The Wink home automation thread

[Exigence]

Right now the main difference between Smartthings and Wink is that Smartthings is a more open platform that allows for people to add their own integration to it. Wink has an API, but I don't believe there is a way to add to the Wink Hub / Program itself. Wink also has Lutron connectivity, which IMO it a big thing since Lutron products work so well.

It's hard to say what will happen with Smartthings with Samsung buying it out. Large companies don't usually have open platforms. I'm getting the feeling (and it's just that, no real data to back it up) that the Wink people are trying to find a way to localize some of Wink so it's not dependent on Cloud servers. If that happens it would differentiate it between Smartthings pretty strongly.

 

[millards]

Has anyone used the Ecolink DWZWAVE2-ECO - Z-Wave Door & Window Sensor with their Wink Hub. Can anyone suggest another door sensor? Amazon has them for $29.95.

 

[MjnMixael]

Dunno if the sensors even work well with the hub yet. I have a couple door sensors they sent me to test, but they haven't even enabled testing them on my testing hub yet.

 

[mpoole32]

This is my first post here on this forum. Many thanks to all who have contributed to this thread about the Wink hub. It's one of the best resources I've found. I'm curious about a couple of things. Yesterday, Tuesday October 14th 2014, my Wink hub became inoperable completely. I noticed this around 5:00pm EST.

The hub could not connect to the cloud and when it would, nothing was working. At some point it connected and none of my components existed. It was as if I never had logged in and had never added anything to my account even though I was logged in. At some point 5 or 6 hours later the hub reappeared but none of my GE lights were there. Then this morning the lights were there. Names I had assigned to these lights were gone as well as all shortcuts and all schedules.

Thanks to one helpful person up in this thread I was able to see that there were problems with the Wink cloud yesterday. http://status.winkapp.com/# (http://status.winkapp.com/#That) That said, when cloud data is lost this does not speak well for the company doing that hosting. My first question is, have other experienced this missing component issue and the lost partial data I experienced when device names, schedules, and shortcuts disappeared completely?

The next question is about an actual person working for the company producing Wink products. Is there an authoritative voice who speaks for them or even an employee who interacts online with Wink enthusiast? When I look into the Smart Things hub I find a lot of good activity going on between that company and their user community.

I see where Wink is going to be a big player in Apple's Home Kit effort. Based on the performance issues I see at this point, without some quick improvements it's tough to imagine them being successful even if they are aligned with Apple. Those negative review post found on Amazon are not ignored by potential buyers and then when people don't see those reviews before they buy, they do find them while doing searches related to performance issues.

And finally for this first post. I've looked at using Tasker for Android to do different types of automation including home automation. So far I've not become proficient with this tool. One thing that makes this tool so powerful is how it works with other plugins for Android. A newly released plugin that works with Tasker is called AutoInput. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.joaomgcd.autoinput If this app works then it will make working with the Wink app extremely easy and allow for a great deal of automation on the Android platform using Tasker.

 

[MjnMixael]

To the first question. I have experienced the issue where my stuff disappeared and lost it's names or whatever weirdness that was. I know they are looking into those issues based on activity on the beta site.

Wink hasn't had much in the way of communication from Wink to users other than tech support. I see articles come up about this Wink product or that and I think where are they finding this info? Wink needs a blog or to make better use of their main Twitter account. I've found a good way to get a response from a little question is to ask @WinkAppHelp on Twitter.

 

[mpoole32]

I've found a good way to get a response from a little question is to ask @WinkAppHelp on Twitter.

Thanks for this advice @mjnMixael

 

[LegendKiller]

The problem I have with Wink is the unofficial support for pretty much every device I own. Schlage lock, schlage camera, and 3 z-wave switches. It also doesn't work with Harmony while ST does. It seems like ST has a better community and support but I see what you mean with the Samsung risk. Seems like Wink is just a mess.

