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Started By
Message
1
Posted on 5/19/15 at 10:05 am to lsugrad35
quote:
Well I. Did. Not. Know that...so I'm sorry!
just letting you know that not everything you buy necessarily has to connect to the wink app.
was directed to people in general and the dropcam is a hot button with me because its such an overpriced POS.
Posted on 5/19/15 at 10:08 am to CAD703X
I value your knowledge and info. I literally don't know anything about this other than what I've read from you. I just want to blow money on cool stuff. You are a gentleman and a scholar 
Posted on 5/19/15 at 10:18 am to CAD703X
So Cad, when you have a sec, give us a rundown on what does work with WINK. The thread has watered and it's hard to know.
I get "confused" with things like my Vivint security, which offers ac control and door locks and some lights I think. Would I still use the WINK? Would it included my Vivint functions?
Thanks for all your knowledge
I get "confused" with things like my Vivint security, which offers ac control and door locks and some lights I think. Would I still use the WINK? Would it included my Vivint functions?
Thanks for all your knowledge
Posted on 5/19/15 at 12:52 pm to CAD703X
quote:
there's no real logical reason you need to control your webcam from wink.
I'll give you a logical, but probably seldom used reason. If you want to set a robot to change the position of your camera or if you want to use the motion sensing feature of the camera to trip a robot. Maybe "between the hours of midnight at 5 am, if the camera pointing at the driveway senses movement, turn on the kitchen light for 20 minutes."
Posted on 5/19/15 at 1:26 pm to GeeOH
quote:
give us a rundown on what does work with WINK. The thread has watered and it's hard to know.
the wink hub is nothing but a collection of wifi/lofi radios (bluetooth, zwave, zigbee, wifi, etc) so ideally just about anything should work with it that can be connected.
the reality is the shitty programmers at wink have been given marching orders to 'limit' how the app works and not provide options for various features and adding 'generic zwave' devices etc.
because they are constantly changing their mind on this and i dont have the dozens and dozens of doo-dads personally, its almost impossible to keep track of what works and how.
for instance, you could base an action off a GE link bulb turning off at a certain time every night. i set my door look & other stuff to lock based on the light bulb going off at 11pm because wink refused to allow you to schedule the schlage lock on a schedule
it gets better, within a day of me posting on the wink forums this workaround, they updated the app and removed this functionality.
to show i'm not crazy, the robot i built still works, but i cant edit or create a new one now.
so to answer your question, if your vivint security locks & lights are generic zwave devices, its entirely possible they can be added..but no guarantees.
if wink would support IFTT it would be a whole lot better but of course..open standard! run away! the entire wink platform will go to hell if they support IFTT
This post was edited on 5/19/15 at 1:36 pm
Posted on 5/19/15 at 1:32 pm to CubsFanBudMan
quote:
I'll give you a logical, but probably seldom used reason. If you want to set a robot to change the position of your camera or if you want to use the motion sensing feature of the camera to trip a robot. Maybe "between the hours of midnight at 5 am, if the camera pointing at the driveway senses movement, turn on the kitchen light for 20 minutes."
oh there are definitely uses for this..my problem is that you've mentioned several moving parts
lets take your scenario apart so i can explain what would need to happen for that to work inside wink:
a) wink needs to add a 'schedule' option for the camera widget to look for activty from x to y hours
b) wink needs to support motion detection/movement grid like the native foscam for detecting movement including developing a UI to present the 'grid overlay' for you to select the area of movement and sensitivity
c) wink needs to support the 'take 5 photos over 10 seconds' or 'start recording' ioncluding an option for writing that to a connected hard drive or NAS or even to the cloud for storage.
d) wink needs to support an email client service so it can then send you the photos as soon as it grabs them (just a notification is only half the picture) :rimshot:
e) wink needs to support the camera as a 'triggering event' for the robots so you can set an action such as 'turn on lights' as an outcome
in short, while you have a perfectly reasonable request there, wink is never going to recreate all of those features for one little product in their app.
those features are all native to the actual camera app (foscam viewer) and will work more effectively since foscam actually has to maintain and keep their app working for their ONE product.
eta the only thing you lose by using the foscam app is the ability to turn on the lights automatically but if foscam adds support for IFTTT then this is a moot point entirely.
