The Wink home automation thread

[fletchb]

Playstore.

Thanks..at least I know the version I have should work. Voice is working fine l..tasker is the problem..turned on debug and getting errors.

 

[fletchb]

I have a similar problem with the LG V410 tablet that I posted a link to. Wink shortcuts work in the app (and on IOS Notification screen on iPad / iPhone), but placing them on the home or lock screen, they get funky.

They work for several sessions and then go dumb with no response. I can't find any correlation between time or number of on / off / lock sessions.

Rebooting the tablet starts them working again for a while.

In my case they just become dumb icons. Any ideas?

Both my phone and tablet have done that from day 1. Just another bug.

 

[twomonsters]

Check for a firmware update for the Hub first (open the app, tap on the Hub, see if there's an update). The Hub update solved the battery issue for some people here.

I just checked and I have firmware .55 and there is no update option. I thought there was a .56 out there?

 

[CAL7]

I just checked and I have firmware .55 and there is no update option. I thought there was a .56 out there?

I was waiting several weeks, stuck at .55. Emailed wink support and they pushed it within a few minutes.

 

[BillinGlendale]

Thanks..at least I know the version I have should work. Voice is working fine l..tasker is the problem..turned on debug and getting errors.

I'd start by putting an alert-flash for %raw and see if the output from autovoice is correct. Check the tasker variables for the wink project, make sure that CR-LF, WinkDeviceWords, and WinkSceneWords are populated. These are populated in the first 3 lines of the Wink Get Devices task.

 

[seahome]

Do you happen to have any robots set up that you are willing to share a picture of? Specifically interested in the current capabilities of the switch and light with the wink app.

I'll post photos later, but I have a lights coming on when a tripper is triggered and it works fine.

 

[seahome]

My system is working perfectly. But I had to move my hub twice. First at install since my router was interfering then to get it to work within range of an outdoor link. I wonder how many people's problems are positioning and router scalability issues. I know my previous router would have barfed with wink and it would appear have appeared that wink is not scaling.

Seems to me, there is an even mix of people that have had great experiences and poor experiences....very similar to what I have read about the Smartthings hub. First of all, with a new technology like this, cant say I support going out and spending 3k worth of products for something that is virtually brand new like this guy did. Paid programming perhaps?

Personally, I haven't lost connectivity once (that I've noticed) and my schedules, minimal robot automation, and app control have gone off without a hitch. Honestly I just keep trolling the forums hoping to find more positive reviews while I wait for my set up to crash and burn and piss me off. I also have my entire home hardwired with Cat6, with multiple WiFi APs to ensure I get consistent Wifi speed and coverage throughout....the claim is that wifi speeds do not matter but I'm sure spotty coverage greatly affects things.

Even the geofencing robot i have set up for the front set of lights works every single time when I arrive from and leave for work every day. Now I have no switches and/or outlets configured yet, but the little I do have seems to work 99% of the time.

Even Apple still rolls out iOS software updates that brick phones all the time....so why is 100% functionality and perfect features expected from a product that just became available 8 months ago? Food for thought.

 

[daudet419]

Anyone have experience with GE Z-wave switches?

Levitons run anywhere from $50 to $70 for a single switch up to a single dimmer.

Lutrons starts at $55 I believe for a single switch along with a remote...still have to buy the wall plate and mounting bracket so basically $70 for a 3 way.

GE's seem to be relatively cheap in price starting at $40-45 for a single switch....looking to expand so I'm trying to figure out if its worth it to go with one of the more expensive brands.

I do have GE 3-way wall switch non dimmer, i also have Linear dimmer and non dimmer. They work fine.
The only problem because they are regular Zwave , Wink hub does not poll the switches to get the real status. Sometime they show on sometime off.

But my Lutron in-wall and Leviton plugin do show the proper status because they are ZWave+.


Even better Wink sent me 2 Zipato 4 in one sensors for the Beta tester program and they never work on Wink. All I get is 4 dead sensors.
I moved them to Domoticz on the Aeon key, and now I have temp, luminance,PIR and door contact out of each Zipato as it should and they work fine.

