Securifi Community Forum
Securifi Products => Almond+ => Topic started by: WatsonIT on May 11, 2015, 12:46:53 am
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I was so excited when I backed the project.
It was delayed seemly for a year past the estimated ship date, which I would admit may not be reality. When I received the unit it was hampered with issues, most notably bad ports that wouldn't accept standard CAT 5e ends. To Securifi's credit recently they offered to replace the unit as this was apparently and early production issue. WIFI has been horrible with all Apple products. Yes I know they don't have a great track record with WIFI but they currently do better on Asus WAPs than the current A+ does.
SmartThing does 90% better at controlling my Smarthome. Progress is extremely slow with the A+. Much slower than I'd ever anticipated. I admit I have reached a point of frustration and have looked elsewhere for what I suspect is less expensive than what the A+ will retail for.
The idea of a WAP or a Gateway/Firewall paired with a SmartHub is so awesome and I still believe that people will want it. But I think it's a bigger undertaking than once thought. So far it's par to poor at both at least in my particular application.
Am I giving up? No, I'll pay attention albeit at a much more occasional pace. I'm disappointed but not angry. That's what backing a project is all about. I hope it surprises me down the road. As a beta tester for the past 15 years of Microsoft products I'd like to think I have a strong stomach for this. But is the A+ any type of Tech I am playing with actively anymore, no, sadly not.
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@ WatsonIT,
If you could let us know the devices which are connected to Almond+ has slow response, may be we can try and sort it out. On the other hand, there are very few customers who are having issues with the Apple devices. If you could provide some more info like they are not working on 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz or on both bands that would more helpful. Like many users you backed our idea, so thank you for that and would assure you we are doing every thing possible to make it better and better with every new firmware by adding more features and also adding support to all the sensors.
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I had lots of issues with my Scalage lock. As for WiFi I have has a lot of issues with IPhones and iPads and at time a Macbook Air with connectivity on 5GHz. I don't have as many issues with Asus WAPs. They just drop a lot particularly when using Cisco AnyConnect outbound. The A+ is a WAP only. I had lots of issues also when connected to A+ with Lync 2013 Voice on both a Windows 8.1 client (Lenovo Carbon X1 2014) as well as the Macbook Air. I had tons of problems with Polycom RealPresence as well. All of these issues did not exist when connected to Asus RT-68u. BTW I have a 50 up 10 down Comcast Business Internet Line so I do not think that the issues I had were related to my ISP. I also had much more dramatic range issues on Wifi in comparison related to the furthest rooms. I would also note that ROKU III did not perform as well. I also noticed that air print (and PC based wifi printing) was much slower on the A+ vs. the Asus.
The physical mold of the unit was lesser quality as I have problems with 9 out of 10 cables connecting properly. I've actually broken several ends trying to play with the clip. Thankfully I own my own crimper and I can put new ends on fubar ends. This has been very frustrating but I've frankly been too lazy to contact support and get a new unit.
When I tried to run this unit in parallel with an ASUS unit they did not play well together providing very unpredictable behavior so I bought a second ASUS to maintain full coverage where I needed it.
To top it off I had lots of issues with the A+ Screen. I think a lot of that is just beta glitches and therefore I was mostly tolerant of that. Such examples is the Weather app would die for days at a time. Most of that is currently resolved but has been off and on in the past. In an of itself is not that big of a deal, but added to other frustrations and it ended up icing on the cake.
Is this more helpful?
The A+ will probably not graduate to production and remain test only as I've invested in other tech. I apologize for the blunt crummy news on that.
Cheers!
