The Wink home automation thread

[gafireman]

I've been using my wink hub and for starters one GE bulb. As tech savvy as I am, I had to contact tech support for the set up, I had no clue the hub had to be about 15 feet from the wifi router. I hate calling tech support so I did a web chat which was very helpful and no wait time. Two days into using the hub it lost connection, I once again contacted their tech specialist, and issue resolved quickly. Sine that rocky start everything has been running smoothly, the robots I set up works every time. There is a little lag, but i can live with that.

I went ahead and ordered the tripper, which I can wait to get (anyone know when they will be shipping?)

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I've been using my wink hub and for starters one GE bulb. As tech savvy as I am, I had to contact tech support for the set up, I had no clue the hub had to be about 15 feet from the wifi router. I hate calling tech support so I did a web chat which was very helpful and no wait time. Two days into using the hub it lost connection, I once again contacted their tech specialist, and issue resolved quickly. Sine that rocky start everything has been running smoothly, the robots I set up works every time. There is a little lag, but i can live with that.

I went ahead and ordered the tripper, which I can wait to get (anyone know when they will be shipping?)

The last I checked, the Tripper was supposed to start shipping today (12/15) but that could slip, as they said the original ship date was 12/1.

EDIT: Their site now says 12/18.

 

[Blanky]

$40 now buys two tripper door sensors. That is a nice price IMO. They are brand new though. Anybody have any clue on their range? I would buy them if they can reach my mailbox at the end of a decent size front yard and one in the shed at the back of my house's property. No reviews yet since they are brand new.

 

[lsd]

The trippers are not out yet and I don't think the app has been updated to allow them. I have a Lowes sensor I've been waiting to try but I have a feeling all the zigbee stuff is whitelisted.

 

[cwrisley]

Just purchased the wink hub and 2 Ge link bulbs and the spoter at HD after looking at a few alternatives (insteon, revolve, iris). Setup process was pretty painless, (ended up having to put the lights into "pairing" mode to get them to sync with the hub; turn off 3 seconds, turn on 3 seconds..repeat until light fades when turned on).

Anyway, I'm hoping for some ideas and some help. One of my goals is to create a motion activated "night light" so to speak. (aka when using the bathroom in the middle of the night, I would like a motion sensor to detect movement and then fade some of the GE lights on.

1.) I thought the spotter had "motion detection", but turns out it is movement of the device it self...oops.

So I am looking at the wink relay to see if this offers the "motion" detection that I am looking for (walk into hall way, sense motion, turn bathroom and hall lights on dim if between these hours (turn off if not movement after certain amount of time). Has any used this feature of the relay yet, and if so, how does the "motion" work?

I also stumbled across this "Iris 120-Degree Passive Infrared Security Motion Detector" it states it work with IRIS, but it is zwave...does anyone think it could work with wink and what I am looking to do; or does anybody have any other ideas?

Thanks everyone, and great forum and discussions.
~cwrisley

 

[Tech_Greek]

Don't worry I made that mistake with the spotter as well but I ended up using the magnet and putting it on my door at the office and it works without a hitch there.

 

[RossMAN]

$40 now buys two tripper door sensors. That is a nice price IMO. They are brand new though. Anybody have any clue on their range? I would buy them if they can reach my mailbox at the end of a decent size front yard and one in the shed at the back of my house's property. No reviews yet since they are brand new.

A few weeks ago I took advantage of Quirky's 50% coupon and ordered a few trippers, among other things ($$$).

My 3 sets of tripper sensors should be sent soon:

Tripper (Tripper)
"Smart window/door sensors"
Expected Ship Date: 12-15-2014 $20.00 3 $60.00

LOL isn't today 12/15/2014?

 

[IndyColtsFan]

A few weeks ago I took advantage of Quirky's 50% coupon and ordered a few trippers, among other things ($$$).

My 3 sets of tripper sensors should be sent soon:


LOL isn't today 12/15/2014?

The date keeps slipping. When I checked yesterday, it said 12/18. I'm sure when 12/18 rolls around, it will be 12/26 or something.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

$40 now buys two tripper door sensors. That is a nice price IMO. They are brand new though. Anybody have any clue on their range? I would buy them if they can reach my mailbox at the end of a decent size front yard and one in the shed at the back of my house's property. No reviews yet since they are brand new.

