The Wink home automation thread

[CAL7]

Mine finally updated, but I had to power cycle the hub. I think it actually updated when the LED went red to blue, but the app didn't know it (still reported .33). After rebooting, the app sees it at .47.

 

[Synman]

Has anyone been successful in controlling a Honeywell Wifi Thermostat 9580 through the Wink App? Most recently I was able to add the thermostat to the Wink App which will only provide me the temperature settings of the thermostat. I have reached out to customer service a number of times and the best they can do is to take down my information and get back to me, which I have yet to hear back from them.

Any success stories would be encouraging.

 

[nyvram]

Has anyone been successful in controlling a Honeywell Wifi Thermostat 9580 through the Wink App? Most recently I was able to add the thermostat to the Wink App which will only provide me the temperature settings of the thermostat. I have reached out to customer service a number of times and the best they can do is to take down my information and get back to me, which I have yet to hear back from them.

Any success stories would be encouraging.

If it helps I'm controlling my 2 8580 units with it..

 

[Synman]

If it helps I'm controlling my 2 8580 units with it..

Thanks for the reply. Did you have to do anything beyond the instructions to allow you to control the thermostat? I have gone back and forth with customer service with no success. They advised me to uninstall and reinstall both the Honeywell and Wink App. Each time I'm able to load the thermostat but not control it with the Wink App.

 

[RossMAN]

Before I take the plunge, what are the benefits to updating the firmware?

 

[1hondo2]

I have the same issue with my 9580. Tried everything they suggest and it still acts the same as yours.

Major fail by Wink

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Can anyone give feedback on the Tripper yet? Can you see the status of the device in the app and is the status accurate, or do you just get alerts when it is opened and closed?

 

[Exigence]

One more thing, if these bulbs are not meant to be used with in-wall dimmers why is that not stated anywhere on the package/instructions?

The bulbs I got said it on the packaging. Keep in mind that it has been a while since bulbs have been assumed dimmable. CFL's are assumed not dimmable. LED's are the same, even though most can dim. If you look around, lights now indicate if they are dimmable and the assumption is that they are not if it does not specifically say so.

 

[Tech_Greek]

Nothing so far. I think it was an upgrade to prep for the new spotter design since they botched the old spotters when they updated the app.

Towards firmware update.

My bulbs have no issues dimming via the app. Not all dimmers are made the same way as well from what I've seen some apply different methods and stepping of voltages.

 

[TexasWinkUser]

The Geofence is a joke, which is really disappointing. It has worked exactly once for me, which I cannot understand. Are the robots stored only on my phone, or are they in the cloud too? How are the trippers supposed to "trip" things, if the robots and geofences do not work correctly?

Had one link bulb left for them to ship on an order, and it showed up yesterday all by itself in a box that would fit 10-15 link bulbs. They might be saving me electricity but good greif that thing took up a good bit of space in the truck that shipped it. I will say that the hub update (which took forever, and I eventually just pulled the plug after 40 minutes and plugged it back in and it worked) seemed to actually make my link bulbs gradually change brightness rather than the skipping around it was doing before (it would just jump from one setting to another, now it moves gradually)....this was a nice addition.

Wish they could sort this out and have more done by the hub, requiring my phone to do a lot of this heavy lifting, at least thats how this seems.

 

[Kaido]

The Geofence is a joke, which is really disappointing. It has worked exactly once for me, which I cannot understand. Are the robots stored only on my phone, or are they in the cloud too? How are the trippers supposed to "trip" things, if the robots and geofences do not work correctly?

Had one link bulb left for them to ship on an order, and it showed up yesterday all by itself in a box that would fit 10-15 link bulbs. They might be saving me electricity but good greif that thing took up a good bit of space in the truck that shipped it. I will say that the hub update (which took forever, and I eventually just pulled the plug after 40 minutes and plugged it back in and it worked) seemed to actually make my link bulbs gradually change brightness rather than the skipping around it was doing before (it would just jump from one setting to another, now it moves gradually)....this was a nice addition.

Wish they could sort this out and have more done by the hub, requiring my phone to do a lot of this heavy lifting, at least thats how this seems.

