integrating with wink

[LGNilsson]

We'll try to add support for as many of their sensors/devices as we can, but there'll be things that we can't support, like the 433MHz stuff.

I have a Wink hub on my desk and yesterday I tried updating the firmware and considering I used to test hardware for a living for many years, this was easily one of the worst experiences I've ever had.
It started with a red flashing light for about 15 minutes and then another half an hour with a solid red light and nothing seemed to happen.
In the end, I chanced it and rebooted it and the app told me to update the firmware again... this time it did work though and only took about 10 minutes.

In as much as I don't want to throw stones in a glass house, as we have plenty of issues of our own, this is not something you want to go through. We've spent a lot of time and resources on making sure we will be able to avoid these kind if issues when it comes to firmware updates and it should be pretty solid by the time we release R070.

The other thing I don't understand is how the Wink guys figured it was a good idea to not have a reset button, in fact, I was told by their support team (yes, I had to contact their support in the past) that they don't need one... I have to say that the person I talked to was very nice and patient and I have no complaints about their support.

Just my two cents from a personal perspective, please note that this doesn't represent the opinion of Securifi.

[mparadis]

Lars I agree with your sentiments here. I think I read an article just in the last few days were the CEO or president mentioned they rushed the Wink out to get it into market knowing it wasn't ready. It was evident IMMEDIATELY when trying to use one. I think they have two advantages. One they are selling at Home Depot and two they are backed, at least partly, by GE. That provides the capital to do things like sell it for $.99 when you buy two other items and provides the feeling of security to customers that the brand / technology etc is there to last. In the end it hurts the home automation market in some ways, making it seem unreliable and possibly unrealistically cheap, and helps in others by getting people more interested in HA. Just a couple of my cents. I considered selling one of my Wink hubs to pay for some other sensors once they were no longer on sale but based on pricing I'd get like half a light switch...  . I may keep one around so I can use it to upgrade firmware on their sensors when it is needed.

[matthew7899]

I bought a ton of GE Link light bulbs (60) and did it when they were doing to promo for the hub, so I had 30 hubs.  My plan was to sell them on ebay and recoup some of the cost of the LED bulbs.  I have sold all of them except 5, and will probably be done by the end of next week.

I didn't even open any of them at first since I had the A+ to use for the automation.  After selling about 15, I had two people report back that they had issues setting it up.  I researched online and tried to give them some suggestions to no avail.  I had them return them and thought it had to be something they were doing and began trying it myself...I couldn't get it to work (Lars, the one I had has a reset button to the left of the power cord).  After being unsuccessful, I decided to open one of the new ones I had...it setup with no issues. 

My guess is that they have a few duds out there and if you have any issues at all (besides making sure you're connecting to a 2.4ghz channel and using the correct security settings on the router or no security at all) then just wrap it all up and return it for another one.

I had plans on rooting one, but haven't had the time to devote to doing it.  One of the guys that bought one from me did and he's pretty satisfied...doesn't require an internet connection to work.

Just thought I'd pass along my experience...

Matt

[mparadis]

THAT IS SOOOO MANY LIGHT BULBS, I honestly don't think I could do that many. Did you replace all your switches too or just using the app to control all of your lighting?

[LGNilsson]

Lars, the one I had has a reset button to the left of the power cord

Oh, there's a button, but all it does is power cycle the hub, it doesn't do a reset...

Did you connect all 60 bulbs to your Almond+? 

[rldreams]

Matthew ,I wish I'd gone your route and just gotten the GE bulbs. Although I have no clue where I would use 60 bulbs. I bought 2 of the Wink Spotters to get my $1 hub. 

 Then bought a bunch of TCP bulbs ( since they were on the same display as compatible, which of course I found out was not true. You need to have the TCP hub and Greenwave account, the Wink app just links to your TCP/Greenwave account .  I have about 20 now between GE and TCP and that pretty much covers the house as far as every socket that can accept an A19 bulb. I do wish somebody would come out with a smart bulb with the smaller E12 candelabra base.

Then I bought 2 of the Honeywell "wink compatible " WiFi thermostats to once again find out that they in no way connect to the Wink. You link your Honeywell connect account in Wink App and Wink will display the current temp ( best part of this is the app shows an average of all your linked thermostats and all other temp sensors. So mine usually showed between 40* and 60* ANY ATTEMPT to change the set temp through Wink app is sent through Honeywell connect as a PERMANENT change. Wink logs also showed that Wink just loved to randomly adjust the temp ( as I mentioned in earlier post ) and yes those were sent to thermostat as a permanent change. IMPO the random temperature changes probably had to do with Wink averaging all temps, so it raised my thermostats to 80* in the attempt to make up for the outdoor temp sensors reading 20*.