This post was edited on 5/19/15 at 1:40 pm
Posted on 5/19/15 at 2:16 pm to CAD703X
Have there been any more developments on the root front?
Posted on 5/21/15 at 8:13 am to CAD703X
quote:
wink refused to allow you to schedule the schlage lock on a schedule
This is a little annoying. The WINK app is infinitely better than it was 6 months ago.
I finally got MyQ garage door controller installed and working with WINK. Next up is my Leviton light switch and eventually another door lock and smoke/CO2 detectors.
Foscam is on the way, but I'll use the native app for that one.
Posted on 5/21/15 at 9:29 am to seawolf06
Update on my Smart home.
Winkhub
8 Cooper Smart Dimmers
5 Leviton Z-Wave Controls Receptacle
Nest Thermostat
MyQ Garage.
2 GE Link Lights.
I can't say enough about the Cooper dimmers. They deliver. Especially compared to the GE Link Lights. The dimmers are easy to install, always online and communicate great with the wink hub. This also goes for the Leviton receptacles. Even installed one outside and haven't had any issues with it.
My Nest has had some issues. I believe it is because my HVAC unit is pretty old. Had some issues with it going to delayed cycle constantly. I returned 2 and now its been working for the past 3 months. Almost went with the honeywell thermostat on my second return. I will say Nest has great customer service.
MyQ garage has worked great. I do wish it would communicate faster but I am sure that will update in time.
GE Link Lights. Meh, save for some dimmers.
On deck I have the Fujikam FI-361 HD IP camera. Found it on sale with great reviews.
LINK
Carry on.
Winkhub
8 Cooper Smart Dimmers
5 Leviton Z-Wave Controls Receptacle
Nest Thermostat
MyQ Garage.
2 GE Link Lights.
I can't say enough about the Cooper dimmers. They deliver. Especially compared to the GE Link Lights. The dimmers are easy to install, always online and communicate great with the wink hub. This also goes for the Leviton receptacles. Even installed one outside and haven't had any issues with it.
My Nest has had some issues. I believe it is because my HVAC unit is pretty old. Had some issues with it going to delayed cycle constantly. I returned 2 and now its been working for the past 3 months. Almost went with the honeywell thermostat on my second return. I will say Nest has great customer service.
MyQ garage has worked great. I do wish it would communicate faster but I am sure that will update in time.
GE Link Lights. Meh, save for some dimmers.
On deck I have the Fujikam FI-361 HD IP camera. Found it on sale with great reviews.
LINK
Carry on.
Posted on 5/21/15 at 9:53 am to BooneTrails
Sell me on this stuff. I honestly don't know how I would use any home automation. I wouldn't want to ALWAYS turn off lights when I leave or at a certain time because the rest of the family may be still home, etc. I plan on getting a MyQ for the garage door and a Nest or Honeywell thermostat along with a (thanks to CAD) Foscam to use as a baby monitor. Each of these has their own applications which offer more functionality, so why would I need WINK? What do you all use it for?
Posted on 5/21/15 at 11:21 am to MyNameIsInigoMontoya
Wink is just selling the concept of a single app that can control all those technologies and let you build little scripts for them to interact together.....
... In theory.....
IN THEORY...
the truth is that because of Netflix-like licensing deals with all the 3rd party manufacturers and Wink's incompetence at building their own smart doodads what should have been slam dunk easy... Everything can be a trigger and everything can be scheduled is a complicated mess of 'what can this widget do' and 'how can I work around this limitation'.
... In theory.....
IN THEORY...
the truth is that because of Netflix-like licensing deals with all the 3rd party manufacturers and Wink's incompetence at building their own smart doodads what should have been slam dunk easy... Everything can be a trigger and everything can be scheduled is a complicated mess of 'what can this widget do' and 'how can I work around this limitation'.
This post was edited on 5/21/15 at 11:23 am
Posted on 5/21/15 at 11:59 am to CAD703X
For the life of me I can't figure out if Cad likes or dislikes WINK.
So I'll try one more time.