Hope one day Wink will treaty Zwave and Zwave+ the same way.

If I move all the above out of Wink and pair them with my Aeon Lab USB key and use my Domoticz Window Application it work like it should.

 

[CAL7]

Despair! I'm three months into this experiment with precious little to show for it. My GE Wink-certified light bulbs pretty much work, but that's it. I embarked on this adventure with no expectations and have kept my costs down to the "toss it all out" level of comfort.

For me, the Wink-certified ecosphere is too constrained, either by availability or reasonable pricing, to use as-is; so I have purchased and played with various (admittedly, non-supported, but theoretically doable) generic Z-Wave devices. Absolutely, zero have worked.

My cry for help is not bashing Wink. In fact, I'm coming to the conclusion... it's me. I just don't get Z-Wave. I even bought a GE Z-Wave remote hoping I could just get some basic functionality from these devices, but nothing pairs. I feel like I'm in some dark limbo where each device has its own issue and I have no way of understanding it - maybe they are all "included" on some network and won't talk to anything else. Just guessing.

So, can I get some links to basic Z-Wave diagnostic info or tools? I just want to reset everything and methodically start from scratch. (If I could just get my GE Z-Wave remote to talk to my GE Z-Wave plug, I'd be ecstatic. Note that I don't even need it to talk to the Wink Hub. Yet.)

Thanks for listening.

 

[ieee_raider]

I do have GE 3-way wall switch non dimmer, i also have Linear dimmer and non dimmer. They work fine.
The only problem because they are regular Zwave , Wink hub does not poll the switches to get the real status. Sometime they show on sometime off.

But my Lutron in-wall and Leviton plugin do show the proper status because they are ZWave+.


Even better Wink sent me 2 Zipato 4 in one sensors for the Beta tester program and they never work on Wink. All I get is 4 dead sensors.
I moved them to Domoticz on the Aeon key, and now I have temp, luminance,PIR and door contact out of each Zipato as it should and they work fine.

Hope one day Wink will treaty Zwave and Zwave+ the same way.

If I move all the above out of Wink and pair them with my Aeon Lab USB key and use my Domoticz Window Application it work like it should.

How do you get in Beta program??

 

[fletchb]

I'd start by putting an alert-flash for %raw and see if the output from autovoice is correct. Check the tasker variables for the wink project, make sure that CR-LF, WinkDeviceWords, and WinkSceneWords are populated. These are populated in the first 3 lines of the Wink Get Devices task.

I am new to tasker..can you give me a hint on how to:
" putting an alert-flash for %raw and see if the output from autovoice is correct."


However I did see that CR-LF is not populated with anything. What variable should it have?
Is that just carriage return line feed?

The other 2 are fine.

Thanks

 

[fletchb]

I do have GE 3-way wall switch non dimmer, i also have Linear dimmer and non dimmer. They work fine.
The only problem because they are regular Zwave , Wink hub does not poll the switches to get the real status. Sometime they show on sometime off.

But my Lutron in-wall and Leviton plugin do show the proper status because they are ZWave+.

Look on Amazon, there was a discussion that some of those switches do not support polling. I have a plug in (non dimmer) Leviton. I think status is correct only because there is no way someone can come along and manually turn it off. So it is just showing the last state.

Lutron usings their own tech, I don't think they are Zwave, fwiw.

 

[fletchb]

Despair! I'm three months into this experiment with precious little to show for it. My GE Wink-certified light bulbs pretty much work, but that's it. I embarked on this adventure with no expectations and have kept my costs down to the "toss it all out" level of comfort.

For me, the Wink-certified ecosphere is too constrained, either by availability or reasonable pricing, to use as-is; so I have purchased and played with various (admittedly, non-supported, but theoretically doable) generic Z-Wave devices. Absolutely, zero have worked.

My cry for help is not bashing Wink. In fact, I'm coming to the conclusion... it's me. I just don't get Z-Wave. I even bought a GE Z-Wave remote hoping I could just get some basic functionality from these devices, but nothing pairs. I feel like I'm in some dark limbo where each device has its own issue and I have no way of understanding it - maybe they are all "included" on some network and won't talk to anything else. Just guessing.

