The Wink home automation thread

[RodolfoDLV]

2. Has anyone successfully added an Ethernet jack to the hub? I see cutouts for it on the board and it can fit most Ethernet connectors (like the HY931147C). It looks like I can recompile the code to include Ethernet.

3. Is there an unofficial web-based application or interface besides winkathome.net? I was thinking I could have it sitting on a webserver on my NAS.


So basically, I want Ethernet and web front end on the Hub to ensure connectivity to the hub from all my computing devices and do so securely.

The Ethernet port question was raised in the Facebook's Wink Users Group. Someone was going to try and get one working and I honestly don't know if that panned out.

As for the web-based Wink, there's Timur's Node Red as well. That one you can get from the Wink Users Group as well.

 

[jroncalli]

I am using the bottom button of my relay to control a ceiling fan. Does anyone know if it's possible for the relay or app to not consider this a light. By default, it is a light and is included in the preset "all lights" group.

Also, I am torn between using the GE link light bulbs at $15 dollars, and a z-wave switch for areas with only one bulb. For places like the kitchen, with 9 can lights, it was a no brainer to buy LED's and use one switch, but where there is just one light, if there is a dumb light switch their and a GE link bulb and the switch is off, the bulb is useless. I would like to be able to manually toggle the light on and off, but if it happens to be switched off, also turn it on remotely. Is my only option a z-wave switch and a connected bulb?

Thanks

 

[Termie]

I am using the bottom button of my relay to control a ceiling fan. Does anyone know if it's possible for the relay or app to not consider this a light. By default, it is a light and is included in the preset "all lights" group.

Also, I am torn between using the GE link light bulbs at $15 dollars, and a z-wave switch for areas with only one bulb. For places like the kitchen, with 9 can lights, it was a no brainer to buy LED's and use one switch, but where there is just one light, if there is a dumb light switch their and a GE link bulb and the switch is off, the bulb is useless. I would like to be able to manually toggle the light on and off, but if it happens to be switched off, also turn it on remotely. Is my only option a z-wave switch and a connected bulb?

Thanks

If you want manual control, you want the switch. Connected bulbs are best for lights you won't manually control, like those in hard to reach floor lamps or nighttime lights.

They make little sense in areas where the switches currently get a lot of use.

 

[lancaster989]

Does anyone know...

Does the NestCam provide an actionable event in Wink ie. Wink recognizes there is movement in the driveway at 3am and turns on a series of lights, etc. (and then possibly I create a rule to turn off the lights after 30 min of that event-not sure how to do that).

Second...the schlage lock. I just bought 3 for my house. Any guidance on creating autolocking rules at certain time of day ie. All doors lock at 7 pm every night and at 11 pm. (the 30 second autolock feature does not work for me with young kids if going in and out often).

Any comments are appreciated.

 

[MjnMixael]

Does anyone know...

Does the NestCam provide an actionable event in Wink ie. Wink recognizes there is movement in the driveway at 3am and turns on a series of lights, etc. (and then possibly I create a rule to turn off the lights after 30 min of that event-not sure how to do that).

Second...the schlage lock. I just bought 3 for my house. Any guidance on creating autolocking rules at certain time of day ie. All doors lock at 7 pm every night and at 11 pm. (the 30 second autolock feature does not work for me with young kids if going in and out often).

Any comments are appreciated.

Yes for NestCam.

I put a door sensor on my door with the Schlage lock. If the door has been closed for 10 minutes, lock the door.

 

[jroncalli]

If you want manual control, you want the switch. Connected bulbs are best for lights you won't manually control, like those in hard to reach floor lamps or nighttime lights.

They make little sense in areas where the switches currently get a lot of use.

That's what I thought. Thanks for the info.

 

[byoung8]

Hello,
I just bought and added to my wink hub this item: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/monopri...1312474879.p?id=mp1312474879&skuId=1312474879

It says it can do motion and temperature. I added it as a generate z-wave sensor but when connected it showed GoControl as the brand. It only comes up as a motion device, no temperature reading.

