The Wink home automation thread

[IndyColtsFan]

I'm happy to continue using Wink for light bulbs, but after this I doubt I'd buy smart locks for my doors.

That's a good point. I only use it for bulbs in my office and to gather data from Trippers on my garage doors. I have a motion sensor but I don't use it for much pending the addition of timers, but one user mentioned that you can now trigger events on "no motion detected" (presumably after the sensor resets), so I do want to try that. At any rate, up to now, I haven't seen the responsiveness and reliability I'd need to roll this out over my entire house and let me wife use it. It was getting close but I must have local control capability before I'd take that next step.

There is no way I'd trust Wink with door locks. None. In fairness though, I probably wouldn't trust ANY cloud-connected service for that.

 

[incognito00]

I am on .77 and my hub still works. I didn't restart or anything, I didn't even know it was down for most people till last night upon reading the posts here

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Everyone threatening to jump ship, just do it already. You are eroding at the sense of community we've built here. It is not helpful, and you contribute nothing by continuing to be so negative in these forums.

I think many are waiting to see what STv2 offers first and if it fulfills the promises which have been made so far, I think you will see many people move on. For me, I've gone back and forth several times but for my limited use cases, Wink is adequate. What WILL make me jump is if Wink doesn't implement local control in a timely fashion or it isn't reliable whereas STv2 does; also of concern is device support. Those are really the two major reasons I will jump ship even with my very limited use cases. I have long complained that by trying to excessively dumb-down their offering for "average" consumers, Wink has likely created more problems than they solved and this latest instance is probably a perfect example of that. Let's see if they come through with a utility to let us fix these ourselves.

Also, this is a forum and thread where people are entitled to their opinions. To portray things in Winkland as all picnics, sunshine, and rainbows would be disingenuous and be a huge disservice to our community. That includes calling Wink out on their business practices. They are not a well-run company and I think that is due to the current leadership. Also, it does NOT help your cause when you have loose cannon employees (see: Brian Knopf) making disparaging remarks about customers and saying how the requests for local control "make him angry." Knopf CLEARLY lacks business acumen and forgets who butters his bread. Security doesn't matter if you can't use the system and he clearly could not get that through his thick skull. I hate to see anyone lose his job but if he were my employee, I'd fire him. I understand the level of frustration involved when major outages occur, but he should've been working on the issue and NOT posting on FB especially when several users told him to tone it down.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I am on .77 and my hub still works. I didn't restart or anything, I didn't even know it was down for most people till last night upon reading the posts here

I did read a comment from one user in the FB Wink User Group that his/her hub was offline this morning (they didn't reboot or power cycle at all last yesterday) and when they rebooted this morning, it apparently worked fine. I just rebooted mine and it did not fix my issue, however.

 

[incognito00]

I have an unopened wink hub I am keeping for a backup, so since it has not been used Im assuming that the unopened hub is unaffected from this craziness and don't have to send it in for a replacement?

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I have an unopened wink hub I am keeping for a backup, so since it has not been used Im assuming that the unopened hub is unaffected from this craziness and don't have to send it in for a replacement?

I am assuming unopened hubs will not work since Ben Kaufman mentioned that they're having to remove inventory from all stores to "repair" them.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

On a lighter note, I had to laugh at Brian Knopf's twitter tag -- "DoYouQA". LOL!

https://twitter.com/doyouqa

He has been silent since last night when he made his last asinine remark.

 

[brinkbart]

I have an unopened wink hub I am keeping for a backup, so since it has not been used Im assuming that the unopened hub is unaffected from this craziness and don't have to send it in for a replacement?

Since they are pulling all unopened Wink hubs off of store shelves, for repair, I think it's safe to say you will need to send your unopened one back, too.

I got one for some friends for Christmas, and due to moving reasons, they haven't opened it yet. I am taking it from them and sending it in for repair as well.

 

[FreddieT]

On a lighter note, I had to laugh at Brian Knopf's twitter tag -- "DoYouQA". LOL!

https://twitter.com/doyouqa

He has been silent since last night when he made his last asinine remark.

I would think the guy who signs his paycheck put a damper on his social media presence and advised him to lay low for awhile.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I would think the guy who signs his paycheck put a damper on his social media presence and advised him to lay low for awhile.

Yeah, Kaufman said Knopf's remarks were "repulsive." He was probably told to STFU.

 

[smhawkes]

The articles on engadget and cnet say the problem was a botched update which is incorrect it was a lack of an update(maybe). This misinformation is out there because of Wink not being honest about what really happened.

 

[MjnMixael]

The articles on engadget and cnet say the problem was a botched update which is incorrect it was a lack of an update(maybe). This misinformation is out there because of Wink not being honest about what really happened.

