Is this product dead? Should I write off my investment and move on?

[camrunr]

I'm a backer, but I only recently started playing with the HA features. Over the weekend I took everything off my Micasa Verde Lite and added them all to the Almond+. I think it's a very promising system. The interface is nice. The rule capabilities are a little thin, but I'm hoping they expand that some, and open up an API to allow things like IFTTT, Amazon Echo, Apple HomeKit, etc. I'm in no rush -- IoT as a whole still has some maturing to do.

As a home automation hub: 6/10 (with potential and hope!)

As a wireless access point: 9/10

I have not used it as a router/firewall, so I can't comment there, but the system it's based on, OpenWRT, has a good rep.

[ihaveworms]

So I ended up writing it off and ordered a smartthings v2 yesterday. I have been having some wireless issues ever since I had 4 different hard-wired Ethernet devices plugged into the router so even that is having issues now.

[d.kiran]

So I just bought this product on Amazon, and I am a bit worried reading the comments in this forum.  I am basically wanting a powerful AC router with long range, and the touch screen seems like a nice feature.  I am concerned, however, that the added expense here ($194 for a router is quite a bit) is going to be wasted, as most of you are saying that its function as a "smart hub" are not really production-ready.  I suppose I will give it a try, and if I don't like it after a week, I will return it.  I appreciate all of you commenting here and caring enough to inform prospective buyers.

To be honest, it is not as bad as some people here like to say. I am on the beta firmware which is promising, but will not be everything that everyone's looking for but is extremely stable and I have not had any real problems with it.

I have about 8 devices connected via ethernet and switches, 17-20 Wifi Devices (including laptops phone TV sticks etc), 8 Z-wave devices, 6 Zigbee devices in a fairly large house.

I am at a point where I am able to most of what I need to do. The time part of the rules work well. Occasionally, I would need to edit the cron jobs manually (for a rule to run every 10 mins for instance).

I don't know when Securifi plans to release the final firmware, but I would suggest sticking with it.

[TheLostSwede]

So I ended up writing it off and ordered a smartthings v2 yesterday. I have been having some wireless issues ever since I had 4 different hard-wired Ethernet devices plugged into the router so even that is having issues now.

Good luck, my experience being part of a Samsung test program is that the SmartThings V2 is a piece of junk. It doesn't even find my WeMo switch, which it's supposed to work with. You have to use their very confusing web UI to add support for certain types of devices (like the WeMo) and at least in the UK, the device support is next to zero outside of the latest generation of sensors and devices from SmartThings/Samsung. In fact, I think I have an option to add about 20 devices, that's it and that includes the Hue hub. I also find managing things and creating rules via an app super unproductive and fiddly, especially as their logic is anything by logical. I'm honestly surprised at how they've become one of the major players. I hope you have a better experience than me, but so far I haven't found a single home automation platform that lives up to being easy to use with a good UI/app, offer support for a wide range of devices/sensors and that doesn't rely on a cloud service for all of its features.

Was playing around with a Zipato Zipamini today and it's been mind numbing to figure out some things. The UI is far from logical and when you find your devices located under a magnifying glass icon, the UI needs some serious work. Their logic for creating rules isn't bad, as it's a lot like Scratch from MIT, but you're doing all this in the "cloud" and then you have to sync the data with the gateway which takes a few minutes, even on a fast internet connection. It's also very time consuming to do, due to the poorly designed UI. On the upside it seems like at least their app does things locally when it's on the same network as the gateway, but it's just as limited as the Almond app, if not more so.

Wink has just been terrible in my experience and I don't get their app at all. The new Vera is zero improvement on the old hardware or software and although it has a lot of advanced features, what good are they when you can't figure out how to use most of them? I've also played with the Fibaro Home Center Lite and their firmwares are about as stable as not at all. A lot of the time it's not even possible to pair sensors and you have to reboot the gateway to add another sensors.

Just some things to keep in mind, as it seems like there's no such thing as a great solution out there today, at least not one I've used so far.

[Mishakim]

... You have to use their very confusing web UI to add support for certain types of devices (like the WeMo) ...

The thing is, it may not be elegant, but it exists, and it works. You can use that web UI, to add support for anything. Maybe the device selection is poor in UK, but there are tons of people in the SmartThings community developing support for their devices. If someone else hasn't done it, you can do it yourself, and the community is vibrant and eager to help. If the native support for a given product isn't quite right, you can change it yourself, and someone in the community probably already has. They got the Securifi key fob to work in about a week, with zero documentation. SmartThings' own rules engine is limited, but a community member wrote a better one and it's available for everyone to use. It works with Harmony and Amazon's Echo out of the box.

[TheLostSwede]

If someone else hasn't done it, you can do it yourself

No, I can't, I'm not a programmer and to be frank, I don't understand how most of the stuff in their web UI is supposed to work. I can't even get their so called WeMo Smart App to work, so imho it's quite dumb.  For a company with the kind of funding they have, this is embarrassing imho.

[obmd1]

I think the wemo smart app, working flawlessly for me since I jumped to smart things two months ago, was disabled by Belkin. The switch I have on that platform has been "offline" for a week. No matter, since their switch was a clunky mess anyway. More Ebay-ware. While the disappointment you may have with ST is reasonable, to put that reaction in the same universe as the complete dumpster fire that securifi is isn't really accurate. There is a community of helpful people, helpful responsive and knowledgeable people, and promise of future growth, both organic and company lead. Securifi has Ashook, poor soul. I've built out three times aas many sensors and switches in a 5th the time with ST as I could ever with A+, and my replacement router is faster and more reliable. Amazon should drop this like a moldy potato.

