WAF of ST2 Out the window ... Wink on the way for parallel testing

For clarity and accuracy… Wink was part of an incubator called Quirky. Quirky filed for bankruptcy and in November Wnk was purchased by Flextronics[quote=“Ciscoheat, post:40, topic:31931, full:true”]
So, keeping this on topic…that is why even though I’m frustrated with ST, I still think its the best out there. Wink’s company filed for bankruptcy. How much support are they truly going to have in the future? Subscriptions won’t be sustainable (not saying ST’s won’t be…saying subscription only strategies) in my opinion. I actually do agree with the strategy of ST to partner with Samsung and to get into making more sensors themselves. The only problem is, as you guys stated…the now! I said it in an earlier post, if we equated ST to a stock, it would be a Hold right now. I don’t see any other company being a Buy and some that would be a Sell.

BTW, Amazon isn’t really a hub. Its fabulous, don’t get me wrong…one of the better purchases I felt we made…but its definitely not a hub any where to the level that ST or any other hub is.
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Stalking horse bid. Details in the following topic:

Ha, I responded twice to them as I have 126 devices. My v2 still sits gathering dust. Not a peep back from them. No response is different from slow response and I think a valid thing to point out that they aren’t following through on that special queue/promise.

But the migration tool is going to be availble any day now, isn’t it? :slight_smile:

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To all, I understand many companies come out of bankruptcy, but its worthy to note the state of the industry. Nothing is truly stable right now. From this post, the two that are most popular are ST (which has quirks that we all agree are there) and Wink (which we don’t know long term viability or how it will transform). In my opinion, ST took a step toward securing their future with Samsung. Unfortunately, it’s taken 10 steps back before making a step forward (once again, in my opinion, not for everyone).

As for Amazon though…and once again…I love the Echo…it can’t do many things for the consumer. A hub communicates with devices. Echo communicates with Hubs. I can’t attach a device directly to Amazon. Yes, Nest and Phillips integrates, but they still hold their own control. I can’t tell Echo to turn off the lights at night, or on when I come home as a routine. I can’t have Echo communicate to my water sensors, my window sensors nor my door locks. It can’t turn my tv on or off. It can’t send me messages or pictures from my nestcam. Bottom line is, its not a Hub. If you don’t need a hub, then yes…its great. But its only as powerful as it is in my house because it can integrate with Hubs, mainly ST’s (although it does support Wink too).

Continuing the discussion from WAF of ST2 Out the window … Wink on the way for parallel testing:

Yes, I agree, in my opinion they shouldn’t have sent out the initial email. I’m not super satisfied but I will state, ST does have a ton of pluses. I’m trying to wait long enough to see them fix some of these items. When we first started with them, there were several things that were pretty rough. They made a lot of positive improvements before moving to V2. It just sucks that V2 came with so many problems. I do believe long term, they will get back to where they were and even improve. We’ll see! :wink:

So you made me curious about the Zipamini, and I went ahead and bought one. The device itself seems very, very immature, but their back end service (web service and app) are really nice. Very slick interface, but honestly I don’t know how it could work with the internet down. Maybe only automations and rules run when the internet is down? I’ll have to dig more into it. One thing that caught me off guard is the upsell. Looks like they charge based on the number of devices you connect, and charge extra for things such as Sonos, Nest, or Philips Hue connectivity. 1 credit in their store = $1 USD

An interesting platform with some benefits, but it could get pretty pricey. Also, device compatibility and community probably aren’t as good as SmartThings.

Oh, and when I said the actual Zipamini seemed immature, I’m not kidding. It is running android 4.2.2, does not have the play store or really anything installed on it. No instructions on how to set it up. No interface on the actual device to control any of your home automation stuff. It doesn’t even have a “System Updates” option in the Android settings so it doesn’t look like it was ever intended to be updated. It also had no remote, so I had to hook up a keyboard and mouse to it to configure it.

Thanks for your thoughts on the system.

Considering each zwave module is $20-$40, $1 to make it work sounds like a bargain to me.

My understanding is that net access is only needed for administrative tasks like building rules that are then downloaded onto the home unit for runtime.

The one thing that isn’t clear to me is if custom devices are allowed? Or is one dependent upon zipatos interpretation of how a device should operate (for instance, the Fibaro rgbw has an obvious use case — RGBW LED lights — but it can also control any 12-24vdc actuator.)

That makes sense about the rules being stored on the device and ran locally. You probably wouldn’t be able to interact directly with devices if your internet connection is down though right? It would be nice if that was possible. I’ve been able to do it with other systems, but it has involved more advanced knowledge of networks and routers.