Cad, I have a nice home. I have 4 kids. Right now, I have a Vivint alarm. It controls nothing but aalarm system, smoke detectors, etc
I have 2 regular thermostats. I have regular door locks. And I have a 3 car garage with openers controlled manually and thru car system.
Basically, I have NO automation but want to move forward. All I know is Vivint offers thermostats and door locks that can be controlled thru WiFi and an app on my phone should I decide. I'm pretty sure they can do some lights as well, but not sure. He'll, there may be a camera function as well to view on phone app? (you can check their site).
Is WINK something for me?
So I'll try one more time.
Cad, I have a nice home. I have 4 kids. Right now, I have a Vivint alarm. It controls nothing but aalarm system, smoke detectors, etc
I have 2 regular thermostats. I have regular door locks. And I have a 3 car garage with openers controlled manually and thru car system.
Basically, I have NO automation but want to move forward. All I know is Vivint offers thermostats and door locks that can be controlled thru WiFi and an app on my phone should I decide. I'm pretty sure they can do some lights as well, but not sure. He'll, there may be a camera function as well to view on phone app? (you can check their site).
Is WINK something for me?
Posted on 5/21/15 at 3:46 pm to GeeOH
quote:
Is WINK something for me?
From where I sit, wink isn't currently for anyone, but the concept is for everyone. Don't let 1 piece (wink) defer you from enhancing the functionality of your home.
I currently have home automation through 4 apps/websites, and none of them talk to each other. I have the MyQ system in my house for the garage door, and a couple of light switches. I have a Honeywell wifi thermostat. I have an internet module on my alarm system. I have some foscam cameras. The great idea behind wink is that it combines all of the current protocols of home automation into 1 hub. Theoretically you could open 1 app and "talk" to every device. You can also set "robots" in that app to trigger other devices.
In my situation, a theoretical robot would be, when I leave work, I activate a robot that adjusts my thermostat. 20 minutes later it turns on my front porch light. When it detects me within 200 feet from my house, it opens my garage door. When I pull into my driveway it turns off my alarm. If I had the wifi locks, it could unlock the door too.
The fact that wink won't do all of that for me hasn't stopped me from installing those devices. The main question I would consider is, does Vivint charge extra for you to be able control those devices? Do you have to by the devices through them, and if so, how much extra would they cost?
My current impression of wink is that someone came up with a great idea, then got bought out by Home Depot. They are getting paid to "limit" the functionality of the device. Since it is based one the Android platform, and prior firmware versions have been able to be rooted, there's a possibility of 3rd party enhancements. I got in cheap, and am not dependent on the wink hub to enjoy the functionality of my smart devices.
I don't know anything about Vivint, but I would factor in the possibility of them going out of business and what would happen to their wifi service if they did.
Posted on 5/22/15 at 1:17 pm to CAD703X
Alright, I bit. Just ordered the Wink hub, (4) GE A19 lights, 2 Kidde fire & co detectors, and the Honeywell touchscreen thermostat.
Posted on 5/22/15 at 2:27 pm to TheWiz
The main reason that I got the light switch instead of the bulbs is that the bulbs are still reliant upon leaving the light switch on all of the time. If someone turns the switch off, the bulbs are useless.
Posted on 5/22/15 at 2:36 pm to seawolf06
quote:
the bulbs are still reliant upon leaving the light switch on
I was planning to put these in lamps around the house. I was under the impression they would work best for that. I assumed I would have to leave the lamps in the on position. Is that wrong?
Posted on 5/22/15 at 2:42 pm to TheWiz
quote:
I was planning to put these in lamps around the house. I was under the impression they would work best for that. I assumed I would have to leave the lamps in the on position. Is that wrong?
Exactly right, the bulbs are perfect for a lamp or fixture that can stay on and has one bulb. I have them in a few lamps and the fixture at my front door, so I can turn the light on and see on my camera at the door without actually going to the switch by the door.
Posted on 5/22/15 at 2:48 pm to ithad2bme
Damn, forgot about the front door. I'll just snag some at Home Depot. It won't be here until Tues or Wed anyway.
Posted on 5/22/15 at 3:46 pm to ithad2bme
quote:
Exactly right, the bulbs are perfect for a lamp or fixture that can stay on and has one bulb.
That makes sense, thanks.
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