Lowes IRIS Transition

Thanks for the reply CS how big is the fob I will be giving these to the wife and 3 kids not worried about the wife but if it ain’t attached to the damn kids they lose it.

The Gen 1 IRIS Key Fobs were built like tanks. I use 2 till today.

Hey CAG I think I may have had the V2 4 button remotes when I tried to take the batteries out the pins on the inside broke off so they wouldn’t work i had to take them back.

Will the SmartThings button work it’s smaller?

They are small, but all the buttons are "exposed" -- they are NOT pocket ready, in my opinion.

Have you considered the SmartThings Arrival Sensor? These are designed for use on a keychain, or in a backpack. They are Zigbee and simply send a periodic signal to hub. When the hub sees the signal, it updates the user's status to "present". When the signal is lost for a period of time, the user is marked "not present". You can then use these "presence sensors" to automate the arming or disarming of HSM, or to simply change the "mode" of the hub from Away to Home, for example.

As for buttons...

Here is a list of Hubitat button devices that are natively supported.

This post hasn't been updated in a while as there is now an official list of supported devices at List of Compatible Devices - Hubitat Documentation

1 Like

Yes Ogiewon I tried it but not on HE when I had that horrible smartthings hub I tested them out and let’s just say I almost got tossed out of my house for it, the damn thing would say my wife had left home at like 2 and 3 am in the mornings it drove her mad she said either they go or I do so I got rid of those things.

1 Like

If every family member has a smart phone, you could create a very simple Hubitat Dashboard to allow control of the Alarm arming state. You can save the url directly to the desktop of iOS and Android so the dashboard opens like a normal application.

Tried that, my problem is I’m not sure about your home life but everything in my house has to be wife approved she tried it for 2 days And wouldn’t use it again, so that’s why I need a device type situation, will be glad when HE comes out with the approved app.

1 Like

I created an account to respond to your post, as I have the same challenge. I had a hard time convincing my wife to try home automation, but Iris convinced her. As she put it, it was simple, and it worked, without being complicated. And issues usually ended up being user error, not the system, like family switching off things that Iris controlled, or blocking sensors. I'm still trying to find a solution to replace Iris, but I am reading all I can about Hubitat.

1 Like

The 'distance' between Iris and Hubitat is pretty vast.

I started Home Automation on a Staples Connect, which, like Iris, really wanted to control the experience. I understand exactly why too. You invest so much effort to bring a hub to life an you want people, especially the SO to love it, or at least not hate it. Controlling the experience is how that's done.

The Giants like Amazon (Echo), Google (Home) and Apple (HomeKit) still work behind the scenes to integrate new devices, usually before they are available, to get that 'logo.' Hubitat, like SmartThings, is able to be customized by anyone. All new devices will be functional on Hubitat and SmartThings well before any other Hub.

The result is instead of buying devices from the Compatible List, we go find the cheapest equivalent and then jump all the hurdles to get it to 'work OK.'

If you stick with items on the Compatible List, you will be running sooner and with fewer hurdles.

There's a list of Iris v2 and v3 devices. They should migrate over pretty easily. Certainly one of the most popular devices around here are the Iris v2 and v3 Motion Sensors. Fast, easy to pair. Work as expected. I know, I have 6.

2 Likes

Believe me Dredwolf1 I have tried Staples Connect, Home Assistant, Wink, SmartThings, Vera, Homeseer, Nexia and finally Openhab not in any particular order, the closest that I came to making my wife happy was Homeseer but after the software somehow got corrupted on my Rasberri pi my wife said no to that to but Hubitat has been rock solid since I installed it no downtime except for this past weekend, We live in Ga and Ga power are the worst at keeping the power on I have my hub plugged into a backup power supply but for some reason the internet wasn’t getting to it but every thing still worked locally I was out of town and the only way we new there was a problem was because I tried to login from Md on my local pc but it wouldn’t my son had to unplug and plug back in and then internet worked fine. Don’t know what that was about. My only issue with the system is the one I mentioned were using the web to turn alarm on and off and my wife doesn’t like that so I need a physical way of doing it. Some kind of key fob is preferred.

1 Like

To close this out all the help and comments have been greatly appreciated thx guys.