Wut..? The message at the top of status.winkapp.com isn't honest enough? Those websites get the fault on this one for not doing even basic fact checking.

 

[CAL7]

I guess that an unintended consequence of this is further delay in STv2. Scenario (only in my mind): ST team working 20 hour days, driving to release v2. But, Saturday night the boss comes in, says, "Relax guys, go home and take a few days. The pressure is off. "

 

[Tech_Greek]

Woohoo my hub got bricked. I see some other people's did as well.

 

[aosmer]

I think at this point most people got bricked, unless the happy people are just silent.

 

[Tech_Greek]

I think at this point most people got bricked, unless the happy people are just silent.

Doh.

So are we abandoning ship at this point? I'm not going to lie, this is a little annoying to say the least.

 

[Kaido]

saying how the requests for local control "make him angry."

One of the things that really made me see the future of home automation was at a home show in Hartford a few years ago. Control4 brought their demo bus (RV?) & let me screw around with it. Everything was INSTANT! There weren't any excuses about lag or glitches or anything like that...it worked just as well as any wired switch did, only for everything on a global scale...one light, multiple lights, from a wireless controller, from a touchscreen on the wall, etc. Basically, it wasn't a compromise.

I don't really see a way of doing that via cloud control...you HAVE to have local control to get that kind of response time, otherwise you are dependent not only on the network between your house & the server, but also the processing speed of the server, which - as we've seen - can sometimes lag. It's taken several minutes to unlock my front door sometimes, for example. So for now, I am content with the fact that local control is at least coming at some point. That's really my biggest complaint.

Snafus happen. Wink is owning up to it. At minimum, the system wasn't left open & unsecure, which is the bottom line. It would have been another story if the system had been left wide-open for hackers to get into or something. They're trying to make it right with a coupon. I can't say I'm thrilled that it happened, but working in IT, I know that stuff can hit you sideways all the time, so again...it is what it is. Other systems exist for those who want to jump ship; I've been reasonably happy with my system lately, so one hiccup for a few days isn't going to kill me or my interest in this platform.

Again, if something better comes along (i.e. STv2) or Wink improves (i.e. local control), then I'll re-evaluate it again then, but I don't really want to jump to STv1, Vera, Indigo, Homeseer, X10, INSTEON, or anything else right now, nor do I want to shell out for Control4, Crestron, etc. either. My goal for my personal HA system is basically to have it like my Roku...it does its job & I don't have to think about it. Technologically, we're not there yet (at least not, not at this price point). In five years - yes, definitely. In a year - maybe, if Samsung holds up to their promises. Right now - no, unless Wink pushes out a local control update, which, if done properly, would fix the majority of the lag & glitch issues. So that's where I'm at in my mind. Holding tight for now! :awe:

 

[Kaido]

So are we abandoning ship at this point? I'm not going to lie, this is a little annoying to say the least.

I'm staying onboard for now. Yes, it is a hassle. But my $50 Kiddie smoke alarm will go to waste (should've bought Nest for $100!) & I'd have to go buy a Lutron Hub for $120 if I want to keep using my Caseta gear (which notably has 4 out of 5 stars on Amazon reviews). I also have no desire to touch Vera, and I'm not interested in the current SmartThings hub (v2 sounds lightyears better). I know that Samsung has pushed off the release date for that, but I don't mind that either - I'd rather have them release it as a stable product than do an early release & be the "beta tester" again.

Plus, look at the history of Microsoft...Bill Gates got out there, hustled, and got his system embedded into the universe, albeit half-baked (which is exactly what Wink has done), but they improved their product over time. With their GE & Home Depot partnership, in a year or two, all of this stuff may be old news chalked up to first-year growing pains & they may be the bomb dot com for home automation. They've already made strides in getting better, new software & hardware features are on the horizon, and I'm 99.99999% sure they'll never make this mistake again (hopefully they'll have redundant security certificates in place, along with a calendar reminder, etc.), which means that they will improve in the future.

It's a complete trainwreck right now, but that doesn't mean that that will always be the case. I'll ride it out for now because there's nothing else on the market I want to touch at the moment

 

[quagga]

Doh.

So are we abandoning ship at this point? I'm not going to lie, this is a little annoying to say the least.

My SmartThings Hub has already shipped and will arrive tomorrow.

But ... that change has been coming for a long time. I was just trying to hold out to v2. ST offers too many things I need whereas Wink is now broken for (unless they can get a locally implemented fix) I'm guessing for a week minimum. It's worth it to me to switch.

Others have been waxing back and forth about whether they are staying and going. I think some of that will also depend on how Wink resolves this. I think right now most people are just disgusted.

