The Wink home automation thread

[RodolfoDLV]

So if Flextronics buys Wink, I wonder if that means they'll produce the Tripper, Overflow, and other items again since they presumably manufactured them in the first place.

Been thinking about going out and buying more Trippers while I still can.

You should if your HD still carries them. Mine ran out. There's a ST code that allows for Tripper support.

 

[trunzoc]

I'm really hoping some enterprising person (Craig Trunzo?) builds a web-based system that support MOST of the major hubs and consolidates them into a single place. I think that would be SLICK but I'm not sure how open the other platforms are. He has done a heck of a job with the winkathome portal and if my tests with SmartThings look promising, I may chat with him and offer to supply a hub and sensors to him to hack around with if he is willing. I'm more of a hardware engineer and am in the process of designing a simple refrigerator/freezer monitor for use with Wink and SmartThings as well. I'm hoping I can get some components ordered shortly to begin my testing.

Y'know, the cost of HA stuff is what always kept me back. When I released my Tasker project way back when, I literally had a Wink hub, a leviton outlet and a GE bulb. It wasn't until people started actually donating items to me, to specifically support, that I was able to really expand my own system.

I am pretty happy with how Wink@Home is at this point. When I get satisfied, I usually take a bit of time off, then do something drastic with it. I think the next step might be integrating Insteon right into it since I have an Insteon hub connected and a few things still attached to it.

At this point, STv2 seems the most likely replacement for Wink if they ever go away. When that time comes, I am sure I will be writing a Tasker project for the new system, and a web portal if they don;t offer one of there own.

Honestly.. I think this is good news for Wink. Quirky always seemed like dead weight for Wink. Why were they spending time on Quirky's "inventions" like a window sensor or multi-sensor, or water sensor? Those are not inventions... just differently designed sensors we already have.

Wink was supposed to be a hub for all devices, but it always seemed like a hub for Quirky devices first and then a few others when they got around to them. Drop Quirky, and move on to better things.

This. Exactly! I honestly never understood how they could call most of their smarthomes stuff an invention. Trippers, Overflows, Outlinks, Tapts? Really? ALL of that has existed for years

 

[IndyColtsFan]

You should if your HD still carries them. Mine ran out. There's a ST code that allows for Tripper support.

I believe there are plenty still in stock locally at our Meijer stores. I bought two packs a couple of weeks ago for $35/pack. Maybe I'll run over and buy the last couple of packs they have.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Y'know, the cost of HA stuff is what always kept me back. When I released my Tasker project way back when, I literally had a Wink hub, a leviton outlet and a GE bulb. It wasn't until people started actually donating items to me, to specifically support, that I was able to really expand my own system.

I am pretty happy with how Wink@Home is at this point. When I get satisfied, I usually take a bit of time off, then do something drastic with it. I think the next step might be integrating Insteon right into it since I have an Insteon hub connected and a few things still attached to it.

At this point, STv2 seems the most likely replacement for Wink if they ever go away. When that time comes, I am sure I will be writing a Tasker project for the new system, and a web portal if they don;t offer one of there own.

I think I saw that there is a web portal for it, but I think someone needs to make a web portal that shows MULTIPLE platforms. If you have both SmartThings and Wink, it would be nice to have multiple platforms consolidated in one portal. Of course, I'm a nerd so I'm sure my usage scenario won't be very prevalent.

 

[dennisj00]

I bit the bullet and added an Echo yesterday. It easily integrated with Wink but my item names weren't easily recognized by voice control. . . (LRLeft for Living Room Left lamp) but I easily added groups in Echo for LEFT or RIGHT and I just say 'Left On' . . . it doesn't recognize the Wink groups.

Was just watching last night's Colbert and Amazon had an ad about Echo and mine awoke and started NPR news brief. Good thing my garage door didn't come in as a device.

For the hackers out there, there's a Kickstarter already funded for Mycroft- an open source version of Echo. https://www.kickstarter.com/project...ource-artificial-intelligence-for/description

 

[Mike A.]

I believe there are plenty still in stock locally at our Meijer stores. I bought two packs a couple of weeks ago for $35/pack. Maybe I'll run over and buy the last couple of packs they have.

