This is too funny. I’m sitting here reading this thread and the lights are randomly going on and off. Literally as I sit here. It’s been happening all day. Scared my wife earlier as she thought someone was in the house.
I bought a Schlage lock and was disappointed when I realized it couldn’t be remotely unlocked. Now I think I’m lucky.
I’ve had a support ticket opened for 2 months because events won’t fire on a schedule. Weeks go by without a word from support.
I know its not easy to support DIY systems like ours. But now it’s getting scary. I think it’s time to go.
Both very similar to ST V2 hub on paper: Z-Wave, Zigbee, Bluetooth & wifi/thread.
Vera obviously has been in the game on Z-Wave for a long time so you would expect local Z-Wave support to run close to flawlessly from launch. WigWag has been in a continuous state of delay for close to 3 years - so at this point it’s either going to launch as a complete heap of junk or they’ve spent the last 3 years totally perfecting it! They also have some kind of IDE setup like Smartthings but using their own flavour of JS as the programming language - which I think will make it far more accessible from a dev perspective.
Both should launch in the next 2-3 months. You’d hope that ST sorts itself out in the meantime but I can see from all the posts and frustrations on this forum that history shows they never do.
Historically, every new vera hub has been pretty buggy for the first few months. I expect the same thing from the vera plus. We’ll see.
The existing vera controllers already run Zwave locally. You only need the Internet to do the initial setup. What’s new in Vera Plus is Zigbee. We’ll just have to see how it works after it’s released.
The currently available hubs that do a decent job of running both zwave and Zigbee are Lowe’s Iris (US only, requires a $10/month fee, no custom code, but runs a very similar mix of zwave and Zigbee devices as SmartThings) and Zipato (available in both Europe and the US, with a cost-plus structure where you pay extra for each antenna that you want).
Securifi is supposed to run both zwave and Zigbee, but reviews are not good for the home automation system. (It does get very good reviews as a Wi-Fi router.) There’s also something weird going on with the new model which is supposed to be out in February. It lists zwave, zigbee and Bluetooth, but it reportedly only has one USB port and both Zigbee and Bluetooth are offered through a dongle. So you could only plug one in at a time. But again, we’ll have to see what actually gets delivered.
Detailed discussion of alternatives in the following thread:
tgauchat
(ActionTiles.com co-founder Terry @ActionTiles; GitHub: @cosmicpuppy)
25
##WigWag?!?!?
I’m a WigWag backer and lost a few hundred dollars on them. Certainly a better “architecture” – in theory (though, a little inefficient packing too much into a “sensor block”) … but a true “local cache” of open-API rule processing (and a GUI rule builder)…
But … They are over 2.25 years behind their estimated delivery dates, with no improvement in sight!!!
Their IndieGogo page is filled with complaints from Backers who haven’t seen as much as a microchip for their contributions…
Sure… SmartThings delivered pretty late too; but WigWag is ludicrous. W.T.F.?
I’m afraid you’ve picked a really poor example to compare against SmartThings.
As I stated , the comparison is on paper only. Neither you nor I can compare the two systems when WigWag has yet to launch yet. True, they are outrageously behind schedule - but as I said they are due to launch in the next 2-3 months. Nothing seems to work on launch but Smartthings has had 2.5years to improve and it seems that their architecture is fundamentally flawed and keeps holding them back… maybe an alternative can move quicker.
tgauchat
(ActionTiles.com co-founder Terry @ActionTiles; GitHub: @cosmicpuppy)
27
No products from a Crowdfunded project exist until the are in the hands of a significant number of consumers. WigWag has been “2-3 months” from launch for years, with the latest excuse being software issues on their relay (hub)… Very similar to the complications SmartThings experienced last year in the delay and eventual premature launch of Hub V2.
There’s nothing immutable about the SmartThings architecture. Given the tremendous resources of Samsung, they could have launched an entirely new platform and built migration for the backend and offered migration options to customers.
So if SmartThings couldn’t accomplish this leap, an underfunded tiny and unethical outfit like WigWag doesn’t have a chance unless they are swiftly purchased by a motivated behemoth.
Just sayin’ … WigWag was innovative 3 years ago, but they lost the race to SmartThings. Competition will come from well funded and goal oriented companies… Most likely Google Nest, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, etc.
And these companies are in no rush. They are quite content to watch SmartThings struggle and have the R&D resources that, unlike WigWag, can take advantage of these lessons.
Heck… Oomi probably has secret investors (ie, they are not relying on crowdfunding). Much of their product line is re-branded Aeon. And they have made some good strategic decisions, though, well, see my note on crowded products above: Oomi does not (yet) exist.
Vera2… Dunno. It will be a challenge for them to compete with the Samsung PR machine. Probably great for industrial who research, but I don’t see them becoming a market leader.
I was a Securifi Almond+ backer (that’s the model with everything built-in, no dongles). I switched to SmartThings after six months went by without an update to their still-beta firmware. That update finally came after I moved all but one set of lights and switch to SmartThings, and switched all my WiFi/Routing to Apple. That one set of lights that I left on it has been reliable without a single failure or downtime since that update.
The biggest problem I have with Securifi, aside from the interminable delays in software update and lack of communication about them, is that each of their interfaces - app, local web, remote web, built-in - runs on an entirely separate code base, and as such, none have a complete set of features and they all get updated at different rates. They’re also completely closed, so when a given device doesn’t work, you’re at their mercy to push an update to support it.
It’s still running night lights and some nonessential contact sensors. I keep hoping the reliability will improve. We had a new set of problems this week, though, regarding a sunset time trigger. So it goes.
Right on. I am looking to get one but am trying to decide on which one is probably the best and most compatible. ST looks like it is thus far. Such is the life of the cutting edge eh?
bamarayne
(Jason "The Enabler" as deemed so by @Smart)
33
Funny, rule machine is honestly the only reason in still here. It is a fun hobby, but I still like my hobbies to work.
I’ve done a lot of work arounds using your programming to make my system work well. But still, I can’t trust it, and that is a major problem.
And, yet, haha, I’d be out of here in a heartbeat if there were a system that works. I seriously don’t expect things to improve with ST, it hasn’t so far for the entire time I’ve been involved.
I have to admit I’m starting to feel the same way, But I sure hope this isn’t the case.
Been on board for some 18 months now and the biggest loss for me would be the sunk time in learning to code this platform…
Would a secondary controller address some of the local/cloud concerns? I’m thinking something that would handle simple but important things like “lock all doors at 10pm” so when SmartThings scheduling fails, that still happens, but sill having the flexibility of ST and RM to do all the customizations we can’t get anywhere else. Doing a quick search, I don’t see any consensus on which controllers work, though.
tgauchat
(ActionTiles.com co-founder Terry @ActionTiles; GitHub: @cosmicpuppy)
41
The real “concern” is whether or not SmartThings can survive in the “average consumer HA market” (including new Samsung TV’s and appliances). Average consumer isn’t going to put in a secondary controller.
Notice that Facebook just killed Parse yesterday.
Just goes to show how easily a parent company can kill a division, even if it has millions of users / developers.
