Home automation : where do I start?

PCMag.com has an editors choice section and cover this stuff on there as far as comparing stuff. I know some folks who have Nest products and they like it. I have never messed with any of it though.

Your wink is bricked due to a security update that was rolled out a year or 2 ago. You can call wink support and get a shipping label for repair. I'd say go forward with getting it fixed. At the worst, you can sell the hub on ebay after it is repaired. Otherwise, the hub is a space filler

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On top of that the app is only designed for a phone and not a tablet (at least on android).

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Been running wink on an ancient Nexus 7 tablet for years.

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also interested in a good site for learning home automation 101

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we can help here. You need to come to the table with at least some idea of what you want to do. Anyone can buy a wifi bulb and control it with a phone and have "home automation".

Can you think through what types of things you want to automate and why?

wink and smartthings are really the only legitimate DIY hubs left.

outside of those you have vera (marginalized support), DIY zwave & zigbee dongles for a raspberry pi (plus you get the joy of trying to get all that shite working) and then there's google home/alexa/apple homekit which are at the moment all lacking basic zwave and zigbee which is most of what is out there.

so if you already have a wink, just start there.

still need some idea of what you're looking to automate and why

ok your head's in the right place.

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Initially I'd like to automate some exterior lighting with timers, interior lighting (dimmers, etc), garage door, entry locks, alarm, etc). Right now I have 2 different brand thermostats; so 2 different apps. As I automate a few other things, door locks, garage door opener, outlets, etc... I'm just adding to the app count. I also have a wemo and leviton outlets that I had connected to my wink hub when I first bought it.

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yep, well depending on which thermostats you own, the nice thing is wink will probably allow you to eliminate those other apps. the best part of wink is being a hub for all the stuff you have so you can string things together without being in app-hell.

i can tell you when you integrate with another api (ihome, honeywell, hue, nest, chamberlain) you are going to run into problems if you continue to use the native app and wink together. you need to commit to one or you're just making work for yourself.

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The wife is not tech savvy at all. I want a single, easy to use system that I can setup and teach her how to use. The more I look into wink, I see that it has improved since I last used it 2 years ago. I have just not had a good experience with them up to this point.

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ideally all the cool stuff you can control will fade into the background as you get it dialed in. my system has tons of things but unless i'm playing with the hue colors to piss off the SO or because i'm showing off while we're having a party, the day-to-day stuff is pretty much all handled without me having to do anything.

here's an example:

early morning - floodlights come on (sunrise-offset) for around 30 minutes then off so the kids can see to catch the bus, etc.

early morning - hvac turns heat up or ac down depending on the season so the house is comfortable

early morning - hall lights start to slowly get brighter as it gets later and kids need to be up and moving.

morning - den lights come on, living room lights come on

hue lights over the kitchen island changes to yellow then red as it gets closer to time to catch the bus. i have 2 different bus schedules and 4 island pendant lights so the first one is for the high school girl and the second one is for the 3rd grader.

mid morning - just about every light goes off around 9am

late afternoon - lamps in dining room come on dimmed, living room and den lights set the scene based on sunset offset

night - floodlights come on at 930 along with basement globe and off at 10:45 because my son gets home in that timeframe from his job and the entrance to his room is VERY dark the way our house is built so the globe light outside his door being on is great.

night - 1045 every light inside and outside get turned off, all doors are locked (if necessary)

midnight - heat goes WAY down or AC goes WAY up (and SO is asleep so she can't complain)

hue iris behind couch changes colors throughout the day (red early morning to purple, orange, magenta then blue later in the evening)

sensors

- hue lights all turn red if smoke alarm goes off
- hue light turns green when mail arrives, turns back white once someone pick the mail up
- back laundry door turns on the pool post light at the top of the hill by the bbq grill after dark because i rarely use that door unless i'm going to the pool on the boardwalk
- back door to screened porch turns on an exterior scone light, iHome outlet hooked to a lamp, quirky surge protector hooked to an overheard light and ikea boob light, and the backyard post light (different than pool post light)
- attic pulldowns turns on attic lights (we have 2)
- 3 gates in pool area alert me if someone opens them after its dark
- ceiling fan in living room comes on if it gets warmer than 70
- *coming soon, i hope..zwave blind motors to lower the blinds in the late afternoon because the living room turns into the surface of the sun in the summer because of 6 huge picture windows.


schedule

- pool pump comes on 3 different times for 2 hours each time to keep the water stirred
- hvac schedule (mentioned above)


i'm probably leaving out a few things, but as you can tell, none of what i listed above requires anyone to use the app to 'control' the lights.

what i've found:

- NO AUTOMATED BEDROOM LIGHTS. SO likes to set the mood and which lights she wants on

- NO AUTOMATED KITCHEN LIGHTS (outside of the hue color changing) because she likes to control which lights are one depending on when she's cooking.

- NO AUTOMATED LIGHTS IN KIDS ROOMS

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boob light

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Pics ?

Why can't the SO control the lights if they are automated ?

is robot Wink lingo for running a macro ?

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I have a Control 4 at home

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There is also no need to break the bank getting it setup in the first install.

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what is the entry price of control4?