The Wink home automation thread

[Mike A.]

I am planning on adding a couple of motion detectors to my system. Primarily to turn lights on/off. These two are priced about the same. The GoControl is listed in the Wink App. The Ecolink is not, but can be added under Z-wave sensor.

I am concerned about possible delay activating lights when motion is detected. Can anyone with personal experience with either of these tell me how well they work for this purpose? Also, difficulty adding them to the system and keeping them there.

I have the GoControl. It's not the fastest. MjnMixael's 4-6 seconds seems about right. I've not noticed any change to that recently. Practically speaking that means that rather than coming on the moment that you enter enter a room or otherwise trigger the sensor, you'll be a good way across it before the associated light comes on.

The delay seems not so much with the sensor itself. I can see the indicator on the unit light up when it senses movement and while there is some minimal delay, that part's relatively quick. It's from that point on through the back end to process that trigger and then trigger the light which takes most of the time. Given that, I kinda doubt that it's going to be much better with another sensor. But now that I said that I'd note that for whatever reason the door sensors seem much faster. More like 2 seconds on the outside typically (other than at some odd times when they're just unusually slow).

The GoControl motion sensor isn't the easiest to pair. I have trouble with it every time I have to do it. Not really a problem you just have to do it the right way and there's some difference vs the instructions that I can't ever remember until I mess with it for a while. Once you get it, then it's fine. No problems with it working from there.

 

[JFHughes08088]

I have several motion detectors set to turn lights on/off. For a long time the delay was 4-6 seconds.. but the last week and a half has been more like 10-15.... :/

I've been experiencing the same thing - noticeably longer delays over the last week or so. Both tripper and goControl

 

[Tech_Greek]

Well there goes my idea then

 

[jlslate]

When (if?) wink comes out with local control, this issue will hopefully go away. Sure wish we had an update on that.

 

[RodolfoDLV]

When (if?) wink comes out with local control, this issue will hopefully go away. Sure wish we had an update on that.

Sometimes I sit and try to come up with the scenario where they tested Wink, noticed the lag between pushing the icon and the light turning on and they went like: "this seems good".

Still don't get it. But then again, seeing how Kaufman ran things.....

 

[jlslate]

Since the server was probably in the next room, there wasn't any lag. Before I retired, I was a network nerd, and it was amazing how some things were tested vs. real life scenarios. My favorite was the project to have users request data from a vendor 3000 miles away, who would then send us a request to send them the data, (as it was on our servers) massage and format it, and send it back to the user. It worked great at the demo. Not so much in real life.

 

[Kaido]

Since the server was probably in the next room, there wasn't any lag. Before I retired, I was a network nerd, and it was amazing how some things were tested vs. real life scenarios. My favorite was the project to have users request data from a vendor 3000 miles away, who would then send us a request to send them the data, (as it was on our servers) massage and format it, and send it back to the user. It worked great at the demo. Not so much in real life.

Server lag is the worst. There's one ERP I do support for that can't even have Windows clients on Wifi because the two-way communication is so bad it disrupts the session. And yet I can hop on any online multi-player video game system with twenty other people & be just fine

 

[MjnMixael]

http://fortune.com/2015/10/27/wink-canary-ai/

 

[Tech_Greek]

http://fortune.com/2015/10/27/wink-canary-ai/

What a smug prick. How you can sit up there and laugh about the hundreds of millions lost I'll never know.

 

[RossMAN]

These IP power switches will power cycle anything that is plugged in to them when Internet connectivity is lost:

http://3gstore.com/type/112_ip_switch.html

Thanks this is exactly what I've been looking for.

Does anyone have suggestions for the following scenario? We're out of the country and our home automation/security cameras aren't responding, we'd like to remotely reboot our cable modem/router. Because of our location it's easier to send an e-mail instead of calling or texting, so here's what I'm thinking:

Buy IP power switch and install prepaid GSM SIM card.

Using a spare Android smartphone, insert another prepaid GSM SIM card and create unique Gmail address for this specific task. Install a task application, when an e-mail is received from myself with a specific subject line, send a text or whatever to the IP power switch instructing it to reboot cable modem/router.

There must be an easier solution, am I overthinking this? The spare Android smartphone is necessary because what if our home internet is down?

 

[Kaido]

Thanks this is exactly what I've been looking for.

Does anyone have suggestions for the following scenario? We're out of the country and our home automation/security cameras aren't responding, we'd like to remotely reboot our cable modem/router. Because of our location it's easier to send an e-mail instead of calling or texting, so here's what I'm thinking:

Buy IP power switch and install prepaid GSM SIM card.

