The Wink home automation thread

[IndyColtsFan]

IndyColtsFan Always fascinated with users who participate in a forum for a product that they continually $hit on. Why not participate in a forum for products that you enjoy and allow us 'uneducated and delusional' Wink users enjoy this forum? Just Asking

I have both ST and Wink and participate in both communities. I will correct people in either community who make blanket or incorrect statements. Also, please quote where I said "uneducated and delusional." I said that, in my opinion, ST users seem to be more technical and have better knowledge of competing products on average. I stand by that assessment. My favorite example and facepalm moment was when one Wink user said Wink was like Android whereas ST was closed like Apple - even the Wink users laughed at the idiot and told him he had it completely backwards.

But more importantly, I will call Wink out on their BS (and there is plenty of it). The Spotter comment in the FB group shocked even me. They flatly told me that they won't add Aeon or other third party products because they're not "partners," so you're forced to rely on the generic zwave device which may or may not work. They have no generic Zigbee device handler, so you're out of luck if you want to use the excellent Centralite/Lowes sensors.

Also, in case you're not aware, this thread is one of the largest Wink resources on the Internet and Wink had representation here at one point. I'm sure they still scan the thread on occasion as well, so they need to see what users think.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

IndyColtsFan has been very fair in his evaluation of Wink, and SmartThings for that matter. If you were comparing only products supported by each company - and I have and use both - then my opinion would be that they are about equal. Where Wink suffers, horribly in my opinion, is that its closed platform leaves me completely reliant upon the faltering company to support what I want. ST reaps the benefit, and sometimes the pain, of community support. This opens up their device profile to be huge; and whatever is beyond huge compared to Wink.

Example: For $80 I'm building a homemade irrigation controller that has sophisticated algorithms controlled by SmartThings to determine when and how much to run the sprinklers. I haven't seen any commercial product that approaches it. The device and programming logic are gratis from ST community developers.

:thumbsup:

I am more optimistic about ST because at least they have (at long last) acknowledged the issues and are taking concrete and very visible actions to fix them. I don't know if they'll succeed, but I applaud their effort and increased communication. And their community seriously rocks - I know you participate in it too CAL, because I've responded to you in one or more threads there.

Contrast that to Wink, where you won't hear a word for weeks or months. Their participation in the FB group has fallen off tremendously, and I think a large part of that is because several users (me being one) demanded information about roadmaps, etc. The local control rollout was the last straw for many people and once that went live, I noticed a large increase of Wink users joining the ST group and buying ST hubs.

Wink's hub isn't the problem. I've said it several times in his thread and I'll say it again - it has been rock solid for me for quite some time. The problem I have is the lack of sensors, the incompetence of the company, and the lack of communication. Had Amazon purchased Wink (and they probably would have if not for the Winkening if reports are to be believed), I am convinced it would already be ahead of ST or at least, we would have a larger ecosystem.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Well, to be fair, he has a point. Wink launched a buggy product that had big issues for a long time. Their parent company Quirky went under, but they stayed afloat after that (sold to Flex last November). Promises were made, but not delivered on, which equates to stringing their customers along. On other topics from the company PR - complete radio silence. Additional hardware was released (Spotter, Relay, etc.) with ridiculous reliability problems (just read through this thread). We are coming up on 2 years from release and still have plenty of issues.

I think it's fair to be upset when you've invested a significant amount of both time & money into this and things aren't working as advertised, particularly on things we rely on every day. I mean, I've dumped close to a grand just into smart light switches for my home, and it's pretty annoying when things don't work or go haywire. It's kind of embarrassing when your family is questioning your financial decisions for paying ten times as much or more for hardware that isn't as reliable as the original stuff. So there is a legitimate reason to complain here.

On the flip side, we are still in early-adopter territory for consumer-grade DIY smarthome equipment. The competition is mediocre too - SmartThings v2 has issues, Vera is terrible, and anything else doesn't have much in the way of full hardware support (Lowes Iris or ADT Pulse) or requires you to hardcore geek out on things to get them to work (like MisterHouse). Hopefully at some point in the future, all of this stuff gets ironed out & gets cheaper and things talk to each other in a secure & reliable manner properly, but today is not that day. So I think part of his attitude is just being completely honest about the state of affairs right now.

