The Wink home automation thread

[IndyColtsFan]

Well it looks like the general consensus is still to this date Wink is dropping the ball. I had higher hopes but after my spotter eats through batteries in a day now and the lack of features and control I'll be looking for another gateway/hub.

It's a shame too. I'm now at 17 GE Link bulbs.

SmartThings also supports the GE bulbs and from what I read in an Amazon review, the Tripper.

 

[lsd]

Just tested out some Monoprice Zwave door sensors with the wink. They will pair with the hub but they do not show up under the sensors page. They work fine with the smartthings hub though.

 

[androidusr]

I'd get a cheep android phone and put shortcut widgets for the lights.

Can you do that? I don't see any widgets that the Wink app provides. If you know of a different way, I'd be interested.

 

[jasazick]

Can you do that? I don't see any widgets that the Wink app provides. If you know of a different way, I'd be interested.

Create the shortcut in the app and then head to your home screen and add widgets. Wink should be listed - at least it was for me (Google Now Launcher)

 

[Tech_Greek]

I've got the widgets set under iOS so that I just swipe down and hit my shortcuts - they really should make it able to have light groups there too but I understand why they went for shortcuts first.

I might start adding Cree bulbs for the remaining bulbs just to find out. I never cared much for the clear glass on the GE Links but I understood why it was like that - it never gave off a weird light or anything though.

Belkin I don't trust...at all. I've seen their routers and dealt with their range of products dealing with IT Consulting and I never feel happy with their products.

Smart Things was bought out by Samsung as far as I know so investing in anything from them seems like a bad idea. I don't trust Samsung not to butcher it - my bluray player I got that was their top of the line refused to carry sound on half the apps until they finally fixed it...a full year later which was too late for that poor bluray player that met a terrible terrible terrible death.

 

[jmcguire525]

.56 update seems to have added local commands for the hub (already had them for the relay). I could be wrong but my lights now turn on instantly all at once instead of one at a time.

I also found it interesting that lights paired to the hub will dim in a progressive way, as opposed to the lights paired to the Relay which go from dim to full brightness in one instant the ones paired to the hub gradually go from dim to full on as if there is more coding in the hub telling it when it gets a command to go from 10% to 100% it does so in increments similar to how the hue bulbs work. This only works when dimming from an "on" state though where as the hue lights also do it when turning off an on.

 

[MjnMixael]

.56 is interesting.. even my beta testing hub isn't on .56. My retail hub is still on .55 as well, so I can't confirm anything.. but I'd be very surprised if local commands were added with such little fanfare.

 

[sprchrgd1]

How many people have received notice of update .56?

 

[IndyColtsFan]

How many people have received notice of update .56?

I have not received the notification yet.

 

[sprchrgd1]

.56 update seems to have added local commands for the hub (already had them for the relay). I could be wrong but my lights now turn on instantly all at once instead of one at a time.

I also found it interesting that lights paired to the hub will dim in a progressive way, as opposed to the lights paired to the Relay which go from dim to full brightness in one instant the ones paired to the hub gradually go from dim to full on as if there is more coding in the hub telling it when it gets a command to go from 10% to 100% it does so in increments similar to how the hue bulbs work. This only works when dimming from an "on" state though where as the hue lights also do it when turning off an on.

Can we get a screen shot of the version from the winkapp?

 

[jmcguire525]

.56 is interesting.. even my beta testing hub isn't on .56. My retail hub is still on .55 as well, so I can't confirm anything.. but I'd be very surprised if local commands were added with such little fanfare.

This Hub came directly from Wink today (long story) the Hub I already had and am returning didn't even see the .56 update even though they were both connected to the same router at the same time today when the new Hub got the update.

Its already confirmed that the Relay can do local commands, before today my relay paired lights worked much faster and turned on all at once, with the .56 update my Hub paired lights now do the same. I have to think the Hub is now doing local commands (I was told this was coming through a firmware update just last week as well) but maybe I'm wrong?

 

[jmcguire525]

Also how were you able to get in a Wink beta program, I'd love to help them out if you have anyone I can contact.

 

[silverpony2001]

Does anyone know of a z-wave temp sensor that will work with Wink, so I don't have to buy the $60 spotter, or the new spotter uniq that seems to be $40? I just want something I can use to look at the temp via the wink app.

