The Wink home automation thread

[Zaap]

Haha..

Wife Acceptance Factor.

If you're married, really its the only tech term that matters.

 

[MaxDepth]

lol
I already thought that was given.

 

[luv2liv]

what kind of smart lock can i replace these locks with?
once the 2 locks are unlocked, the 2 doors swing open. i cannot replaced the doors with 1 big single door because they are part of history in my area.

 

[realibrad]

what kind of smart lock can i replace these locks with?
once the 2 locks are unlocked, the 2 doors swing open. i cannot replaced the doors with 1 big single door because they are part of history in my area.

I cant find one for a "single cylinder interlocking deadbolt" style which is what that looks like.

 

[luv2liv]

single cylinder interlocking deadbolt

yes, that's what i have now.
and I have yet to see a smart version of it. so what are my options?
i will try to take it apart and see if a standard deadbolt works then upgrade to a smart deadbolt. but i doubt it.

 

[realibrad]

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1376185-REG/tp_link_hs200_smart_wi_fi_light.html

Good deal on some TP Link light switches.

 

[gorcorps]

I got my smartthings hub in and installed it over the weekend. Also installed my GE z-wave motion sensing switch for the garage lights. Also installed a door sensor on the interior door going into the garage.

First order of business was to find a way of flashing the lights in the garage as a reminder for trash or recycling day. I went through all of the routines and other options on the smartthings app and found I couldn't do what I wanted easily through what's included. I couldn't even schedule something to happen every OTHER week like I needed for recycle day.

Down the google rabbit hole I go, and found I needed webcore to do the more custom/intricate things I had in mind. First order of business was to force the lights to flash on and off 5 times when I opened the garage door. I was able to get that working relatively quickly with a couple tweaks to the "piston" figuring out how long I wanted the cycles to last. Then I figured out relatively quickly how to make sure that happens every Tuesday (trash day). Perfect, as far as I know it's set up correctly and I'll know tomorrow morning if it works or not.

I had to google around to find a way to get the every other week schedule to work properly, and what I found is that there's nothing in place to do that automatically and there's a number of different ways to do it. I settled on creating a variable called "week" which is just an integer for week number, which I set to 34 for last week. I created a piston which runs every Sunday, and indexes the week number by 1 (I just checked and the week number is now 35, so that looks like it worked... hooray!). If the week number was already at 52, then it resets the week number to "1" and starts counting again after that. Now that I have a week number, I was able to schedule my "recycling day" light flashing piston to only happen on every Thursday but only on EVEN weeks. Now I've successfully got an "every other week" schedule running.

Given the lengths I had to go through just to get an "every other week" schedule, I don't think this system is ready for prime time as far as home users go, but I actually enjoyed setting it up. While webcore isn't the most intuitive, it's friendly enough for someone like me to figure out a way to do what I want to do... even if there's no built in way to do it. I actually find things like that fun, it's almost like a puzzle trying to figure out how to use the limited set of rules you're given to run automation the way you intended it to run.

Well, something is wrong and my routines haven't worked this week. I haven't dug into it yet, but it's frustrating that only after a month and a half something is broken.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Well, something is wrong and my routines haven't worked this week. I haven't dug into it yet, but it's frustrating that only after a month and a half something is broken.

Have you noticed a specific device type being affected? I was having issues and noted my zwave devices were affected. I ran a zwave network repair and everything is working great again.

 

[gorcorps]

Have you noticed a specific device type being affected? I was having issues and noted my zwave devices were affected. I ran a zwave network repair and everything is working great again.

Yes, the only thing I have automated so far is involving a z-wave light switch. I'll have to dig into that.

 

[MaxDepth]

GOOD NEWS EVERYONE!
https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2018-10-26/pdf/2018-23241.pdf

[Specifically for this thread - Sections 5, 6, 7, and 8 - page 20]
The Librarian of the Library of Congress issued new circumvention rules to the DMCA. In particular to this thread Section 5 is about cell phones, Section 6 is portable devices that are not single use (like the old Nano), Section 7 is TVs and Section 8 is about home automation devices.