Not sure they're meant for outside use -- no clue how they'll hold up. There are a lot of cool Z-wave products available including some outdoor sensors like that, but it seems to be hit or miss for Wink to work with them. I think them trying to dumb everything down is hurting them more than helping.

 

[Blanky]

The slickdeal 50% off is great and I saw it at the time but had not tried my wink so couldn't feel comfortable buying. QUirky website down currently too thigh I assume that coupon is dead

 

[RossMAN]

The slickdeal 50% off is great and I saw it at the time but had not tried my wink so couldn't feel comfortable buying. QUirky website down currently too thigh I assume that coupon is dead

Yes it's safe to assume the coupon is dead, however I would still try it out or maybe even ask them? When Quirky.com is back online, try live chat or Twitter, the worse that can happen is they say no.

I felt safe placing such a large order because they have a reasonable 30 day return policy, no restocking fee and they even pay return shipping - basically no risk.

My A19 and BR30 GE WiFi LED's have recently shipped. My wife is going to be very surprised the next time she uses the Wink app and notices half the house is wired up

 

[MjnMixael]

cwrisley, Relay does detect proximity at least (screen turns on when you walk near it). Not entirely sure it detects full-room motion, though.

 

[Tech_Greek]

Stop jinxing me guys...

I started getting random battery dead notices on my Spotter...ok weird, new batteries again. I deleted the Spotter from my account after the issue persisted when swapping in new batteries.

Mistake

Now it told me that it couldn't communicate with my spotter. Thanks captain obvious, that's why I deleted it and cleared it via the help menu! I just want to add it back now!

After messing with it, and my ADDHDHDHDHDH kicking I decided to attempt it again (hoping that they were working on something again).

Wrong, they have a known issue with the App - the Spotter flow isn't working yet (I'm assuming due to the new spotter deal coming out) but Apple has an extended review period for updates now so that's why it's not fixed yet on release. I explained this is why we NEED a Web UI and some sort of notification on statuses like these as had I not contacted them via Twitter (60 minute wait on phone that I got tired of waiting on and hung up) I would have never known. A mailbox icon similiar to Nest's or even push notifications would have been nice (or I don't know, a status update on the status webpage).

Regardless, motion detection is broken right now. It just keeps complaining that it can't save - maybe something to do with the app issue or may be the way we had to add it to my account again was through the piggy bank.

Regardless, I feel like there's some simple illogical decisions made on the back end in meetings. We are not ALL idiot proof needing idiots so we need more advanced control - no exceptions, I personally can take apart a server with my eyes closed as well as put it back together and I also maintain over 100 businesses worth of infrastructure every day so I'm pretty sure I can handle a simple automation device.

I am happy to report that their Twitter account is on top of getting back to me, so that's nice. They may be listening to my suggestions or they could do like every game developer now-a-days and just instant delete them.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Stop jinxing me guys...

I started getting random battery dead notices on my Spotter...ok weird, new batteries again. I deleted the Spotter from my account after the issue persisted when swapping in new batteries.

Mistake

Now it told me that it couldn't communicate with my spotter. Thanks captain obvious, that's why I deleted it and cleared it via the help menu! I just want to add it back now!

After messing with it, and my ADDHDHDHDHDH kicking I decided to attempt it again (hoping that they were working on something again).

Wrong, they have a known issue with the App - the Spotter flow isn't working yet (I'm assuming due to the new spotter deal coming out) but Apple has an extended review period for updates now so that's why it's not fixed yet on release. I explained this is why we NEED a Web UI and some sort of notification on statuses like these as had I not contacted them via Twitter (60 minute wait on phone that I got tired of waiting on and hung up) I would have never known. A mailbox icon similiar to Nest's or even push notifications would have been nice (or I don't know, a status update on the status webpage).

Regardless, motion detection is broken right now. It just keeps complaining that it can't save - maybe something to do with the app issue or may be the way we had to add it to my account again was through the piggy bank.

Regardless, I feel like there's some simple illogical decisions made on the back end in meetings. We are not ALL idiot proof needing idiots so we need more advanced control - no exceptions, I personally can take apart a server with my eyes closed as well as put it back together and I also maintain over 100 businesses worth of infrastructure every day so I'm pretty sure I can handle a simple automation device.

I am happy to report that their Twitter account is on top of getting back to me, so that's nice. They may be listening to my suggestions or they could do like every game developer now-a-days and just instant delete them.