 

[sprchrgd1]

At least their is hope then. I was ready to jump ship to smart things. Im still waiting on answers to my emails from December. Errrrr

 

[fletchb]

@ paul. I had that same thing happen a few times. Lol. The devices populated so there is some communication, but when I try to speak commands it doesnt work. I dont know how to test that.
@ fletchb. I think her company/lowes has a cheap motion sensor and a siren. Maybe she can tell you if that will work? Problem is wink doesnt have any places to add a siren and not sure where you would add the sensor.

She said they are zigbee but that is all she knew. She did say they are going to start selling to other vendors, Sears and Best buy and some others.

 

[Tech_Greek]

I did notice my lights seemed to be responding faster as well so that would line up with the local commands.

 

[fletchb]

Over the weekend I bought a couple of zwave switches- one for the wall and one plug in module . After I got home I realized i picked up the wrong plug in. The one I got was the dimmer and I wanted the appliance module. I went ahead and tried it and it worked fine but the next day I exchanged it for the appliance module.

Only problem is once I delete the dimmer, it comes back in a few hours.

Any ideas?

Thanks, Fletch

 

[ieee_raider]

Over the weekend I bought a couple of zwave switches- one for the wall and one plug in module . After I got home I realized i picked up the wrong plug in. The one I got was the dimmer and I wanted the appliance module. I went ahead and tried it and it worked fine but the next day I exchanged it for the appliance module.

Only problem is once I delete the dimmer, it comes back in a few hours.

Any ideas?

Thanks, Fletch

Did you try "Remove Failed Node" ?

I had some that were doing this and things worked out when I got a firmware update. I don't think the firmware update itself fixed it, but maybe some kind of low-level reboot.

 

[ieee_raider]

I did notice my lights seemed to be responding faster as well so that would line up with the local commands.

Simple to check for people on .56 ... turn off cable modem / dsl / whatever and see if Wink still works.

Not sure why I haven't got .56 yet, still on .55

 

[brinkbart]

Not sure why I haven't got .56 yet, still on .55

Lots of you here have said (or at least agreed) that Wink should only push a new update to a small cross-section of users in order to cut down on bugs and disruptions, and to lighten the support load if there was an issue with the new update.

It would appear that's exactly what they've done here. My kudos to them.

That being said, I'm jealous of all you 00.56ers out there. I want to test the local functionality for myself!!!

 

[deusrex]

I bought my hub over the weekend from HD, and it updated itself on Sunday to 0.56. Since all I have are 2 GE Bulbs, I can't comment on whether it does local commands since the only thing I can do is use the app & API to control them, both of which go through the cloud.

On that note, I spent some time messing around with OpenHAB today and was able to add my lights as items and control them through that. My implementation isn't pretty but it gets the job done.

 

[Tech_Greek]

Simple to check for people on .56 ... turn off Wifi router and see if Wink still works.

Not sure why I haven't got .56 yet, still on .55

I don't think it works like that, they are probably implementing the local feature (with confirmation from cloud) first and then will move to local access fully if I had to guess to prevent sync errors at first.

I am only on .55 - I had a hub update the other night though and it kept asking me to update, it finally went away after it power cycled later on that night. Weird

 

[RossMAN]

Not sure why I haven't got .56 yet, still on .55

I had to fool my Wink hub to force it up to upgrade.

Try this and let us know if it works?

Select "Add a Product" then Lights then Link Light Bulb

It should force you to upgrade.

Everyone else - Where should I see the "local" options you're all talking about?

 

[fletchb]

Did you try "Remove Failed Node" ?

I had some that were doing this and things worked out when I got a firmware update. I don't think the firmware update itself fixed it, but maybe some kind of low-level reboot.

I tried delete failed node but not replace..will try that once it comes back..thanks

 

[fletchb]

Simple to check for people on .56 ... turn off Wifi router and see if Wink still works.

Not sure why I haven't got .56 yet, still on .55

Well as luck would have it, I got to test this tonight.

I am on .56 and when I got home my GF said internet was down. Truth was ethernet was still up, just the wifi radio part of my router was down. Tripper did not work when I opened the door...well maybe it did but the hub must not have any cache as it did not record the door opening once I rebooted the router.

Lights didn't work of course since phone could not communicate to hub until I rebooted.

I don't think we are on full local control yet. I installed a Leviton wall switch this weekend. I did notice, compared to the Ge bulbs it can activate nearly instantly *at times*. I don't know if that is because of .56 or some difference between zwave and zigbee (will test on this to see) . Yet other times I see the wink buffer wheel scrolling and it takes sometimes ~2 seconds for the wall switch to activate. I am very much a newbie to zwave/zigbee so I can only guess at this point.