The Wink home automation thread

[tctmonkey]

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.

Fair enough. I guess I been using x10 at home for so long and love to tinker I never thought it might be a PITA from some people to set up a server to handle it. Wink caught my attention because it was something I could supposedly just plugin at my moms house and go. She is a invalid and the caregiver is amazing at giving care but not so much at tech. I figured she could reboot the hub the once or twice a week if it needed it. Sad thing is never got to find out. Bricked the day after I set it up. Woke up saw blue light, forums said reboot... bam! A ssl cert is easy to miss for a website, but when it is a key component of your communication model, a little less so.. sorry cant give a break for that. Sha1 based on seed of serial might be a better choice and a pub key. do it over ssh little more over head but could potentially prevent this down the road.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I emailed Ben Kaufman to see if he'll let me in this final round of testers for the fix. I'll keep everyone posted. It seems they plan on possibly releasing the fix in a few hours.

 

[causeIcan]

Haha right?

What do you even do if you have Wink setup at a vacation home or something? Man...

Ya, its going to be nice for the Florida folks who setup wink to control AC to keep humidity down and prevent mold growth. Those folks who have already left for their northern summer home are going to love it when they return in the fall.

 

[vqv]

I've been lurking this thread since I got the Wink hub in August 2014. I've had my share of numerous offline moments the past 8 months, so it has been a far from perfect experience.

But... my hub survived that major outage---in fact I didn't notice any disruption until I got an email from Wink last night. My "luck" might be due to me asking their support to push a firmware update to my hub on Friday. I was on 0.85 on Friday and today I'm on 0.86.

Right now the home automation is like the wild west. If I wasn't so obsessed with tech and gadgets, the more logical approach would be to wait 1 or 2 years for the home automation market to mature and solidify. Honestly, the current product landscape is relatively crap. Wink is probably the least crappy in the dimensions that matter to me --- 1) value/price and 2) no hacking/tinkering required. By wanting things NOW and not waiting 1-2 years all of us---no matter what platform really---have had to endure the immaturity of these products.

Except for the Kidde alarms, I've made sure to buy devices using standards that will hopefully port over to other platforms, e.g. Z-Wave and Zigbee. It'll be a pain if I have to jump ship, but I don't mind because this is partly just a hobby.

P.S. Remember Revolv? I think what they did to their users is far worse than this latest snafu from Wink.

 

[dennisj00]

Re: TCTMonkey . . .

Sorry for your timing and situation. . . I can remember remote controls, cell phones and my Mom. At one point she thought the red V in Verizon on the phone was the on button!

And I had to tape the battery compartment shut on the remotes, because the first thing she'd do was take the batteries out (programmable remote). So I'd hide a second remote before I left.

There's still a lot of Technology that's not ready for prime time. There's still a lot of people that don't understand how the light comes on when you flip the switch.

But that doesn't forgive the Wink situation. They have a big hill to climb to get out of this one.

 

[Kaido]

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.

The problem is, human nature hasn't changed, nor has market forces. It felt like Wink was forced to release early due to market pressure. I'm not condoning it, but from a business standpoint, it's been done before. Remember how awesome Windows 95 wasn't? 98 got better, 2000 was pretty stable, XP SP3 has been great, 7 has been great. And as far as bugs crashing the system, there was an update not too long ago from Microsoft that borked a lot of systems. It happens. Just depends on how willing you are to put up with it. Right now, there are no other options I am interested in outside of the aforementioned vaporware, so...back to Wink!

 

[Kaido]

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.

Excellent news! A day's downtime won't kill me, if that's the case.

 

[smhawkes]

i got in on the first round and my hub is back up and running.

 

[EscapeVelocity]

I don't post here but do read quite a bit of info good and bad. The fix they are working on unblocked my hubs (yes both). All is back working now. Patience folks they really are trying to get a public fix rolled out but want to make sure they have all of the facts and processes documented before going further. If you want to keep updated then get on the FB forum that has been posted here many times. they're asking for helpers a few at a time.

I don't work for Wink but I think they've done a good job at correcting things so far.

 

[Kaido]

Right now the home automation is like the wild west. If I wasn't so obsessed with tech and gadgets, the more logical approach would be to wait 1 or 2 years for the home automation market to mature and solidify.

Nailed it.

Yes, they sell commercially at Home Depot, but the "buyer beware" warning still applies. Like you said...it's messy out there right now; waiting a year or three is a smarter approach if all you care about is stability & functionality. The market is just starting to heat up...Wink, Apple's HomeKit, Samsung, Thread, IoT, IFTTT, etc. They'll figure it out...eventually. Right now it's new & everyone is trying to dive in headfirst. Eventually it will be as seamless as your smartphone automatically connecting to your car's built-in Bluetooth system...you won't even think about it. Right now, that is not the case.

