Vent / Rant over Device Void

Something to add to my list..

IR Transmitters

Why is the best solution the super slow Harmony.. IR codes are really small and could easily be configured driver / app level to support an insane amount of devices easily..

Although I have a harmony hub, I’ve been playing with the broadlink device recently and had some quite good results

Andy

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Another wifi / cloud

Nope.. local lan after it is setup
(Just like your hubitat) :slight_smile:

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Well that is partially promising .. It has a truly local API?

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Look at this guy.. Several US vendors white label from this company..

http://www.hank-tech.com/product-detail.aspx?id=346&pid=1#product_cont

Z-Wave IR Transceiver and it's z-wave plus..

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I just use the driver as I wrote my own app to do the switching once codes are saved

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My $0.02 is that safety devices should be on a native alarm system outside of HA, with a link into an HA system for automations and secondary alerting.

I am dealing with this issue now, where I had back-filled some secondary locations in our house with Kidde/Wink detectors over the years and now need to find an alternative due to Wink's pending demise. I have a dedicated alarm system with remote alarm monitoring and a few hard-wired detectors (and Alarm Decoder for my local HA interface), so it made sense for me to just pick up a few Honeywell wireless detectors to replace the Kidde ones and get the added benefit of multi-path remote professional alarm monitoring if there ever is a fire.....

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I like my ecolink firefighter. I wouldn't buy "smart" smoke detectors even if they were offered. No point, in my opinion.

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Most home's smoke detectors are not on any connected system.. They just make a loud noise.. The z-wave equivalent still makes a loud noise but also sends a z-wave message.. In my opinion that's a step up..

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I have a driver for the ring smoke / co listener .. I almost didn't write it because I think it's stupid.. Why not have it in the same device.. why 2 devices..

I also have the ancient z-wave smoke / co detector from first alert..

Because I have 14 smoke detectors, all already networked to each other... I would never pay nest protect prices for that quantity. It's absurd.

That would do nothing for me that my ecolink doesn't already do, and I can choose any brand or model of smoke detector I want.

Just my opinion/preference.

Back to the original post, I would like more keypad options, though.

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Agree 100%. It's all about the market. Think about it, HE passed the milestone of 10,000 users here (let's guess that the # of hubs is in that ballpark). That's exciting. But it's a gnat in terms of market. Let's sum up all of the ST, Wink, HE, Vera, HA, etc. users in the US. What percentage of homes in the US have zwave/zigbee networks? .2% .5% maybe 1%? What percentage of homes in the US have Wifi networks? The number I found puts it at about 70%.

So if you're going to make a device, that is expensive to make, which do you want to target? 1% of US households, or 70%? The market is just not there yet.

Also yeah, frankly I don't even think about privacy. I assume that people are listening in on me everywhere I go and my information is sold to the highest bidder all the time. It's the nature of the world. If I'm being honest, whether or not a company sells my data doesn't factor into a single purchasing decision. I assume that 99% of the companies that tell me they don't sell my data are lying anyway :slight_smile:

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4 words: I love you Brian
:kiss:

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For the IR, I second the Broadlink... I have 2 of them to make our cheap robot vacuums work twice as hard (why can they only be scheduled for once a day?).

I also totally agree for smoke detectors. I really like the Halo ones I have... But they went under so I only have 5 years to go. They are "near perfect" as an out of the way sensor/status device. A motion detector and maybe TTS and I am not sure what else I could possibly need from them. You get smoke, CO, and then other sensors (like I said, including a new equivalent that has motion) in a package that nobody thinks twice about. High WAF. Plus, she and the kids all like how I have made all of ours act as hallway nightlights (when triggered by other motion sensors).

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I have a Honeywell Prestige IAQ. It is probably the most powerful thermostat sold for residential and even light commercial use. It has humidification, dehumidification, ventilation, duct sensors, diagnostics, wireless indoor and outdoor sensors, dry contact sensor inputs, supports 4 heat stages, and more.

Unfortunately, it is hobbled by Redlink/TCC to put it politely. Despite the best efforts of people on this and other forums, it just isn't good with regards to integration with home automation. I mean it works, sort of OK, but not the way it should, and consistently. Constant drop-offs. Polling sucks. Very limited control.

Honeywell doesn't publish the various input sensor states in TCC. They don't publish the diagnostics. Both those are in-thermostat only. TCC is no better than your $50 wireless thermostat in this regard. And this is a $250-$300 thermostat.

I don't even mind the looks of the stat. But I would switch in a minute if I could find a Zigbee or Zwave stat that had the capabilities of the IAQ system. I would buy a new Redlink Gateway if it allowed Zigbee or ZWave.

But no, we have to lock you into the year 1990's finest technology.

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It’s all supply and demand of course. Average consumers don’t know what the heck Zigbee or Z-Wave is, and they sure are not going to add, or even take the time to learn how to add a hub ( or even care what a hub is). We get excited by this stuff, most people’s eyes glaze over within seconds of talking about it.

It’s taken 20 years just to teach people what WiFi is, and half of them still don’t understand. They think WiFi equals the Internet and have no clue that a strong WiFi signal doesn’t equal a solid and fast internet connection! :rofl:

So if you can make a device for $2 and sell it to 1000 people for $30, or you can make a device for $1 and sell it to 10,000 people for $20, which one feeds your family better? I’m not saying it is the way I like it, but the reasons that it is that way are clear to me.

That said, I’m happy I understood early on that for me anyway, a hub was a better choice. And happy I eventually found the best choice available to let me do just about anything I want locally, without having to build a homegrown hub.

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The Kidde detectors that were made for Wink will still work without the Wink hub. I just tested mine with the Ring Smoke/CO Listener. Turned off my old Wink hub (only still on because of the detectors) and the Listener notified my Ring system and also set things in motion on Hubitat because of the Ring Integration app from @codahq. The detectors are all interconnected so you don't get a specific location, just that an alarm sounded.

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