re: Official WINK HUB Home Automation thread

I'll try that out tonight and post a pic.

But we've had nothing for the last year and a half...

hopefully its transparent enough that he can tape a bunch of michael jordan posters to a train set during christmas so the burglars think a party is going on.

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only took about 2 months of having a GF for that to change

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my wife is a damn exhibitionist. When the kids aren't around I can't get her to put on clothes.

Myq is a little $25 add on (if you've already purchased that unit) to control garage via wink or the Chamberlain app.

So yes. It will work and it's dumb they didn't include everything you need with that unit already.

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LSU5508

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YG (physical) M

sent you tracking number.

you got a steal on these things. i'm over my go control philanthropist stage. ;)

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you got a steal on these things. i'm over my go control philanthropist stage. ;)

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It better not have been window/door sensors that you didn't offer me, you son of a bitch.

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CAD703X

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YGM.

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Ziggy

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Even though I already thanked you through email I just want to say thanks again. Got a discount on blue iris and a decent poe injector so my total system cost me less than $250.

Man, I bet you have sensors falling out of your butthole.

I don't have yours but mine is td junkfunky @ gmail

Home Automation Level 1:
- Wow! The lightbulb/thermostat/lock actually paired with my hub/router/homebridge/google/alexa device

Home Automation Level 2:
- Cool, I can create a shortcut on my phone to turn the heat up or lock my door or turn a light (or grouped set of lights) off and on.

Home Automation Level 3:
- Neat, I can create a schedule to turn my lights on and off or change the thermostat

Home Automation Level 4:
- Awesome, I can create a robot/script that turns on the lights outside if i open the door ONLY if its dark outside and turn it off again 15 minutes later.



so to answer your questions

1. Shortcut turns your phone into a glorified remote control but can do more than just turn a light on or off, it might dim multiple lights and unlock your door for instance. Only useful as (a) 'training wheels' as you start to make your house 'smart' prior to creating schedules or robots or (b) for a tablet/wall-mounted touchscreen that you want to make available to wife or guests.

Shorcuts are awesome in the beginning as you start to 'learn' how you want to set your devices up.

2. I have between 25 and 50 schedules and robots.

Schedules work best with predictable patterns
- like lamps you want to always come on a half hour before sunset or shades you want to come down when the sun starts to come in
- to warm the house up in the mornings
- to turn your pool pump on periodically to swirl the water around. Wink also gives you the option to toggle schedules on and off which is nice because I have 5 different HEAT and 5 different COOL schedules for my thermostat and this avoids me having to edit or delete them depending on the time of year.

PRO TIP (a) put the time (7am den wakeup) in the schedule names so you don't wonder when a certain light is going off, (b) group your schedules by room, its far easier to modify them later if you keep your 7am den schedules separate from your 7am living room schedules and (c) keep a google sheet of your schedules and robots as they get more complex!!!!! once you have tons of lights being set to different DIM levels, colors, etc throughout the day you'll be sad if you ever lose your schedules and have to start over.

Robots work best when you want to trigger devices based off sensor data (which I should probably move my thermostat to eventually) or you want more complicated device control.

My favorite robots are
- my mailbox
- the one that 'shuts the house down for the night' locking doors, ensuring any errant light gets turned off,
- the 'my house is on fire' robot when the smoke detector goes off that turns all my lightbulbs red
- one that goes off if any of my pool gates open after dark (i have 3) so i can bust kids sneaking in


You do have to carefully plan your device names; this becomes more apparent as you add things that could cause confusion.

I use 'shouter' app on my android so wink notfications are spoken aloud ('wink says upper pool gate just opened') instead of just a dumb beep.

i use tasker and autovoice to trigger any shortcut or individual device on my phone so i can't speak to what alexa can or cant do.