Wink support was fairly good at the beginning. In September I got a notification that they were sending me one of the yet to be released (at the time) Wink Relays to Beta test for them before they were released in Nov/Dec. Then it seems in late October (about the time their "cute" robot ads started airing)  they apparently made a conscious corporate decision to just bury their heads in the sand and deny any and all customer issues.  By late November you saw several user forums about Wink issues suddenly disappear from the web.  I never did get my Relay to play with.

I will admit that my experience with Wink gave me serious thought and doubts about investing my time and money in A+. If a company with a wallet as deep as GE and Home Depot can't make a reliable product ,what hope was there for Securifi ? I missed out on the Kickstarter, but followed along in the forum, Facebook ,and updates about all the delays in going to market.

  The big factor in my decision to invest, was Securifi's consistent admission that they know there are issues and are working on them. They don't want a product that doesn't work.  Something Wink stopped doing after about 3 months. The fact I had already invested thousands of dollars in supposedly Wink enabled products that I couldn't use helped too.

 As long as Securifi keeps acknowledging issues and promising to be working on a solution, I will continue to support them.  I have no problems Beta testing, but when a company pushes a product out knowing it is a Beta release, then stops supporting it and ignoring customer issues, then I have a problem.

[matthew7899]

THAT IS SOOOO MANY LIGHT BULBS, I honestly don't think I could do that many. Did you replace all your switches too or just using the app to control all of your lighting?

I initially only bought 4 bulbs and got the 2 penny hubs from Amazon, I immediately posted the Hubs on ebay and sold them for $35 before even receiving them in the mail!  So I got all excited and tried to find more, amazon was sold out but Home depot online had a ton...so I ran around the house counting all of our light bulbs and made a $1000 gamble!!  My plan was to sell the hubs and if all i ended up with was the LED bulbs, i'd be happy....after all is said and done I think I'll have paid ~$5 per bulb!  Which I thought was worth it for just an LED bulb not to mention the home automation potential.

As I got the bulbs in, I setup every single one to the A+ (took a long time!), but found that since I hadn't bought any switches all I could use was the phone app to control them...not very convenient.  I removed all of the bulbs when I setup the Wink, I had a moment of silence when I did it because it had taken SO long to set them all up.

After deciding to try the Wink, I've found that it's able to setup multiple bulbs at once...much easier than the A+ setup initially (not sure if its changed since the 69cb release).  I also like the ability to group bulbs with the Wink hub.

I was also able to pick up 2 "spotter" sensors at Home depot for $29/ea but haven't messed with those yet...now that I have the Wink setup I will probably set them up to try out the robots.

I'll keep messing with the Wink until the A+ automation gets better and then ultimately shift back over to the A+ since it doesn't lag like the Wink does when turning lights on/off.

[LGNilsson]

@rldreams - Doing home automation isn't as easy as it looks, even the guys that have been in this game the longest, i.e. Vera/MiOS, did some really bad mistakes when they updated their software platform and got a lot flack from their users.

We're working on the logic of how some things should work still and it can be really tricky to get that right and at the same time easy to use.
I do kind of feel for Wink at times, but if what you said is true, then that was a poor choice on their side. Hopefully they'll get that part sorted out, as they seem like an otherwise decent company.

[mparadis]

@matthew7899 when I initially picked up a wink hub I got two spotters, they are / were awful. Constantly misreporting, failing to report, disconnecting, reporting dead batteries. Did not work at all. Waited a bit (hoping GE bulbs would be out soon) and finally returned and picked up GE bulbs at the same time and a couple hubs. I hear they have new customizable spotters coming out that allow you to pick what sensors you want and can include a switch / button of some kind. If they work like the old ones they also wouldn't be worth it to me.

[matthew7899]

I setup one of the spotters and completely agree with you.  I was also trying to setup a robot and was wanting to use the spotter as a trigger for a light and have the light shutoff so many minutes after it sensed motion...I don't think it's possible with the current software.

@matthew7899 when I initially picked up a wink hub I got two spotters, they are / were awful. Constantly misreporting, failing to report, disconnecting, reporting dead batteries. Did not work at all. Waited a bit (hoping GE bulbs would be out soon) and finally returned and picked up GE bulbs at the same time and a couple hubs. I hear they have new customizable spotters coming out that allow you to pick what sensors you want and can include a switch / button of some kind. If they work like the old ones they also wouldn't be worth it to me.

[mparadis]

I don't use wink at all. I do use almond+ a lot  . I think I mentioned already I'm going to keep a wink hub to update firmware on my wink branded sensors when necessary.