You are now free to reverse engineer these devices in the name of interoperability. Meaning, you are free to overlay your own or modify the device so that you can have it work well with other devices.


Go hug a Librarian!

 

[jrlnc]

I’ve been having considerable issues with SmartThings lately. So many, in fact, that I think I’ve decided to go ahead and start transitioning everything to Hubitat this fall. It all seemed to start around the time I switched to a Samsung account (from the normal ST account), but many others are also see lots of delays and other issues as well. This is going to really suck since I have over 180 devices and probably 30-40 more left to install.

Hi Indy, I hope you still post here. I've been very quiet lately but still reading what little information there has been about Wink.
I've basically come to the conclusion that Wink is truly dead. At least I'm not willing to wait on it anymore.

Like you, I can't do without Home Automation. But there were really no compelling alternatives for me. Apple HomeKit is vaporware and although ST has (had) a lot of promise I think that the user community's goodwill towards it has been squandered by Samsung. I almost moved to ST from Wink, but after hearing about their outages and knowing first-hand about Samsung's shoddy product support through some of their other products I did not want to go that direction.

When I heard about Hubitat, it sounded almost too good to be true. It has been growing and improving at a rapid pace. I made the jump a couple weeks ago and bought their Hub. I slowly moved devices over to see how well it worked with my simple Zigbee & ZWave products. That done, I was pleased to find they have very good integration with Lutron Caseta (which I have a big $$$ investment in for dimmers, switches, pico remotes and Serena Shades). The clincher was Hubitat's support for my Phillips Hue hub and cloud support for my Ecobee products and some support for Amazon Alexa. Those are the major items.

After moving all those things over from Wink, I reset my Wink2 hub and unplugged it. Good Riddance!

My only loss really is that I have 3 Relays that now are just dumb switches. Hope maybe I can do something with them in the future.

I am cautiously optimistic about Hubitat. But even if they went belly-up tomorrow, I can still use the hub locally and do most of what I want/need.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Hi Indy, I hope you still post here. I've been very quiet lately but still reading what little information there has been about Wink.
I've basically come to the conclusion that Wink is truly dead. At least I'm not willing to wait on it anymore.

Like you, I can't do without Home Automation. But there were really no compelling alternatives for me. Apple HomeKit is vaporware and although ST has (had) a lot of promise I think that the user community's goodwill towards it has been squandered by Samsung. I almost moved to ST from Wink, but after hearing about their outages and knowing first-hand about Samsung's shoddy product support through some of their other products I did not want to go that direction.

When I heard about Hubitat, it sounded almost too good to be true. It has been growing and improving at a rapid pace. I made the jump a couple weeks ago and bought their Hub. I slowly moved devices over to see how well it worked with my simple Zigbee & ZWave products. That done, I was pleased to find they have very good integration with Lutron Caseta (which I have a big $$$ investment in for dimmers, switches, pico remotes and Serena Shades). The clincher was Hubitat's support for my Phillips Hue hub and cloud support for my Ecobee products and some support for Amazon Alexa. Those are the major items.

After moving all those things over from Wink, I reset my Wink2 hub and unplugged it. Good Riddance!

My only loss really is that I have 3 Relays that now are just dumb switches. Hope maybe I can do something with them in the future.

I am cautiously optimistic about Hubitat. But even if they went belly-up tomorrow, I can still use the hub locally and do most of what I want/need.

It turns out that my main issue with SmartThings turned out to be an issue with my z-wave mesh. Once I repaired it, most of the issues I had disappeared. Because of that, I haven't moved anything over to Hubitat since I returned from my vacation.