So, can I get some links to basic Z-Wave diagnostic info or tools? I just want to reset everything and methodically start from scratch. (If I could just get my GE Z-Wave remote to talk to my GE Z-Wave plug, I'd be ecstatic. Note that I don't even need it to talk to the Wink Hub. Yet.)

Thanks for listening.

Zwave can be more tricky that the zigbee bulbs. Sometimes you need to use the "manual" controls of inclusion/exclusion to get them working correctly.

I have both Leviton wall switches and one plug in switch.
The only time I had problems with the wall switch was when wink was having issues on there end . They told me this and sure enough the next day I was able to add it in fine.

But the plug in was a different story.

I had to reset my network several times , start over to get it working. I had to use the inclusion/ exclusion controls many times before it would correctly add in the plug in switch. Start with trying to remove the device and when it's gone for sure, then reset the device to factory, then try again. The zwave controls are located in the Hub menu. I also think wink cloud latency at times makes this more problematic and I would not have had as much problems if wink had local controls. It will work, it's just a pain to get it going. Good luck!

 

[Exigence]

Lutron does have their own tech (Clearconnect) which is not zwave. A lot of zwave devices do work - I have a GE weatherproof switch, an Aeon Labs plug in switch, an Aeon labs micro switch, and an Enerwave Dual switch all that work with Wink. It all depends on whether or not Wink has added that particular class of devices. So the Aeon Labs smart switch will turn on / off, but it doesn't show energy use (because they don't have an energy use software built into Wink yet). As they add devices that use that functionality, they get support for it in other, non official devices. So I'd expect the energy use functionality to be active when the GE Outlink device is released. All 4 in 1 Zwave sensors don't work, but a number of regular motion sensors do.

Wink is actually a very young company and they are added as much as they can as quickly as they can, but ultimately the market just hasn't had the time to be mature like our cell phones and computers are.

 

[CAL7]

Thank you, fletchb. Is there a way to know if a device has been excluded? Similarly, is there a common way for any device to be factory reset? Do you know what the Wink "Reset Z-Wave" menu option does? Thanks again!

 

[fletchb]

Thank you, fletchb. Is there a way to know if a device has been excluded? Similarly, is there a common way for any device to be factory reset? Do you know what the Wink "Reset Z-Wave" menu option does? Thanks again!

Yes it should disappear from your lighting screen once the device is excluded (removed from your network). But I had to log out of wink and back in to make it work sometime. That is an issue with the wink app. If it's gone, and it stays gone for more than a few hours, it should be gone for good.

Factory reset was different for my wall switches compared to my plug in. Wall switches you push up on the switch till you get a click. Then you push down on the switch waiting for the light to blink red. Plug in was holding down a button for a certain amount of time. But this is for Leviton. The info should be in your instructions that came with the device. If you can't find it, try google search for your device.

Reset Zwave - This deletes you zwave network. I had to do this several times when Wink was having issues AND I was trying to include a wall switch and exclude the plug in. Note if you do this, you will lose all Zwave devices. And if they were not excluded before you did this, they still won't work till you do the factory reset. Just keep at it and call Wink if you have to . They will go over the steps and once you learn the sequence, you can do it over and over on your own till it works.

 

[CAL7]

OK, I figured the easiest device to start was the GE 45605 outlet. At one time, I think I had it briefly paired with the Wink Hub, but it disappeared and I have tried to exclude it and pair with a GE remote, but nothing I do shows any sign of life. Anyway, it seemed the best candidate to reset and start over. So, I go to the 45605 manual:

"Restoring Factory Defaults. All network settings and configuration parameters can all be restored to their factory default settings by using your master controller to reset the device. (delete it from network) "

Ugh!?! I want to reset it so I can pair it. If my master controller (i.e. Wink Hub) could talk to it, I wouldn't be needing to reset it!