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Have you used a WiFi tool like the INSSIDER app (Android/Windows) which will identify if a neighbors wifi channel (or another) is interfering with yours. I've found this extremely useful as I had similar problems with my Netgear and occasionally my A+. Changing the channel on the problem band (2.4 or 5 Ghz) and/or relocating the WAP to a higher location (allows for a umbrella like spread) also helped my situation.
https://www.bing.com/search?q=INSSIDER&pc=MOZI&form=MOZLBR (https://www.bing.com/search?q=INSSIDER&pc=MOZI&form=MOZLBR)
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@WatsonIT, Well its not really surprising that Apple products tend to play well with either their own Routers (apple airport extreme etc.) or routers which has similar AC chipset (probably the Asus in reference has). Most of the other applications you have mentioned are mostly applications for streaming, conferencing, Voice, which might has to do with ports that are not pre configured on the A+. It might not be fair to judge a developing product when we take the percentage against users, backers or not who doesn't have any issues with Wi-Fi specially after the recent updates. But does that mean we are claiming the A+ to be a perfect product?No. There is a long way to go and you are absolutely right about the initial design issues with the LAN/WAN ports that has been rectified in the subsequent batches and anyone who has contacted us regarding that have received a replacement and has no similar complaints. You being an advanced user and a pro in the IT field, probably that's why you may find it a little less tolerable towards the bugs and fixes which surely taking its time. But, that's what backing a Kick Starter project is all about, you invest in an idea and see it grow. We won't have released the product in retail if we were not confident that it delivers the basics as reviews on e-commerce portals are much more harsh and critical than on a community forum! What's worth, its probably not possible for everyone to wait and walk along the product during its development stage and we are happy that you found a product worth your time and effort. We value your critical observations and take it as a positive input to improvise.
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@Amritendu: What a ridiculous post. The Almond+ went up on Kickstarter more than two years ago. It is currently available on Amazon. And it is completely half-baked. Wifi and basic router functions have been constant complaints on the forum. I myself have had many problems with wifi, primarily on my Mac, but also whith many phones and Windows PCs. The router also seems to be much more sensitive to interference than other products.
The automation subsystem is also a joke. I have one smartbulb manufactured by Cree. It barely works. The Almond+ can't hold onto the dimming settings of the bulb or even if it's on or off. I need to repeatedly hit the button in the app to manually turn it on or off, and making rules for it is an unreliable exercise of trial and error.
The router can't even hold onto the appropriate time of day for automation purposes.
On top of that, you are using a highly outdated version of OpenWRT, have not compiled any extra packages, and show no interest in fixing the problem.
The lack of public roadmap and unapologetically poor manner in which you treat your customers makes me unlikely to ever buy another Securifi product, and I will give you guys a poor review on amazon soon if you don't at least provide a roadmap for fixing the myriad issues with the router. The only Securifi employee around here who actually listened and tried to provide good information to us was Lars, and it didn't look like he was provided much information (or listened to, for that matter). Maybe that's why he decided to leave your sorry operation.
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Everyone that has written or replied here so far. I appreciate it as I am also frustrated with the A+. Currently I am only using it for Wifi, not routing as there were way too many issues with it. I've spent too much time trying to make it work, but cannot since it causes issues for my girlfriend who runs a business out of the home. I'm also frustrated that you are proud that you are replacing people's routes that had issues with plugging in ethernet cables. When were you going to let everyone who was a Kickstarter backer that you were doing this? I've had this issue since day one. I'm on this forum as well as the beta forum and have not seen an announcement you were doing so. Again, I appreciate the responses and Securifi taking the time to acknowledge and respond to this.
Jeff
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@ BFH I am sorry if you found this post offensive, but all I am trying to do is accept there are flaws against certain things which are working fine for many users. Again, please don't misinterpret any of the posts here. We are equally interested and responsive to any discussion and its passed on to the developers as in when possible. All your grievances which is related to any hardware flaw would be surely addressed by our support team. The other features are surely going to be there. I would personally try and get a roadmap for the upcoming fixes from the developers but not sure how soon we can get it.
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fwiw, I use a MacBook Pro daily with it's built-in IPSec VPN client over 5GHz (and sometimes 2.4) A+ wifi and haven't seen issues since the firmware release that fixed the VPN problem.
Regardless, I also believe the Almond+ to be half-baked and am looking into and testing other HA controller solutions. Maybe the A+'s advertised feature set will be fully realized and maybe not, but I'm not waiting any longer for a working HA solution in my house. If the A+ can be a part of it that's great. Time will tell...
