Very good question.
The ADT-SmartThings-Nortek guy didn’t demo that button (I don’t recall seeing the button live). You’d think he would, when I explicitly asked if there was a way to view and control SmartThings from the Panel, right?
My guess? That’s actually a stock photo of Pulse, not the ADT-ST integration. But who knows.
so I sent the Lynky guys a message about whether or not they anticipated “supporting SmartThings”, or whether they were marketing their device as the hub itself. here is their response:
“Thanks for your interesting. Actually Lynky is a hub its self. we use a plugin framework to connect to other smart devices directly, we write plugin for each brand of smart devices. some devices such as smart lighting and smart plug, we use plugin to connect them from devices local network API, some devices such as nest , it did not have local network API, so we use the nest plugin to connect to Nest cloud to control them, all the API we used is the devices public API.”
so it doesn’t look like SmartThings control is going to be something that works out of the box…maybe there will be some workaround like we’ve seen with Wink relay…but not ideal.
In other words; these folks are, no respect intended: clueless, overly optimistic, and deceptive, and opportunistic … par for the course for the majority of IndieGogo and Kickstarter gadget projects…
What Lynky is proposing to do is certainly “doable” … both Amazon Alexa and Google Home do this; but they have thousands of employees dedicated to those platforms. And hundreds of millions of dollars.
I pressed him a little harder and got a little more detail:
Lynky: “Correct, Z-Wave isn’t in this first version of Lynky. (Although, interestingly enough, Amazon didn’t include it in the new Echo Plus, either.)”
Me: “yep. and that would be the reason I won’t be buying the new echo plus…thanks for the fast responses. Good luck with the product rollout.”
Lynky: “Thanks. While not in our public disclosures right now, it’s possible that we could be supporting devices connected via SmartThings / Wink devices next year. Stay tuned!”
Maybe they will come to their senses, but for the time being, it doesn’t look very compelling. I still like the form factor though.
How is it that folks are still suckered in by obviously incompetent crowd-funding campaigns??
Getting this device built will cost waaaaayyy more than $30,000; even with the company in, ahem, China. And they are using “flexible funding” meaning they are willing to take whatever rubes money they can get… And disappear.
I can name a half dozen similar projects that failed.
Why why why? Totally unnecessary to throw money away.
Here is the reply I received from Lynky when I asked about their product.
“The Lynky hub is actually a Linux-based device with a custom UI and is running a smart home “engine” to control the devices that a user connects to it. At this time, there will not be any apps that can be installed on Lynky or on an-device browser. The wall-mount version is designed to replace an existing light switch, for U.S.-type switch boxes. That version has a special touch gesture for controlling the load connected to the switch wiring. We designed it this way to become a simply-installed wall-mount device for most people.”
That’s unfortunate, although I understand the customer support issues.
For what it’s worth, the zipatile does allow you to install other apps, which is why you could run the smartthings app on it if you want. But it’s an android tablet, not a Linux box.
Zipatile looks pretty sweet…but pricey. I want to see what their “in wall power supply” looks like. If it’s just a micro-USB plug on one end, it could be useful for everyone else who is trying to achieve a clean Tablet mount.
Sheer ignorance, I think. I don’t mean that in a derogatory way, I’m certainly not an expert in this field. But I like to read up on stuff like this, and learn from others who know more than me.
I’ve encountered plenty of people who don’t seem interested in doing their own homework and presumably accept even outlandish claims at face value.
The Blink forum, for example, is full of posts from people that make feature requests and don’t seem to understand that what they are asking for is either essentially impossible given the cameras’ hardware limitations, or would require a complete redesign of the cameras.
I’m a Product Manager by trade. This is my day to day 
The customer is always right…until they all ask for something different and it becomes impossible to prioritize one feature over another.
