Another addiction

[sebastiantombs]

I installed an X10 system when we moved into this house about 12 years ago just to control lighting. Needless to say over time it has become less and less reliable, especially getting the signal onto both phases of the electrical service. So it was past time to upgrade. I poked around and decided on a Universal Devices ISY994i PRO with X10 and ZWave support. It came about a month ago.

Unfortunately Insteon makes the X10 to ISY serial adapter and they've been bought by Nokia who seems to be letting things go down the drain. The only PLMs I can find are on EBay, not that I have any qualms about buying there, but they're all priced over $200 which, to me, is stupid money. This has forced me to convert things a lot faster than I originally planned.

I've added fourteen switches, a keyfob remote, two two button indoor remotes, and two switch/four scene controllers. Created scenes and written programs for the remotes and scene controllers. It's gone easier than I expected, yeah with a few bumps along the way, but it's working so well I'll probably be adding a whole bunch of other stuff as well.

Cameras weren't enough, now I've got ZWave to deal with too, can't get enough!

 

[Flintstone61]

I have a dumb home? dammit all!

 

[BORIStheBLADE]

Yeah I started a Home assistant VM with a Z-wave controller last year so I have the same problem haha.

 

[Alaska Country]

I installed an X10 system when we moved into this house about 12 years ago just to control lighting. Needless to say over time it has become less and less reliable, especially getting the signal onto both phases of the electrical service. So it was past time to upgrade. I poked around and decided on a Universal Devices ISY994i PRO with X10 and ZWave support. It came about a month ago.

Unfortunately Insteon makes the X10 to ISY serial adapter and they've been bought by Nokia who seems to be letting things go down the drain. The only PLMs I can find are on EBay, not that I have any qualms about buying there, but they're all priced over $200 which, to me, is stupid money. This has forced me to convert things a lot faster than I originally planned.

I've added fourteen switches, a keyfob remote, two two button indoor remotes, and two switch/four scene controllers. Created scenes and written programs for the remotes and scene controllers. It's gone easier than I expected, yeah with a few bumps along the way, but it's working so well I'll probably be adding a whole bunch of other stuff as well.

Cameras weren't enough, now I've got ZWave to deal with too, can't get enough!

 

[Alaska Country]

Also went with Z-Wave for switches with the Hubitat C7 hub. Works well and does not require the 'cloud' for connection. It also supports HTTP so it can control Dahua camera day and night switching.

Enjoy your addiction!!

 

[Justin Blackburn]

I too am down the home automation rabbit hole. One of the coolest things I’ve done lately is installing Frigate for my cameras. If you haven’t tried it, definitely check it out. It’s free to install and object detection is great.

+1 on home assistant. It has a bit of a learning curve, but once up and running, their isn’t much it can’t do. Also when you get comfortable with it, add Node Red to the mix. It made me feel downright stupid for awhile because it has a steep learning curve, but after research and YouTube, I’m pretty efficient at it now.

 

[Jessie.slimer]

Also went with Z-Wave for switches with the Hubitat C7 hub. Works well and does not require the 'cloud' for connection. It also supports HTTP so it can control Dahua camera day and night switching.

Enjoy your addiction!!

Another vote for Hubitat here. Very open sourced, very security minded with its local operation versus cloud reliability, and VERY powerful with the rules that can be implemented.

Also, pretty much anything that is zwave or zigbee can be used, which opens up the door for low cost sensors and switches.

 

[BORIStheBLADE]

Yeah I had Hubitat for a while. Its a good simple box that works.
I got frustrated with it and had to migrate to Home Assistant. After every update I'd have automations that wouldn't work for the day of updating. It wasn't all of them it would be a random automation. I guess I'm part to blame for following through with the updates haha.

 

[Jessie.slimer]

I've only been with them for about a year now. Haven't seen any glitches like that with the newest c7 hub. Seems like they probably have all the issues ironed out by the time I bought one. I really like how the developers come out with updates all the time as new device drivers or community suggestions are asked for, similar to Blue Iris.

It was a huge improvement over my last system, Smartthings, which now seems to be nearing its end of life with Samsung.

 

[TonyR]

I have a dumb home? dammit all!
View attachment 114667

@Flintstone61 I can just hear you stickin' your head in there and hollerin'......W-I-L-M-A-A-A-A !!!

 

[Holbs]

As many know, I jumped into the Home Assistant in a mad rush to incorporate HA / smart TV / Blue Iris / DSC alarm system due to the tire slasher. It does exactly what I need for that aspect.
Other projects around the house (landscaping, retaining wall/fence, removing all carpet, etc) has not allowed me to really dig into HA, other than playing with HA and my weather station to control outdoor lights based on LUX. However, I am planning to jump back into my wood working hobby. The idea came to automate the 6" and 4" dust collection system I have with 12+ blast gates. Will require the ESP32 and relays. Just bought a bunch of small stuff to get learning: breadboards, alligator clips, wires, leds, etc.
Home Assistant (or any home automation software) is a deeper hole than Dahua + Blue Iris

 

[prsmith777]

HomeSeer since 2001. 190 Z-Wave devices and counting. I‘ve got that addiction under control. It’s the 16 Dahua cameras I just bought that could be a problem.

 

[DanDenver]

I have been running HomeSeer for about 2 years and love it. About 9 months ago I tied it into my BI pc so that I have two way communication between the two pc’s.