 

[Kaido]

Because I'm bored at work (yay for being on-call), a complete dump of the currently-supported products:

1. Hubs
2. Alarms
3. Blinds
4. Bridge
5. Cameras
6. Fun
7. Garage Doors
8. Heating & Cooling
9. Kitchen
10. Lawn + Patio
11. Lights
12. Locks
13. Power
14. Relay
15. Remotes
16. Sensors
17. Water Heater

1. Hubs:

a. Wink HUB by Wink
b. Link Hub by Quirky + GE

2. Alarms:

a. GoControl Battery-Powered Siren by GoControl
b. GoControl Siren by GoControl
c. Nest Protect by Nest Labs
d. Smoke Alarm by Kidde

3. Blinds:

a. Bali Blinds by Bali
b. Generic ZWave Blinds by ZWave
c. Pella Between The Glass by Pella
d. Pella Roomside Shades by Pella
e. Pella Venetian/Cellular Shades by Pella
f. Serena Roller Shades by Lutron
g. Serena Shades by Lutron

4. Bridge:

a. Insynctive Bridge by Pella (appears to need to be within 30 feet of the Wink HUB)

5. Cameras:

a. Dropcam

6. Fun:

a. Nimbus Dashboard by Quirky + GE
b. Porkfolio Piggy Bank by Quirky

7. Garage Doors:

a. MyQ Garage Door by Chamberlain
b. Quirky Ascend by Quirky + GE

8. Heating & Cooling:

a. Aros Air Conditioner by Quirky + GE
b. Generic ZWave Thermostat by ZWave
c. Nest Thermostat by Nest Labs
d. Norm Thermostat by Quirky + GE
e. Wi-Fi Thermostat by Honeywell
f. ZWave Thermostat by Honeywell

9. Kitchen:

a. Eggminder Egg Tray by Quirky + GE
b. GE Fridge by GE (read up)

10. Lawn + Patio:

a. Iro Sprinkler by Rachio
b. Refuel Tank Gauge by Quirky + GE

11. Lights:

a. Caseta In-Wall Dimmer by Lutron
b. Caseta Plug-In Dimmer by Lutron
c. Connected by TCP Lights by TCP
d. Cree Light Bulb by Cree
e. Generaic ZWave Light by ZWave
f. Generic Zigbee Lights by Zigbee
g. Generic Zwave Switch by ZWave
h. Hue Lights by Philips
i. In-Wall Dimmer by Leviton
j. In-Wall Switch by Leviton
k. Link Light Bulb by GE
l. Plug-In Appliance Module by Leviton
m. Plug-In Dimmer Module by Leviton
n. Receptacle by Leviton

12. Locks:

a. Generic ZWave Locks by ZWave
b. Leverl Lock by Schlage
c. SmartCode Deadbolt by Kwikset
d. Touchscreen Deadbolt by Schlage

13. Power:

a. Outlink by Quirky + GE
b. Pivot Power Genius by Quirky + GE
c. Tapt Smart Switch by Quirky + GE

14. Relay:

a. Relay by Wink

15. Remotes:

a. Lutron Pico by Lutron

16. Sensors:

a. Generic ZWave Sensor by ZWave
b. GoControl Motion Sensor by GoControl
c. GoControl Window/Door Sensor by GoControl
d. Overflow Water Leak Sensor by Quirky + GE
e. Pella Entry Door Sensor by Pella
f. Pella Garage Door Sensor by Pella
g. Pella Window/Door Sensor by Pella
h. Spotter Multipurpose Sensor (1st Gen) by Quirky + GE
i. Spotter Multipurpose Sensor (2nd Gen) by Quirky + GE (note: Multipurpose is spelled wrong in the app)
j. Spotter Uniq
k. Tripper

17. Water Heater:

a. EcoNet Water Heater by Rheem (requires Rheem app)

What I would like to see:

1. Support for Eve Irrigation (has moisture sensors)
2. Support for Ubiquiti Networks' UniFi Micro webcam
3. Support for Okidokeys entry system
4. Support for Roomba, Scooba, Lawnbott, Robomow, etc. Third-party interface options such as SparkFun's RooTooth exist. Would be neat to kick off the Roomba wirelessly, haha - "oh crap, MIL is coming over, go into cleaning mode!"
5. Support for Remotec Z-Wave ZXT-120 IR Extender for Air Conditioners (apparently supports the standalone mini-split ductless Mitsubishi Mr. Slim HVAC units)
6. Support for Logitech Harmony Smart Control IR blasters (2-way support ideally...from Wink Hub to the Wifi blaster & from the Harmony remote to other functions...i.e. friend shows up while you're watching a movie, hit a button on the physical remote to unlock the front door)
7. Support for Aeotec products, especially the insane new Multisensor 6

Can't remember what else off the top of my head. So much cool stuff out there...just needs to talk to each other. In a perfect world, I'd like a custom-programmable app as well. For example, Jumi-Tap is a really neat iPhone remote app that lets you custom-design a menu using Photoshop or whatever:

http://www.jumitech.com/index.php?page=tap

I don't really care for how the current iteration of the Wink app works; at minimum, I would like it to ALWAYS default back to the Shortcuts screen (for the stuff I actually use), even if it's just an option that you can turn on in the app. It'd be cooler to have a little drag & drop interface where you could setup everything you want, or have emoticons for your stuff or something like that. That's more down-the-road stuff, but something to think about for sure!

