re: Official WINK HUB Home Automation thread

CAD's cheap shades

(mctiger you knew this was coming)

OT delivers again with great cheap blinds websites!

ok after checking multiple sites and getting reviews, it appears the best value comes from steve's blinds and wallpaper.

they have their own 'in house' brand of shades and seems to be on par with bali or somfy, if not slightly better. the 14% 'transparency' provides the best 'view' yet still blocks out the sun.



one of their highest rated features is the butter-smooth pull chain* *more on this below.

i have 3 pretty big windows (42x72) and for a nice solar shade in my size, looking at $200 total plus another $100 for nice valances.

something along these lines:



LINK

Plus there are numerous discounts available right now to bring that price down even more. Once I've ordered them I'll come back with the final number.

i was looking at $530 *EACH* for Lutron Serena..the DIY version of lutron shades.

add their zwave controllers, and each shade is $650 or a whopping $1950 for all 3 windows!

Step 2: how to automate them. it appears i'm going to have to jump into a kickstarter, but this product seems to be at the right intersection of PRICE and FUNCTIONALITY:

MOVEZ Zwave blind control



i'm going to throw $144 their way for *THREE* zwave controllers. hopefully the smooth chains from these blinds above will contribute to a longer battery life..but it also appears you can use the solar piece for charging..or use 3 USB cables sitting around your house to hard-wire them.

So I'm getting out the door for well under $500 for 3 large smart shades.

i'll keep everyone posted on how this goes and if its a disaster i will be fully transparent.


eta here are my 3 'west facing' windows i'm going to start with

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CAD,

Where did you get the door handle on the last page. Cant seem to find it on the Schlage website. Would be perfect for my garage door

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i got the model # here

Matching Century Orbit Knobs

and went to ebay to buy because they're at least $10 cheaper than amazon.

Ebay

Because I didn't want it to have a lock, I just opted for the 'closet orbit knob' without any locking mechanism.

yes, replace the face/light all as one. it will not only look fresh/brand new but the light is sealed to the housing itself so it looks WAY WAY better than a can with a twisty light dangling in it.

i got the 2700k version.

Is the Lutron Maestro the only available switch that is a dual dimmer and fan control? I have 5 fans that a single switch turns on the lights and the fan. Fan speed is controlled at the fan. The Maestro appears to control both but needs a second part in the ceiling for the fan.

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calked the hell out of the current cans

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WTF. So you're stuck with yellowing old faceplates or risk having to redo the ceiling around them?

That sucks. The new Cree and commercial electric kits make your cans look brand new.

Eta you can't carefully cut the caulk around the edge?

Eta2 if you try that and frick something up don't blame me please!

I know all the information is probably in this thread, but maybe someone can help me out here.

I want to automate my home, maybe some lights, garage door, thermostat... But the most important thing is a home security system. I want a wireless home security system to give the gf peace of mind while I'm not there.

Is the wink hub the place to start? Can I hook alarms up to it? What's the best place to buy this stuff? Amazon? Do local places carry it?

Eta:I know this has probably been covered. Just looking for a couple quick responses or maybe some links to buy what I need. Thanks.

There are a few options that have been discussed. Home Depot has something called go control. It's a set of sensors that attach to different things. Windows/Doors with an internal motion detector and Siren. It works with wink. All wireless and can be linked through wink for on phone alerts. Cad knows more about this.

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Is this one that you would recommend?

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for a simple DIY home alarm, motion detection it doesn't get much cheaper. those zwave sensors will work with just about any smart hub that supports the zwave radio standard which is a fairly generic home automation standard that just about everyone except google, amazon and apple support. :/

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If I buy the relay, do I need the hub too?

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i honestly don't think you want the relay. i'd get the hub..or better yet, wait for the v2 hub thats coming out in the next week or so if you're going wink.

the nice thing is, even if you hate wink, the zwave sensors work with other systems, so you can take the hub back to home depot, get a full refund, and try a different system if you want. you'd just have to re-pair the units with the new hub you buy.

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Thanks for the info. If there are better units for more money, I'm ok with that.

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i'll let tigerwise answer that. its been my experience you either get the $50 go control alarm or you're looking at hundreds if not thousands of dollars for a 'higher end' system. there may be a middle ground but the go control set provides a nice sampling of motion detectors (that also report temperature which is nice), door/window sensors & the alarm is loud as shite and has a strobe-mode.

i have a door sensor attached to my mailbox which is 130 feet from the hub and it hasn't had any problems getting the signal so you've got pretty good range with these.

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What will the new hub offer over the current one. I'll probably waot regardless.

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once you start geeking out on home automation (its a slippery slope) you'll start to get annoyed by delays in turning things on/off with your phone because until now, pretty much every system uses the cloud for the processing so that means you are actually sending the command to WINK.COM, then it routes the signal back to your hub.

stupid? yeah, but for some reason every off-the-shelf system works this way and the DIY solutions require alot more work.

having said that, the new v2 hub moves most if not all control local, with the cloud serving as more of a backup than your primary brain for sending commands to your devices.

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Why do you like wink over others?

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you done it now! i like wink's UI, i like where they're going with the new hub, i like the # of products supported and i really like how the robots (just a bunch of if...then statements) for more complex control of devices works.

i dont hate other systems, i just haven't personally found one with less problems.

- nest's REVOLV hub was taken off the market
- connected by tcp went belly-up
- staples connect was deep-sixed
- samsung's smartthings is a decent competitor and if you are using that system already, i think its fairly close feature-wise.

google home, apple homekit and echo are all partial solutions that 'tap into' a hub with multiple standards supported. in other words, you won't get much from those hubs. you'll still need a brain because inexplicably they don't support the basic radios out of the box (lutron, zigbee and zwave) and that means you can't buy a $15 smart bulb or $10 door sensor for your pricey google home and control it.

other honorable mentions:
- lutron hub (but it only works with their stuff so you still need a smart hub to add other devices)
- philips hue system (pricey, but they integrate with wink & smartthings)
- LIFX bulbs are wifi but rqeuire their own app
- lowes iris (honestly have yet to know of anyone who actually has this)
- vera is an older HA system but pricey and haven't heard much from them lately...also cloud-based
- C by GE are shitty bulbs that support bluetooth using a shitty app and until they work with a hub i will shite on their shitty product because i spent my shitty money on it
- raspberry pie - roll your own. you just need a little PC and you can buy the radios as usb add-ons for this but i don't have the time to build my own