Wink to start charging $4.99 a month to control your devices UNBELIEVABLE

App control is for novices... automation is the next level.

It's also for people on a budget. Not everyone can afford to add all of the sensors needed to do full automation. Some people want to spend $50 on a few light bulbs and call it a day. App control is a very valid use case.

6 Likes

Agreed, but then I would say that there are much better products on the market that are Wifi based that will work much easier for those people.

1 Like

Yup, I'd agree with that. Guess my point is, HE isn't the be all end all for everyone. Some people will never desire to tweak it to make it "just right," they want it to "just work" and at the moment, in my opinion, the latter is NOT HE today.

3 Likes

It's kinda like regular Azure Blue...but pale. :wink:

1 Like

Then there are those people who were like "cool paddle shifters!" and in 4 years I have never used those paddle shifters once!

2 Likes

When driving on the edge, I'll take a dual clutch tranny w/paddle shifters over a stick ANY DAY.

Unless you are only going straight line, then it doesn't matter.

1 Like

I went to purchase my Hubitat after receiving my second email from Wink reminding me to subscribe "or else". I figured I would pay up for a month to give me time to consider options.

Late last Friday afternoon, I decided to pull the trigger on a Hubitat purchase and was unpleasantly surprised to see the sale price cancelled and the price jump. However, I figured I'd just order and be done with it. The package was literally at the Scottsdale post office within the hour. I had it in my hands at 10:00 AM this morning. Great service, I must say.

I'm a software engineer, and had read a few articles on setting the Hubitat up. I had every Wink device and function migrated over successfully in about 4 hours, including lunch break. I owned a modest selection of around 8 of the original GE/Quirky bulbs, 6 GE/Quirky Outlinks, a Z-Wave Leviton dimmer, and a Z-Wave Go-Control garage door opener. Oh, and one Osram lightify RGB bulb for my TV backlight.

The only challenge was getting the GE Outlinks' status to update. Apparently GE didn't pay to use the "instant status update" function. Wink got around this with frequent status polls to the Outlinks. Although Hubitat discourages it, I used the Rules Engine to set up a 10-second polling loop of all of my Outlinks. Problem solved! I also needed to manually edit the device type to set it to "Generic Zigbee Outlet".

Amazon Echo integration is indistinguishable from the Wink integration. I have zero connectivity issues so far. I see room for some nice enhancements as well.

Folks complain about Wink charging for their services, but I basically built my system on their previous financial difficulties. I paid $50.00 for my hub v1.0, $8.00 each for the 6 Outlinks on closeout from Home Depot, $10.00 each on the GE bulbs, also on closeout, plus $20.00 for the Iris-branded Go Control garage door opener on closeout fro Lowes. I don't feel too bad about tossing Wink $5.00 for the first month, even though my migration is complete. I still have a day to cancel my subscription though!

Best regards,

Don

3 Likes

Careful with those Outlinks - they're bad zigbee repeaters. If you build your system out with additional zigbee end-devices, and run into issues, consider replacing the Outlinks..

2 Likes

I had heard just that. I connected all my spare Outlinks up to power and paired them with Wink to be sure the firmware was updated. Indeed, the log showed firmware was pushed to two of the Outlinks almost instantly after connection.

I read somewhere that Wink/Quirky/GE disabled the Zigbee repeater functionality in the latest firmware to avoid issues that you mention. I have a modest network with a good central location for the Hubitat. I'm guessing all the Zigbee devices are directly connected to the hub. I think there is a way to check that, but not sure.

I'm mostly concerned about the polling filling up the logs! I tried disabling debug logging on the outlinks, but each device logs the poll every 10 seconds.

Don

1 Like

You could probably decrease the polling rate. I assume that device changes show up correctly if you control the outlets digitally (i.e. from the Hubitat device page?)

Without polling, the status just hangs as pending on the Outlinks when I try to turn them on or off from the dashboard. The Outlink switches instantly, but the Dashboard locks out further commands because it can't see the status. 10 seconds is about the minimum for reasonable responsiveness. The original GE/Quirky bulbs update instantly, though.

Best,

Don

So let me make a suggestion. Rather than poll them continuously, setup 8 RM rules. Each of them would look like this:

Trigger:
Quirky outlink changed

Actions:
poll() on Quirky outlink

This way, the poll() only runs when an outlink is changed (turned on or off). It is much less work for your Hubitat ....

1 Like

Great idea. Trying that now. Thanks!

D.

Good luck :crossed_fingers:

It didn't work! I tried it with and without a 5 second delay on the status update action.

I think it is a Catch-22 situation. The trigger action is a change in state, but the Hubitat never sees the change as it doesn't receive updated status!

Don

1 Like

Yup. You're right. Well, polling is your best choice then.

Good thought, though. Thanks!

And welcome to Hubitat!

1 Like

Amen! I've had them on 4 cars in a row....and the only time I ever use them is by accident! Lol