Seems like it could be a contender with their “robots” and it’s only $50. What’s everyone think?
YAHAW(Yet Another Home Automation Wannabe). Sorry to be Debbie Downer, but I see lots of empty promises. Just as so many before. My hopes have been dashed so many times now that I have a very cynical eye towards these new breathless announcements of THE new revolutionary system.
On the up side, the Wink controller has multiple radios, which I think is a must! This brings the promise of broad device compatibility. It is also very low cost which seems like it should be a positive, but I think controller cost is a red herring.
As we see with Vera et al, it requires extensive development on the controller side to support all the various devices. That support isn’t there today, with Wink, and it looks like the small few supported devices are all WiFi. I don’t have a lot of faith in Quirky exerting long term development effort. They seem to be a marketer of cheap but cool/funky looking Chinese gear. Quirky’s focus appears to be low cost high margin hardware and that doesn’t bode well for long term development which is costly and less profitable.
Also unclear in this is where the controller logic resides. The Wink controller looks like the logic might reside in the “cloud”(grrr) or in a smartphone app, both of which are the wrong place in my opinion. I’m looking for a self contained home automation system, not an iPhone app to turn on my lights or a WiFi enabled window unit air conditioner. So, perhaps I am looking for a different product. Perhaps the market wants a less intelligent controller rather than a HA system.
The article doesn’t detail how remote access is handled or on going subscription costs, if any.
Recapping, I see one real positive that doesn’t appear to be being leveraged, yet. There are too many unknowns and too much vapor for me to not be cynical at this time.
[quote=“Z-Waver, post:2, topic:181818”]YAHAW(Yet Another Home Automation Wannabe). Sorry to be Debbie Downer, but I see lots of empty promises. Just as so many before. My hopes have been dashed so many times now that I have a very cynical eye towards these new breathless announcements of THE new revolutionary system.
On the up side, the Wink controller has multiple radios, which I think is a must! This brings the promise of broad device compatibility. It is also very low cost which seems like it should be a positive, but I think controller cost is a red herring.
As we see with Vera et al, it requires extensive development on the controller side to support all the various devices. That support isn’t there today, with Wink, and it looks like the small few supported devices are all WiFi. I don’t have a lot of faith in Quirky exerting long term development effort. They seem to be a marketer of cheap but cool/funky looking Chinese gear. Quirky’s focus appears to be low cost high margin hardware and that doesn’t bode well for long term development which is costly and less profitable.
Also unclear in this is where the controller logic resides. The Wink controller looks like the logic might reside in the “cloud”(grrr) or in a smartphone app, both of which are the wrong place in my opinion. I’m looking for a self contained home automation system, not an iPhone app to turn on my lights or a WiFi enabled window unit air conditioner. So, perhaps I am looking for a different product. Perhaps the market wants a less intelligent controller rather than a HA system.
The article doesn’t detail how remote access is handled or on going subscription costs, if any.
Recapping, I see one real positive that doesn’t appear to be being leveraged, yet. There are too many unknowns and too much vapor for me to not be cynical at this time.[/quote]
I fully agree on all points. Cheap “connected” device to sell to the masses. Cloud logic (SmartThings server already went down screwing everyone’s programs up), and untested support. These companies can not stay solvent very long without a subscription model.
Until the “big boys” (Goolge, Apple, Microsoft) get into the home automation field I wouldn’t trust any of these new breed of controllers/systems.
Sorry, but Apple is and I think they are doing it all wrong as well. Google’s Nest is also doign it, but once again, I think they are doing it all wrong.
What you see is a big focus from the big guys on Home remote control not Home Automation (I went bit overboard on the bold huh?..LOL)
[quote=“Z-Waver, post:2, topic:181818”]YAHAW(Yet Another Home Automation Wannabe). Sorry to be Debbie Downer, but I see lots of empty promises. Just as so many before. My hopes have been dashed so many times now that I have a very cynical eye towards these new breathless announcements of THE new revolutionary system.
On the up side, the Wink controller has multiple radios, which I think is a must! This brings the promise of broad device compatibility. It is also very low cost which seems like it should be a positive, but I think controller cost is a red herring.
As we see with Vera et al, it requires extensive development on the controller side to support all the various devices. That support isn’t there today, with Wink, and it looks like the small few supported devices are all WiFi. I don’t have a lot of faith in Quirky exerting long term development effort. They seem to be a marketer of cheap but cool/funky looking Chinese gear. Quirky’s focus appears to be low cost high margin hardware and that doesn’t bode well for long term development which is costly and less profitable.
Also unclear in this is where the controller logic resides. The Wink controller looks like the logic might reside in the “cloud”(grrr) or in a smartphone app, both of which are the wrong place in my opinion. I’m looking for a self contained home automation system, not an iPhone app to turn on my lights or a WiFi enabled window unit air conditioner. So, perhaps I am looking for a different product. Perhaps the market wants a less intelligent controller rather than a HA system.
The article doesn’t detail how remote access is handled or on going subscription costs, if any.