 

[MjnMixael]

That Harmony support is BS. I have a Harmony Ultimate and to be able to control my entertainment system from anywhere like Smartthings is advertising.. I have to buy their NEW Harmony Ultimate Home.

It's only a real kicker because there are some people that reverse engineered the Harmony Ultimate and if you had the time/smarts to fill in the gaps, you could control the hardware that you already paid $300 for from anywhere. So we know it's possible to do with the older hardware but Logitech decided to go for this money-grab. I call foul, sir. They should at least offered a paid account upgrade or something for those of us with Harmony Ultimate.

 

[LegendKiller]

That Harmony support is BS. I have a Harmony Ultimate and to be able to control my entertainment system from anywhere like Smartthings is advertising.. I have to buy their NEW Harmony Ultimate Home.

It's only a real kicker because there are some people that reverse engineered the Harmony Ultimate and if you had the time/smarts to fill in the gaps, you could control the hardware that you already paid $300 for from anywhere. So we know it's possible to do with the older hardware but Logitech decided to go for this money-grab. I call foul, sir. They should at least offered a paid account upgrade or something for those of us with Harmony Ultimate.

There is a thread on SD about the Harmony Ultimate Home and how they are going to offer the firmware update for $2.

 

[MjnMixael]

Got a link to that thread?

EDIT: I found it.. all it said was that they'll add the upgrade option "sometime in the future." I hate that crap. That's what Netflix/Roku did with Netflix profiles being only on the Roku 3 as a way to push people towards upgrading hardware. But I'm getting off topic.. at least I can get the Wink guys to talk to me and be reasonable.

 

[LegendKiller]

Got a link to that thread?

EDIT: I found it.. all it said was that they'll add the upgrade option "sometime in the future." I hate that crap. That's what Netflix/Roku did with Netflix profiles being only on the Roku 3 as a way to push people towards upgrading hardware. But I'm getting off topic.. at least I can get the Wink guys to talk to me and be reasonable.

I have a feeling they'll do it but who knows. I think the backlash would be pretty huge from Ultimate users, I am in the same spot you are.

Are there any other systems that use non-cloud / local access?

 

[daudet419]

Last evening I was doing some testing with my existing GE modules and while trying to pair, pressing the next to get on page 3 waiting to pair the blinking Blue light was late by over 30 sec. then I was pressing the button on my GE module and nothing happen until it time out and I got the long Red.(fail):'(

So I decided to call for help. After 30 min on music I finally got thru.
A female tech did try to help me the best she could, she ask me the serial and MAC of my Hub, then we went thru the process to pair my GE module. After a couple try I notice that my WinkApp was showing my Hub as offline. But the Hub had the Blue solid light on.
She put me on hold to investigate and she told me they are having issues and to try later.

Before hanging up I have express some suggestions about the future of the product.
Like having the Hub to interact as a stand alone box without relyling on the Cloud server when we are out of internet.
Get more detail info to be available on their web, etc.
She was receptive and will pass the info.
Also told them that the product is genius but they will have to listen to users comments and suggestions if they want to be the top one as there is so many players on the market today.

Shortly after the call I sent a couple comments on both of their Twitter accounts and got 2 reply shortly after. Had a very positive chat with them.

Here is one of the comments I had...

hmmm. I think this is related to the brief disconnect and backlog of commands. Can you let me know if everything is back to normal in AM?
10:42 PM - 16 Oct 14
On their status page they had an entry that was corresponding to the outage.

Via Twitter they even enquire to let them know next morning if things are getting better.:thumbsup:

Which I did and effectively this morning the pairing command was quick within 2 sec the Blue blinking light was on, but still can't pair my GE modules.

Today I has to go to office (working from home office most of the time) time to take fresh air and drop by ADI Burtech to buy another GE light sw 45609 and a Linear sw WS15Z

Back home i setup the Linear WS15Z on the bench with a light socket and gave it a try. Well it did work as soon as I double tap the switch the HUB showed a Long Green and this time I was able to get past the 3rd page get the lamp icon. Then the on/off did work flawlessly.

