CES 2016

Community Playground General Discussions
1

I’m surprised no one else has posted about CES 2016 and HA news… I guess no one really cares beyond what Vera is doing?

FYI, several companies have announced the month-to-month, on demand security monitoring business model, so Vera will not be the first or only one. In fact, one company will be doing it for $9.95, half the cost of almost everyone else.

Remember the Almond? Or any other number of Kickstarter ideas? Well, this is the year real mainstream companies get into HA, I’m talking real companies where you can buy their products already in any big box store. Here’s an example of one of many (LG, Samsung, and others are also announcing HA products):

2

Unfortunately CES is when one of our biggest trade shows is as well so I am swamped at work and don’t even get a chance to check anything CES HA. Thanks for the link

3

This looks like it could be fun if the price point is cheap enough and battery life good enough.

4

Yep. I’m at CES now–the volume of smart home stuff is pretty nuts. Lots of people integrating with smart things. No mention of Vera–are they here? They weren’t with the big smart home section.

Unlike a lot of others here it seems, I’m a Vera fan. Yes, it’s not perfect and a PITA to set up, but no other system right now gives me the level of automation I can get with Vera. Still, after going through the smart home section, my takeaway was that at some point I’m likely going to end up making a move to smart things. I love the flexibility of Vera and there are a few things I couldn’t do on smart things, but based on what I saw, it seems like this is the platform to put longer term money on.

5

I’m with you on this.

People talk all the crap about VERA but as of today (which is all that matters now) I couldn’t jump ship yet and have everything I have now on another controller (smart-things & Homeseer have been tested) I have no problem shelling out the 100-200 or what ever it will be on smart things when it gets to the passing point (I agree with it’s looking better each year but is not there yet). Until then I’ll sip my Vera Kool-aid and wait for the next big thing to appear before I throw my time and money in another direction.

And I’m not a fan of these Wifi Router combo home controllers either. I ditched my crummy home router for a Ubiquiti router and multiple unifi AP’s since it couldn’t even do that right.

6

The UniFi units are great, as are their routers. I have a new AC Lite, on POE, covering downstairs space. The Almond+ handles the upstairs.

Will be interesting to see what pans out tomorrow on the show floor.

7

This looks like a neat “cool factor” device:

I didn’t see anything about availability or price though

Edit: My mistake, it was mentioned here before: http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,35620.msg263182.html#msg263182

8

I know someone posted this a couple days ago. Price point is US $150.00. I’d really like to use this for our new alarm system (hidden in wall) for arm/disarm. Although this relies entirely on Vera and their support of this product. Supposed to be available from Fibaro end of month. We’ll see.

[quote=“mrv777, post:7, topic:190482”]This looks like a neat “cool factor” device:

I didn’t see anything about availability or price though[/quote]

9

Usually I follow the news releases from CES but this year I’ve been so busy I just can’t. Are there any voice activation pieces there? My newest problem to solve (first world problems) is the fact that when I walk into my room with a laundry basket in my hands, I walk in a dark room and the switch is behind one of the doors. Basically I have to put the basket on the bed, backtrack and partially close the door to turn on the light. It makes me less efficient.

Long story short, my next “project” is to find a way to have an “always on” voice activation speaker in the upstairs hall next to the laundry closet so that I can say, “turn the master light on” and not have to fumble in the dark with a basket full of clothes. My husband is thinking raspberry pi. I looked into Ivee and echo, but I want to mount it on the wall.

10

[quote=“becky, post:9, topic:190482”]Usually I follow the news releases from CES but this year I’ve been so busy I just can’t. Are there any voice activation pieces there? My newest problem to solve (first world problems) is the fact that when I walk into my room with a laundry basket in my hands, I walk in a dark room and the switch is behind one of the doors. Basically I have to put the basket on the bed, backtrack and partially close the door to turn on the light. It makes me less efficient.

Long story short, my next “project” is to find a way to have an “always on” voice activation speaker in the upstairs hall next to the laundry closet so that I can say, “turn the master light on” and not have to fumble in the dark with a basket full of clothes. My husband is thinking raspberry pi. I looked into Ivee and echo, but I want to mount it on the wall.[/quote]

Feels VERY over-engineered. A motion detector + PLEG logic would automatically turn on the lights…

11

[quote=“CudaNet, post:8, topic:190482”]I know someone posted this a couple days ago. Price point is US $150.00. I’d really like to use this for our new alarm system (hidden in wall) for arm/disarm. Although this relies entirely on Vera and their support of this product. Supposed to be available from Fibaro end of month. We’ll see.