Again, two sides to every coin: being sold at HD, it should be a 100% reliable product. It's not. And I think a lot of people are in denial about that. The budget home automation industry is still very much a fledgling business. Go talk to anyone who uses stuff like INSTEON & ask them about reliability; it's just not there yet. That IS the reality of the niche right now. But, it's getting better, and I'm sure there will be more hiccups down the road (especially with the security of the systems).

Speaking of security, that will be a big issue moving forward. I'm glad that the Wink Hub locks itself down when the cert gets screwed up, but at the same time, what happens when a disgruntled worker swaps certs or sends out a command to unlock everyone's doors & open everyone's garages? Or if one of their computers gets spyware & a hacker gets access to their control panels & does that? There are so many attack vectors in digital security, it's just plain scary! That's part of the reason I haven't connected my webcams to Wink and I'm on the fence about keeping my door lock in the system. It may be a bit paranoid, but I don't even have them on my network - it's on my guest network. A small security step, but at least there's some degree of separation...

 

[Kaido]

I don't post here but do read quite a bit of info good and bad. The fix they are working on unblocked my hubs (yes both). All is back working now. Patience folks they really are trying to get a public fix rolled out but want to make sure they have all of the facts and processes documented before going further. If you want to keep updated then get on the FB forum that has been posted here many times. they're asking for helpers a few at a time.

I don't work for Wink but I think they've done a good job at correcting things so far.

Thanks for the update!

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I just implemented the fix and I am back up and running. Woot!

 

[dennisj00]

I just implemented the fix and I am back up and running. Woot!

Any details? Bluetooth from smartphone?

 

[FreddieT]

I just implemented the fix and I am back up and running. Woot!

This fix, if it works as it should would go a Loooooong way in regaining my trust! Not completely, but a hell of a lot more than I have at the moment!

Thanks for the update!

 

[dennisj00]

I need a few more posts. . .

 

[dennisj00]

I need a few more posts and I'll delete these later

 

[dennisj00]

Certainly, PM me again

 

[EscapeVelocity]

OPINION: There is so much getting ready to happen the 2nd half of this year that jumping hubs right now doesn't make much sense. Amazon Echo integration, Apple TV with a built in HA hub, Lutron on Apple Watch. There's so much more coming. Relax and hold on, it's going to get really crazy in a short while.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

OPINION: There is so much getting ready to happen the 2nd half of this year that jumping hubs right now doesn't make much sense. Amazon Echo integration, Apple TV with a built in HA hub, Lutron on Apple Watch. There's so much more coming. Relax and hold on, it's going to get really crazy in a short while.

I was close to eBaying my unopened Amazon Echo and then I got word that several HA companies (including Wink) are working on integration with Amazon and one user already has it working with Wink to some extent.

 

[dennisj00]

I was recently involved in a KickStarter that Sparkfun had for their Microview - an Arduino that had a small LCD display built in.

Turns out, they shipped 2000 or so with an incorrect bootloader so you couldn't program it. Once they found out, they published directions to fix it if you were so inclined (I did) and they also shipped a new one to everyone. Great customer service!

A local fix will go a LONG way!!

 

[IndyColtsFan]

PM sent Dennis

 

[causeIcan]

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



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).

I though about it. And 10 years ago I had HC/HA and it didn't need to be connected to the cloud or the internet. Therefore it never would be an issue that a situation like this would happen. 10 years ago I used HomeSeer. The worse that could happen is that the PC server that ran scenes and schedules died. But even then I could just restore the settings to any PC and be back up in no time. I never had to re-pair or re-associate 60+ devices and then reconfigure scenes and schedules.
With my current system running Vera its VERY reliable, very restorable with only a mouse click. Thankfully I only have 8 bulbs at a business and 12 bulbs at home on Wink so by tuesday at the latest everything will be on Vera and Wink will be but a distant memory of the hours wasted re-pairing and the frustration of lights not working. Vera isnt perfect, but for Climate, Irrigation, Swimming Pool and cameras overall its been good to us for ~the last 5 years.
After this with Wink, how could someone who travels or needs to let people into their home feel comfortable that wink could be relied on. If you go away for 2 weeks and the dog needs to be fed and you use wink to let the person in? Are there terrarium lights or heaters that are going to overheat as they are left on? What about other items that the away owner has no idea of the status of? What about temperature control. Are thermostats going to let homes freeze or overheat? This is really a bigger issue than a few lights that don't work. People were lulled into a sense of security by a promise of reliability and that ship has sailed.
Think "well whats the worse that could happen? if a device is left on or doesn't turn off? well that will happen to someone because of this screw-up unfortunately.

 

[big rob]

Just fixed my hub with the help of Ben.
You change the DNS to point to Wink's servers and the hub can update that way.

 

[BillinGlendale]

If you're looking for the email and it hasn't shown up, ask the other users you may have on your hub.

The wife and I both got emails.

 

[Kaido]

Just fixed my hub with the help of Ben.
You change the DNS to point to Wink's servers and the hub can update that way.

DNS on your router? Got the IP addresses?