I immediatly DM the WinkApp team on Twitter to advise that I got a Linear module paired and got reply within min.

I even offer them my service as doing testing with them .

I have done lots of beta testing in the past 15 years with differents consumer products.

Tomorrow I will try my new GE module. Hopefully this one will work.:\

Hope to get positive answer for testing some stuff.

Daniel

 

[DigitalOSH]

Good luck with the Spotter, that thing has terrible reviews on Amazon...I wanted to get one too, but after reading review after review of issues, I decided to hold off. The Caseta stuff seems to be doing well with the Wink Hub, however.

The majority of the reviews I've read on Amazon, Home Depot, and other places discuss the lack of Zwave support. I think this is a major glitch in their marketing...all of their descriptions advertise the "Zwave radio", but unless you read further that you need the Wink seal for 100% compatibility, then you won't really know that general Zwave device compatibility is limited. They need to either remove that or add a note that says that while it has a Zwave radio, it's intended for Wink-Certified Zwave devices. People are buying it for Zwave support & it doesn't work; that's a huge advertising problem because their combined reviews are pretty bad now.

Instead of trying to add a z-wave device that way, add one by going to hub settings and hitting 'z-wave controls'. This puts it into z-wave pairing mode and you can add any z-wave device, even if it's not officially supported. I connected 12 'InTouch' in-wall dimmers with no issue

 

[daudet419]

Instead of trying to add a z-wave device that way, add one by going to hub settings and hitting 'z-wave controls'. This puts it into z-wave pairing mode and you can add any z-wave device, even if it's not officially supported. I connected 12 'InTouch' in-wall dimmers with no issue

Well it does not work for me with my GE modules.
Don't know if it is because they were paired before.
Can a Z-Wave device be paired to more than one controller at time?
I have an Aeon stick as master and a GE handheld remote.
I bought another GE wall switch that have never been paired and will give it a try.
As said in my earlier post the brand new LINEAR did work first try.

 

[mentalbob]

Hello everyone,

just bought the Wink hub at 50$ on Amazon. Was hoping to get my GE Dimmer Switch 45612 and my appliance module to work with Wink. But I haven't found the way to do it.

Googoling for help I end up to this topic on Wink. So first thing I did was to read all the 15 + pages. Very interesting and lots of comments.

Then I had hard time to register on the forum. It wouldn't accept my registrations pretending they have tight security about spammer!!! I use "daudet" has user name in about 50 others forums without glitches. I tried 3 different emails and still not accepted. I email the forum owner and no answer.
Finally I tried again by usin changing mmy user name to. daudet419 and voila i am in now.

Back to Wink, I found out in this topic, that Wink rely only on external server to work. I thought that the Hub was handling all the stuff localy with the help of the external server only for a'ces from outsite my home network. I am really disappointed.

My ZWave and 1-wire network is working fine and I currently use OSA software on my own small server. Wink Hub was attractive with his multi platform radio's but cannot interface with OSA.

If I can get my GE modules to work with Wink I will keep it to experiment until they (Wink) get better. If not I will sell it back and concentrate with OSA as my platform.

Did anyone had success to pair GE modules? if so can anyone provide details.
I found a document on Jasco site about GE product and Wink Hub but it does not work.

I have read that Wink hub is using ZWave Plus protocols. I also found that ZWave + is backward compatible with ZWave. So don't know why it is not working.

I will keep watching this tread as I have subscribed to it and see if Wink Hub will improve.

A bit about me and my interest.
I am in the telecom business for the past 35 years. As Radio tech. then telecom tech.
Now I am specialized in VoIP and callcenters on the Avaya Aura portofolio.

Amateur Radio operator for the past 30 years, I am running a personnel weather station since 2005.

Started in HA a couple years ago with OSA has the platform with some GE modules and remotes, and half dozen 1-wire thermometer.

I have a couple WEMO switch for specific application like the front door light to go on/off at sunset and sunrise. And another plugin module to turn On the Rain gauge heater when temp goes below 4 degrees C and Off above 4 C.

