrobots
I have 1000+ ESP32 units that needs to be controlled by hundreds of users via Google Home Assistant (GHA). Each unit controls a few door locks and has a 'door open' sensor that reports back. Users are non-technical so it should "just work." What would be the best way to approach this?

ESP32 -> magic -> GHA

For manufacturing purposes, ideally I'd like only one firmware version shared among all of them. Solution needs to be scalable, so I can't manually manage thousands of security certs. I'd also rather avoid managing my own database to act as a middleman, as my expertise is only in hardware + firmware. I don't care much about data security for individual units, but must be resistant to DoS and system-wide hacks.

Initially I looked into ESP32 -> MQTT -> AWS -> GHA, but it ended up having serious problematic nuances for managing thousands of 'things':
https://forums.aws.amazon.com/thread.js ... dID=234102
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/375 ... in-aws-iot

What else could I do?

Re: using 1000+ ESP32 units with Google Home Assistant

Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2020 3:44 am
by mikemoy
I have 1000+ ESP32 units ...
What else could I do?
IMHO you should have tried this idea with one ESP32 before you went ahead and bought 1000+.

Re: using 1000+ ESP32 units with Google Home Assistant

Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2020 7:23 pm
by PeterR
IMHO you should have tried this idea with one ESP32 before you went ahead and bought 1000+.
Lol. And I thought it was SPRITE who was harsh.

A good net security man will cost you. A bad security man will cost you as well, just a little latter when you loose your brand.
but it ended up having serious problematic nuances for managing thousands of 'things':
And those problems were......?

Suppose you should also explain why you decided on GHA and then (since Amazon want to rule the world (some say)) why you think GHA is not scalable?
I would have thought that Amazon GHA would only be too keen to have thousands of door locks which trap us such that we can only buy our food from Amazon. Or eat family members :) So 'whatsup'?

Re: using 1000+ ESP32 units with Google Home Assistant

Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2020 7:19 pm
by societyofrobots
IMHO you should have tried this idea with one ESP32 before you went ahead and bought 1000+.
The issue isn't getting it to work with one unit, it's about scalability to tens of thousands. I never said I "bought 1000+" units.
And those problems were......?
See links in my OP. In summary: AWS doesn't appear to be designed for scalability. Solutions found are all overly complex, violating the KISS mantra.
Suppose you should also explain why you decided on GHA
Client requested GHA.
why you think GHA is not scalable?
I never said GHA wasn't scalable.