[Mishakim]

...There is a community of helpful people, helpful responsive and knowledgeable people, and promise of future growth, both organic and company lead. Securifi has Ashook, poor soul. I've built out three times aas many sensors and switches in a 5th the time with ST as I could ever with A+, and my replacement router is faster and more reliable. Amazon should drop this like a moldy potato.

Exactly this -- if you really can't code, but want something created, you could post the problem to ST's forums and someone would probably help you out, because someone else probably has the same needs. The point is, it's open and documented, you don't need to pay for a dev kit, or sign an NDA, or anything. Just buy the hub, and you're good to go. Yes, it's designed by programmers and they assume you get their mind-set, but that's just a learning curve, not a brick wall of closed systems and absent owners.

[TheLostSwede]

Exactly this -- if you really can't code, but want something created, you could post the problem to ST's forums and someone would probably help you out, because someone else probably has the same needs. The point is, it's open and documented, you don't need to pay for a dev kit, or sign an NDA, or anything. Just buy the hub, and you're good to go. Yes, it's designed by programmers and they assume you get their mind-set, but that's just a learning curve, not a brick wall of closed systems and absent owners.

It is a brick wall if I don't want to learn how to program for their system and technically I shouldn't have to go and ask someone on a forum how to get something to work with my HA gateway.

The list of devices supported on the US version of the SmartThings platform isn't bad, in the UK on the other hand, it's about a dozen devices that are officially supported and for some reason it seems like simple Z-Wave devices like door/window sensors won't work properly once paired, as the system don't recognize them for what they are. The same type of sensors works perfectly fine with the US version from my past experience. How good of a platform is that? Why the difference between the two countries? This is just frustrating.

Yes, Securifi has a lot of promises to live up to and I really wish they could make everything work, as the logic for creating rules etc. isn't bad, it's just not finished and I fully understand how annoying it is when you've spent money on something, especially so long ago and it's still not working over a year after you received the product.

That said, anyone having Wi-Fi issues ought to have contacted support by now and have had their replaced, as that's not really a software related problem.

[Petermann]

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[obmd1]

It's funny, but all that you want is there... I wonder if the iOS app is just ahead of the android version? I'm currently running rules such as "on at sunset off at 11:30" "on for motion, off for no motion plus 5 minute if between 5:15 am and sunrise plus 15 minutes" "siren if flood" among others that work with Sonos, myQ, harmony, and soon my echo. The only one that wasn't native was the myQ and harmony, and that was available to me to cut and paste. I'm no programmer. I'll soon have "shut valve if flood" and "water zone 3 if soil moisture less than 70%, no rain predicted for the next 24 hours, etc".

Anyone who wants my almond can have it for the Kickstarter pledge I made.

[rldreams]

It's funny, but all that you want is there... I wonder if the iOS app is just ahead of the android version? I'm currently running rules such as "on at sunset off at 11:30" "on for motion, off for no motion plus 5 minute if between 5:15 am and sunrise plus 15 minutes" "siren if flood" among others that work with Sonos, myQ, harmony, and soon my echo. The only one that wasn't native was the myQ and harmony, and that was available to me to cut and paste. I'm no programmer. I'll soon have "shut valve if flood" and "water zone 3 if soil moisture less than 70%, no rain predicted for the next 24 hours, etc".

Anyone who wants my almond can have it for the Kickstarter pledge I made.

You're right everything is there and works in ST V2 . The swede is right that there is no 1 central "official rules engine ".

 That is semantics though. You don't have rules you have apps. I really don't see the difference myself in whether you want to call it a rule, a recipe, a robot  or an app. Each platform has it's own preference for what it wants actions to be called.
 I have not slung code in over 30 years, Okay I did play around with some Linux systems 10 years ago, but nothing serious.  I don't think having to copy/paste code in IDE to add a new device ( type)  to my system for the first time or a new app/rule as having to hack the system. The one thing that is missing is a centralized organized list of all the device types and "apps" .  It is easy to get overwhelmed ,lost and discouraged .

The one thing I did get discouraged and give up on ( for now ) is getting my HEM to report to Plotwatt so I can get an actual graph of power usage. I can't wrap my old brain around having to creating 3 different virtual devices on 3 different websites and needing an Apple computer to create a custom curl code in order to get my 1 meter to report usage to one service.  When I asked a question to clarify exactly what I had to do, the reply was something about me being an idiot for not owning an Apple and not knowing what a curl command is, and why after I had the first device I had to take that device code and go to another site and use that info to make another one, then put that info into Plotwatt site . Like I said I haven't coded in over 30 years

 The one consistent breakdown in my system this week has been Echo, having to repeat commands 2-3 times and/or having "her" respond that "turn on __________" is not a valid command for that device.  I am assuming that the price drop back to $95- $149 for the past few weeks and adding HA control to FireTv was too successful and Amazon needs to add more servers to handle the increase in traffic.

[SecureComp]

Gotta admit, the ST worlds has lots of folks working it but I find the A+ much easier to implement when it comes to mildly complex tasks. The power plotting you mention is an example. I poll it and dump the data, push it over to the Pi and from there do whatever I want with it.

The Echo has many shortcomings, especially when you choose to go standalone but my A+ is driven by a Pi based system that can utilize 6 different voice recognition systems AND operate reasonably well in standalone mode. Again, with very little coding.

[Petermann]

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[underscore]

It is a brick wall if I don't want to learn how to program for their system and technically I shouldn't have to go and ask someone on a forum how to get something to work with my HA gateway.

That's a distinction of something that _could_be_ done and something that _can't_be_ done.  In the ideal world, everything should be supported and work perfectly.  Failing that, you're comparing a platform that allows users to do it themselves (if they're willing and able) versus a platform that doesn't, and hasn't released an update in over six months (nevermind that the hardware is already obsolete since it doesn't support z-wave+).

Can't speak for you obviously, but I know which I prefer.