I'm kind of half hoping that Wink does go down just for the resulting clearance sales at Home Depot, Target, etc. That's where most of the cost is in this deal - all of the end-point devices. The initial hub/system cost is relatively small. As long as you stick to the standards for the most part you can move to another platform without that much trouble. Most of what I have now that I moved over to Wink I picked up cheap over the years. Wouldn't have nearly as much otherwise. HD had the GE Zwave switches for $0.01 at one point. Grabbed enough of that to change every switch and outlet in the house with spares and modules and remotes left over.

 

[Mike A.]

I am pretty happy with how Wink@Home is at this point. When I get satisfied, I usually take a bit of time off, then do something drastic with it. I think the next step might be integrating Insteon right into it since I have an Insteon hub connected and a few things still attached to it.

You've done a good job with it. It's come a long way. Very helpful to be able to see the device information and event logs since Wink hides all of that.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I'm kind of half hoping that Wink does go down just for the resulting clearance sales at Home Depot, Target, etc. That's where most of the cost is in this deal - all of the end-point devices. The initial hub/system cost is relatively small. As long as you stick to the standards for the most part you can move to another platform without that much trouble. Most of what I have now that I moved over to Wink I picked up cheap over the years. Wouldn't have nearly as much otherwise. HD had the GE Zwave switches for $0.01 at one point. Grabbed enough of that to change every switch and outlet in the house with spares and modules and remotes left over.

I bought two more packs of Trippers at my local Meijer for $35/each at lunch. They had another pack but I didn't get it. They also had tons of Tapt and Outlink for(IIRC) $48 and one Wink hub for $54 "on clearance." Even though Tapt and Outlink don't get stellar reviews, if the price is right (like $20 each), I may bite. I found it odd that the clearance price for the hub was higher than the normal price.

 

[Mike A.]

I bought two more packs of Trippers at my local Meijer for $35/each at lunch. They had another pack but I didn't get it. They also had tons of Tapt and Outlink for(IIRC) $48 and one Wink hub for $54 "on clearance." Even though Tapt and Outlink don't get stellar reviews, if the price is right (like $20 each), I may bite. I found it odd that the clearance price for the hub was higher than the normal price.

The Trippers are probably the best deal out of the Wink stuff. The GoControl kits aren't bad either for the money. At least as such things go anyway.

There are better switches for less money than the Tapt. I'm kind of meh on the Outlink and outlets generally. I have a few of the GEs installed just because I had them but I've not really found much use for them.

I'm pretty well set on switches, locks, thermostats, etc. What I really need more of are sensors of various types - motion, door/window, presence, light, etc., to trigger more actions automatically. Still looking for a good generalized button-type device that can be used to trigger robots.

 

[TechWise]

Will the Outlink work with SmartThings? I have 2 of them and they are the only devices that I have that I consider to be non-standard. I realize the power monitoring features won't work with another system, but hoping that basic on off functionality will. I believe that they use ZigBee.

By the way they have worked flawlessly since I installed them a few months ago.

 

[RodolfoDLV]

I bought two more packs of Trippers at my local Meijer for $35/each at lunch. They had another pack but I didn't get it. They also had tons of Tapt and Outlink for(IIRC) $48 and one Wink hub for $54 "on clearance." Even though Tapt and Outlink don't get stellar reviews, if the price is right (like $20 each), I may bite. I found it odd that the clearance price for the hub was higher than the normal price.

Regarding the Quirky products, I like everybody else, really like the Trippers. Fast, pretty and cheap.
I also have two Tapt switches I got for $35 each on eBay. Wouldn't pay more than that, given that's the GE switch price. After fighting to fit them inside the gang box, I've been really happy with them. They extended my Zigbee range, are very pretty and I like the option to use with smart lights and dim them, and to be able to give the buttons different lights to control. For $60,it's not worth it. For $35 and under, they're a bang for the buck, in my opinion.

 

[qfwfq]

I'm more of a hardware engineer and am in the process of designing a simple refrigerator/freezer monitor for use with Wink and SmartThings as well. I'm hoping I can get some components ordered shortly to begin my testing.