I agree -- I think them dumbing down everything to the degree they have will end up causing more headaches and issues. They should've left some advanced configuration capability and interfaces in it.

 

[TexasWinkUser]

Has anyone had any luck getting things to automate based on arriving or leaving a location? I'd like to turn everything off when I leave the house, for example. I have two trippers on order and would like to be able to setup permissions with those based on location as well, but I've not had any luck.

I have a wink hub, Pivot Power Genius Strip and currently GE Link Bulb. Would like to get more, but want to make sure all these bugs get worked out.

I've got a robot set up as follows:

 

[cwrisley]

I have had good luck with the geo fencing so far(just with the ge lights)

I have 2 seperate ones for my lights. When I show up to my condo at night and when I leave the in the morning.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4z838xxn7g0y260/Screenshot_2014-12-18-21-37-30.png?dl=0

 

[tsupersonic]

Has anyone had any luck getting things to automate based on arriving or leaving a location? I'd like to turn everything off when I leave the house, for example. I have two trippers on order and would like to be able to setup permissions with those based on location as well, but I've not had any luck.

I have a wink hub, Pivot Power Genius Strip and currently GE Link Bulb. Would like to get more, but want to make sure all these bugs get worked out.

I've got a robot set up as follows:

It is kind of spotty - but with the app actually running in the background, it works 100%. I have a tendency of closing all my apps, but I make sure to leave Wink running. I'm loving the latest app update (today - 12/18) - you can add shortcuts from the Wink app as a widget.

BTW, on iOS8.1.2/iPhone 5S.

 

[BillinGlendale]

First Impressions

I've been using Wemo switches to control my lighting for the past year or so. I've got 4 regular switches, one insight switch and a camera/motion detector. The evening before Thanksgiving I saw the 2 bulb/hub for $30 at Home Depot and decided to give Wink a try. It seemed to be a no lose proposition If it didn't work, I could either return the bulbs/hub, or keep the bulbs and get a Wemo hub(the GE bulbs are compatible) or just use them as regular LED bulbs. I run Windows and Android.

My feelings about automation, in general, is that it should do more than my phone/tablet being a remote control. I could just carry around some cheep plug-in remotes and accomplish that. I want it to have some intelligence. When I go to bed, I want to turn all the lights off and lower the temp. When I wake up I want to turn some lights on and increase the temp. When it gets dark, I'd like it to automatically turn some lights on. I've accomplished most of these tasks via Tasker for Android, Wemo Manager(a local server for Wemo, and the Wink API).

I received the hub/bulbs about a week after I ordered them. I set up the hub and tried to add the first bulb. The hub notified me that I needed to update the hub, so I did. It didn't work. I reset the hub and was able to update the hub(the last update also bombed so I powered the hub off and back on; I'm still running the 0.33 firmware). Adding lights hasn't been too much of a problem with one exception, but I think that has more to do with a crappy lighting fixture. I had already ordered a thermostat(Radio Thermostat-WiFi) but it arrived without the WiFi module. By now I've expanded to 5 bulbs and ordered the Z-wave module for the thermostat(the WiFi replacement module and Z-wave module arrived the same day). I also ended up getting the Kidde smoke/CO2 detector.

So far I've got pretty much everything work(one light didn't turn off last night, I'll figure it out). The Wemo portion is working well and is very responsive(it's running off a local server). The Wink control of the thermostat is also working well, there may be a delay but it's not all that noticeable. The Wink lights do have a second or two delay and this is quite noticeable. This is something they need to work on(local server, yes I've read this entire thread).

I really think it's a successful experiment, with the exception of the slight light delay. I will be adding addition devices(I ordered a lock tonight) and I wish there was a inexpensive motion sensor that could be added. I've integrated the Wink and Wemo sides so I have voice control via one interface. I'm sure I'll think of a few more ideas: such as widgets, etc.

 

[Blanky]

I've had my hub and 6 bulbs going for a week. The ONLY thing I am using them for or really wanted to was to have them go on and off at certain times. It seems to be working. After noticing one bulb failing to turn on at one point, I started to have parallel on and off events; same on event separated by two minutes and same off separated by two. Separating by one seemed to make the system ignore the second duplicated scheduled event; it just wouldn't show in activity as having even tried it. I've not checked if the two minute separation works, but in all honesty the bulbs are turning on and off quite reliably.

