re: Let's talk home automation doo-dads. What do you really need WiFi enabled?

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BamaChick

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First things first frick you.

OK now that's out of the way I would NOT but the WINK for husband right now. From everything I've read the reason it's so cheap is because it's a nightmare to get working.. at least for now. Just wait until they either work out the bugs or release a v2 of the hub that isn't so finicky.

You don't want to leave a bad taste in your husband's mouth because you'll never talk him into doing this later on.

Ok nw that i just read your last post, looks like you have turned a complete 180 on the WINK.

I just got the HD deal to test it out. I have a Control4 system at my house that i got a great deal on even though it still is in another ballpark as this stuff. But as you probably can tell from me, is that i like to have control of my own stuff. Sucks having to get a C4 contractor to add fix stuff. Even though my laptop has the control 4 software and I can connect to my unit.

First off, Im going to set up the wink and try to control as much of my stuff as the C4 Unit. One of the only problems i see is my whole home stereo unit.

Is the WINK platform setup yet to control IR emitters to turn on/off tv and control direct TV? My receiver is controlled via the network by the C4 unit. This is my favorite think about the C4. i also like the i can control everything from one interface. I can press watch TV and tv turns on, DTV turns on, receiver turns on and goes to the DTV input. I have a feeling the WINK system isnt setup for all this yet.

i will, i bought it just now.

this is why you don't listen to me.

The Chamberlain is $99 and doesn't need wink. It has its own app.

If you got a wink you're good to go for the lights and 3rd party products. All wink does is consolidate all this in one app so you can manage scenes and macros in a single app.

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this is why you don't listen to me.

The Chamberlain is $99 and doesn't need wink. It has its own app.

If you got a wink you're good to go for the lights and 3rd party products. All wink does is consolidate all this in one app so you can manage scenes and macros in a single app.

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so do you still need the full chamberlain to control your garage? is the WINK able to control that yet?

Yes, you need the chamberlain and no, wink is just a hub that has multi wireless radios in it for all the different type of wireless products on the market. If you want your garage door integrated into your network, you need a controller to acomplish that like the myq. But you can use the hub and wink app to consolidate all your networked devices into one nice UI/app instead of whatever software comes independent with each device.

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So the WINK app can control the chamberlain module.

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Yep. Myq has its own app but wink can also connect via shared api from Chamberlain.

Myq has been around long enough that I opted for it over what quirky is offering in the spring.. Plus it's on sale right now.

I set my schlage zwave deadbolt up today.. On the pro side it's awesome because I had a problem out of the box and their customer service was on the phone with me within 30 seconds of calling and we figured out the issue in about 3 minutes.. In fact she was so helpful she offered to stay on the line and help me set up my access codes and stuff.

Turns out it just needed a factory reset and that fixed it
...lol saying my deadbolt needed a factory reset sounds like the very definition of first world problems.

On the con side it seems the zwave tech REQUIRES a hub to work.. It won't just connect to your WiFi like I thought.

We had sick kids last night so I haven't set up hub or myq yet but I should have that up in the next day or so and I'll post again with everything connected.

Awesome! I hope to set mine up today as well. My garage door always seems to be a pain to set up even with homelink so I hope that code programming doesn't take forever.

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where did yall buy the MyQ from?

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i got mine at target; it was on sale for $99 (still is) and i had a 15% off coupon from our baby registry + 5% off by using their RED card which made it $79 and hard to refuse at nearly 1/2 off the normal $129.

LINK

its still on sale at home depot for $99 and you can use the $5 off by using paypal and save a little.

LINK

eta also $99 at amazon and if you don't get charged sales tax (i do in TN) that might be the best deal right now

LINK

does your garage have photo eyes? myQ (for safety reasons) won't work through the app/remote without them

LINK

also, how is your wifi signal in the garage? it should be ok with 1-2 bars and if you're getting the beeps, then it seems like it got the message but something else is amiss.

eta just saw this too:

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If you are using the MyQ app to control the garage door and the door is not responsive, you can try:

Slide the MyQ Garage off the bracket and rotate the MyQ Garage 180 degrees and slide back onto the bracket.
Relocate the MyQ Garage 6-12 inches farther away from the garage door opener.

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