Recapping, I see one real positive that doesn’t appear to be being leveraged, yet. There are too many unknowns and too much vapor for me to not be cynical at this time.[/quote]
AT this point, I would almost have to classify MCV as a YAHAW as well. slow updates, broken promises. I mean: “Supports ALL Z-WAVE DEVICES!” Really? I can prove they don’t and take months upon months to implement them. I’m not saying that the Vera is worse than the Quirky hub, or even the same. However, with my 1 year experience with the Vera, I’m excited when I see someone else enter the market and I have high hopes that they will be able to pull me from the Vera.
I agree with the points you have though. I don’t want “cloud logic”. Free remote control would be nice, but I can get around that as long as I have “local” access (VPN). I also agree the article was lacking. I just saw it there and used that article. I haven’t had time to research the device more. What really excited me though were what they call “robots”, which also supposedly give you more advanced logic options (if/then). I’m not sure how advanced, but at $50, I could easily see myself grabbing one and trying out. Especially with Home Depot’s lax return policies.
I just wanted to add that they have said there will be NO monthly costs for this.
The only question left I suppose is if it has “cloud logic” instead of local. I was gonna get one if some of the accessories to get it for cheaper were ones I was interested in, but they aren’t. So I’ll wait for some of the reviews to come in for it.
I will say that it appears to work with Leviton. I’m not sure if it’s their z-wave implementation of their other one (DHC?). My guess would be it works with the z-wave, which I would guess means it works with all others. Still waiting for more details to come out though.
Cloud logic for me is a deal breaker. Apart from the severe impact if I lose my internet connection, I don’t feel happy about my house being able to be controlled from the cloud. Too many hacks already. At least Vera is able to run fully locally if I decide to do so.
Granted $40 isn’t a lot of money and it ‘supports’ a lot of platforms. But again, how much true support is that and how long will this be viable without some form of monthly subscription? For Home Depot it was a quick and easy way to get a product line to compete with Lowe’s Iris system.
It would not surprise me to see a Wink Light with limited options and no monthly fee and a Wink Pro with full features and a monthly fee. Same as Iris…
Deleted
Sorry, but Apple is and I think they are doing it all wrong as well. Google’s Nest is also doign it, but once again, I think they are doing it all wrong.
What you see is a big focus from the big guys on Home remote control not Home Automation (I went bit overboard on the bold huh?..LOL)
[quote=“Z-Waver, post:2, topic:181818”]YAHAW(Yet Another Home Automation Wannabe). Sorry to be Debbie Downer, but I see lots of empty promises. Just as so many before. My hopes have been dashed so many times now that I have a very cynical eye towards these new breathless announcements of THE new revolutionary system.
On the up side, the Wink controller has multiple radios, which I think is a must! This brings the promise of broad device compatibility. It is also very low cost which seems like it should be a positive, but I think controller cost is a red herring.
As we see with Vera et al, it requires extensive development on the controller side to support all the various devices. That support isn’t there today, with Wink, and it looks like the small few supported devices are all WiFi. I don’t have a lot of faith in Quirky exerting long term development effort. They seem to be a marketer of cheap but cool/funky looking Chinese gear. Quirky’s focus appears to be low cost high margin hardware and that doesn’t bode well for long term development which is costly and less profitable.
Also unclear in this is where the controller logic resides. The Wink controller looks like the logic might reside in the “cloud”(grrr) or in a smartphone app, both of which are the wrong place in my opinion. I’m looking for a self contained home automation system, not an iPhone app to turn on my lights or a WiFi enabled window unit air conditioner. So, perhaps I am looking for a different product. Perhaps the market wants a less intelligent controller rather than a HA system.
The article doesn’t detail how remote access is handled or on going subscription costs, if any.
Recapping, I see one real positive that doesn’t appear to be being leveraged, yet. There are too many unknowns and too much vapor for me to not be cynical at this time.[/quote]
AT this point, I would almost have to classify MCV as a YAHAW as well. slow updates, broken promises. I mean: “Supports ALL Z-WAVE DEVICES!” Really? I can prove they don’t and take months upon months to implement them. I’m not saying that the Vera is worse than the Quirky hub, or even the same. However, with my 1 year experience with the Vera, I’m excited when I see someone else enter the market and I have high hopes that they will be able to pull me from the Vera.
I agree with the points you have though. I don’t want “cloud logic”. Free remote control would be nice, but I can get around that as long as I have “local” access (VPN). I also agree the article was lacking. I just saw it there and used that article. I haven’t had time to research the device more. What really excited me though were what they call “robots”, which also supposedly give you more advanced logic options (if/then). I’m not sure how advanced, but at $50, I could easily see myself grabbing one and trying out. Especially with Home Depot’s lax return policies.[/quote]
The issue is with Wink it only supports Zwave plus devices and devices that are certified with wink. This walled garden approach is what is a turn off for HA users that invested $ into switches, lights et al. Unless they support all Zwave, BLE geofencing ala Ninja Sphere and major zigbee devices not just the name brand: chamberlain, kevo, it is just another hub like revolv. At least Smarthings uses IFTTT out of the box to extend functionality.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
This. Yes, THIS.
