Similar in spirit to the label maker, I am adding another incidental machine to the network to allow more flexible and complex usage. A simple garden watering valve. 

It broke, so instead of replacing it I thought I would use the opportunity to fix and upgrade it, and have it react with my other network nodes such as temperature and humidity sensors, as well as voice control nodes and status indicator nodes.  It's a super-simple machine, and that is what I like about it.  I won't miss the highly-specific one-of-a-kind interface (read: terrible) it came with, and it will be able to do a lot more things than before, by leveraging complexity from the various simple nodes on the netowrk, each with their own simple and singular purposes.

That's the idea, anyway.

One by one, as these things come up in life, I will find ways to integrate them.  With home automation, you can basically expect thermostats and door locks, window sensors and control of lights, all these things are possible too.  But I'd much rather have a system that can accept any simple machine, because who knows what you might want or need - or invent. This garden watering timer probably does fall under the scope of home automation, but probably not the label maker.  And I'd rather not have all my devices need to come from a single manufacturer or need to support a specific API directly.  Most simple things don't have an API, like this timer, and that is just fine with me.  To me, having one in a device like this would be just another example of complexity in the wrong spot - don't make the device more complex, driving up the cost and failure rate.  I'll add my stuff.  What I do wish, however, is that manufacturers would design access to control points to attach external devices.  Just expose some solder pads, put them all in one spot, label them.  Or better yet, a slot, like an SD card slot, that could take a small board with microcontroller. That might add one part, but I'd be OK with it if there was a standardization in play.  But I'll take solder pads so no additional complexity or cost in incurred.  And failing that, I will do what I do - hunt for vias and pads and connectors wherever they are on these boards, and tap them.

I'm not sure which way the future will go on this one.