Has anyone installed one of these or has a sensor that relays temperature? That's really what I'm looking for.

I have a Trane thermostat that added a separate temperature sensor on my wink app. However, this sensor appears to read correctly sometimes and then others, it displays 20 degrees colder. I thought maybe it was reading outside temp but it's still off during the middle of the day.

Thanks

 

[RodolfoDLV]

Hello,
I just bought and added to my wink hub this item: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/monopri...1312474879.p?id=mp1312474879&skuId=1312474879

It says it can do motion and temperature. I added it as a generate z-wave sensor but when connected it showed GoControl as the brand. It only comes up as a motion device, no temperature reading.

Has anyone installed one of these or has a sensor that relays temperature? That's really what I'm looking for.

I have a Trane thermostat that added a separate temperature sensor on my wink app. However, this sensor appears to read correctly sometimes and then others, it displays 20 degrees colder. I thought maybe it was reading outside temp but it's still off during the middle of the day.

Thanks

The Monoprice motion sensors are the same GoControl ones. Don't who makes them, though. Most likely, Monoprice. For the record, Monoprice usually holds sales on their Z-wave items or $20 off $100 or more, like they are holding it right now.
This, and all of the rest of the PIR motion sensors, work by detecting increases in tempreature when you walk by it. So it CAN detect temperature, but Wink doesn't have that option enabled. I have it connected to a SmartThings hub and in that ecosystem it does report temperature. Everytime I had to talk to Wink's customer service I asked about them please activating the temperature function of this sensor. Everytime they say "that's a good idea".

 

[byoung8]

Does anyone have experience with this item: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Kidde-2-...-Monoxide-Alarm-with-Voice-21010625/205132306

If so, does it show current temperature reading?

Hello,
I just bought and added to my wink hub this item: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/monopri...1312474879.p?id=mp1312474879&skuId=1312474879

It says it can do motion and temperature. I added it as a generate z-wave sensor but when connected it showed GoControl as the brand. It only comes up as a motion device, no temperature reading.

Has anyone installed one of these or has a sensor that relays temperature? That's really what I'm looking for.

I have a Trane thermostat that added a separate temperature sensor on my wink app. However, this sensor appears to read correctly sometimes and then others, it displays 20 degrees colder. I thought maybe it was reading outside temp but it's still off during the middle of the day.

Thanks

 

[Kaido]

Does anyone have experience with this item: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Kidde-2-...-Monoxide-Alarm-with-Voice-21010625/205132306

If so, does it show current temperature reading?

I have one, no temperature sensor that I've ever seen. The interface is pretty basic:

Also something to note:

Can I have more than one Kidde alarm?

You can connect multiple alarms, but the Wink App will recognize it as a single alarm system. This means they will be controlled together as one, not controlled individually. Additionally, if one alarm senses smoke or carbon monoxide, all alarms will be triggered and you will receive a notification.

 

[Mike A.]

...

Second...the schlage lock. I just bought 3 for my house. Any guidance on creating autolocking rules at certain time of day ie. All doors lock at 7 pm every night and at 11 pm. (the 30 second autolock feature does not work for me with young kids if going in and out often).

Any comments are appreciated.

Can't schedule locks within the app. Might try IFTTT. I made a recipe here that I use to do a nightly lock-up/lights out:

https://ifttt.com/recipes/304592-activate-wink-shortcut-at-a-given-time

They should let us schedule robots/shortcuts. Time is kind of a basic if/trigger condition to have for automation. Then we could schedule whatever whenever.

 

[Gage_Hero]

Okay so I picked up go control motion sensor as part of the go control essentials security pack from home depot (Canada) My question is how does one change the timeout from the default 3 minutes to a lower value like maybe one minute. I know battery life will suffer a bit but I see using it with other hubs that is an option along with sensitivity but I don't see any of that in the wink app. Another post I saw on another forum suggested using an app called Domoticz but I am not sure I want to be using something that still might not do the job.

