The Wink home automation thread

[IndyColtsFan]

I agree with you Freddie - I think my Wink experiment is nearing an end after this latest debacle.

 

[tsuprano]

This is the same one I have too.

How is this programmed into the system?

 

[Scottie Parr]

I had 1 GE Link bulb yesterday and 1 today lose pairing. I did the 3 second on / 3 off and they are good to go. I didn't have to delete, I was happy that re-pairing them was sufficient. I knew one indoors had lost sync but didn't know one outdoors had except for the grey '?' in the app upgrade. I guess I'm thankful for the polling/status feature.

I just got the Ecolink Z-Wave Motion Sensor on Sunday. It seems popular and I have it set in a room to automatically run a lights on robot. Changed the sensitivity this evening and we'll see if that's the right setting for me or not. I'm iPhone so I have to use a widget/shortcut to turn the scene off when I'm done. I'm sure that will get fixed at some point too.

I like Wink and I'm in no rush to go where the grass is greener. Because something there will just be annoying too

 

[tsuprano]

Here is an example : Saturday morning I turned on my overhead light via the Wink app. The wink app showed the light was on like it should and what you would expect. The gf and I had to go out of town and as we were walking out the door I turned off the light via the switch and NOT via the app. In other words we manually turned it off via the wall switch.

That evening as we were getting close to town we stopped off to eat dinner. It was getting dark so we decided to turn back on the light so our little dog and cat would not be in the dark.

Because I had turned off the light via the switch, The wink app still showed the light as ON even though we knew it was off.

What polling does is tell Wink when someone turns off the light manually at the switch, so it won't show incorrect status if that makes sense.

You can do other things with it but that is the simple explanation.

I just updated and it does work, though robots (the other things ) do not work yet.

I've noted that I can reliably tell a light is turned off at the switch if I turn it off through the app and it immediately shows on again. While not perfect if you know it works this way than it is a great tool. I'm not sure if wink will ever get their act together and show this in some other way (maybe a red circle with line) but for now it seems a functional method.

 

[tsuprano]

Any good bulbs for outdoor use?

 

[tsuprano]

Any info on test flight? I've been accepted but not clear on next steps...

 

[CAL7]

I just got the Ecolink Z-Wave Motion Sensor on Sunday. It seems popular and I have it set in a room to automatically run a lights on robot.

I've been very frustrated by my Ecolink. Mine is branded by Ecolink, but looks just like the Linear GoControl. I was able to successfully pair and robotize it a few weeks ago, but it just stopped talking to the hub after a couple of days. Now, after dozens of attempts (Z-Wave resets, exclusion mode, inclusion mode, GoControl device pairing ...), I have not been able to include it again.

Were you successful in pairing it by the hub Z-Wave inclusion process or did you use the "add a product" sequence? This seems obvious, but how did you put it in pairing mode? I've seen reports that advise, either, to 1) simply put in the battery, or 2) the instructions say to put in the battery and touch the programming button, or 3) close the lid and use a paper clip to push the recessed programming button on the back.

 

[enyce9]

Any info on test flight? I've been accepted but not clear on next steps...

I'm in the same boat....

 

[Scottie Parr]

I've been very frustrated by my Ecolink. Mine is branded by Ecolink, but looks just like the Linear GoControl. I was able to successfully pair and robotize it a few weeks ago, but it just stopped talking to the hub after a couple of days. Now, after dozens of attempts (Z-Wave resets, exclusion mode, inclusion mode, GoControl device pairing ...), I have not been able to include it again.

Were you successful in pairing it by the hub Z-Wave inclusion process or did you use the "add a product" sequence? This seems obvious, but how did you put it in pairing mode? I've seen reports that advise, either, to 1) simply put in the battery, or 2) the instructions say to put in the battery and touch the programming button, or 3) close the lid and use a paper clip to push the recessed programming button on the back.

I pulled the strip to activate the battery... Then read the instructions. Oops.

I used: Add A Product > Sensors > Generic Z-Wave Sensor... Then read the instructions. I think I took out the battery and put it back in. I set up a Robot right away to send me a text of motion detection. It didn't. I re-read the instructions and looked at the Wink customer discussion Facebook page. I knew there was something about motion sensors. I had recalled someone saying that their sensor wasn't working and then 'later on' it did. That's what happened to me. I waved my hand 2 inches in front of it and couldn't get a text alert. Then 10 minutes or so later it worked. Now a few days later I went back to the instructions as I read you can change the sensitivity. There is more/less sensitive and it polls every 4 minutes or every 5 seconds. Take the plastic cover off and there is a tiny black cap (jumper) that just gets switched to cover a different pair of pins. It's all in the instructions and very easy. I have it set for very sensitive and every 5 seconds right now. I'm hearing I will want to switch it to every 4 mins. That's fine but I need to know what it does as is now.