Using a spare Android smartphone, insert another prepaid GSM SIM card and create unique Gmail address for this specific task. Install a task application, when an e-mail is received from myself with a specific subject line, send a text or whatever to the IP power switch instructing it to reboot cable modem/router.

There must be an easier solution, am I overthinking this? The spare Android smartphone is necessary because what if our home internet is down?

The hardware posted by jlslate earlier would be a better (and cheaper) fit for you:

I bought one of these http://m.ebay.com/itm/181276725878?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&_mwBanner=1 for about $54. I don't have a land line, but this is cellular. Got a prepaid sim from T-Mobile for $3 per month. You can toggle any of the three outlets with a call or SMS. I'll probably get a second setup for our vacation home.

$55 shipped (from China) & takes a GSM SIM (vs. $99 for the 3G store model, plus an Android phone with service & programming). Extremely cost-effective service plan per jlslate's provider: $3/mo prepaid from Tmobile = $36/year for remote control of 3 outlets. Toggle the switches via a voice call or text message. Also I'm not sure on this specific model, but I have Verizon, which has like an @vtext.com email address for your SMS (I use that for IT alerts from my computer); it looks like Tmobile uses @tmomail.net, so in theory you could also shoot an email to the device to do a power cycle (assuming it'd let you through the number whitelist...would be interesting to find out).

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Thanks this is exactly what I've been looking for.

Does anyone have suggestions for the following scenario? We're out of the country and our home automation/security cameras aren't responding, we'd like to remotely reboot our cable modem/router. Because of our location it's easier to send an e-mail instead of calling or texting, so here's what I'm thinking:

Buy IP power switch and install prepaid GSM SIM card.

Using a spare Android smartphone, insert another prepaid GSM SIM card and create unique Gmail address for this specific task. Install a task application, when an e-mail is received from myself with a specific subject line, send a text or whatever to the IP power switch instructing it to reboot cable modem/router.

There must be an easier solution, am I overthinking this? The spare Android smartphone is necessary because what if our home internet is down?

What many people are doing with the Wink hub (and this would apply to your modem/router as well) is simple - they have the device plugged into a timer and just have it regularly reboot. It is simple to do, cheap, and pretty reliable. There are other ways too - if you have an always-on system, you could write some scripts or get a monitoring tool to run that could reboot the modem/router if it is plugged into something like a Wemo or other IP-based switch like the one you linked.

 

[JoeKiv]

Thanks to all who replied. Right now I have about a 2 second delay when turning on lights with Wink and around 4 seconds for the door lock. As someone here mentioned, these delay problem may be solved if/when Wink implements local control.

My choice right now is to buy 1 detector and see how it goes. I'm leaning towards the Ecolink. Seems to the most popular and has decent reviews.

 

[trunzoc]

I am planning on adding a couple of motion detectors to my system. Primarily to turn lights on/off. These two are priced about the same. The GoControl is listed in the Wink App. The Ecolink is not, but can be added under Z-wave sensor.

I am concerned about possible delay activating lights when motion is detected. Can anyone with personal experience with either of these tell me how well they work for this purpose? Also, difficulty adding them to the system and keeping them there.

I use a GoControl/Linear Motion sensor to turn on lights in my basement, but I associated it with the actual switch, which is a Linear WS15z. It doesn't go through Wink, and the repsonse time in under 2 seconds. It also turns the light off automatically after 3 minutes (Wish that was changeable)

I have another GoControl Motion sensor set to turn the same light on, but instead of associating it directly with the switch, I have a Robot set up in Wink. It's not fast. basically, it takes 10-15 seconds for the light to come on.

TLDR;

If you want a fast response, get the GoControl sensor and a Linear switch and associate them directly to each other.

 

[trunzoc]

Hey guys! I can't remember if I ever posted this here, but I spun up a wiki attached to Wink@Home.

At this point, it has over 100 known-compatible devices listed, a bunch of hacky stuff you can do and some good FAQ info.

I'd love some input on how to make it better.

Go take a look...
http://wiki.winkathome.net

And for those of you that don't know what Wink@Home is, It's a web-based Portal That allows you to control your Wink devices from any browser, see sensor status, run shortcuts, etc...

https://winkathome.net

 

[RodolfoDLV]

http://fortune.com/2015/10/27/wink-canary-ai/

I actually looked into the Canary a few months ago, but was discouraged to hear of all the bad reviews, constant false alarms and that the people at Canary acknowledge their AI system wasn't running; a bit misleading giving that they actually advertise it that way.