 

[BillBones]

Hey Folks,
Was at a local MA Home Depot yesterday. Noted the Wink hub went up $20.
Anyone see that? Just wondering.

 

[cherry911]

Same here in MD. Someone in the Wink Users Group on Facebook reported this is the new price since Wink was acquired by Flex.

 

[TechWise]

It has been a few days since I used the app because my schedules have been working great. But when I opened the app last night it told me that the hub needed an update. I hit go and didn't think anything else about it.

However around 10:30 when my lights didn't turn off I grabbed my phone and saw that I had't received a hub update notification. I looked at the hub and the light was solid white....which apparently means that the memory has been corrupted. I tried a restart and a reset and no change. Wink was already closed so I will find out this morning how bad it is.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Several people (including me) are having issues with the schedules. They worked fine up until a couple of weeks ago and since then, they seem to be more and more delayed every day. What was supposed to be lights turning on at 7 AM turned into lights on at 7:04 AM, then a week later, 7:30 AM, and today, 7:58 AM. I haven't spoken to Wink about this but it was reported on the Wink FB group and you'd think they'd say something. Rumor is that they're making big back-end changes in preparation for the release of local control and that could be causing the issues.

Which brings me to my next pet peeve. Wink has a spokesperson who frequents the FB group. We get no concrete updates from her - everything is "We have exciting things coming! Stay tuned!" I ripped into her a little yesterday and told her we have heard the same PR-speak for months now and they're doing themselves a huge disservice by not giving us a roadmap or something concrete. Her response was just more PR doublespeak. Sigh....

 

[TechWise]

Interesting about the schedules being delayed. I mentioned in my post above yours that my schedules have been working great but I haven't been paying attention to the times. I know that they are turning off at the proper time but when I get the hub back up and running I will watch the on times to see if there is any difference.

 

[Aikouka]

I installed the system and it was working correctly before I left on vacation. Away from home I found the wink hub inactive when I checked it on the iphone app. When I returned home I was able to get the system back online with the good help of the Wink techincal support. Recently, I installed a new wifi router and updated the wifi link on the Wink hub. after a couple of days of good operation, the hub suddenly showed a violet light and the iphone app showed that the hub was disconnected.

I'm a bit late to this, but where's your hub located? When I first started out, I was baffled as to why I couldn't get my hub to work at all. I mean... it was so close to the router that I was sure it wasn't failing to get a connection! However, the problem turned out to be... that it was too close. The Wink CSR told me that the Wink Hub can't handle the interference from being that close to the router. I moved it further away, and it has been working fairly well sine then, but I do still see it randomly disconnect and reconnect. I'm wondering if being close to my subwoofer may be causing some interference?

 

[simple2010]

Is there a hub update rolling out? I have zero control of anything but also no indication of a pending update. Does anyone know a way to force it to look for a new update? I'm currently on 2.19.0.

Reboot hasn't helped, solid blue light. I even see the green flashes when it should be sending out commands but nothing responds to them. I wonder if they made a backend change that wasn't backwards compatible with 2.19.0

Has anyone on the FB group heard anything?

 

[simple2010]

It sounds like other people are fine so it's just me. I'm starting to wonder if the database was corrupted. Does anyone know if a factory reset also blows out the db?

 

[simple2010]

For anyone that has similar symptoms, after speaking with Wink support their diagnosis is indeed a corrupt database. That would explain why things seemed to be degrading over the last week. The only cure is to send you another hub (now my third.) He did mention that it doesn't happen often but it does seem to affect 2.19.0. The best part is now I get to re-pair dozens of stuff!

 

[daveloud]

I'm using the GoControl sensors (just the motion and door sensors for now), and wonder if the Siren/Light device will "beep" when one of the door sensors trigger, or if it is just a siren.