I have it in a bedroom. I want when I walk in for the 2 Link bulbs to turn on to full and the 4 Link bulbs in the bathroom to also turn on to full. I'll walk in with laundry, dump it on the bed and fold it all. I don't want to use my phone to turn on lights when I walk into the room. There is still the ~10 second delay and that's a bummer. It can only improve as we go along. I also use iPhone so I have to tap a widget/shortcut to turn off the 6 lights when I leave the room(s). I know there is Tasker for Android but I'm not too interested in getting an unfamiliar phone, having to set up some account to get an app, etc. I'll wait for Wink to catch up so iOS has timer features / sunset features, etc. IFTTT is coming soon says Ben at Wink. Sounds good to me.


PS... when I adjusted the sensor with the 'jumper'. I took the battery out. Didn't have to. The sensor wasn't working (just like when I first used it). Then 5 or 10 minutes later it was great. So there is something about it needing some time to figure itself out and then it has been as advertised.

 

[Tech_Greek]

Hey Tech_Geek,

Is your food lights GE Link bulbs? I tried that also and had the same issue. Now i have normal LED floods and put a Leviton switch on it. With polling it works great, turns on with movement.

I just put one out there as a test for now. The way it works now is if the lights trigger I can control them. I thought about changing the switch out (as soon as polling is fixed 100%) and then just adding the switch on to the mix to trigger it. Having an adjustable light at night when BBQ'ing is nice.

As far as the testing program, you download it from the App Store and then it'll give you the update to Wink.

Remember, it's beta. That means you're supposed to test features and expect things to break/not work sometimes.

 

[dj13990]

Any info on test flight? I've been accepted but not clear on next steps...

Once you get accepted and you download "Test Flight" Click the link in the email and the new Beta Wink will show up in test flight.

Remember as Tech Geek stated, its Beta and there are some bugs at times, but if you go into test flight and click on the Wink app you can leave feedback and bug reports.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Well, my lights are showing "?" again. Do these guys ever test anything?

 

[FreddieT]

Well, my lights are showing "?" again. Do these guys ever test anything?

That's what we're here for it seems! We pay Wink (by purchasing their brand) to be their Field Testers.

On a plus side though, the question mark icons are working excellently!

 

[IndyColtsFan]

That's what we're here for it seems! We pay Wink (by purchasing their brand) to be their Field Testers.

On a plus side though, the question mark icons are working excellently!

And my Trippers are no longer reporting either.....

This is what happens when you have a company run by a guy like Ben Kaufman.

 

[bigverm24]

I've noted that I can reliably tell a light is turned off at the switch if I turn it off through the app and it immediately shows on again. While not perfect if you know it works this way than it is a great tool. I'm not sure if wink will ever get their act together and show this in some other way (maybe a red circle with line) but for now it seems a functional method.

You should have polling working on .77 hub firmware....lights controlled manually update now in the app with correct status.

 

[bigverm24]

And my Trippers are no longer reporting either.....

This is what happens when you have a company run by a guy like Ben Kaufman.

are you running the TestFlight beta? if so, I would assume these kind of things are to be expected as part of a beta test program.

I have not had any issues running on the production release on Android.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

are you running the TestFlight beta? if so, I would assume these kind of things are to be expected as part of a beta test program.

I have not had any issues running on the production release on Android.

No, this is with the latest .77 firmware. I have taken the hub down for now, as I am having carpet replaced this week and needed to pack it. Debating whether or not I'll even bother connecting it again.

 

[bigverm24]

No, this is with the latest .77 firmware. I have taken the hub down for now, as I am having carpet replaced this week and needed to pack it. Debating whether or not I'll even bother connecting it again.

power-cycling the hub and/or the lights did not help?

anytime I have ever had an issue with a light not responding or something, which I think has only happened once, maybe twice...the power cycling always corrects it. I will say that moving a Wink shortcut widget to my home screen last night really affected the functionality of my app for some reason, so I removed the shortcut widget, power cycled and back to normal.

 

[Tech_Greek]

Another update test flight people

 

[FreddieT]

My Wink Hub doesn't seem to know whether it's been coming or going for the past 24 hours! Yesterday afternoon, after I thought all was well in Wink Land, my Leviton outlets disappeared from the app. Their light bulb icons all went to grey with question marks. After a bit, I decided they weren't going to fix themselves and set out on the tedious task of excluding/including them back into the hub. What seemed like a successful job quickly turned into frustration as after I power cycled the outlets, they responded well, then disappeared from the app again.