[quote=“mrv777, post:7, topic:190482”]This looks like a neat “cool factor” device:

I didn’t see anything about availability or price though[/quote][/quote]
Yes, this looked interesting. Also the facial recognition from Netatmo–I think theoretically, this should be available to pull into vera, but don’t think anyone has worked on it. It was pretty cool to see it picking up and differentiating between animals, cars and people.

Becky, I would take another look at echo–if you don’t want it sitting on a table, you can put it on a wall mounted shelf or on the floor behind the door or some other out of the way place. The integration with vera is pretty good and as a stand alone device I’m liking it more and more.

I too would love to find a good way to solve the issue of walking into a room and having the room “know” I’m there. Even better if it can differentiate between my SO and me. I’ve tried the iBeacons, since we usually have our phone with us, but they aren’t great. I remember reading a story ages ago about Bill Gates giving everyone a pin tag when they came in the house as a way to track location for automation–trying to figure out if something like that might be doable. Or the Netatamo camera. You could also use a beam break photosensor, but requires hardwiring and the available options aren’t cosmetically attractive–definitely wouldn’t want them on an indoor wall. I can’t just use a motion sensor because the pets set it off.

12

[quote=“tb001, post:4, topic:190482”]Yep. I’m at CES now–the volume of smart home stuff is pretty nuts. Lots of people integrating with smart things. No mention of Vera–are they here? They weren’t with the big smart home section.

Unlike a lot of others here it seems, I’m a Vera fan. Yes, it’s not perfect and a PITA to set up, but no other system right now gives me the level of automation I can get with Vera. Still, after going through the smart home section, my takeaway was that at some point I’m likely going to end up making a move to smart things. I love the flexibility of Vera and there are a few things I couldn’t do on smart things, but based on what I saw, it seems like this is the platform to put longer term money on.[/quote]

Smart Things seems to operate in much the same space as Vera (Z-Wave, Zigbee and WiFi devices). What would be a compelling reason for you to move to Smart Things now, other than faith in the company?

By the way, does that thing “phone home” to the mothership? I find that entirely too many of the new HA players rely on Cloud based services, or are busy walling their own gardens.

13

[quote=“intveltr, post:12, topic:190482”][quote=“tb001, post:4, topic:190482”]Yep. I’m at CES now–the volume of smart home stuff is pretty nuts. Lots of people integrating with smart things. No mention of Vera–are they here? They weren’t with the big smart home section.

Unlike a lot of others here it seems, I’m a Vera fan. Yes, it’s not perfect and a PITA to set up, but no other system right now gives me the level of automation I can get with Vera. Still, after going through the smart home section, my takeaway was that at some point I’m likely going to end up making a move to smart things. I love the flexibility of Vera and there are a few things I couldn’t do on smart things, but based on what I saw, it seems like this is the platform to put longer term money on.[/quote]

Smart Things seems to operate in much the same space as Vera (Z-Wave, Zigbee and WiFi devices). What would be a compelling reason for you to move to Smart Things now, other than faith in the company?

By the way, does that thing “phone home” to the mothership? I find that entirely too many of the new HA players rely on Cloud based services, or are busy walling their own gardens.[/quote]

I think it is cloud based, yes. The main reason is that this seems to now be the go to platform for new devices when they’re looking at integrating with existing players. Already smart things has native echo. MyQ and rachio integration, all things I would like to have on vera. The MyQ and Echo plugins for vera are great, but because there is no formal partnership, I never know if I’m going to wake up and find out I can no longer use vera with MyQ. Vera has really lagged on partnerships and it’s hard to see how they can compete longer term with a samsung company… At the very least, I can see setting up some sort of functional bridge between the two controllers to leverage all of the devices smart things is/will be able to support.

14

[quote=“wilme2, post:10, topic:190482”][quote=“becky, post:9, topic:190482”]Usually I follow the news releases from CES but this year I’ve been so busy I just can’t. Are there any voice activation pieces there? My newest problem to solve (first world problems) is the fact that when I walk into my room with a laundry basket in my hands, I walk in a dark room and the switch is behind one of the doors. Basically I have to put the basket on the bed, backtrack and partially close the door to turn on the light. It makes me less efficient.