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To be honest, I was totally surprised it went for sale on Amazon already...
Except for the basic router functions, nothing is available. Only a handful of HA devices are supported, Hue support is horrible (if you get it to work)...
I get this was a kickstarter, and I waited very patiently for everything to become ok, but once you started selling it my patience was over...
We've been waiting for 2 years now, things have changed a little, but so many basic things are still just missing...
Do you have a structured way of adding things? Will we ever see a roadmap? It's just all so frustrating not knowing what is going on!!
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@Amritendu,
With all due respect, I think these issues are a lot more common than you are claiming. Just because many people have less than 15 mbps on their WAN connection, no static IP devices, no Macs, no need to see a complete list of currently connected devices, etc. and don't notice a problem doesn't indicate a lack of problems on their devices.
For instance, I have a 300x20 internet connection that is sometimes up to 350x25 on wired connections in my home. It almost never goes above 150x15 mbps on my AC network and often dips below 50 up, sometimes going as low as 10. With an average speed in the US of 36x11, maybe the speed problems are less noticeable for most people.
I posit that most people (a.) haven't noticed a problem because they're barely utilizing the router, (b.) don't like to make waves and haven't complained, or (c.) exist in a perfect use case of exactly the right devices in a location 100% free of interference.
And please don't claim that things are easily fixable hardware flaws when they are likely due to poor design decisions or poor programming in the firmware. I've looked into the workings of the fimware on my unit, and it's a mess. What people have been asking for is a roadmap on getting the core features for any router firmware fixed, and the promised features implemented, because we've seen precious-few user facing changes in the supplied firmware recently, and we want to know if there are even plans to address our problems. If there is a big issue that is occupying the developers, it would be nice to know that too.
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@grouter:
Do you live in a house or in an apartment? I think that a part of my wifi problems is due to Almond+'s absolute inability to play nice with any other networks in the area. The WiFi standard is designed for interoperability, but I don't think the Almond+ drivers are.
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@BFH, I'm in a house and can see a number of my neighbor networks using Wifi Analyzer on my phone, but my Mac doesn't see them. My WAN speeds are also considerably slower than yours, clocking in at a whopping 10 down and 1 up.
I did have a major interference issue early on with a Creative Sound Blaster Wireless Transmitter sitting too close to the A+. Took a while to pinpoint that, but wireless has been good since then.
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I have to crosspost a post a made in a differnt thread a while ago as is fits here and Securifi seems to be reading in this thread. I support the statement that the Almond+ is disappointing. All issues mentioned above are true and I especially would like to see Almond+ move to a recent OpenWRT version to be able to get stable networking out of it and I would like to add a few (first posted on March 19 in Almond+ section, no response from Securifi).
original post:
Deeply disappointed - Almond+ vs. Almond 2015
I must voice my concern and ultimately disappointment about the launch of the Almond 2015.
At the current state of the backer financed Almond+ it seems ironic to launch another product. Basic functionality that had been implied or plainly promised is not there yet:
VLAN tagging: explicitly marked as supported - still unavailable and no ETA
Scenes, Groups, Associations - features required by a lot of Zwave devices to implement secondary functions (like 2nd switch input on fibraro 2*1,5k switch)
custom parameters for zwave devices: i.e. enable custom wake up times on setpoint thermostats (wake up time lager than default 300s) or enable different switch behavior (mono - bistable switches)
danfoss LC13 (latest firmware) still shown as unsupported device in WEB interface, shown as supported in ANDROID-app but not working, shown as supported and working in LCD UI --- inconsistent behavior across different paths shows me that team lacks dedication for correct implementation of basic functionality. The thermostat works but is useless as it can not be used in rules, scenes.
The current product is (regarding home automation) miles away from the Vera 3 it had originally been pitched against. (Remember the original Kickstarter???)
Now with the Almond 2015 what are the future plans for the Almond+ platform? I would very much appreciate some comments.