You have a lot of options. Hubitat supports the CentraLite keypad, as well as the Iris v2 (nearly identical) and v3 keypads and any others that are the CentraLite rebranded (Xfinity, etc.). You can also use a v2 or later Iris fob, though I'm not sure if those were well reviewed and they'd certainly be hard to find (at least new) with Lowe's sending all their stock back with the Iris shutdown.

More generally, any button device should work. (Well, really, anything would work, but button-style devices are the most practical.) There are a variety of portable Z-Wave button devices. I used to use an Aeon Minimote, but the Hank 1- or 4-button Z-Wave devices would probably be better for this. If you feel like adding another device to your network and plunking down a bit of initial cash in exhange for cheap Pico remotes, a Lutron Smart Bridge Pro and a Pico remote would be something you can use as well--for this and lots of other things. (A Pico would make a bad fob but you could use the visor-clip accessory and mount it like a garage door remote.) A Hue dimmer could also work if paired directly to Hubitat.

If you want to go all-out, you can use a wall-mounted tablet with a dashboard (Hubitat Dashboard, SharpTools.io, or anything you can find), though that's probably a bit more work than you'd want to do just for this--and definitely far away from the fob style you prefer.

Personally, I have two Picos I bought for this purpose, a tablet with a dashboard (which I rarely use anymore), a smart lock with a keypad (could trigger my code to disarm--I don't), and two Minimotes. My preference has shifted between all of them or none of them. II don't use a fob because I rarely drive and rarely even take my keys at all now with my locks, so I don't have much to compare your exact preferences to, but I guess my point is that you have a lot of options and can probably find one that you like. :slight_smile: (If you have Alexa or similar, you can even do it via voice, though I'd choose an option like a virtual lock that you can PIN-protect.)

2 Likes

Our experiences sound much the same, I'm in SC. I even have a Rasberri Pi in my desk drawer. My wife has no interest in Echo or Home, so that shortens the list, and she currently uses a Iris fob to arm/disarm of the alarm with a panic button to notify my phone (and I use the presence function for the fob for overwatch notices), and keypads to activate "Home" mode of the alarm (she has hearing loss) when she is home by herself for door chimes and notifications to check our exterior cameras with her phone or tablet. I have a UPS on my network gear already, and local processing was already a plus for Hubitat.
Your info is another nod for Hubitat, and helps with challenging decision.

I have two of the 4 button iris fobs that I use for guests. I added a handful of Iris plugs to act as repeaters around the border of my house, and they have been working great as presence sensors on Hubitat.

I wasn’t aware that the 4 button iris fobs could be used as presence sensors

I'm a heavy user of the v1 Iris key fob, for both presence-sensing and occasional use of the buttons to disarm when the presence has not caught up to me yet. But these great fobs will not be compatible with Hubitat when I complete the switch-over. So, I too have been looking for a replacement. The best I've found so far is the v2 IRIS fob with the four buttons, but like people said, they are poorly made: the side battery contact in each one is VERY delicate and the tack weld breaks off the circuit board if you are not scrupulously gentle when inserting the battery. I've bought a few recently that arrived DOA for this reason. But I've ordered more and hope I will find some good ones, because there is a huge hole in the market if you ask me. No one is making a decent presence sensor with a button or two. That seems crazy to me!

If I cannot find enough functional 4-button Iris fobs, I will try the ST presence fob (which may work better with hubitat than with ST? Hubitat finds my IRIS v2 fobs quicker than IRIS found my v1 fobs...) and back that up with a keypad to disarm the alarm on occaisions when presence fails to do so. Then I'll also have a simple ST button to run the "home" scene... turn on lights and adjust thermo in case I don't want to wait for presence to run it. In other words, I'll "explode" the functions into two devices. Presence usually does it, but sometimes you need the button which will now be separate and by the door.

Until some manufacturer gets the clue that fobs are easiest for many people, and makes one, this is the best I can come up with.

Other ideas appreciated.

1 Like

While my wife uses the buttons, I have some simple rules running from the presence sensor on the fob to send notices.

Yep, they check in with the hub every 20 seconds. The Hubitat driver allows you to set a presence timeout, so if check-ins are missed for X minutes, presence is set as Not Present. When it starts checking in again, it's marked as Present.

Default timeout is 2 minutes IIRC, I have mine set to 5 minutes.