Let us know how the project goes. Monitoring the freezer is the reason I jumped on the HA bandwagon. I lost a freezer full of stuff during a vacation. Since you bought the STv2 bundle you probably know that the open/close sensor has a temperature sensor built in. I bought the ST bundle too, and I was planning to use the sensor for the freezer. Unfortunately I have not been able to get it to work with the wink hub. I haven't yet set up the ST hub.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Let us know how the project goes. Monitoring the freezer is the reason I jumped on the HA bandwagon. I lost a freezer full of stuff during a vacation. Since you bought the STv2 bundle you probably know that the open/close sensor has a temperature sensor built in. I bought the ST bundle too, and I was planning to use the sensor for the freezer. Unfortunately I have not been able to get it to work with the wink hub. I haven't yet set up the ST hub.

Two things wrong with using a Spotter or a ST sensor in a freezer:

1. The freezer will kill you on battery life. One guy on the Wink FB group tried it and his batteries were only lasting a week or two.
2. You will likely have spotty connectivity issues from inside a refrigerator or freezer.

I'm just trying to build a small board that will connect to a Tripper (and probably other magnetic sensors as well) and will use a long thermal probe that will go into the freezer (you can shut the door on the thermal probe cord and the seal will still be intact) and the batteries and radio will be OUTSIDE of the freezer. I probably won't make it too fancy - it will probably just be a dial that you'll turn to set an alarm temperature and if the freezer hits that temperature, it will trip the Tripper and send a notification. You could also have it turn on light, sirens, or whatever you want. I have a couple of approaches in mind:

1. The board will be isolated from the Tripper and would just activate an electromagnet to trip the Tripper. This approach means it would probably work with almost any open/close sensor on the market, but I haven't really researched small electromagnets for circuit boards yet to see what is out there and fairly cheap.
2. The second approach would require wires to be clipped or soldered across the terminals of the Tripper's switch. When the alarm goes off, a transistor would basically act as a switch and short the Tripper's switch out, which is basically what happens (the switch being closed) when a Tripper is tripped.

The circuit to do something like that isn't complicated; it has been a number of years since I designed circuits so I am a bit rusty and need to find the right components. I've just been really busy at work and on the weekends but need to settle down and figure it out. I also need to stick to the basic plan; for awhile, I was adding LED displays to show temps, etc, and that's just making things too complicated. If Quirky were still around and accepted inventions, I would've submitted this idea already and let them do the dirty work. If I can get a basic device running, THEN I might consider making device 2.0 with the more cool features.

 

[Mike A.]

2. You will likely have spotty connectivity issues from inside a refrigerator or freezer.

I can verify that one as far as the Spotter goes. Tried it to test the temp sensor with one of those that I have. Doesn't work well in my fridge. Actually it's kind of shaky outside of the fridge too but even less well inside.

Do have to give them a little bit of credit. At some point they seemed to have updated something relative to the Spotters and they do seem to work much better since. It was pretty much completely worthless when I first got it.

 

[Aikouka]

Speaking of fridge-based sensors, I always wanted one of those Quirky Egg-minder devices (nothing worse than wanting to bake something but you forget how many eggs you have!), but I've heard that they just don't connect well. I'd imagine they'd work fine if the fridge itself was Z-Wave compatible and it essentially acted as a relay.

 

[MjnMixael]

Copied from the comments section of Wink's blog...

Ashok: "In fact, it looks like some elements necessary for local control are already in the latest Hub firmware update (2.19.0) ...."

Ted: "When is local control coming?"

Wink: "Hey Ted,

You don't miss a beat! We have a few app and hub updates around the corner. One of them will include faster control of your products by processing many of the commands locally. Thanks for hanging in there with us, you won't be disappointed!

Your Friends at Wink"

Also this.

Kevin H: "While this will be a crazy time for Wink, I believe getting out from under the troubled Quirky umbrella will be a huge positive. As for Flextronics making a bid? If they end of being the ones to acquire Wink, then I believe this will be a major win as well due to the financial resources Flextronics has at it's disposal. ($26 bil Revenue last year with $600mil in profit)"

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Copied from the comments section of Wink's blog...

Ashok: "In fact, it looks like some elements necessary for local control are already in the latest Hub firmware update (2.19.0) ...."

Ted: "When is local control coming?"