Thanks Alex
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I will say this...
My + has been rock solid... the range is great and the speed is good... Just wish that the software side of the house would catch up to the hardware a bit... but for my uses it works very well...
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@Amritendu : I think your post is extremely presumptuous. Pretty much all the kickstarter backers are aware of what they are getting into. So statements like "you invest in an idea and see it grow" are pretty condescending. Yes, we backed the idea, yes. the "potential" of the hardware is enormous.
But it is also a fact that you guys are moving extremely slow. In addition to that, you do not share a roadmap, nor do you share what your vision for the product is and what features are planned. So you have a HA rules platform that cannot handle a day change, for about 6 months now? You have disjointed UI which means that you have to create separate UIs for each of your devices, each of which has its own timeframe. The iOS app has not been updated in ages. Not only that you do not have a platform where we can contribute by adding our own devices. You choose to keep people who can help, out of this. (By you, I mean Securifi)
I had high hopes for Almond+. I still do, but I don't see you guys delivering on the promise. Even till a few weeks back, this forum was lively and there used to be good discussion. Now there are days without anybody posting. Yes, buying a router and a HA platform might be more expensive, but at least that would get the job done. Sadly, that is something you cannot say about Almond+.
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The lack of an answer from anybody from Securifi is saying enough I guess?
Maybe you guys are truely working hard on making everything better, but the lack of any timely progress (however small it may be), and the lack of what the future may (and should!) bring is what is most frustrating...
As d.kiran says, why in god's name do you have at least 3 independent GUI's (LCD, local, web, ... )? I've been saying this from the beginning. You add something to 1 GUI but not to the others, so you can control a sensor through the LCD but nowhere else...
Without a roadmap, it seems as if you are just adding things left and right without any structure but don't manage to complete it so you end up with differences between the UI's.
And indeed, why won't you let your backers help you? That's what we're here for, no? Get the data you need for sensors from them, so you have more time to concentrate on the important stuff?
[edit]
One more remark I just thought of. When will we be able to change parameters for Z-wave devices? Devices that need to be configured (like for the Fibaro roller shutter you have to set your type of switches connected) can hardly be used now (that is, if they are already supported...)
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I guess the only logical reasons why they haven't posted anything about a roadmap are (a) they don't have one, or (b) we won't like it. Sad.
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@MrBishop
Well we are going to release Local connection of Android app directly to the Almond in a month or two, We have made beta version of app for Sensor logs, now working on Scenes, the next is Local connection. We have already started implementing it.
Please give me your EmailID with which you have affiliated your account, I will look into the problem. Yes Firmware Upgrade from app will be there in next release of app.
This is all very interesting new info!
I don't understand why you guys don't put that info in a roadmap, people are waiting for this kind of info.
We are all getting so disappointed because it seems like there is no progress and nobody is even answering anymore in this topic.
Amritendu, why didn't you just give us this little bit of info? It's not that much to ask, right?
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I have asked for a road map and will post once I receive a structured roadmap with achievable/realistic time frame.
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Thank you very much!
I hope this will show what we can expect in the future :)
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I have asked for a road map and will post once I receive a structured roadmap with achievable/realistic time frame.
If it's more achievable, a priority list of current action items would be super helpful. I think most can understand that some problems and features may take longer than expected, but if we knew something were actively being worked and not shelved in favor of some other feature or fix we can have an expectation that said feature or fix will be included in the next release. Right now it's disappointing because we don't know what's going to be included in the next release, and even if you all are aware of or working requests, issues, etc. unless someone from the team happens to come in and comment about it.
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Unfortunately I couldn't wait any longer for notifications (iPhone) and other functions so I gave up and got something else. Now my Almond+ is just an expensive temperature monitor.
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Yes. Please publish some sort of development updates regularly. Hopefully about planned new features too.
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I would also like to chime in on my disappointment in the Almond+. I waited 6 months to install it as my main router with the hope that some of the bugs would have been ironed out.