Long story short, my next “project” is to find a way to have an “always on” voice activation speaker in the upstairs hall next to the laundry closet so that I can say, “turn the master light on” and not have to fumble in the dark with a basket full of clothes. My husband is thinking raspberry pi. I looked into Ivee and echo, but I want to mount it on the wall.[/quote]

Feels VERY over-engineered. A motion detector + PLEG logic would automatically turn on the lights…[/quote]

You would think so, however, it would’t just be for the lights. Telling it to run my kid’s bedtime scene while having our hands full carrying them to bed would be good (we dim the little one’s lights to 10% at bedtime because he’s afraid of the dark and a nightlight isn’t enough). Plus, I don’t want the motion detector going off every time one of us gets up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. I played that out in my head a few times and neither my husband nor I would be happy with that! :slight_smile:

15

We are off topic, but wanted just to say that you can build “Quiet Time” logic so lights don’t go on in the middle of the night even with motion. Some people get into Vera for remote control options - but then graduate to full home automation. Sure pushing a button on a remote control, or speaking a command, might be better than the old manual way - but if Vera has enough PLEG logic she can just do these things for you based on sensor data. We might touch one light switch a day at our house…

16

I have an echo and I like it and use it…

But this is Home Automation… Automation is about have it do it automagically without the use of remotes, apps, voice control.
The idea is have enough sensors and inputs with he logic behind it to do what you just asked for on it’s own.

Motion sensor turning on lights can be stopped by using logic of once your asleep (determined by everything off, time of day, pressure sensor under mattress, or what ever) that it will ignore motion or turn on bathroom light, until sun up. There is always a way when you have inputs and a logic builder (PLEG). YES all your logic in the house can’t be built off one motion sensor. The more you have the smarter the “AUTOMATION” or house.

EDIT: Just saw wilme2 post and mine basically saying the same thing.

17

I realize that, and use PLEG. I also have lots of things that automagically happen every night based on calendars, sensors, ect. However, I want the voice control for those one-off times when I’m out of the norm. IE doing laundry at 11:00 because we happen to stay up late or whatever. I tend to be a control freak sometime, which is why the house is automated except for our room.

I saw that Ivee came out with a new version of their voice recognition. Did you see anything that looked fun?

18

Becky,
I have might house totally automated … And I too find an occasion need to override the automation.
I had my niece visiting over the holidays. She needed some quite time with her new born baby in a guest bedroom.
Every time she got the baby to sleep she would get up and the lights would come on … of course the baby would wake.

So yes an easy voice respond to suspend automation in a room would be nice.
But I thoughts kids today are supposed to be high tech … they should not let a little automation upset them :slight_smile:

19

[quote=“tb001, post:13, topic:190482”][quote=“intveltr, post:12, topic:190482”][quote=“tb001, post:4, topic:190482”]Yep. I’m at CES now–the volume of smart home stuff is pretty nuts. Lots of people integrating with smart things. No mention of Vera–are they here? They weren’t with the big smart home section.

Unlike a lot of others here it seems, I’m a Vera fan. Yes, it’s not perfect and a PITA to set up, but no other system right now gives me the level of automation I can get with Vera. Still, after going through the smart home section, my takeaway was that at some point I’m likely going to end up making a move to smart things. I love the flexibility of Vera and there are a few things I couldn’t do on smart things, but based on what I saw, it seems like this is the platform to put longer term money on.[/quote]

Smart Things seems to operate in much the same space as Vera (Z-Wave, Zigbee and WiFi devices). What would be a compelling reason for you to move to Smart Things now, other than faith in the company?

By the way, does that thing “phone home” to the mothership? I find that entirely too many of the new HA players rely on Cloud based services, or are busy walling their own gardens.[/quote]

I think it is cloud based, yes. The main reason is that this seems to now be the go to platform for new devices when they’re looking at integrating with existing players. Already smart things has native echo. MyQ and rachio integration, all things I would like to have on vera. The MyQ and Echo plugins for vera are great, but because there is no formal partnership, I never know if I’m going to wake up and find out I can no longer use vera with MyQ. Vera has really lagged on partnerships and it’s hard to see how they can compete longer term with a samsung company… At the very least, I can see setting up some sort of functional bridge between the two controllers to leverage all of the devices smart things is/will be able to support.[/quote]

I have emailed Vera about this subject and by their responses, I really don’t think they understand what I am asking for. My email focused on IFTTT because it seems like if Vera was partners with IFTTT, Vera could be integrated with many other devices regardless of whether they were directly partnered with Vera or not. They claim it would require a full UI rebuild in order to make this happen…?

