The Wink home automation thread

[MjnMixael]

My Spotter V2 works better than Spotter V1. It stays online reliably and senses things reliably... except that the motion detection seems over sensitive. It often detects motion when I know for a fact that nothing was in it's view. But, as far as Spotters go, I'd recommend it.

Just setup my Echo to work with Wink as well. Pretty sweet! Though, I was hoping for at least shortcut control, too. "Alexa, lock the house."

 

[Mike A.]

The Quirky Tapt, Outlink, and Relay now have been changed to inactive SKUs and moved to the clearance section in some Home Depot stores around here (DC area). Yellow tagged but the price hasn't been lowered yet. Probably will be on some sort of clearance in the next several weeks if HD follows the usual pattern. Might keep an eye out if you're looking for them. Department manager here offered to do 30% off but that's still relatively expensive for what they are and I don't really need any of it myself.

 

[smhawkes]

not sure if anyone noticed, but Echo now control all Wink HA devices...linked it up to my Wink account this morning!

Also, Wink is allowing for reverse compatibility, in their next app update you can add the Echo as a device, presumably similar to adding a Nest or Philips Hue.

I just got an app update(beta I think) and it has the Echo listed but if you select it it says it is an unsupported device.

 

[smhawkes]

UPDATE: it only seems to control lights, in my case, GE link, Hue, and Leviton switches...but works flawlessly

Guessing other connected device control (Garage door, locks, etc) is not far away.

Hopefully in the near future Echo will be able to control shortcuts not just individual bulbs or switches.

 

[MjnMixael]

The Quirky Tapt, Outlink, and Relay now have been changed to inactive SKUs and moved to the clearance section in some Home Depot stores around here (DC area). Yellow tagged but the price hasn't been lowered yet. Probably will be on some sort of clearance in the next several weeks if HD follows the usual pattern. Might keep an eye out if you're looking for them. Department manager here offered to do 30% off but that's still relatively expensive for what they are and I don't really need any of it myself.

Dunno what's really going on with production of these units, but I can tell you that I was just on a conference call with Wink about how to make Relay better. Seems that there is still development on the device.

 

[Mike A.]

Dunno what's really going on with production of these units, but I can tell you that I was just on a conference call with Wink about how to make Relay better. Seems that there is still development on the device.

Very well may be for all of them. HD may just have decided not to stock those products anymore. At least around here it doesn't seem like they move a lot of the Wink stuff these days. I hit several local HDs fairly regularly and always check the area where they have the Wink products. For the most part the same boxes have been there for a while. Likewise at the local Targets.

They've done the same with a bunch of the Philips Hue starter packs too btw. Probably 10 boxes moved to the clearance area but the price hasn't been lowered yet.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

My Spotter V2 works better than Spotter V1. It stays online reliably and senses things reliably... except that the motion detection seems over sensitive. It often detects motion when I know for a fact that nothing was in it's view. But, as far as Spotters go, I'd recommend it.

Just setup my Echo to work with Wink as well. Pretty sweet! Though, I was hoping for at least shortcut control, too. "Alexa, lock the house."

How does the light sensor work? Is it binary (ie, either there is light or not) or does it report light levels (maybe on a scale from 0-10, with 0 being dark)?

Dunno what's really going on with production of these units, but I can tell you that I was just on a conference call with Wink about how to make Relay better. Seems that there is still development on the device.

So, I don't know if this was answered but maybe you can answer or ask Wink when you talk to them next time - is Spotter v2 discontinued?

 

[Kaido]

Amazon's Echo speaker can control your Wink-powered smart home:

http://www.engadget.com/2015/07/08/amazon-echo-wink-support/

Official setup information:

http://blog.wink.com/wink-blog/2015...sk-to-control-smart-products-around-your-home

Welp, time to buy an Echo :awe:

 

[Kaido]

On Facebook, Ben Kaufman posted this:

'local control' is coming, was set back a few months by the hub debacle in April but we're hoping for it soon and its in early testing now.

Honestly, I've been pretty happy with performance for 2015. 2014 was pretty rough, and the security update headache in April was no fun, but overall for 2015 things have been going pretty well. Adding local control should fix the lag issue; speed is really my main complaint now. As they are a new company making a product that, really, nobody has been able to get right yet, I'm still staying onboard for the ride because they are showing good improvements. Plus, it's at the right level of simplicity for me - aside from the lag & that last big hiccup, I don't really ever have to think about it. It's like my Roku, set & forget :thumbsup:

In other news, Craig posted some awesome news on Facebook for Wink@Home:

Wink finally opened up their API notification service for Groups, Robots, and Shortcuts. Previously only Devices/Sensors were using the notification service fully.