Wink: "Hey Ted,

You don't miss a beat! We have a few app and hub updates around the corner. One of them will include faster control of your products by processing many of the commands locally. Thanks for hanging in there with us, you won't be disappointed!

Your Friends at Wink"

Also this.

Kevin H: "While this will be a crazy time for Wink, I believe getting out from under the troubled Quirky umbrella will be a huge positive. As for Flextronics making a bid? If they end of being the ones to acquire Wink, then I believe this will be a major win as well due to the financial resources Flextronics has at it's disposal. ($26 bil Revenue last year with $600mil in profit)"

I'm guessing that in addition to the hub, Flextronics made the components like Tripper, Overflow, etc. I wonder if that means they'll manufacture those again if they win the bid. I know they're Quirky products, but I suppose if the sale is contingent on those being included, they'll include them.

 

[qfwfq]

Two things wrong with using a Spotter or a ST sensor in a freezer:

1. The freezer will kill you on battery life. One guy on the Wink FB group tried it and his batteries were only lasting a week or two.
2. You will likely have spotty connectivity issues from inside a refrigerator or freezer.

I guess it depends on various factors, including the proximity of the hub/other repeaters. I am too lazy to search now, but I read several reports on other forums of good connectivity and long battery life with open/close sensors. On the other hand I read that probes through the door don't let the gasket seal well to the point of maintaining a vacuum.
Anyway, I have the sensor now. I'll try it once I set up ST2. If that doesn't work I'll look at alternatives.

Edit: For good measure, I just bought also a Aeon Labs DSC06106-ZWUS to monitor energy consumption of the freezer. IT is reported on amazon reviews to work with wink. That should at least give me an idea if something major is wrong, like it happened when I was on vacation and the garage GFCI tripped. They are currently $24 on ebay (no affiliation with seller and not a recommendation of any sort, although I did buy from buydig before)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/311395444102

 

[Mike A.]

Edit: For good measure, I just bought also a Aeon Labs DSC06106-ZWUS to monitor energy consumption of the freezer. IT is reported on amazon reviews to work with wink.

It's not going to do what you want it to do under Wink. Wink has no idea what to do with the energy monitoring side of it and there's no interface in the app to report energy use. I believe that is supported under ST.

They do work well as far as the power side goes under Wink. Easy to pair and no issues with the couple that I have.

 

[qfwfq]

It's not going to do what you want it to do under Wink. Wink has no idea what to do with the energy monitoring side of it and there's no interface in the app to report energy use. I believe that is supported under ST.

They do work well as far as the power side goes under Wink. Easy to pair and no issues with the couple that I have.

Thanks. I guess that's one more reason for me to set up the STv2 hub.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I guess it depends on various factors, including the proximity of the hub/other repeaters. I am too lazy to search now, but I read several reports on other forums of good connectivity and long battery life with open/close sensors. On the other hand I read that probes through the door don't let the gasket seal well to the point of maintaining a vacuum.

Yes, but those open/close sensors likely aren't INSIDE the freezer. I want to monitor the temperature inside of a freezer and an open/close won't help me do that without modifications like what I've discussed and would likely have battery issues. The connectivity issues are harder to say for sure, as I have seen people put Spotters in the freezer and while the battery life was awful, they did connect. I'm honestly quite shocked that NO ONE - not a single company I'm aware of - has thought to make a sensor with an external temperature probe. It is such an obvious need and I can't believe I'm the only person wanting something like that. I mean, you have things like z-wave water valves and no one thought about a device with an external thermal probe?

I currently have a digital temperature display with a long thermal probe and I decided to put the probe in my refrigerator because I was concerned with the seal integrity. Works fine and the refrigerator stays at 35-36 degree. Obviously isn't reporting to a smart hub, but I was more interested in testing the seal of the door around the probe.

 

[qfwfq]

Yes, but those open/close sensors likely aren't INSIDE the freezer. I want to monitor the temperature inside of a freezer and an open/close won't help me do that without modifications like what I've discussed and would likely have battery issues. The connectivity issues are harder to say for sure, as I have seen people put Spotters in the freezer and while the battery life was awful, they did connect. I'm honestly quite shocked that NO ONE - not a single company I'm aware of - has thought to make a sensor with an external temperature probe. It is such an obvious need and I can't believe I'm the only person wanting something like that. I mean, you have things like z-wave water valves and no one thought about a device with an external thermal probe?