Downside is that the brand-new Vera Edge hub only has a 2.5 out of 5 star reviews from 15 reviewers on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Vera-Control-V...dp/B00PFGJZM8/

"Smart Home Lobotomized" cracked me up

 

[RossMAN]

Can anyone give feedback on the Tripper yet? Can you see the status of the device in the app and is the status accurate, or do you just get alerts when it is opened and closed?

I'm still waiting for my trippers, outlinks and spotter uniq to ship.

 

[aygriffith]

Wink Relay Question:

Does this thing allow for dimming on at least one of its two hardwired switches? I've narrowed down putting it in the only two gang, or usefully placed single gang, with single pole switches in my house. The problem is, I have a Lutron Maestro CL dimmer running 6 Cree LED cans in this box. I want to keep the ability to dim. The other switch is a single pole fan.

Will this Relay thing dim? The unanswered question has been posed on Amazon twice by other people, I've posed it on the Quirky forums, and I've searched the Internet up and down. Nothing. I swear I'll post the findings, I'd just rather not tear apart the box until I know.

Thanks in advance!

 

[ASpenCO]

Does anyone know if the Wink Hub can control the Iris Smart Plug (link)?

It's cheap and locally available = attractive if it'll work. It should be either Zigbee or ZWave, but reviews are conflicting.

 

[AZ2981]

I've having difficulty connecting my Wink Hub with my new Netgear ac3200 router and the Android app. The hub uses the 2.4 band. I've disabled the 5g bands on the router. Can connect the hub to the router. But cannot get android app to communicate with the hub. I tried contacting support, but their only suggestion was to move the hub further away from router! Follow up attempts to contact support have gone in answered. A search on this thread suggested that opening ports 8080 and 9092 worked for one user, but not for me.

Some of the other things I've attempted:
Hard reset the Wink Hub.
Removed Android Wink app and its data, and re-installed.
Removed my cell phone wifi connection settings for the hub and home network. Reconnected home network.

Each time I open the Wink app, I am able to see that the wifi setting for the hub sees the home network. And on the router the hub is connected to the network on the 2.4 band. However I cannot connect my Leviton in-wall dimmer or GE link light bulbs.

Has anyone else had similar issues then been able to get the devices to connect to each other? And what steps, or additional settings, did you make.

 

[aygriffith]

I've having difficulty connecting my Wink Hub with my new Netgear ac3200 router and the Android app. The hub uses the 2.4 band. I've disabled the 5g bands on the router. Can connect the hub to the router. But cannot get android app to communicate with the hub. I tried contacting support, but their only suggestion was to move the hub further away from router! Follow up attempts to contact support have gone in answered. A search on this thread suggested that opening ports 8080 and 9092 worked for one user, but not for me.

Some of the other things I've attempted:
Hard reset the Wink Hub.
Removed Android Wink app and its data, and re-installed.
Removed my cell phone wifi connection settings for the hub and home network. Reconnected home network.

Each time I open the Wink app, I am able to see that the wifi setting for the hub sees the home network. And on the router the hub is connected to the network on the 2.4 band. However I cannot connect my Leviton in-wall dimmer or GE link light bulbs.

Has anyone else had similar issues then been able to get the devices to connect to each other? And what steps, or additional settings, did you make.

I was having trouble using the Android app on my Galaxy Note 4 and connecting the Wink Hub to my DIR-655. The hub and app would see the WiFi network but fail when attempting to connect the hub to the wireless network. I installed the Wink App (phone sized only) on my iPad 4 and attempted the same process and it worked immediately. Wonder if the Android app is half baked. Makes me wonder if I should have bought a Smartthings hub instead.

So my advice is try another device, iOS if you have one.

 

[MLieBennett]

Each time I open the Wink app, I am able to see that the wifi setting for the hub sees the home network. And on the router the hub is connected to the network on the 2.4 band. However I cannot connect my Leviton in-wall dimmer or GE link light bulbs.

Has anyone else had similar issues then been able to get the devices to connect to each other? And what steps, or additional settings, did you make.

First, have you tried resetting the GE Link Light Bulbs themselves? It sounds like the in-wall dimmer and light bulbs may need to be reset to actively search for a new hub.

For the GE Link Light Bulbs, do the following to reset them:
1) Turn on for 3 seconds.
2) Turn off for 3 seconds.
3) Repeat until the light dims and brightens (its a gradual but noticeable effect but easiest to see when its dark).
4) After the light dims and brightens, attempt to connect with the Wink Hub.