Personally, I just look at it as "it is what it is". I don't see anyone else seriously competing with the Wink Hub. There's literally no other universal home automation controller I can go buy from Home Depot or Best Buy right now that has a wide variety of third-party support from Chamberlain, Lutron, Kidde, etc., so my options are simply limited right now. This is the best it gets for completely turnkey operation, and I've realized that I just have to accept the quirks that go along with it for the time being. I could always go back to dumb switches, but where's the fun in that? :awe:

I think the hubs and ecosystems may become more irrelevant over time, and hubs will become more or less generic devices that house the necessary radios that will connect to devices, poll them, pull back device IDs, etc. I think that things like Echo will be the actual controller - a layer on top of the hubs and can access the hubs to control devices, retrieve sensor data, etc. I even think we may see a logic and workflow engine for Echo at some point which would even further push the HA hubs into backend territory. Even now, I rarely use the Wink or ST apps for control - I use Echo for most of it and I have dashboards for both Wink and ST for status info. I'm preparing to add my fifth Echo and may add a sixth as well.

 

[MjnMixael]

:thumbsup:
Had Amazon purchased Wink (and they probably would have if not for the Winkening if reports are to be believed), I am convinced it would already be ahead of ST or at least, we would have a larger ecosystem.

It would be terribly interesting if this were the reason Amazon passed... Amazon has one of the largest cloud server systems commercially available. Even Netflix uses their servers! Seems like it would have been a no-brainer in this case to take a good piece of hardware (the hub) and match that with a rock solid server system (Amazon Web Services).

 

[IndyColtsFan]

It would be terribly interesting if this were the reason Amazon passed... Amazon has one of the largest cloud server systems commercially available. Even Netflix uses their servers! Seems like it would have been a no-brainer in this case to take a good piece of hardware (the hub) and match that with a rock solid server system (Amazon Web Services).

Yeah, to be honest, I'm skeptical that the Winkening was the reason they passed. To me, $15 million would be a no brainer for a company the size of Amazon.

 

[jlslate]

You also have to factor in the fact that they owed a fair chunk of change to Flextronics that any other buyer would have to pay.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[toolfan]

Hey all. I've been a happy Wink user for a couple of years now. I'm looking for recommendations on A19 bulbs to replace a couple of GE Links. Here's my situation - in one of our rooms we have a dome light and also a ceiling fan/light connected to the same light switch. I want to turn all the lights in the room off and leave the fan on. So, I put GE Link bulbs in the dome light. Turn those off via Wink, then turn off the ceiling fan light via the pull cord. The problem is that the GE bulbs become disconnected from Wink if the light switch is turned off for an extended period of time. I'm wondering if anyone has experience with the other brands of bulbs in a similar setup. I'm looking at the TCP Connected, the Cree, or the Philips Hue white bulbs. Are any of them better about re-establishing connection with the hub after a loss of power from the switch? Or am I going to have the same issue with any of them?

 

[MBSMD]

Hey all. I've been a happy Wink user for a couple of years now. I'm looking for recommendations on A19 bulbs to replace a couple of GE Links. Here's my situation - in one of our rooms we have a dome light and also a ceiling fan/light connected to the same light switch. I want to turn all the lights in the room off and leave the fan on. So, I put GE Link bulbs in the dome light. Turn those off via Wink, then turn off the ceiling fan light via the pull cord. The problem is that the GE bulbs become disconnected from Wink if the light switch is turned off for an extended period of time. I'm wondering if anyone has experience with the other brands of bulbs in a similar setup. I'm looking at the TCP Connected, the Cree, or the Philips Hue white bulbs. Are any of them better about re-establishing connection with the hub after a loss of power from the switch? Or am I going to have the same issue with any of them?

Never had a problem with Hue bulbs forgetting their connections. I have 25 of various types (white and color of both new and older generations).
I have a couple of Cree that also seem to do well.

 

[Wink22]

Hey all. I've been a happy Wink user for a couple of years now. I'm looking for recommendations on A19 bulbs to replace a couple of GE Links. Here's my situation - in one of our rooms we have a dome light and also a ceiling fan/light connected to the same light switch. I want to turn all the lights in the room off and leave the fan on. So, I put GE Link bulbs in the dome light. Turn those off via Wink, then turn off the ceiling fan light via the pull cord. The problem is that the GE bulbs become disconnected from Wink if the light switch is turned off for an extended period of time. I'm wondering if anyone has experience with the other brands of bulbs in a similar setup. I'm looking at the TCP Connected, the Cree, or the Philips Hue white bulbs. Are any of them better about re-establishing connection with the hub after a loss of power from the switch? Or am I going to have the same issue with any of them?