I opened a bottle of rum and thought about my prospects in calling Wink tech support and the possible carnage after speaking with them. Just as I picked up the phone to call them I glanced at my tablet and noticed that a few of the outlets were back to their light bulb icons. I tapped an icon and the corresponding outlet turned on! I thought it must be a tear in the Time Space Continuum of the Wink cloud that was causing the disappearing outlets. I waited a little longer and another one came back, then one disappeared again, then it came back! Then I lost a GE bulb icon, then another. It was like playing Wink's version of Whack-a-Mole! This morning I awoke to all of them on. I just checked a few minutes ago and now 2 of the outlets and 1 bulb have disappeared again!!!! WTF?

As I've stated before, my Chamberlain GD opener, my door locks, and thermostat have been and will forever be off limits to Wink until they get their crap together. So for the most part Wink has been relegated to controlling only my GE bulbs and Leviton Outlets. I have a few Z-Wave Everspring motion sensors that will not connect to the hub no matter what I try, so those aren't even on the table.

The reason for my diatribe is because about a month ago I purchased the TCP Connected starter kit from HD. It contained the TCP hub and two bulbs. I installed the hub and connected the bulbs in about 2 minutes. I decided to not have Wink have control of the TCP bulbs, but rather use the TCP app alone to control their bulbs. I did this more as a comparison test to see how it fared against the Wink hub and the GE bulbs.

In the months time I have NEVER had to dick with the TCP bulbs. They come on when they are programmed to, and they go off when they are programmed to. I can literally tell time by their actions whether I am sitting at home next to the light, or in a Vegas casino checking my app to see if the hallway light is on or not. In that same months time I have had to exclude and reinclude the GE bulbs to the Wink hub THREE times to get them to work! That also means I needed to reprogram the on\off schedules for the bulbs as well after re-including them which is time consuming in itself!

My point is, why can't Wink have a reliable system like TCP for a simple thing like a LIGHT BULB that just WORKS reliably? Obviously the technology is out there because many companies have harnessed that technology and put out reliable products, like TCP. But for some reason, that simple technology and reliability eludes Wink and it's developers.

 

[Tech_Greek]

I think your issue and my issue with the bulbs as well has to do with not having a confirmation of deletion. I believe it sends a recycle command after delete or something of the sorts after X amount of time so until then the devices are just hidden. I have no way of confirming this without access to the code or a rooted device unfortunately.

Yesterday when I deleted my bulbs that were not working it did the same thing, would not add but then randomly the bulbs reappeared in my layout again.

I made the suggestion to slide down any screen to force a refresh (and a visual indicator/vibration bump) to ensure that we are seeing the most current information as sometimes I feel like it's out of sync.

 

[FreddieT]

I can definitely understand the latency aspect just after excluding or including, but for it to still be goofy 12 hours after receiving confirmation of inclusion is baffling.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

power-cycling the hub and/or the lights did not help?

anytime I have ever had an issue with a light not responding or something, which I think has only happened once, maybe twice...the power cycling always corrects it. I will say that moving a Wink shortcut widget to my home screen last night really affected the functionality of my app for some reason, so I removed the shortcut widget, power cycled and back to normal.

Power cycling did not fix it, and I even re-paired one of the lights last night. The other seemed to work fine but now neither work.

I've been toying with Wink since November and honestly, I'm pretty much over it. I was careful not to buy anything that couldn't be used with SmartThings if I choose to go that route. I mean seriously, how hard is this stuff? They can't even seem to get simple lights working reliably.

 

[Tech_Greek]

What's sad is we already have people working on Web UIs and such that pump it out very fast while I'm assuming that the wink engineers are on skeleton crew status taking forever to make new changes (albeit the test pilot program indicates they are pushing new features faster and I know apples new approval for patches takes longer now)

 

[fletchb]

That's what we're here for it seems! We pay Wink (by purchasing their brand) to be their Field Testers.

On a plus side though, the question mark icons are working excellently!

.77 works differently than before. The ? before the update meant loss of network connection to Wink.

It may still do the same but I have noticed it does something else now:

On my GE bulbs that are connected by a physical switch (Ie a desk lamp), if I have the bulb turned off at the switch I get the ? at soon as wink does a poll.
I don't consider this a bug at all, but correctly showing that wink has lost network connection to the bulb. Which is true because power has been cut.

Before it would incorrectly show the bulb as still being on.

Check this out and see if this is your issue.