Oh, and the credit reference I was giving was just to show the conversion rate. It is actually 9 credits ($9) to add an extra device, but looks like you can buy packs. I would probably buy the unlimited at $99. I would also need the Philips Hue plugin for $59. I’d also need the Zigbee dongle once available, not to mention some of the other features like messaging. It would probably cost me $400+ to get started with their system.

As for device types, I don’t see anywhere in the web interface to load them or tweak them. That would be greatly missed, but maybe it is possible. Overall it is a pretty nice system. I personally prefer SmartThings though and I’m just hoping they get the consistency and reliability of the system where it needs to be.

So… any update on this? If I’m doing my math right it looks like you’ve had Wink now for 1.5 months. Opinions?

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I think is obvious, Wink won :slight_smile:

Yeah, I took a look at the profile and he hasn’t been here since Dec…

Maybe wink won and we’re just in the lag time of his response coming through…

… Or he’s still waiting on the light to come on so he can find his way to the computer…

Just sayin…

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Anyone else gone this route. All the issues with SmartThings has caused me to remove devices and functionality over time. I’m just waiting on the sidelines so to speak. I feel others are too and some may be moving out of the market completely.

At some point in time I will jump back in. If there is a viable alternative I’m all ears. However, I don’t want to jump out of the fire into a frying pan as they say.

Again, is wink or something else out there yet?

Just an FYI there have been various reports of hub outages in the Wink world recently although it doesn’t seem like it’s widespread.

Also (although admittedly beta) they nearly had a second Winkening and released a firmware that nearly bricked several hubs.

People think it’s all roses over there, it’s not and Winks future is still uncertain. This post isn’t intended to bash Wink although I’ve never hidden the fact that I hate Wink with a passion. This is meant to serve as a fair comparison, feel free to check out their status page:

http://status.winkapp.com/

Oh and that Honeywell OAuth issue? That’s been posted for nearly a year…

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When I was testing Wink, they bricked my hub twice with their updates. The first time I was able to correct it myself with their DNS hack, the second time I had to send it in for them to fix. Took a few days to get it back.

It did not work with most of my devices. I use almost exclusively Z-Wave, but it wouldn’t pair with my door sensors, some light switches, bulbs, water sensors, and many other devices. My thermostat paired, but I never could change the temperature with the Wink App. Philips Hue paired up, but I could not control the lights (or see their status) unless I was on my local network. Their quirky products that I had were complete garbage (Eggminder, Refuel, Porkfolio).

On the plus side, I prefered their app over the SmartThings app and loved the Android Wear and Ok Google integration.

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As a summary, I’m still running both Wink and ST at home, but 90% wink. Quick thoughts

  • WAF is much higher with the wink app. To her the app interaction plus “it works” is all she cares about. I’ve migrated devices to wink based on her request of where she wants to interact with a device

  • wink device support is lower than ST , no question. I’ve been able to bring in some generic zwave items but others haven’t worked. That said - my house is essentially all schlage, jasco and hue - and those all work

  • I had one hub stability issue which wink resolved by sending me a new one on a swap out basis. Frustrating but the customer serine was good

  • zwave command delay does exist but I’m mostly on schedules and therefore don’t notice it much. Rumors for awhile of local control “coming soon” - shall see

  • relays to be installed next week

So net net - WAF is higher on the WInk app and it generally works.

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Despite my general hatred of all things Wink I’m actually glad for you that Wink is working out for you, ultimately at the end of the day we just want a working product and don’t care who the manufacturer is so long as it works for you.

Look for the Wink User Group (WUG) on Facebook, some useful stuff in there though in my opinion it’s run by a narcissistic megalomaniac who is avoidable until he puts you in his bad books.

Lots of systems out there, each with pluses and minuses. Honestly it just comes down to your specific situation.

Which devices do you want to use, which specific features do you want (I want voice control, for example), what’s your level in technical expertise, how much time are you willing to spend each week working on the system, how much reliability do you need, do you want to be able to do custom code even if all your other requirements are met.

Detailed discussion of various options here:

I’m about three months in on Wink. Been pretty good so far. The hub problems have lasted ten minutes at most and I have only experienced two. It’s nice not having sirens blaring in my ears. I like ST better overall but from a stability standpoint, I will stay on wink until that gets corrects in ST

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Sorry, I guess it is a little rhetorical. Basically, I would like a reliable Smart Things.

So for me, until such an animal comes along, I’m out of the market. And I can’t recommend HA to my friends and acquaintances until then.