I understand this is a Kickstarter project, and have backed many successful and unsuccessful projects.
I understand the nature of software & hardware development (been in the industry 15 years myself)
I understand that Home automation and hardware integration are HUGE problems to try to solve.
I do appreciate the quick responses by the Securifi staff on the forums.
I also understand this is a commercial product, available through Amazon, and not an open source project.
Being a commercial product sets expectations higher than an OpenSource project.
It is difficult to solve the Home Automation problem without sensor/hardware support/integration.
Also, the development process feels like only 1 developer is available to work on it with a bunch of management and support staff, and that poor developer is being required to hand code the support for each hardware module with only a text editor.
Some suggestions.
1) Aim to make this front end usable by my grandmother.
2) Build a plugin framework for the sensor modules so they can be added with configuration definitions instead of needing individual supporting code.
3) Design a way for the sensor updates to be managed on a different schedule than the HA software and the base Firmware.
4) Figure out a way to leverage the talent pool of the Kickstarter backers for sensor integration. (Bounties, free sensors for completed integrations, etc)
5) Why stop there. Look at other projects and borrow a development style that allows contributions from the community for the HA software. We are willing and able!
I love the idea of the Almond+, and it meets some of my needs. There is a great desire to have the completed experience now. I have a dozen neighbors and friends that want Home Automation, but would never be able to figure out or use this platform.
Keep moving forward, and keep the dream alive.
Thanks for all your hard work,
-Nate
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> 2) Build a plugin framework for the sensor modules so they can be added with configuration definitions instead of needing individual supporting code.
doesn't Vera do this? Community added support for a large number of sensors rather than waiting for the development process should have been a no-brainer.
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I too am getting very impatient with the lack of any measurable progress in getting the A+ to be reliable . I have not been around the forum the last couple months. I come in to see that nothing seems to have changed. All the same issues that everybody has had right along are still just as prevalent.
Well except for Lars leaving . When I saw that , my first impression was that since Lars was "the voice of Securifi" for many people, that his leaving was related to the lack of any progress. I know I would get tired of making promises to people and then having to apologize when those promises were continuously broken through not fault of my own.
It has gotten so bad that I am seriously thinking of digging the old Wink out of the closet to see if they have made any progress on it's stability. I figure that it can't possibly have gotten any worse. The main reason for replacing the Wink hub with A+ was all the issues with sensors not updating and rules not working. Of course now A+ has all those same issues. along with the added feature of " ghost rules" and the inability to keep time.
The saving grace for A+ was the WiFi stability and range. Now even WiFi has become unstable and we can no longer connect at even 1 Mbs if we are more than about 25' from the router at times. The TV is 10' from the router, and we can not stream video without constant buffering. It is great to watch a movie that pauses for 1-2 seconds every 20 seconds to buffer.
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The rate at which they come up with updates is very slow. Almost 6 months have passed this year and only two updates have been released.
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The rate at which they come up with updates is very slow. Almost 6 months have passed this year and only two updates have been released.
There have actually been about 6 fw releases. I was on 67 when I got mine in Jan and we are now on 76 ( although they did skip a couple). I do agree since ( the claim that ) they hired a bunch of new software engineers to work on HA integration, progress seems to have ground to a crawl. More problems being made than solved.
Although after a year of promises, 076 did finally address the TZ resetting to UTC problem
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I agree with Mat - my + is rock solid as a router. Range is good and support is awesome. Has everyone totally blanked out on how fun it is to call DLink or Netgear support? I've never successfully resolved an issue with either company. At least Securifi has this forum and monitors what's happening and helps resolve issues. For that alone, I'm glad to have backed the project.
So far, the only times I've ever had to reboot the + was for firmware updates. I've had my internet connection go down more often than the +, especially with the more recent firmwares. I hope I haven't just jinxed myself with that statement, but I'm very glad to have gotten this product.
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... Has everyone totally blanked out on how fun it is to call DLink or Netgear support? I've never successfully resolved an issue with either company.