One problem area I still have with ST is the Lutron stuff. When I first implemented Lutron stuff on ST, it seemed as fast as my Wink implementation even though it was all cloud-based. Lately though, I'm seeing big delays using webCore to sync to Casetas. For example, if I turn one Caseta switch on, I need another Caseta to turn on. It used to be fairly quick but for whatever reason, it is now very slow - sometimes the second set of lights won't come on for several minutes, if at all. So after hearing my wife complain repeatedly, I grabbed a Lutron Pro hub off eBay and hope that Hubitat speaking with the Lutron hub locally will make the response time almost immediate. I also will move a motion sensor I have in that room over to Hubitat as well.

 

[killster1]

Hi Indy, I hope you still post here. I've been very quiet lately but still reading what little information there has been about Wink.
I've basically come to the conclusion that Wink is truly dead. At least I'm not willing to wait on it anymore.

Like you, I can't do without Home Automation. But there were really no compelling alternatives for me. Apple HomeKit is vaporware and although ST has (had) a lot of promise I think that the user community's goodwill towards it has been squandered by Samsung. I almost moved to ST from Wink, but after hearing about their outages and knowing first-hand about Samsung's shoddy product support through some of their other products I did not want to go that direction.

When I heard about Hubitat, it sounded almost too good to be true. It has been growing and improving at a rapid pace. I made the jump a couple weeks ago and bought their Hub. I slowly moved devices over to see how well it worked with my simple Zigbee & ZWave products. That done, I was pleased to find they have very good integration with Lutron Caseta (which I have a big $$$ investment in for dimmers, switches, pico remotes and Serena Shades). The clincher was Hubitat's support for my Phillips Hue hub and cloud support for my Ecobee products and some support for Amazon Alexa. Those are the major items.

After moving all those things over from Wink, I reset my Wink2 hub and unplugged it. Good Riddance!

My only loss really is that I have 3 Relays that now are just dumb switches. Hope maybe I can do something with them in the future.

I am cautiously optimistic about Hubitat. But even if they went belly-up tomorrow, I can still use the hub locally and do most of what I want/need.

i have been using smart things for many years, not sure how long exactly but long enough for the batteries to leak acid .. my issue is recently i had false alarm with bosch motion detector. So my plan was to set up two motion detectors in each room. If they both activate then the alarm will trigger. Maybe this will help the 1x false alarm i have got.

The only thing i can think of is the heater was on and maybe the warm air circulating set it off. Also thought of routing the air away from the sensor.

 

[Zaap]

oops, wrong thread. Didn't realize there were two.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

For those of you left on Wink, you should probably be thinking about moving soon:

Wink running out of funds

There are several articles detailing the issues, but the main points:

1. Some staffers haven't been paid in 7+ weeks.
2. The New York office has been "temporarily" closed.
3. Support phones are no longer answered.
4. Support emails, tweets, etc. aren't being answered.

The Wink FB group is in a panic with many users jumping to Hubitat and SmartThings. You still have the diehards who are in denial, but let's face facts - even without this news, Wink has been a stagnant platform for years and is way behind the competition in capability.

 

[Kaido]

For those of you left on Wink, you should probably be thinking about moving soon:

Wink running out of funds

There are several articles detailing the issues, but the main points:

1. Some staffers haven't been paid in 7+ weeks.
2. The New York office has been "temporarily" closed.
3. Support phones are no longer answered.
4. Support emails, tweets, etc. aren't being answered.

The Wink FB group is in a panic with many users jumping to Hubitat and SmartThings. You still have the diehards who are in denial, but let's face facts - even without this news, Wink has been a stagnant platform for years and is way behind the competition in capability.

It's a pity, because it was such a great platform concept when launched 5 years ago. They had their share of hiccups along the way, but I enjoyed my time with my Wink setup! I've since moved on & use Alexa exclusively as my smartphone platform (I don't have complex HA needs).