 

[Kaido]

My SmartThings Hub has already shipped and will arrive tomorrow.

But ... that change has been coming for a long time. I was just trying to hold out to v2. ST offers too many things I need whereas Wink is now broken for (unless they can get a locally implemented fix) I'm guessing for a week minimum. It's worth it to me to switch.

Others have been waxing back and forth about whether they are staying and going. I think some of that will also depend on how Wink resolves this. I think right now most people are just disgusted.

Please keep us updated! They have a very active community that I lurk on. Lots of excitement building for their second-gen hub offering :thumbsup:

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Ben Kaufman is asking for volunteers to test an in-home fix over on the Wink Users Group FB page. Just saw the post but it was posted 30 minutes ago; might be too late to join.

Edit: users testing the fix report that it works so we may see it released soon.

 

[dennisj00]

Real companies that screw the pooch as badly as wink has usually cross ship when they screw up like this. Dell, Sun, Samsung to name a few. I think I am going back to x10.. Much cheaper, works and if you need remote just vpn to your house and change it up. Wink is just marketing garbage. 24 hours and still no we are gonna fix it email.

I've used X-10 - because there was pretty much nothing else- since 1974 or so when it was BSR and sold at Sears.

I'm sorry but the worst day (other than yesterday) with Wink is better than X-10. Also no central control /schedules unless you use your PC.

I'm hanging and hope they send a local fix.

If you think about it, 5-10 years ago we wouldn't have the Twitter / Facebook / forum crucifixion of the company. There wouldn't have been any public comments from employees (and still shouldn't be).

There also wouldn't be public comments about plans for future implementation. Those things were kept very close to the vest.

Everybody is waiting for STv2 and while it's from Samsung, it's vaporware.

 

[tctmonkey]

I almost unsubscribed from this thread because of everyone's negativity. But then I thought that wouldn't be fair to me, and to others who are just looking for help and a supportive community.

Everyone threatening to jump ship, just do it already. You are eroding at the sense of community we've built here. It is not helpful, and you contribute nothing by continuing to be so negative in these forums.

We get it. You're displeased. Write a letter to Wink or something. Move to what you consider to be a more mature platform. I'm sticking with Wink, because they're trying and I want them to succeed. And I'm sticking with this thread because I think those who want Wink to succeed deserve a sense of community.

If this "Advanced User" option comes to fruition, I will be offering any assistance I can to other users who need help walking through that process.

Don't you work for wink?

 

[LegendKiller]

I'm staying onboard for now. Yes, it is a hassle. But my $50 Kiddie smoke alarm will go to waste (should've bought Nest for $100!) & I'd have to go buy a Lutron Hub for $120 if I want to keep using my Caseta gear (which notably has 4 out of 5 stars on Amazon reviews). I also have no desire to touch Vera, and I'm not interested in the current SmartThings hub (v2 sounds lightyears better). I know that Samsung has pushed off the release date for that, but I don't mind that either - I'd rather have them release it as a stable product than do an early release & be the "beta tester" again.

Plus, look at the history of Microsoft...Bill Gates got out there, hustled, and got his system embedded into the universe, albeit half-baked (which is exactly what Wink has done), but they improved their product over time. With their GE & Home Depot partnership, in a year or two, all of this stuff may be old news chalked up to first-year growing pains & they may be the bomb dot com for home automation. They've already made strides in getting better, new software & hardware features are on the horizon, and I'm 99.99999% sure they'll never make this mistake again (hopefully they'll have redundant security certificates in place, along with a calendar reminder, etc.), which means that they will improve in the future.

It's a complete trainwreck right now, but that doesn't mean that that will always be the case. I'll ride it out for now because there's nothing else on the market I want to touch at the moment

There is a huge difference between bill Gates and these fools. Do you see any one of them ever being worth 50bn+?

Half baked in 1970s is far different than now. The pc was a frontier with almost no market presence and users who wanted to tinker with something locally. You were given complete power over your own pc. These guys are trying to cater to a whole different crowd.