My previous router was a Cisco e4200 running the Tomato Shibby firmware. One developer does a pretty good job with firmware updates. Also, Wifi Range was double what my Almond+ is, all other considerations made, unfortunately I just sold it.
On the other hand, I will say the Almond+ has some awesome features that I wish to exploit more. ;D
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Have to agree with the trend here. Had high hopes for the A+, but, it doesn't really seem to be going anywhere. Development that we hear about seems to be in the corner features while we're left with an ancient version of OpenWRT. I cannot understand how you could go into the commercial sales arena with such an ancient base. I understand that different users have different needs and expectations, but, my development direction would be to solidify the core and then focus on the edge features.
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From what I understand, getting the base OpenWRT version updated is something that would have to be done by the makers of the hardware platform on which A+ is built, Cortina Systems. The parts of Cortina that were directly relevant to A+ were acquired by RealTek earlier this year (http://www.realtek.com.tw/press/newsViewOne.aspx?NewsID=353&Langid=1&PNid=0&PFid=1&Level=1) (after the rest of the company had already been acquired by InPhi last year (http://investors.inphi.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=237726&p=irol-newsArticle&id=1952817)). Who knows if the hardware platform will continue to be supported post-acquisition?
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I think I remember them posting something about this. I think they mentioned they had to wait for the takeover to be over before they could work on an update.
Edit:
Found it - http://forum.securifi.com/index.php/topic,1374.0.html
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The CS7542 chipset used in the A+ is also almost four years old at this point; frankly, I would be very surprised (albeit pleasantly so) if RealTek is spending significant engineering resources on it at this point.
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Realtek should opensource the blobs, then, and someone else can update it. Rediculous.
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For all those here complaining, I think you all need to do a bit of tinkering in the channels if you are having WiFi problems. I live in an all Apple household:
2 iPhone 6, 2 iPad Air, a MacBook Pro, a Mac Mini, and a 3rd gen AppleTV.
I have a 50 Mbps down, 5 Mbps connection up from Comcast in Houston, Texas. On the 5 GHz band, I routinely get 50-55 Mbps, and 6-7 Mbps up, which was a HUGE speed increase from my previous router, which was a dual band Belkin.
I don't experience any of the WiFi issues, except if it goes more than 30 days without being rebooted, thus I put both my A+ and my cable modem on a wallplug timer, and they both reboot weekly at 3 AM, and that has resolved all issues that I ever see.
I stream Netflix and Amazon Prime frequently without hardly any delay or buffering. I routinely use 275-290 GB of data each month from Comcast. Thank goodness for unlimited!
As far home automation goes, perhaps there are better solutions out there, but I never tried any of them prior to the A+. I currently have 11 Z wave/ZigBee devices connected and they function nearly flawlessly 95% of the time.
6 GE light bulbs
2 Thermostats
1 Schlage dead bolt lock
2 motion detectors
I use the motion detectors + built in rules to turn certain lights on/off and they work flawlessly. I was so excited. Maybe many people had extremely high expectations for this product, but for me, it has met or exceeded my expectations with time and firmware updates.
Yes there definitely are app interface issues. Yes, the development team has put Android development ahead of iOS development (which is kinda rare). Yes, it would be nice if there is a public roadmap, but this is a "smallish" company, not Netgear, Linksys, Cisco, etc., so I've decided to give them the benefit of the doubt. I'm sure their staff resources aren't as deep as one of the big boys. This is David, not Goliath.
I'm attaching screenshots of my WiFi speeds for all of you who already think I work for Securifi. If you want to find me on social media, I use the same handle here that I am on both Twitter and Instagram.
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Almond+
Comcast
throttled to 12 Up
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/4402371033.png)
My WiFi in has been plenty stable since receiving the A+. Mix of Apple/Android/PC's etc. High use network, some hard wired devices, 2.4/5 networks active along with guest networks. Streaming video full time from multiple cameras, 4 sensors, a couple bulbs and everything works if working is defined as connected.
Rules, automation, bugs with the Apps both Android and IOS, beyond problematic.