Sounds like the light on your ceiling fan is probably on the same switch as your fan. Meaning- switch turns off, fan and light turn off. Switch turns on, fan and light turn on. But why does it take long to disconnect..
Am I missing something here ? Lol

 

[toolfan]

Sounds like the light on your ceiling fan is probably on the same switch as your fan. Meaning- switch turns off, fan and light turn off. Switch turns on, fan and light turn on. But why does it take long to disconnect..
Am I missing something here ? Lol

Forget the ceiling fan, it doesn't really matter overall. The point is that my GE Link bulbs tend to lose connection to the hub when they are physically powered off for several days. I have other ones in lamps that do the same thing.

I think I'll try the Hue bulbs based on MBSMD's reply. Thanks!

 

[MBSMD]

Forget the ceiling fan, it doesn't really matter overall. The point is that my GE Link bulbs tend to lose connection to the hub when they are physically powered off for several days. I have other ones in lamps that do the same thing.

I think I'll try the Hue bulbs based on MBSMD's reply. Thanks!

FYI, my Hues are connected to a Hue hub, which is cloud-connected to the Wink. I think there is (or was) a way to connect the bulbs to the Wink hub directly, though not sure you can any more. And IIRC, it locks you out of ever connecting the bulb to a Hue hub ever again.

 

[MjnMixael]

Sounds like the light on your ceiling fan is probably on the same switch as your fan. Meaning- switch turns off, fan and light turn off. Switch turns on, fan and light turn on. But why does it take long to disconnect..
Am I missing something here ? Lol

I had that situation in one room of our house and wasn't going to tolerate it.. So I got up there and re-wired the thing so that the fan was always "powered on" and the lights were controlled by the switch. Then I used a Lutron Switch for the lights and the pull-chain for the fan.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Forget the ceiling fan, it doesn't really matter overall. The point is that my GE Link bulbs tend to lose connection to the hub when they are physically powered off for several days. I have other ones in lamps that do the same thing.

I think I'll try the Hue bulbs based on MBSMD's reply. Thanks!

You're really not supposed to kill power to smart bulbs for extended periods of time on a regular basis. I imagine that you're going to see the same results from other bulbs as well. For me, I only use smart bulbs in lamps and the lamps are always powered on and aren't really in danger of accidentally being powered off.

I agree with MjnMixael's advice - I'd rewire the fan.

 

[Wink22]

You're really not supposed to kill power to smart bulbs for extended periods of time on a regular basis. I imagine that you're going to see the same results from other bulbs as well. For me, I only use smart bulbs in lamps and the lamps are always powered on and aren't really in danger of accidentally being powered off.

I agree with MjnMixael's advice - I'd rewire the fan.

I agree with this.
All my smart bulbs are on Lamps. They have less of a chance of being physically turned off.
Well, now that i think about it, a certain someone in the house likes to turn off the lights before the automatic scheduled time to turn the lights off.

I do notice on the wink app that the light is in a disconnected state.
I simply go over to the lamp and turn it on and off so it comes back on..

I dont have to resync anything to the hub as to what i think toolfan was explaining.

 

[Wink22]

Id just like to take a moment and complain more about the relay.

They REALLY need to do something about this device.

My Relay automatically turn its self back to F temperature it seems once a week. If not once every 2 ish weeks.
I live in Canada and have it set to C

The WINK app did this as well before i got the Relay. so im assuming its server based..
The home screen should really be customizable to the user.
I would want all my lights to be my home page with the time and weather. Things like that..

I really hope WINK doesnt fold. It wouldnt be the biggest deal. But more importantly, id have a 50$ hub and 200$ Wink relay that wont work with another smart home product.
(obviously more concerned reusing the Relay, as the hub is piratically useless now anyways)

 

[toolfan]

This is a separate dome light in the room, not the light on the fan itself. Yes, ideally I'd have it re-wired so there would be separate switches for all three items (dome light, ceiling fan light, ceiling fan), or at least separate the dome light onto its own switch. In which case I wouldn't even need to use smart bulbs at all. Really I could just force the occupant of said bedroom to never touch the switch and instead control the fan + fan light via the pull cords, and the dome light via Wink. But this is one of my kids' rooms so I'm trying to make it as easy for her as possible.

Besides, now I'm kind of looking forward to playing around with the HomeKit integration of the Hue and seeing how well that works. How dare you guys try to talk me out of buying more gadgets! ;-)

 

[Tech_Greek]

You're really not supposed to kill power to smart bulbs for extended periods of time on a regular basis. I imagine that you're going to see the same results from other bulbs as well. For me, I only use smart bulbs in lamps and the lamps are always powered on and aren't really in danger of accidentally being powered off.