Geofencing worked the one time I had the app on but in the background on IOS. It didn't work when it was off (I had swiped the app closed), which is really a major shortcoming of geofencing for any device. It seems to me like iOS needs a centralized "I'm here" option that other apps can always tie into even when not loaded. Probably Apple realizes this and homekit will give that just for homekit.

 

[Exigence]

The Wink control of the thermostat is also working well, there may be a delay but it's not all that noticeable.

Barev Bill in Glendale! How did you get your Radio Thermostat to work with Wink? I have the CT50 with a wifi module, which works great, but it can't be added to Wink as far as I can tell. Unless you are using a Zwave module. In that case, can you have the Zwave module and the Wifi module working at the same time?

I would be surprised if Zwave sensors weren't added soon. I know a lot of people have stressed the importance of local server support to the Wink team too, so it's at least being talked about.

I know the hub updates can be tricky. My advice would be to be patient when they appear to have failed. The early hub updates and app updates seemed to fail when they didn't, or the hub would flash red when it was actually still updating. In general, I give it 30 minutes before I try again when I update my hub.

 

[BillinGlendale]

How did you get your Radio Thermostat to work with Wink? I have the CT50 with a wifi module, which works great, but it can't be added to Wink as far as I can tell. Unless you are using a Zwave module. In that case, can you have the Zwave module and the Wifi module working at the same time?

I ordered the CT50 from Home Depot and they shipped it without the Wifi module. I called them and they said they'd ship it. It took over 2 weeks to arrive. In the meantime I ordered a Z-wave module(they ended up arriving on the same day). They both appear to be working. They show up as Radio1 and Radio2 on the display, Wink's working and I can access the thermostat's web page.

 

[atyoyo]

Does anyone know if the GE link bulb will work with an older in-wall dimmer, not the wireless kind. I tried pairing it with the wink hub and it doesn't work. Wink support said that since the bulb itself is dimmable it won't work with a plain in wall dimmer.

I can pair it fine in a regular light switch but if I move it to the light switch with the dimmer it can't be controlled by the wink. Interestingly, if the dimmer switch is completely off the link bulb is still on at its lowest brightness. My house is almost all controlled by in-wall dimmers (without remote control capability). Is it true these bulbs won't work with in-wall dimmers?

Thanks.

 

[Exigence]

Does anyone know if the GE link bulb will work with an older in-wall dimmer, not the wireless kind. I tried pairing it with the wink hub and it doesn't work. Wink support said that since the bulb itself is dimmable it won't work with a plain in wall dimmer.

I can pair it fine in a regular light switch but if I move it to the light switch with the dimmer it can't be controlled by the wink. Interestingly, if the dimmer switch is completely off the link bulb is still on at its lowest brightness. My house is almost all controlled by in-wall dimmers (without remote control capability). Is it true these bulbs won't work with in-wall dimmers?

Thanks.

Dimmers alter the power going to the device, so they can't work with in wall dimmers. Usually they chop up the power. Electronics need a steady stream of power. Think about what would happen if your computer had it's powered turned off and on 20 times a second.

Your lights are still on because dimmer switches pass the power thru the light bulb to function. It's an electronic device, so it needs a hot and a neutral (black and white wire). There's usually no neutral at a switch, so what it does is flow the power up to the light where the neutral is. LED's use so little power that the little bit that flows for the switch will turn them on.

New dimmer switches solve most of this, but you usually still see a minimum connected load.

 

[BillinGlendale]

Does anyone know if the GE link bulb will work with an older in-wall dimmer, not the wireless kind. I tried pairing it with the wink hub and it doesn't work. Wink support said that since the bulb itself is dimmable it won't work with a plain in wall dimmer.

I can pair it fine in a regular light switch but if I move it to the light switch with the dimmer it can't be controlled by the wink. Interestingly, if the dimmer switch is completely off the link bulb is still on at its lowest brightness. My house is almost all controlled by in-wall dimmers (without remote control capability). Is it true these bulbs won't work with in-wall dimmers?

Thanks.

Four out of my five GE-link bulbs are on a circuit controlled by a dimmer switch. I had some problem pairing some of them. The only issue I've noticed is that when I dim them(via Wink), I see a noticeable flicker.

 

[atyoyo]

LED's use so little power that the little bit that flows for the switch will turn them on.

I have used other led bulbs with this light fixture and the same in-wall dimmer and it's worked fine. Off means completely off.

If I don't care about dimming at all, I just want on/off is there some way I can get it to work with this in-wall dimmer?