Origin Home HQ

đź’¬ Lounge
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In 2017 I ordered and installed the Origin Home HQ Starter Kit.

Things were good for the first 6 months. But as I added additional devices the hubs started to fail.

To Origins credit they were proactive and predicted I was about to extend the hubs capacity so they sent me another hub free of charge.

However, the first hub failed not long after the second hub arrived because apparently it was at capacity at around 20 devices. I was informed that it could not manage more than 25 devices.

So the second hub had a few devices but the first hub had around 20 sensors and switches.

So I had to set them all up again on another (3rd) hub that Origin promptly sent to replace the first failed hub.

So I put a halt on installing any new devices and evened out the current devices over the 2 still functional hubs both with less than 20 devices each.

This left me quite perplexed and took over six months to move all of the devices to the new hubs from the first hub as I was rather disappointed at how much time and energy and learnin’ I had to do to work out how to do all this.

Then the second hub started displaying similar symptoms as the first hub when it failed.

This was less than a year later by this time I had a bit of knowledge and had restored all of my devices and set up all my “rules”

So I was able to reset the second hub and add all its devices again successfully which again took several months.

Two and a half years later the 3rd hub started playing up. Over half of its devices respond anymore.

I have been trying to contact Origin HQ support for over a year after their online store stopped selling devices. Only it’s starter kit is available. The last reply I received was they were looking at new products to put on the store.

Over a year later … nothing, no response from Origin.

So I’ve spent this time looking into just what it is I have bought and installed. When it works it’s amazing.

But clearly keeping it working is challenging.

I’ve since expanded my collection of devices and protocols with different hubs to see what can control the most devices.

It’s been very interesting. I now have a mishmash of technologies that interact to varying degrees.

But my research over the last 3 years as lead me in certain directions in regards to cost, performance and durability.

I find Closed Ecco Systems problematic for reasons obvious which is why I decided to go with Origin Home HQ as it espoused the ZigBee protocol as flexible and adaptable which is indeed what I found.

The ZigBee hardware is impressive especially when it comes to battery life.

But unfortunately the hub situation is far from acceptable.

So I have a number of ZigBee devices that are looking for a new hub. A reliable and flexible hub to be attached and controlled by.

I’ve just stumbled across this brand that has a user forum.…! Something Origin never got happening.

I’m hoping to find some answers and direction to my future technological decisions in this area as it’s really up there with Star Trek from the technical aspects.

I mean I never believed I could ever simply say … “computer… what time does my bus leave…?” And expect to get an answer... never mind an accurate reply…

:sunglasses:

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Welcome to Hubitat.

I've got about ~130-140 physical zwave and zigbee devices controlled by Hubitat. 30-40 Lutron devices controlled locally via a telnet connection, and about 30 virtual devices.

I think you'll be fine on this platform.

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How big is your house ?

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Small. ~2000 sq ft.

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Why so many devices ? I think 30-40 cover every single light switch in my house....

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At some point it becomes fun to control your switches with switches. Some take it further than others and it becomes switches controlling switches controlling switches. I believe @aaiyar has taken things one step further. :wink:

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There is quite a thread here from AUS.

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Switches are just part of what I have.

Sensors, outlets, sirens, smoke detector, valve controllers, RGBW strips, RGBW A19s - you name it, I probably have it (except motorized vents).

Edit: Just counting sensors. I got 8 motion detectors, 3 lux+motion, 21 contact sensors, 2 vibration sensors, 8 leak detectors, 4 temp & humidity sensors, and one smoke detector (ecolink FF that monitors my 4 Kidde wireless interconnected smoke/co detectors). So that's 47 sensors off the top of my head.

Also, I forgot - I got 5 zwave remote (minimotes), a couple Xiaomi cube remotes, and 2 of the RGBGenie remotes.

Things add up. I'll bet you're way past 30-40 devices.

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Gotcha.

I should do a count myself again.

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Has anyone here had any experience with the Origin Home HQ in Australia?

Origin went with ZigBee and Netvox devices it appears. As Origin is no longer responding to support requests and Netvox have never responded at all.

I am now looking at moving the devices to another Hub.

The devices have not been rebranded so I am assuming I can reset them and pair with another ZigBee compatible Hub.

But it’s the rules…

Can I recreate the same rules as Origin have made available on their I’m assuming also Netvox hubs?

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You need to mingle with these folks - HUBITAT for Aus.

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Ha ha ha...!

That is precisely what I have started doing…! I’ve discovered lines of devices on power that can be turned off completely when you walk out the door or retire for the day cutting power consumption. Then when you return or at sunrise those lines are restored so individual devices can be available on their own switches again.

It’s surprising how much additional power consumption can be reduced this way.

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