General problem resolution and progress with automation, disappointing and unsatisfactory.
Haven't given up, but I need more out of Securifi in the way of problem resolution. Basic light bulbs not working is beyond frustrating, it's embarrassing. I cannot recommend this product to family and friends and I want to be able to do that.
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The Almond+ is still disappointing, and we still don't have a roadmap.
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I agree on both sides to some extent. I also get ~120Mbps down on lan and almost that on 5GHz (although I can't be far, as is often the case). 2.4Ghz is quite a bit slower (also somewhat expected), in a *nix/windows/android household (and apple when my girlfriend visits, although I do think her devices have caused some issues). I do have to power cycle it on occasion though.
For me, I was looking forward to tinkering, adding features not present (for me primarily interfacing with X10, cheap network-based devices, and arduino-based sensors, but also interfacing with other control systems), but as anyone who has been to the dev forums knows, most things aren't really possible, nor does support seem on the horizon. It seems a little silly to me to build up all this rules/scenes code when so many other products exist to do this, ones with much wider support, but hopefully they'll at least add some tie-ins to other major services.
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I was going through Almond+ reviews in Amazon and it looks like most people are using it as a router. Looking at that, I am fairly certain that HA features are not something that is a high priority to Securifi. I believe it is time to move on.
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I was going through Almond+ reviews in Amazon and it looks like most people are using it as a router. Looking at that, I am fairly certain that HA features are not something that is a high priority to Securifi. I believe it is time to move on.
I hate to say it, but it looks like it might be for some. Lucky for me as of right now my setup is simple with some bulbs, and a couple door sensors, and switches. Hopefully they pick it up with getting features out.
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I was going through Almond+ reviews in Amazon and it looks like most people are using it as a router. Looking at that, I am fairly certain that HA features are not something that is a high priority to Securifi. I believe it is time to move on.
Securifi will deliver on 'some' home automation eventually. Sad thing is, they are quickly losing an opportunity. Google's Brillo, Apple's Homekit, Smart Things Hub and more are doing or will do a solid home automation job. Not to mention the bunch of other products that require a little more effort.
I expect, as with so many things, it's a money thing. Securifi released the Almond15 as a lower less capable product compared to the Plus and they did it before the Plus had fulfilled it's promise to Kickstarter Backers.
What is most unfortunate is that so much more is possible with the Plus. Providing a more robust SDK with better documentation would make a lot of difference. Some github work maybe.
I am not giving up, in fact I am doing some SDK work and looking forward to several more firmware updates. Would be nice to hear communication from Securifi staff about what's in the pipeline and when it's headed our way.
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I'm not giving up either, but starting to wonder what's up. The said they were going to be posting a road map a couple weeks ago, and as far as I know they still haven't.
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I just picked up an Asus RT-AC68U and absolutely love it. Speeds are great and I don't have to hack at it to get it working the way I want. No weird slowdowns or other issues I encountered with the Almond+. It is now collecting dust, till a possible future date when there is better firmware available.
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Here's the thing. I don't want to give up on Almond because there is no other device that has the potential that this one has. A router and a HA platform is still a brilliant idea. But separating them in software is a horrible let down.
If they can just open up the platform, and allow IP devices and HA devices to interact with one another, it would be truly one of a kind.
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With one update every couple of months, it's going to be long time before the product becomes usable. But unfortunately the hardware would be obsolete by then.
I do not see any good outcome for the current users.
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With one update every couple of months, it's going to be long time before the product becomes usable. But unfortunately the hardware would be obsolete by then.
I do not see any good outcome for the current users.
I agree it is a slow update process but I don't think the hardware would be 'obsolete' just not leading edge. 802.11ac is still a good deal and will be for some time. Z-Wave standards will evolve but not that fast.
Improve support for existing sensors, improve Rules, add Scenes and open up the SDK docs/info/source for Developers! Fortunately I have not experience the same WiFi issues as others have reported. I use 2.4/5 in a mixed environment and it works well, no complaints.