Hi folks .. I just switched over to HE and wanted to share some feedback.
Previously I've used Vera, HomeSeer, OpenHAB, and more recently ST. They all had their pros and cons and I'll avoid getting into all of that. Honestly, I was happy with ST except for cloud outages and lack of support (and confusion with their classic and current app).
So I order my HE and after a couple of weeks it finally arrives. When I opened the box I was shocked at the size of the unit. I wouldn't say this is a negative but it's so small that I couldn't help but feel "that's it?" and a bit of disappointment. Definitely though I would criticize the packaging as cheap for what it's worth.... if this was ever to go on a store shelf it would not have "curb appeal" by any means. The thing that really deserves feedback is the cheesy network cable that is way too short and the power cable that is also way too short - 6 feet I would recommend and have come to expect from anything else I order.
Now, onto perhaps more important and less picky feedback :). Installation was super easy and I've associated all of my devices now (Z-Wave, Ecobee, Hue) without any issues .... well done! One major thing I didn't realize, based on what I read on your website, is the dashboard piece. It would be really nice if, by default, the system had an "auto populating dashboard" or something of that nature. Having a blank dashboard to start with is kind of a major let down. I totally appreciate that you can create your own and the flexibility to do multiple dashboards - that is absolutely cool but coming from ST I actually liked their default way of showing all devices and then having each device assigned a room. This worked well for the "wife approval factor". I'll just have to create all the dashboards and stuff but wanted to share this feedback.
This made me laugh because I had the same response when I got mine not that long ago. I can't totally agree with you on the package though but I do think it could be much smaller.
Indeed there is that option. When you create a new dashboard you can select the Auto Fill Grid on this screen. The # x # depends on the size of your browser window.
For more control over the population select Dashboard Builder in the upper right. Yeah, this could be more clear because at first I thought it was a title instead of a clickable option. That will get you to this dialog which I think you'll find to your liking.
I would encourage you to refer to this recent post. It was put out there to save time for new users when problems arise. It's a short read, but good information.
Agreed. That was a let down for me too that made me shy away from dashboards. That being said, I've had my HE for a year and have yet to need a dashboard.
That feedback is spot on though, an example where some small tweaks across HE could make the on-boarding and user friendliness much better (without any new changes/functionality needed at bat).
Personally right now I'm happy that HE is focused on other areas (the platform itself), but for it's growth at some point "user experience" (UX) will need to be prioritized. I'm also very biased though as someone in the Product and Design software profession.
They could have gone the opposite direction, but I think most users would be more disappointed if they were unable to get it inside their house after UPS dropped it off without knocking down a wall first .
haha yeah for sure .... I guess there was a part of me that expected it to be the same size as a ST or Wink and with it being so much smaller I immediately started to wonder about build quality. I'm not saying the build quality is or isn't great, just my initial impression.
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