I pulled the trigger and got the UniFi setup. USG, 8-port Switch, CK2-Plus, and a UAP-nanoHD. So far it has been rather easy to setup, still watching Youtube videos and tweaking it a bit. I've noticed a slight increase in connection speeds in various spots of my house. Appreciate everyone's opinion to go with UniFi, I am very happy with it so far. I may end up with one more AP at the new place depending on signal strength. At some point I will buy a few of the UniFi cameras since they integrate well with the UniFi Protect system and the CK2-Plus.
Recently bought some Sengled Zigbee bulbs during the Prime sale, have to admit pretty nifty and easy to use with HE, the wife was impressed with it which is always a good sign. I've got my CT-100 thermostat included and I think I managed to include my 2Gig GC2 panel but not sure how to do anything with it yet. I did add my Sonos speakers but control seems very limited with the included app. I've got lots more research to do to get things right but I move into the new place this Friday so I will be starting all over soon anyways.
Wife bought me a Nest for Father's day, still trying to get the receipt so I can swap it for an Ecobee3 Lite. Sounds like everyone has better luck with those and since Google bought Nest who knows anymore.
Congrats on the Unifi! I went with an Edgerouter for mine, and have dumb switches, but I've been looking at those POE enabled switches of theirs.
I think once you have it set up, you'll be amazed at how well it works and how little care and feeding they require. I've had mine for ~5 years now, and I still can't get over how seamlessly I roam from Hot Spot to Hot Spot in my house. Crazy good stuff.
How did you train your wife to get you good stuff. I'm lucky if she says "are you still alive?"
Just kidding, but she begrudging accepts automation. She and I have worked together every day in technology for the last 30 years. New server for home. OK. New WiFi setup. OK. New router. OK. New sensor or zwave switch. No. I find ways but it isn't necessarily easy.
You ever get that working with Hubitat, let me know. It never discovered mine on the LAN. I posted here and not one person responded. So as far as I know, it doesn't work.
I am on a plane so my VPN to my hub is very slow.... while running the Sonos app, can you have a second window open with the logs window open? I would love to see if it shows any output
Also, do you see any entries with the name “ssdpTerm” under System Events?
@scottgu3 I couldn’t wait any longer and decided to pull the system out of the box and setup now in the home we’re moving out of. So far so good. Did something to it today and couldn’t figure out why my phone wasn’t connecting to the WiFi so... I reset it all and did it again. Now it’s working just fine. I need to remember with a system like this to create backups prior to making changes.
@zarthan LOL. Luckily she knew I liked the nest since I bought one for her father a number of years ago. Everything else is pretty typical WAF, as long as it works for her I’m good.
@St_Isidore HE app found all my speakers and I’m able to add one speaker at a time to my dashboard and control that speaker only. No grouping and no changing station, play, pause, next, and volume is pretty much it. Once I find some more time I will dig into what others are doing with it.
Heh, that's the first thing I learned. I just started as well about a month ago. I learn something new every day. The Rule Machine is awesome. I love IF...THEN statements. I'm weird like that.
Thats really strange. Mine were all found, pretty much before I did anything. I think I added the Sonos integration, clicked the Next button, and the Voila' all my Sonos were there.
Like Hue, Sonos integration has been bulletproof for me.
I wish I could offer some useful help, but given how well the discovery worked, I have nothing. Sorry.
Yeah, the only probs I've ever had with Unifi have all been self induced. I had a hotspot that refused to use it's Cat-6 connection for anything other than power for months until I finally crawled up in the attic and checked the cable...only to find nothing wrong with the cable in the attic, but down in the basement where it originated...terminated the same cable 3 times....grrr. But once that was solved, I periodically go into Unifi and run a rolling firmware upgrade on the hotspots, not because I have to, bu because....well, why not?
I do wish my Edgerouter was integrated into the Unifi software, but that's a minor quibble.
I think you're going to find out the most amazing thing about the Ubiquiti after you've had it a couple of months. The stuff works so well, it becomes inviisible. Everything just works on it. No tweaking the router (USG) for this device or that device, or having to install 3rd party firmware....it just fades into the background and does what it's supposed to do.
You might still find node-sonos-http-api useful. I find it very convenient to group/join speakers and start specific playlists based on changes in Mode or the state of virtual switches.
A little update. Not much in the way of new smart home stuff except at the new place I put the Sengled A19 Zigbee bulbs in my front porch, back porch, and walkout porch light fixtures. Pairing them with HE went great and they seemed to communicate really well the first day or two. I set up simple lighting rules to turn on just before sunset and off again. Again worked great the first few days but now I cannot get the front porch or basement lights to communicate with HE. Now I am in the market for some repeaters, thinking about using two of the Ikea TRÅDFRI Outlets to help boost the signal. The USB style plug is enticing but I know my wife and she will unplug that and move it all over the house so that doesn't really work.
Still debating on where to start next. I just ordered an Ecobee3 Lite, I'll install that and see how it works with HE. If I like it I will order another since I now have dual HVAC zones. From there I'm debating on lights. The house has the traditional toggle switches so using Caseta with it's Decora switches could be difficult when it comes to WAF. Maybe in a few months, she won't mind mismatch light switches but right now I think she would pop her top about it.
As for my UniFi setup, I lucked out and there was Cat5e ran to the attic, not sure the purpose but it worked perfectly for me to install the UAP-nanoHD. In my initial haste of moving in I used the extra paint buckets as my network rack, I had to remedy that ASAP!
Have you considered putting z-wave or zigbee relays in the work boxes behind the toggle switches. The toggle switches will still work, and there's no change in appearance. But you gain automated control of your lighting.