Used to be that BI would alert me when the AI identified my (or my wife’s car) entering or exiting the driveway. Now with HomeSeer, it can tell BI that the garage door is open so don’t send an alert under that condition.

I also have it so that if the front door is opened, all three front facing cameras turn on instantly and begin recording for 10 minutes (the advantage being that no motion or BI trigger is required - a key difference to me as I am not relying on any form of motion or such to trigger the cameras. If the front door is opened, everything is being recorded and no other conditions need be met).

Same for my back yard cameras, if the back gate is opened, then HomeSeer tells BI to start recording on those cameras. However, if I open the back door to go out into the back yard, no alerts are sent to me and I can walk around without being alerted.

And of course, if my front porch camera detects a human, BI lets HomeSeer know that, and HomeSeer turns on the dining room light.

But once all the doors are closed, all the cameras will go on alert mode. And with AI, I get very few false alerts which i really appreciate.

Before my HomeSeer integration, I had to manually change profiles on BI just so I could walk around or exit my garage without getting alerts. That got pretty old. Now it just ‘works’

 

[Jessie.slimer]

I have been running HomeSeer for about 2 years and love it. About 9 months ago I tied it into my BI pc so that I have two way communication between the two pc’s.

Used to be that BI would alert me when the AI identified my (or my wife’s car) entering or exiting the driveway. Now with HomeSeer, it can tell BI that the garage door is open so don’t send an alert under that condition.

I also have it so that if the front door is opened, all three front facing cameras turn on instantly and begin recording for 10 minutes (the advantage being that no motion or BI trigger is required - a key difference to me as I am not relying on any form of motion or such to trigger the cameras. If the front door is opened, everything is being recorded and no other conditions need be met).

Same for my back yard cameras, if the back gate is opened, then HomeSeer tells BI to start recording on those cameras. However, if I open the back door to go out into the back yard, no alerts are sent to me and I can walk around without being alerted.

And of course, if my front porch camera detects a human, BI lets HomeSeer know that, and HomeSeer turns on the dining room light.

But once all the doors are closed, all the cameras will go on alert mode. And with AI, I get very few false alerts which i really appreciate.

Before my HomeSeer integration, I had to manually change profiles on BI just so I could walk around or exit my garage without getting alerts. That got pretty old. Now it just ‘works’

I like the garage door idea. I may do that.

 

[sebastiantombs]

Well, my love affair with the ISY994i came to a crashing end today. Apparently the ZWave dongle failed. The support I got from the vendor, Orchestrated Home was outstanding. They even replied last night, a Sunday night, and tried every trick they knew to get it going. They even offered a new ZWave dongle for it for free. My experience with Universal Devices support was the exact opposite. Total attitude and not listening or answering direct questions. So, the Isy994i Pro ZW+ is back in it's box never to see daylight again. I don't feel it is reliable or the support is worthwhile at all.

while I'm waiting for a USB/ZWave dongle to get here I need to decide which way to go. Anyone want to offer comments on Home Seer or Home Assistant? Home Seer seems to support, fully, both the WallMote Quad and the Fibaro Key Fob which ISY didn't support. Home Assistant will support the alarm system, a Honeywell with Envisalink but I'm not sure about the WallMote or Fibaro Key Fob. Anyone with experience out there?

 

[JNDATHP]

HomeSeer has a steep learning curve in my opinion but once you get to the top you then realize how much you can do with the software.

I have been a HS user since 2000.

We have over 150 z-wave devices. Of these, I have 3 that sometimes do not respond right away.

The event engine is multi-threaded in HS3 and HS4. We have 434 events which range from a simple open pantry door and turn on the light to complex ones such as a sleep event that locks all doors, checks if windows are open, announces any problems on our Sonos speakers and turns off all lights and the fireplace, if on.

We have a Z-Net which seems to have much better coverage over the USB dongle.

HomeSeer integrates well with BI.

 

[prsmith777]

Longtime Homeseer user here. No experience with Home Assistant.

I am still on HS3 because in my opinion HS4 is not ready for prime time and I have a complicated setup that I need to work. I love HS3 however and a big fan.

On your particulars, I did note a recent post about someone having trouble adding a WallMote Quad Failure adding an Aeotec Wallmote Quad - HomeSeer Message Board so take care.

There is a plugin for Envisalink DSC, but not sure that could also work on Honywell version.

Not sure about Fibaro Key Fob.

 

[sebastiantombs]

Thanks JNDATHP and prsmith777. I'm still considering and may try both in a VM first to see which looks better to me. Appreciate the comments. Any of them seem to have a steep learning curve due to the complexity of home automation.

 

[Vettester]

My name is Vettester and I'm addicted to automation. My problem begin 9 years ago when I scored an Iris system from my local Lowes store. When Lowes shutdown the Iris system my addiction moved to Hubitat mainly because it supported the majority of my old Iris devices. Since then I've added Home Assistant and Apple's HomeKit to my addiction. With over 300 devices in Hubitat and 1029 entities in Home Assistant the possibilities for home automations are endless.

 

[Justin Blackburn]

Home assistant is outstanding, but it has a steep learning curve too. They have come along way in the last year to simplify things for new users. In my experience, you can get pretty much anything in home assistant. Some things are more complicated and some are simply to add. Pair it with node red which has another steep learning curve and it’s a lot of fun.