I agree with MjnMixael's advice - I'd rewire the fan.

My GE Link PAR38 in the bathroom above the tub gets turned off everyday (and aside from the annoying one light offline message) and they have been fine.

If you're flicking the power on and off quickly, you may reset the bulb, but I haven't done that one on accident yet.

 

[majunee]

This is a separate dome light in the room, not the light on the fan itself. Yes, ideally I'd have it re-wired so there would be separate switches for all three items (dome light, ceiling fan light, ceiling fan), or at least separate the dome light onto its own switch. In which case I wouldn't even need to use smart bulbs at all. Really I could just force the occupant of said bedroom to never touch the switch and instead control the fan + fan light via the pull cords, and the dome light via Wink. But this is one of my kids' rooms so I'm trying to make it as easy for her as possible.

Besides, now I'm kind of looking forward to playing around with the HomeKit integration of the Hue and seeing how well that works. How dare you guys try to talk me out of buying more gadgets! ;-)

Home Depot just started carrying today a wink enabled fan control module and remote...solved all your problems. Add the module to your fan and then they can use remote for the light/fan. Or add lutron remotes to control everything.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

My GE Link PAR38 in the bathroom above the tub gets turned off everyday (and aside from the annoying one light offline message) and they have been fine.

If you're flicking the power on and off quickly, you may reset the bulb, but I haven't done that one on accident yet.

I don't understand this use case - why would you put smart bulbs in a place where a light switch seems to be the main mode of control?

 

[MjnMixael]

Home Depot just started carrying today a wink enabled fan control module and remote...solved all your problems. Add the module to your fan and then they can use remote for the light/fan. Or add lutron remotes to control everything.

Le Wut. Source?

EDIT: Boom.

 

[Meanderthal]

The Home Depot near me has the PAR38 link bulbs on clearance for $6.93.

I wouldn't pay the $27 each that they were originally asking but I grabbed a couple at this price.

 

[GSter]

IndyColtsFan. I think I owe you an apology. I have taken the time to read many more threads and you are an amazing contributor to this forum.

I am sorry for my disparaging remarks. Probably just a little sensitive about the future of Wink. Cheers

 

[MjnMixael]

Got the go ahead to talk about this device. I've been using one for a few months and it's pretty dang awesome.

The install is a bit of bear because sometimes it's just not easy to get the device situated in the fan housing properly. But the integration with Wink is really great.

You can tell Wink if it has lights on it or not. You can set the speed and even set it to a "breeze" mode that spins the fan at various speeds a little randomly. You can also set a time so the fan runs for a set amount of time.

The remote, however, is not really wall mountable. So this is kind of a "smart bulb" version of a fan for those that have wall-switches for their ceiling fans. I don't have wall switches, so this gives me a remote and smart control. I just took the pull-chain off the fan completely because it's been 100% reliable. I'm pretty excited to get more of these and get the rest of my fans connected.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Got the go ahead to talk about this device. I've been using one for a few months and it's pretty dang awesome.

The install is a bit of bear because sometimes it's just not easy to get the device situated in the fan housing properly. But the integration with Wink is really great.

You can tell Wink if it has lights on it or not. You can set the speed and even set it to a "breeze" mode that spins the fan at various speeds a little randomly. You can also set a time so the fan runs for a set amount of time.

The remote, however, is not really wall mountable. So this is kind of a "smart bulb" version of a fan for those that have wall-switches for their ceiling fans. I don't have wall switches, so this gives me a remote and smart control. I just took the pull-chain off the fan completely because it's been 100% reliable. I'm pretty excited to get more of these and get the rest of my fans connected.

Is it Zigbee based?

 

[MjnMixael]

I'm actually not quite sure. The instructions that came with the product were very generic and looked possibly like they weren't the final version. They didn't say what protocol it used and I didn't think to check the device itself for any markings and I'm certainly not going to take my fan apart to find out!

When I first received the product, I looked online for others like it and found very similar items that claimed to be Bluetooth based. I also had trouble pairing it, originally, with my main hub which is on the other side of the house. I have Trippers on the opposite side of my house from the hub that work just fine... so if it is Zigbee, it's range is limited, which also made me think Bluetooth.

TLDR: I can't say for certain... which is a testament to the Wink Hub's interoperability. It doesn't really matter what protocol it uses. Unless of course you're hoping to use it with Smartthings.