My next projects, for this winter add more devices to my HA, build a lightning detector module for the Blitzortung network and proximity reading tags with an Arduino to integrate with HA.

That's it for now.

Daniel
VA2DG
http://meteohautrichelieu.com

I use the GE z-wave switches almost exclusively with Wink Hub. In fact lately I use the Iris branded ones from Lowes since they're easier to obtain and are just lightly rebranded versions. I even use an ancient Intermatic z-wave dimmer with few issues. The important thing is that you make sure that you bring your Wink Hub very close to the switch when pairing. I usually bring the hub about 3 feet from the switch. The new Wink App give you the ability to pair with Z wave using the normal wizards instead of having to use inclusion mode which is nice. That being said I wouldn't exactly call it reliable right now given all of the server issues that Wink been having the past couple of weeks but hopefully that is in the past.

 

[CEJUDGE]

I have several GE bulbs that work fine. Trying to add another all day today to no avail. Anyone else having issues today?

 

[daudet419]

Today i try my GE light switch 45609 bought yesterday and it does work. I was able to pair it the first time.
I try again a couple time with my old Modules Wall switches and Lamp modules and it is not working at all. But at least the new modules are working. May be these modules are not up to date with latest firmware.
I am progressing slowly.

I thing i will get some other modules Monday to try.

 

[daudet419]

This morning I have added a CI-300E with a Z-Wave module and it did paired on first try.
The only issue is on the WinkApp I have temperature showing on Degree F. And the thermostat it self display in Deg. C. Did not find any thing in WinkApp to change to Metric.
May be it will be available in the next upgrade..

Daniel

 

[daudet419]

Got a link to that thread?

Message was for MjnMixael

Hello i try to send you a Private message regarding Beta Testing at Wink but i cant send PM until i have 25 posts...

Thank i got my answer

Regard

Daniel.

 

[RossMAN]

How exactly would I create an IFTTT recipe, whenever a GE light is turned on or off, a text or e-mail is sent to me?

I have zero IFTTT experience and using an Android phone, thanks.

 

[SchillerM]

How exactly would I create an IFTTT recipe, whenever a GE light is turned on or off, a text or e-mail is sent to me?

I have zero IFTTT experience and using an Android phone, thanks.

Go into the lights page and click the menu button, create a robot with the criteria you want.
Select which light and on or off, what time of day you want alerts, then to send email.

Matt

 

[MjnMixael]

So, I wanted to show you guys that I submitted an invention idea to Quirky to work with the Wink App. It's a ceiling fan controller (Much like the INSTEON one, but Wink can't work with Insteon.)

Anyway, you guys should go over to Quirky and give it a positive vote.. Hopefully it can go through to production and we could all be controlling our ceiling fans too.

 

[CAL7]

I posted a little more than a week ago that, of three GE Link (Wink certified) lights, I could get only one to pair. So, at least I believe the hub is working; also paired a Spotter. But the other two lights site no sign of communication. They light up, but that's it. No blinking, no acknowledgement by the hub that they exist.

Are there many instances of bulbs being DOA?

Is there a way to reset the bulbs? The instructions talk of "screwing in" the bulb then powering it up, and I wonder if this is just a generic "install the bulb" instruction or if the act of unscrewing/screwing the bulb somehow resets it for pairing? I know... I'm grasping at straws :-(

 

[MjnMixael]

You can reset GE Link bulbs by toggling them on and off for 3 seconds over and over until they dim and flicker on.

So...

On for 3 seconds
Off for 3 seconds
Repeat until the bulb dims

 

[CAL7]

You can reset GE Link bulbs by toggling them on and off for 3 seconds over and over until they dim and flicker on.

So...

On for 3 seconds
Off for 3 seconds
Repeat until the bulb dims

Thank you! Followed this procedure (guess it took 6-7 repetitions) and both my recalcitrant lights work now.