I currently have a digital temperature display with a long thermal probe and I decided to put the probe in my refrigerator because I was concerned with the seal integrity. Works fine and the refrigerator stays at 35-36 degree. Obviously isn't reporting to a smart hub, but I was more interested in testing the seal of the door around the probe.

From what I read the temperature sensors are inside. See this post for example. I remember reading other ones also.
http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php?topic=10461.msg72278#msg72278
It is possible that the spotter sensor is the problem. It never had a great reputation. I decided not to buy one after reading the reviews. Anyway, I'll try with the ST sensor since I have it now. I may have some time this weekend.
I found other options with external connections, but they are mostly for industrial application and cost an arm and a leg.
This one is an example:
http://www.controlbyweb.com/x300/

 

[Mike A.]

From what I read the temperature sensors are inside...

Although you might want to for other obvious reasons, you don't really need to deal with temperature as you explained it above do you? You're more concerned with power. That you should be able to do easier 'outside of the box' so to speak. All you need to do is to monitor the status of some device connected to that same circuit.

Unfortunately, Wink doesn't do that well either. e.g., If I create a robot to trigger when the Aeon (or other) module turns off, then it works fine as long as the module has power when the on/off is triggered by the physical button or by remote command. It does not work if you cut power to it or yank it out of the wall to simulate power loss since there's no Zwave command sent that Wink picks up on to detect changed status. That is, Wink doesn't pick up the state change by some periodic polling. It still shows the unit in whatever status that it was last left. I thought that I might be able to hack together an ambient light sensor to do something similar using a module plugged into a "dumb" light-activated switch but doesn't work for that same reason.

If ST has a better method of polling for state/availability, then something like that should work and would be cheaper/easier to know just whether you have power to something. The temp sensor does that and has value beyond though so that's a better way to go assuming you can make it work at some reasonable cost.

The Spotter fails in a similar way. If you cause Wink to lose track of the sensor by say pulling power, it doesn't update so it continues to see whatever the last temp was when reported by the sensor. e.g., I unplugged mine a week ago and it still shows the temp as it was at that time and a last updated status as of that date. As long as the temp doesn't change to cross whatever threshold value you set in the robot, then it never triggers.

 

[qfwfq]

It does not work if you cut power to it or yank it out of the wall to simulate power loss since there's no Zwave command sent that Wink picks up on to detect changed status. That is, Wink doesn't pick up the state change by some periodic polling.

I see. This stinks. Sounds like a bad design. There should be a way to tell if a device hasn't "talked home" in a while. How would you know otherwise if something has gone wrong with it, like the batteries drained or power was cut off?

The Spotter fails in a similar way. If you cause Wink to lose track of the sensor by say pulling power, it doesn't update so it continues to see whatever the last temp was when reported by the sensor.

This is the exact reason why I did not consider the spotter. From what I read in the reviews, the temperature sensor only works when plugged in. Other temperature sensors like ST open/close, Everspring ST-814, or even the inexpensive monoprice motion sensor, are battery operated. They should report a drop in temperature if the power goes off. Of course, the Wink hub does not support them, but that's another problem.

 

[Mike A.]

I see. This stinks. Sounds like a bad design. There should be a way to tell if a device hasn't "talked home" in a while...

I should have mentioned that I was talking about the original Spotter. Was never able to get a later version to try but I suspect that it probably works the same way as far as that all goes.

Also, I was speaking to Z-wave devices mostly. Don't know whether the polling may work differently on the Zigbee side. I did try one of the Link bulbs in the same way that I described but it doesn't work either for the same reason. Whatever HA protocol can't send some change of state when it doesn't have power. That falls to the app/hub to detect as you say in some "are you alive" test/polling.

The Honeywell thermostat that I have does do that. If it loses connection, then relatively quickly Honeywell's monitoring will generate a fault and I'll get a notice via email. But that's done on and coming from outside of my system on Honeywell's side not through Wink. Wink is just providing an interface to it through the app.