 

[IndyColtsFan]

It's a pity, because it was such a great platform concept when launched 5 years ago. They had their share of hiccups along the way, but I enjoyed my time with my Wink setup! I've since moved on & use Alexa exclusively as my smartphone platform (I don't have complex HA needs).

I still have my Wink 1 in the closet and hope there will be an easy way to root it and play with it. Otherwise, I use SmartThings and Hubitat for my HA needs right now.

 

[lupi]

As someone with a HD-DVD player on the shelf, glad i chose correctly this time. 😁

 

[Red Squirrel]

One of the reasons I don't like to rely on these proprietary cloud based systems. You're at their mercy. Invest the time and money only for it to no longer work or have any kind of support years later.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

One of the reasons I don't like to rely on these proprietary cloud based systems. You're at their mercy. Invest the time and money only for it to no longer work or have any kind of support years later.

That's why I got rid of Wink years ago - too closed and too cloud dependent. Their model was to provide device support only for those vendors who paid to have them add device support, and vendors finally told them to get lost. As a last desperate measure last year or the year before, they were forced to just start adding devices. The writing for them was on the wall years ago when they refused to open up the system and find other revenue streams. They're only in business because of Will.i.am's ego.

Hubitat is all local and SmartThings still has cloud dependency but is moving towards more and more local control and is backed by Samsung.

 

[MjnMixael]

RIP. I got banned from the Facebook group because I kept warning them that Wink was sinking. That leader of that group has drank the kool-aid haaard.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

RIP. I got banned from the Facebook group because I kept warning them that Wink was sinking. That leader of that group has drank the kool-aid haaard.

Paul? Yeah, he's a buffoon. I remember a couple years ago, I made a comment about Wink not having humidity sensors, light sensors, etc. His comment wasn't "Yeah, you're right - that's definitely a gap Wink needs to address" - it was "Why would you need those?"

I have to admit, when Wink goes under, I'll enjoy tormenting him in the other HA groups. Now, his group has turned into "Help! What platform should I move to?" requests, along with the diehard deniers claiming all is OK. I melted one on Facebook last night with the ultimate burn after he shot his mouth off (again) about never having Wink issues and literally minutes later, Wink went down.

 

[Kaido]

Wink smart home users have one week to subscribe or be shut off

Wink is moving its smart home technology to a subscription, and owners aren't thrilled.

www.engadget.com

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Wink smart home users have one week to subscribe or be shut off

Wink is moving its smart home technology to a subscription, and owners aren't thrilled.

www.engadget.com

The outrage online is comical. In and of itself, $5/month isn't bad and I imagine SmartThings and Hubitat will move to a subscription model at some point. The problem with Wink's fee:

1. They're only giving users one week to pay up. I imagine that due to the outrage, they will likely relent and give users more warning.
2. Wink has been dead for years - anyone saying otherwise is nuts. They haven't innovated or added anything new of consequence in several years. They are laughably far behind their competition. I used Wink and currently have both SmartThings and Hubitat and Wink is a toy in comparison.
3. $5/month probably isn't enough to save them. Even if we assume that Wink has 100K users now (and I think that's probably high), you know they're going to lose many people because of this new policy. Even if they have 75,000 users, that's $375,000 a month from subscriptions. Their other moneymaker is hardware, but a) they never have hardware to sell b) their margins are small or non-existent on hardware sales. No way $375,000 per month is enough to pay for cloud infrastructure, a support team, engineers, developers, HR, accounting, execs, etc. AND R&D and new features.

I got booted from the Wink FB group but I would love to hear the excuses there.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yet another reason I would never use cloud based automation. I should not be at the mercy of business decisions or have to pay a reoccurring fee for stuff in my own house to work. I'll stick to arduino based stuff. Buy it once, program it once, and it keeps working, even without internet.

Been meaning to completely revamp my setup though and make it more modular as right now it's kinda ugly and hard wired/coded. I want to make it more plug and play and then sell the equipment. Probably a niche market for that but it's cheaper to manufacture in volume.