Amazon's Alexa, Wink@Home, and the upcoming native local control all sound awesome!

 

[Mike A.]

The Echo integration is cool from a tech standpoint but I've learned in the past that I don't really like talking to my house. But then I don't much like talking to machines more generally myself so YMMV.

Not that I'm any kind of expert but after you mess around with HA stuff for a long time and go through the standard phases you start to better understand that the higher goal is to just have things happen reliably when you want them to with very few times that you have to tell it to do anything. Whether that's by voice or input otherwise. Not that they're mutually exclusive but I'd prefer there was more focus on making that all work better than the gee whiz stuff myself. But the "cool" factor is what sells product and that helps advance things more generally I suppose.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

On Facebook, Ben Kaufman posted this:



Honestly, I've been pretty happy with performance for 2015. 2014 was pretty rough, and the security update headache in April was no fun, but overall for 2015 things have been going pretty well. Adding local control should fix the lag issue; speed is really my main complaint now. As they are a new company making a product that, really, nobody has been able to get right yet, I'm still staying onboard for the ride because they are showing good improvements. Plus, it's at the right level of simplicity for me - aside from the lag & that last big hiccup, I don't really ever have to think about it. It's like my Roku, set & forget :thumbsup:

In other news, Craig posted some awesome news on Facebook for Wink@Home:



Amazon's Alexa, Wink@Home, and the upcoming native local control all sound awesome!

I've honestly been pretty happy with Wink the last few months outside of the Winkening. I am somewhat sad that they seem to be moving away from hardware but I hope that means we'll see support for all the other cool devices out there that much faster.

At this point, local control is probably all I need to be completely happy.

 

[Kaido]

The Echo integration is cool from a tech standpoint but I've learned in the past that I don't really like talking to my house. But then I don't much like talking to machines more generally myself so YMMV.

Not that I'm any kind of expert but after you mess around with HA stuff for a long time and go through the standard phases you start to better understand that the higher goal is to just have things happen reliably when you want them to with very few times that you have to tell it to do anything. Whether that's by voice or input otherwise. Not that they're mutually exclusive but I'd prefer there was more focus on making that all work better than the gee whiz stuff myself. But the "cool" factor is what sells product and that helps advance things more generally I suppose.

Yup, that's exactly it - the cool factor is what sells stuff, no matter how much of a novelty it may be. I do want an Echo for one specific purpose tho - it gets very dark in my mini home theater room & I currently use a Lutron Pico remote to control six LED can lights. It's a small remote, and it's annoying to find it or to have to open up a bright little phone to control it from the app - being able to do voice control and say "lights on" would be great :thumbsup:

 

[Kaido]

I've honestly been pretty happy with Wink the last few months outside of the Winkening. I am somewhat sad that they seem to be moving away from hardware but I hope that means we'll see support for all the other cool devices out there that much faster.

At this point, local control is probably all I need to be completely happy.

Yup, that's really it. And you know, there's not a whole lot else that I really wanted automated at this point - I just need to save up some bucks to invest in the shades and whatnot, but Wink has like 90% of the stuff covered (locks, door/window sensors, blinds, lights, thermostats, etc.). Local support for speed, a better GUI, etc. would all help, but it's been feeling pretty solid lately. I don't know how much more I would add with a STv2 to be honest.

What I would like to see is for Sonos to license Airplay for native support onboard their wireless amplifiers, but that's a whole different animal

 

[Mike A.]

Yup, that's exactly it - the cool factor is what sells stuff, no matter how much of a novelty it may be. I do want an Echo for one specific purpose tho - it gets very dark in my mini home theater room & I currently use a Lutron Pico remote to control six LED can lights. It's a small remote, and it's annoying to find it or to have to open up a bright little phone to control it from the app - being able to do voice control and say "lights on" would be great :thumbsup:

And it is cool. But it's really not doing that much. We have better interfaces and it's (at least somewhat) more reliable but there's not been nearly as much progress as you might have expected in HA for as long as we've been doing it now.