I was trying to ask when Vera would officially partner with these various companies and not rely on backwards-engineered apps that users created. They responded telling me to use the apps from the store. So I replied back to them saying that I don’t think they really understand what I am asking, and I restated the question again. I pointed out several manufacturer’s websites that list all of the HA systems they are partners with and how none of them included Vera (i.e. Honeywell, Nest, IFTTT, Echo, etc.). I have not received a reply.

I used the Honeywell thermostat plugin as a perfect example of the concern you pointed out. (If you are not aware, the current version of the app store doesn’t work and the original programmer no longer uses Vera. Since neither Vera nor Honeywell support the the plugin has not been fixed. However some people are working to fix it right now). So your concern regarding MyQ is very valid.

20

[quote=“lingerba, post:19, topic:190482”][quote=“tb001, post:13, topic:190482”][quote=“intveltr, post:12, topic:190482”][quote=“tb001, post:4, topic:190482”]Yep. I’m at CES now–the volume of smart home stuff is pretty nuts. Lots of people integrating with smart things. No mention of Vera–are they here? They weren’t with the big smart home section.

Unlike a lot of others here it seems, I’m a Vera fan. Yes, it’s not perfect and a PITA to set up, but no other system right now gives me the level of automation I can get with Vera. Still, after going through the smart home section, my takeaway was that at some point I’m likely going to end up making a move to smart things. I love the flexibility of Vera and there are a few things I couldn’t do on smart things, but based on what I saw, it seems like this is the platform to put longer term money on.[/quote]

Smart Things seems to operate in much the same space as Vera (Z-Wave, Zigbee and WiFi devices). What would be a compelling reason for you to move to Smart Things now, other than faith in the company?

By the way, does that thing “phone home” to the mothership? I find that entirely too many of the new HA players rely on Cloud based services, or are busy walling their own gardens.[/quote]

I think it is cloud based, yes. The main reason is that this seems to now be the go to platform for new devices when they’re looking at integrating with existing players. Already smart things has native echo. MyQ and rachio integration, all things I would like to have on vera. The MyQ and Echo plugins for vera are great, but because there is no formal partnership, I never know if I’m going to wake up and find out I can no longer use vera with MyQ. Vera has really lagged on partnerships and it’s hard to see how they can compete longer term with a samsung company… At the very least, I can see setting up some sort of functional bridge between the two controllers to leverage all of the devices smart things is/will be able to support.[/quote]

I have emailed Vera about this subject and by their responses, I really don’t think they understand what I am asking for. My email focused on IFTTT because it seems like if Vera was partners with IFTTT, Vera could be integrated with many other devices regardless of whether they were directly partnered with Vera or not. They claim it would require a full UI rebuild in order to make this happen…?

I was trying to ask when Vera would officially partner with these various companies and not rely on backwards-engineered apps that users created. They responded telling me to use the apps from the store. So I replied back to them saying that I don’t think they really understand what I am asking, and I restated the question again. I pointed out several manufacturer’s websites that list all of the HA systems they are partners with and how none of them included Vera (i.e. Honeywell, Nest, IFTTT, Echo, etc.). I have not received a reply.

I used the Honeywell thermostat plugin as a perfect example of the concern you pointed out. (If you are not aware, the current version of the app store doesn’t work and the original programmer no longer uses Vera. Since neither Vera nor Honeywell support the the plugin has not been fixed. However some people are working to fix it right now). So your concern regarding MyQ is very valid.[/quote]

Yes, this is my biggest issue with Vera. We’ve been hearing that IFTTT support is coming for ages and just waiting on them, but for some reason Vera has been unable to close the deal and get these partnerships done. It’s happened more than once that a plugin has been abandoned by the developer–luckily usually someone steps in and gets it going again, but what happens when the company with the closed Api shuts off access…

Again, I’m happy right now with Vera and smart things has some of the same issues. Last I checked their lutron plugin wasn’t updated for the newer systems and no one could tell me if it would work. And since they’re partnered with Insteon, IIRC, there’s no real motivation to get lutron plugin working. So issues with smart things as well, in part because of their partnerships. Hopefully there will be more pressure put on the manufacturers of products to have open APIs and Vera will step up and start to put more energy into maintaining and developing apps.

Honestly, I think Vera is a fantastic deal given the integration capabilities it has and the ongoing backwards support. It’s a small fraction of our overall spend on HA. My biggest frustration is that I would spend significantly more for a great product experience that has easy native integration and conditional logic. I was hoping we’d get that in one of the newer versions… Or at least a better App Store experience where developers were financially incented enough to stick around.