 

[Kaido]

OK, I figured the easiest device to start was the GE 45605 outlet. At one time, I think I had it briefly paired with the Wink Hub, but it disappeared and I have tried to exclude it and pair with a GE remote, but nothing I do shows any sign of life. Anyway, it seemed the best candidate to reset and start over. So, I go to the 45605 manual:

"Restoring Factory Defaults. All network settings and configuration parameters can all be restored to their factory default settings by using your master controller to reset the device. (delete it from network) "

Ugh!?! I want to reset it so I can pair it. If my master controller (i.e. Wink Hub) could talk to it, I wouldn't be needing to reset it!

Yeah, the downside of not buying Wink Certified hardware

I'm kinda-sorta thinking about the Quirky+GE smart outlet, which has built-in power monitoring, which is a really cool feature. Only ten bucks more than the generic Z-wave GE outlet:

www.amazon.com/Quirky-POTLK-WH01-Out...dp/B00P1Q2MPY/

 

[ieee_raider]

OK, I figured the easiest device to start was the GE 45605 outlet. At one time, I think I had it briefly paired with the Wink Hub, but it disappeared and I have tried to exclude it and pair with a GE remote, but nothing I do shows any sign of life. Anyway, it seemed the best candidate to reset and start over. So, I go to the 45605 manual:

"Restoring Factory Defaults. All network settings and configuration parameters can all be restored to their factory default settings by using your master controller to reset the device. (delete it from network) "

Ugh!?! I want to reset it so I can pair it. If my master controller (i.e. Wink Hub) could talk to it, I wouldn't be needing to reset it!

It's confusing, but what it means is that you need to use your Wink Hub to perform a reset on it, even if it's not currently paired with Wink.
What you do is go into Wink, click hub, then settings.
There will be a button at the bottom with z-wave commands.
Click the "exclusion mode" button and the hub should start flashing.
Once flashing, tap the button on the receptacle and you should see the wink hub blink in response (green or red, I can't remember). If tapping once doesn't work, try tapping a second time (double-tap)
This uses the wink hub to initiate a reset in the switch.
Once that's done, you should be able to add it.

I once messed up my z-wave by pressing the reset button in the z-wave commands, and had to remove and re-add every single device (remove all before it would let me add any)

 

[ieee_raider]

Yeah, the downside of not buying Wink Certified hardware

I'm kinda-sorta thinking about the Quirky+GE smart outlet, which has built-in power monitoring, which is a really cool feature. Only ten bucks more than the generic Z-wave GE outlet:

www.amazon.com/Quirky-POTLK-WH01-Out...dp/B00P1Q2MPY/

I bought some at Christmas during half off sale and they have yet to ship. Ugh.

I'd buy this one before paying full price for the quirky one:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IAAOHR4?psc=1

 

[fletchb]

OK, I figured the easiest device to start was the GE 45605 outlet. At one time, I think I had it briefly paired with the Wink Hub, but it disappeared and I have tried to exclude it and pair with a GE remote, but nothing I do shows any sign of life. Anyway, it seemed the best candidate to reset and start over. So, I go to the 45605 manual:

"Restoring Factory Defaults. All network settings and configuration parameters can all be restored to their factory default settings by using your master controller to reset the device. (delete it from network) "

Ugh!?! I want to reset it so I can pair it. If my master controller (i.e. Wink Hub) could talk to it, I wouldn't be needing to reset it!

If the device doesn't have hardware reset, you can buy a GE controller for about 10 bucks on Amazon.

 

[daudet419]

How do you get in Beta program??

When i bought my Hub last fall i had to call Wink a couple time for issues.
And I just mention to them that if they have a beta team that I might be interested to contribute, specially to test French Apps. Then a couple week later
i got an email with documents to sign and Voila.

 

[Tech_Greek]

When i bought my Hub last fall i had to call Wink a couple time for issues.

And I just mention to them that if they have a beta team that I might be interested to contribute, specially to test French Apps. Then a couple week later

i got an email with documents to sign and Voila.

Tell them to invite me. I think owning an IT consulting company and so many products qualifies me by itself. Twitter didn't take my offer seriously. Lol

 

[DnyLhy]

Can I change batteries on Trippers without having to re-pair?

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Can I change batteries on Trippers without having to re-pair?

Yes. I've changed both of mine and didn't have to re-pair either.