My reference standard for what HA should be is a stupid cat that I had. And while he was a great cat and a good little buddy, I do mean stupid. Wasn't exactly the smartest animal that I've ever seen. But he was like a Rain Man/cat in certain ways. He loved to sit in the bathroom when I took a shower and over the years learned to pick up on subtle little unconscious patterns and things that I'd do to the point that he knew when I was going to take a shower before I even did sometimes. That in a general sense is what I want out of a "smart home." I'm not expecting human-level intelligence, especially at Home Depot prices, but we should be able to at least match stupid cat brain-level intelligence at this point. Kind of in the model for how Nest is supposed to work but doesn't really very well either.

Speaking of reliability I just had Wink fire up a secondary pump that I use in a pond for no apparent reason. I did have it scheduled to come on at that same time at one point but that timer has been deleted for months now. It doesn't appear in my schedule list and nothing else that I have set up that would have triggered it. *shrug*

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I cannot get my Echo to discover my Wink devices and I have no idea why. It claims that it was successful linking to my hub but when I click "Discover Devices," it quickly gives an error message of: "Connected home has not been enabled yet. Enable it by adding your smart home devices." If I say "Alexa, discover devices," she replies with "To use this feature, you'll need to wait for your device to automatically update. Updates usually occur after 1 to 2 hours of idle time." Any ideas? Both devices are on the same Wi-Fi network and I've rebooted the hub and the Echo.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Finally updated and is working. Very slick.

 

[MjnMixael]

How does the light sensor work? Is it binary (ie, either there is light or not) or does it report light levels (maybe on a scale from 0-10, with 0 being dark)?



So, I don't know if this was answered but maybe you can answer or ask Wink when you talk to them next time - is Spotter v2 discontinued?

Can't answer much about the light sensor as I don't use it for anything. But it's definitely still binary. You don't have any settings to change as far as sensitivity goes.

I think UNIQ is discontinued, but not V2. That's just speculation based on what I've seen around the web with people getting orders filled or cancelled.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Can't answer much about the light sensor as I don't use it for anything. But it's definitely still binary. You don't have any settings to change as far as sensitivity goes.

I think UNIQ is discontinued, but not V2. That's just speculation based on what I've seen around the web with people getting orders filled or cancelled.

Yeah, I had added one to my cart using the trick another user posted a couple of days ago, but I didn't order. Maybe I should reconsider.

I picked up a couple of Overflows at Meijer at lunch. Do you know if they are discontinued? One thing that surprised me is the packaging looks new -- they had Trippers, Tapts, and the Wink electrical outlet (Outlink?) and at least for the Trippers, the packaging was new and not like the packaging mine came in.

 

[Mike A.]

I shouldn't have mentioned the word reliability... My Wink seems to have become haunted since. Yesterday I had the long-deleted timer rise from the dead. Today I have ghosts setting off door sensors without opening the doors.

It would be helpful if we had some kind of advanced user mode in these things so that we could review traffic logs, etc.

 

[TechWise]

I was beta testing a Spotter UNIQ and was hoping they would go into full scale production. I had one with 3 buttons on it as I just wanted something simple to keep on the nightstand to turn off lights at bedtime. Unfortunately the UNIQ's are no longer. Does anyone know of a simple remote or device that can trigger a Wink scene? I don't like to keep my phone or a tablet beside the bed?

Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Really enjoying the Echo integration. Wink has been really solid for me since the Winkening (knock on wood).

With that being said, there has been a lot of press lately about their financial state and contradictory statements from Kaufman. Personally, I hope they do sell and Amazon picks them up -- I think that would be great for everyone.

 

[MjnMixael]

Is there actual talk of Amazon picking them up? With the backing of any one of the major tech companies, Wink could do pretty well. Amazon seems like the most likely given they had a semi-partnership and Amazon doesn't really yet have a Home Automation Platform.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Is there actual talk of Amazon picking them up? With the backing of any one of the major tech companies, Wink could do pretty well. Amazon seems like the most likely given they had a semi-partnership and Amazon doesn't really yet have a Home Automation Platform.

No talks I am aware of, but I think Amazon makes the most sense by far.

 

[Kaido]

Really enjoying the Echo integration. Wink has been really solid for me since the Winkening (knock on wood).

With that being said, there has been a lot of press lately about their financial state and contradictory statements from Kaufman. Personally, I hope they do sell and Amazon picks them up -- I think that would be great for everyone.

I wonder how the Home Depot partnership would fare with Amazon...

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I'll be honest - I've gone into a couple of different Home Depots and it is really hard to even locate the Wink stuff. It is almost like they don't even carry it or have it stashed in a corner somewhere.