Now that I read that they chose Wink for being the easiest and cheapest way to go, my confidence in Canary has only gone down.

 

[pm]

I actually looked into the Canary a few months ago, but was discouraged to hear of all the bad reviews, constant false alarms and that the people at Canary acknowledge their AI system wasn't running; a bit misleading giving that they actually advertise it that way.

Now that I read that they chose Wink for being the easiest and cheapest way to go, my confidence in Canary has only gone down.

I have a Canary. I'm not totally disappointed in it, but it certainly doesn't live up to it's claims. I thought it would be like a box that would watch my house and check for things like water leaks (it has a hygrometer and they say that they monitor it) and that it would give security alerts without being activated by our cat. In reality, it does give constant false alarms - the lights of a passing car reflected off of a picture frame will set it off - and it activates constantly due to our cat. On the plus side, they have a nice easy to use app, and the picture quality is pretty good, the infra-red photos are pretty good (for what they are) and it was really easy to set up.

It's not a waste of money, but it's effectively like an overpriced wireless HD camera with a fancy app.

 

[RodolfoDLV]

I have a Canary. I'm not totally disappointed in it, but it certainly doesn't live up to it's claims. I thought it would be like a box that would watch my house and check for things like water leaks (it has a hygrometer and they say that they monitor it) and that it would give security alerts without being activated by our cat. In reality, it does give constant false alarms - the lights of a passing car reflected off of a picture frame will set it off - and it activates constantly due to our cat. On the plus side, they have a nice easy to use app, and the picture quality is pretty good, the infra-red photos are pretty good (for what they are) and it was really easy to set up.

It's not a waste of money, but it's effectively like an overpriced wireless HD camera with a fancy app.

Well that's a good start, I guess. The thing that kills me over most of security systems is their setup/apps (if they actually have one). Let's hope they can actually fix the other things, because those are all software fixes. Then I'll consider.

 

[jlslate]

The hardware posted by jlslate earlier would be a better (and cheaper) fit for you:







$55 shipped (from China) & takes a GSM SIM (vs. $99 for the 3G store model, plus an Android phone with service & programming). Extremely cost-effective service plan per jlslate's provider: $3/mo prepaid from Tmobile = $36/year for remote control of 3 outlets. Toggle the switches via a voice call or text message. Also I'm not sure on this specific model, but I have Verizon, which has like an @vtext.com email address for your SMS (I use that for IT alerts from my computer); it looks like Tmobile uses @tmomail.net, so in theory you could also shoot an email to the device to do a power cycle (assuming it'd let you through the number whitelist...would be interesting to find out).

I have decided to go a different direction, so if anyone is interested in my Smart Socket sans SIM card, I'll sell it for $45 shipped anyway in the US. Has US power cable, and lousy directions. Original box appears to have been recycled.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Does anyone know if the Outlink works as a Zigbee repeater?

 

[TechWise]

Does anyone know if the Outlink works as a Zigbee repeater?

I have 2 of them, and I really like them...but I don't know if they repeat. My local Home Depot has reduced them to $29.

 

[jlslate]

Does anyone know if there is a way to toggle scheduled items on/off via either a shortcut or robot? I am wanting to turn off security lights when home and turn them on when out.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I have 2 of them, and I really like them...but I don't know if they repeat. My local Home Depot has reduced them to $29.

I emailed Wink and they told me they "should" act as a repeater. Might pick a couple up and see if I can integrate them into my SmartThings network as repeaters, as I already have repeaters in my Wink network.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I went to a local Meijer yesterday and saw the following interesting things:

1. Wink stuff has been removed from the shelves and placed on an obscure clearance end cap in the electronics section. Prices on Tapt and Outlink are still too high though - $48 and $40. The GE Link bulbs are $11.27 each so I may buy a couple more of those. They're good for floor lamps and repeaters.

2. Meijer now stocks the Ring doorbell. I was surprised to see it and also shocked at the size. I can't see getting that one by he wife.

 

[TechWise]

I emailed Wink and they told me they "should" act as a repeater. Might pick a couple up and see if I can integrate them into my SmartThings network as repeaters, as I already have repeaters in my Wink network.

Please let us know if the Outlink works with SmartThings (you may already know if they are). I asked about it previously but no one seemed to know if they are compatible. They are the only components in my system that I am concerned that I would have to replace if Wink goes away and I have to make the switch.

Thanks!