Thanks!

 

[Kaido]

For anyone that has similar symptoms, after speaking with Wink support their diagnosis is indeed a corrupt database. That would explain why things seemed to be degrading over the last week. The only cure is to send you another hub (now my third.) He did mention that it doesn't happen often but it does seem to affect 2.19.0. The best part is now I get to re-pair dozens of stuff!

Wow, that's terrible :thumbsdown:

Sounds like in addition to Ethernet, the Wink Hub 2.0 would benefit from a dual-flash setup like the high-end motherboards have these days...something for backup so you don't have to get a replacement. I'm looking to buy a starter house this year & that's something that worries me...rolling thousands into HA equipment (especially in motorized blinds!) only to have recurring issues with the controller. The problem is that I still like Wink over everyone else, although Control 4's new EA controllers are looking pretty good:

http://www.cnet.com/products/control4-ea-series-entertainment-and-automation-controller/

But I'd rather not pay $2,000 for a new hub (which unfortunately is reasonable pricing for a dealer-installed system) in addition to having to buy all of the bits & pieces to make things work. The trouble is that we're going on year two with Wink now, still having crazy issues like you're experiencing, no local control, STv2 isn't all that great, and nobody has compromised on a standard, universal system for HA control.

Honestly, I am not at all happy with where things are in the HA world. Manufacturers are shooting themselves in the foot & missing out on ridiculous amounts of money by not standardizing, because things are so buggy & support is so limited (no one system supports everything) that people get really frustrated. Not to mention how expensive everything still is...it's still $60 for a stupid lightswitch from Lutron! So the biggest barrier to entry is cost, and then once you get it, you find out that not everything plays nice with your system (look at the Control4 article above, it doesn't even have Spotify support!) & you'll run into weird bugs where things will act funny or quit working or you'll have to re-pair stuff. It's ridiculous!

The saddest thing of all is that this is all low-tech stuff. My iPhone has a GPS, touchscreen, accelerometer, camera, etc., and works perfectly every time, and yet my lightbulb randomly disconnects, doesn't get a signal, or blinks sporadically. What the heck. /rant

 

[MjnMixael]

Ha, yeah.. I had a bit of a laugh at the irony earlier this year when Google officially unveiled Weave. "In an effort to standardize the Home Automation technologies, we made a new technology."

Also, it's reported that Google's Weave works slightly differently than Nest's Weave, so the two aren't perfectly compatible.

And LG wanting to get into home automation is making yet another hub.

You guys are on firmware 2.19 with Wink? I hope there's an update soon.

 

[Mike A.]

Honestly, I am not at all happy with where things are in the HA world. Manufacturers are shooting themselves in the foot & missing out on ridiculous amounts of money by not standardizing, because things are so buggy & support is so limited (no one system supports everything) that people get really frustrated. Not to mention how expensive everything still is...it's still $60 for a stupid lightswitch from Lutron! So the biggest barrier to entry is cost, and then once you get it, you find out that not everything plays nice with your system (look at the Control4 article above, it doesn't even have Spotify support!) & you'll run into weird bugs where things will act funny or quit working or you'll have to re-pair stuff. It's ridiculous!

I've said the same thing for about 20 years now. And that was after about the first 10 years. lol It's better in a lot of ways now but I kinda doubt that things will ever really change much overall. There are just too many different types of "things" in a house and it's always changing. And use-cases. Along with the tech side also changing and competing vendors/standards. As soon as you buy some single-box system like the Control4 deal, then a few years later it won't have whatever the new cool HA standard is, 802.x WiFi, USB D, or support whatever the new must-have Dolby flavor of the month is. And won't be as cool as the new system from Company X which will require changing things. Most likely just going to get even more complicated when we start to have connected everything.

The next level of HA is more intelligent, predictive-type operation so that things learn what they should do without being explicitly controlled or programmed. But then that will also just introduce even more complication.