For the Dimmer? No experience with those, so that will need to do some searching to figure out how to reset that.

 

[MLieBennett]

The Geofence is a joke, which is really disappointing. It has worked exactly once for me, which I cannot understand. Are the robots stored only on my phone, or are they in the cloud too? How are the trippers supposed to "trip" things, if the robots and geofences do not work correctly?

Kinda disappointed with Geofence myself, but I have had better success when I leave the Wink App open and open again it so its not in cache when I leave work.
Seems like the Wink App may need further programming to actually detect the location when the phone may be asleep or the Wink App is not actively open. The Geofencing part is definitely a part of the phone, but all the robots seem to be on the Wink Servers waiting for the triggers.

Just updated the firmware, and I'll be testing it tonight to see if it works any better.

I'll admit, I didn't have high hopes for Wink at first. The bad reviews, the response lag, and unreliability of commands were annoying. Still, it was the only system that worked with my TCP Connected light setup and would allow me to tie a smoke alarm into it (SmartThings is tempting as it has Beta access to TCP Connected).
Still, its coming together nicely now and the reliability seems to have improved so far with the update (further testing needed). I just wish there was a Tasker plugin for Wink. Maybe I'll try linking a Spotter next into my Porch Light.

 

[azgdds]

Wink Relay Question:

Does this thing allow for dimming on at least one of its two hardwired switches? I've narrowed down putting it in the only two gang, or usefully placed single gang, with single pole switches in my house. The problem is, I have a Lutron Maestro CL dimmer running 6 Cree LED cans in this box. I want to keep the ability to dim. The other switch is a single pole fan.

Will this Relay thing dim? The unanswered question has been posed on Amazon twice by other people, I've posed it on the Quirky forums, and I've searched the Internet up and down. Nothing. I swear I'll post the findings, I'd just rather not tear apart the box until I know.

Thanks in advance!

I installed one and physical dimming is not supported from what I see. The two switches are either on/off for lights physically wired to the relay or smart switches for lighting groups. I had to place my relay on a single gang, single light switch. I was going to put it on 2 three way switches, but three way is not supported.

I am a little disappointed with this so far, but making it work for all types to three ways is likely impossible, but the potential is there.

I also am frustrated that Philips hue lights don't work with shortcuts or robots, very annoying!

 

[aygriffith]

Dropcam HD Supported?

So at Home Depot I found clearance Dropcam HD's for $99. I scanned a box and it looks like its not supported? Is there something special that makes only the Dropcam Pro have support?

 

[Tech_Greek]

Not sure why. Sounds like it's purely an API access situation.

 

[LegendKiller]

Downside is that the brand-new Vera Edge hub only has a 2.5 out of 5 star reviews from 15 reviewers on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Vera-Control-V...dp/B00PFGJZM8/

"Smart Home Lobotomized" cracked me up

There really aren't any providers with hardware problems. It's all in the software/firmware and support. Software/firmware includes integration with other systems (sonos, Hue, Next...etc). Vera could come out with the most kickass controller in the market and offer it for $50 and they'd fall flat on their face because their software is horrendous and their support is anything but.

As I've said before, the first company that puts out a local controller with decent software will win this race.

 

[azgdds]

Dropcam HD Supported?

So at Home Depot I found clearance Dropcam HD's for $99. I scanned a box and it looks like its not supported? Is there something special that makes only the Dropcam Pro have support?

Dropcam Pro, not HD, is supported, and you do not view a live feed in the wink app. Again an api issue. The image is updated every 15 seconds. I am still playing with using sound and motion as triggers. No word from me on how well that works yet.

 

[goose1977]

Got them in today surprisingly and am happy to report that the trippers work as advertised. The box actually had a UPS overnight shipping label so kudos to Wink for getting them here before Christmas. Haven't installed the Schlage yet but tried to set it up but it's not working right for some reason. Will play with it a bit more later.

 

[alexhendershott]

Hi all. I am running Android Lollipop and can absolutely not get the app to update the wink hub. I just bought new GE link lights, but I cannot add them because the hub needs to be updated. Every time I press update, the hub power cycles, the app acts busy for a bit, the hub comes back online and the app says update again. It absolutely will not work. I can still use other products but I cannot add new ones. Any ideas?