Some people around here seem to be in denial about how bad MCV is. Is just happens that Vera is what we hitched our horse to for now, so we seem to suffer along with their broken promises and marketing fluff. People aren’t being objective to how bad the product is and it wouldn’t even be as useful as it is if it wasn’t for the numerous plugins that aren’t even produced by the company itself.
Yup, a lot of wannabes keep popping up, but eventually one of them will stick. Or maybe OpenHAB will gain enough momentum to make Vera pointless.
I would not call it denial. I would call it pragmatic.
I ALWAYS evaluate what’s CURRENTLY on the market and make decisions about what’s best for me.
Yes I want a lot more … But despite all the things that annoy you we are still here … Because nothing else can replace it AT THIS TIME.
Nope, I’m still here because I have more pressing/important things in my life right now (rebuilding my house), don’t have time for a proper evaluation of other products. My HA project is in “pause” right now.
I’m keeping an eye out for plan B options.
Razberry (Raspberry PI with Z-Wave - http://razberry.z-wave.me/) The new Raspverry Pi B+ just came out with 4 USB ports and more GPIO pins.
Projects:
Nexahome (http://nexahome.se/) Pity the site is in Swedish.
FreeDomotic (http://www.freedomotic.com/content/plugins/zway) Still in beta
OpenHab
I’m wondering about the Intel Galileo board as it has a more powerful CPU becoming a possible platform for some of the above projects.
At this time, Vera does most of what I need her to do but since HA is an integral part of my house now, I want to make sure I have a backup plan to ensure continuity. As I agree, GetVera has been lacking in development effort.
Edit: I do want to make clear I have a high regard for GetVera support. I’ve not needed them often, but the few times I needed them they came through quickly and effectively. My lack of confidence is based on the lack of support for new devices such as ZSMOKE that use newer Zwave commands. The lack of updates on new firmware and hardware. A prime example being the Getvera Farkbook page. Mostly linsk to other HA related articles and precious little details about Vera’s road forward. I’m worried the team got complacent as Vera was only one of a few players in this HA market. That has changed in a major way now with big players entering and a host os smaller ones as well. Drawn by the prospect of getting a slice of a large market.
Vera in it’s current incarnation really is not ready for the mass market as it takes too much tinkering and a steepish learning curve to get it working. There’s also some major deficiencies such as an easy way to do an AND condition in scene scripting (without Richards’s excellent PLEG plugin this would not be possible at all) I’m hoping some of this will be addressed in UI7 but I’m not holding my breath. And I will not upgrade to UI7 until I am confident it is stable (after all, my Vera is a production system) and all the plug-ins I depend on have proven to be compatible.
Yes, I am quite frustrated that I cannot have a ZSMOKE and ZCOMBO working on my Vera as that solution woudl give me an almost immediate notification of a fire if I am not home and enable me to get the FD on it’s way and arrive within minutes (They are only 5 blocks away) It coudl mean the survival of my dogs versus their demise.
I’m to the point where I’m tempted to spend the money on an Iris hub if I can confirm no monthly fee version will support the smoke detector and email notification. That $99 would be worth it to me as at this point I have no ETA on Vera support.
The responses here from the various folks (other than myself) speaks volume about the state/confidence in MCV, the bottomline is that many folks simply “tolerate” them for now. Everyone is looking for Plan B.
Deleted
If Revolv ever releases their API, it will be a killer controller, since the hardware has 7 radios available to it. You’d basically be able to integrate with anything.
So far it supports all my devices that Vera does. and their support page is awash with people wanting support for the First Alert zwave smoke detectors. The only thing would be some of the plugins like the ones for my Yamaha receivers.
About my only complaint is that there is no Android app at this time. I escaped the walled iGarden and have no intention of going back.
Another one to add to my plan B list. Definitely at or near the top.
Agreed. What I like about them is their mission statement, they just want to make the best hardware device with a great user experience. No subscription fees. And they seem to recognize and “get it” that they need to release an API (thus enabling third party development).
Of course, seeing is believing, but at least the right words are coming out of their mouth…
The reviews seem really bad so far…I think this one will die out.
It’s another walled garden. If revolv lowers their price to $99 and opens up the way smarthings does combine it with zuli plugs and tiles and your existing HA gear and you would be set.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
My thoughts on the wink hub and app:
I have been able to get a kwikset zwave lock to work. The only action you can perform is to lock and unlock. You cannot set access codes, monitor battery life, or adjust polling time as far as I have found.
Intermatic CA600 Z-Wave Wall Dimmer is working. As a side note the app always says the lamp is on when the app is first brought up, even if the lamp is off.
Ecolink garage door tilt sensor does not work. I believe it is paring with the hub but does not show up as a device I can use. I called tech support but have not heard back from them yet.
The app is somewhat confusing. By this I mean adding and removing zwave devices was not as intuitive as I would have expected. Now that I have figured it out it is not difficult; probably even easier than vera. I keep finding new displays in the app by just clicking on things that don’t appear to be drop downs. i.e. If you click on the hub image in the hub tab you will show all paired devices. You have to swipe the lock indicator perfectly to the side to get the lock to operate.
I will be moving my devices back to the Vera hub shortly. I will probably try the wink hub again once it has had a little more time to improve.