New house - new questions.

Hello all. I've been using Indego in my house of 21 years for some time, with dozens of devices, schedules, triggers, timers etc. But it's now time to move on, bigger house, more hardware in boxes (along with my other belongings).

There are 2 areas that I want to add to a new instance (yes, I'm starting a fresh database for the new house). One is motorized blinds such as Somfy. I had an "Add-a-motor" on a set of vertical blinds in the living room, but want to add something more elegant to the new house. I'm looking for suggestions on brand, hardware needed to integrate with Indigo and plugins if needed. Since I'm starting fresh, I'd prefer to go with the "route of least resistance". Simple setup to begin with, like my blinds had: open at sunrise, close at sunset.

The second item on my wish list are cameras. Two is a good starting point, one at the front door, one in the back of the house. Wireless preferred, and something that can record locally (no monthly fees please). I have been looking at: Nest (since I have several of their products), Arlo, Ring, etc. Again, simple integration would be ideal.

Feel free to post threads, ideas and opinions.

When it comes to blinds you really have two options.. wired or wireless. Wireless of course requires you replace batteries every X months. A popular option for those are the Somfy RTS blinds and control from indigo using an RFXtrx433e, but to the best of my knowledge that doesn't allow for two way communications, so if you controlled them from a remote rather than indigo you'd not be able to track what position they're currently in - to some that's a deal breaker.

I personally have just installed wired 24v blind motors and control them using Qubino's Shutter DC module so i never have to worry about replacing batteries and can get slat positions. This route is more tricky but i think it's more rewarding.

As for cameras i'm personally just using a lot of ONVIF compatible cameras in SecuritySpy (with cynic's plugin for control via Indigo) which is an expensive bit of software but has no monthly charges and stores all the recordings locally. Be careful with cheap cameras though.. a fair few of them seem to be loaded with malware and allegedly broadcast their feeds to unknown parties. I've taken the precaution of installing them on their own PoE network switch with its own connection to my server and strictly giving them no access to the internet. Paranoia perhaps.

Thank you durosity for the reply. I like the idea of hardwired since I spend a small fortune on batteries for motion detectors etc already. I'll have to look closer at those once the air clears on the house move.

I think I've decided on a Ring Pro for the front of the house, since there is an existing doorbell and a plugin for it. Any opinions on going this route?


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As for cameras i'm personally just using a lot of ONVIF compatible cameras in SecuritySpy (with cynic's plugin for control via Indigo) which is an expensive bit of software but has no monthly charges and stores all the recordings locally. Be careful with cheap cameras though.. a fair few of them seem to be loaded with malware and allegedly broadcast their feeds to unknown parties. I've taken the precaution of installing them on their own PoE network switch with its own connection to my server and strictly giving them no access to the internet. Paranoia perhaps.

I've been pretty pleased with Bert's (free) security camera plugin. It will access any camera that can serve up a snapshot image. I don't use his record on motion options, so I don't know how well it works, but I expect it has the same flaw that all the others I have tried have... you end up with a whole bunch of videos of bugs flying in front of the camera, tree branches and weeds waving in the breeze, clouds passing in front of the sun... So I trigger recordings when doors open or PIR motion sensors tell Indigo that something interesting is happening.

I think I've decided on a Ring Pro for the front of the house, since there is an existing doorbell and a plugin for it. Any opinions on going this route?

I would definitely go for a wired Ring. I have the original battery version and the battery doesn't last that long before it needs recharging, this is despite following all their recommendations to extend battery life. Ring have bought out a new battery version where the battery is removable and so you don't have to have the doorbell removed while you charge it up: Ring Video Doorbell 2

The only comment I would make about the Ring plugin is that there is a memory leak (at least there is on my system) and I have to reload the plugin on a regular basis as it can and does consume gigabytes of memory if it is just left going. I have posted a query about this on this thread but haven't had any response yet.

I'll second the kudos for the Security Camera plugin. Might take some time to get your head around how it works (it did for me!) but you can try it and if it doesn't do everything you want, then you can fork out the cash for Security Spy. Though the Security Camera plugin will make you want to run Indigo on a beefier computer than you probably are doing--the more image processing SC does, the more power it needs. A big chunk of what SC does can also be managed simply and at low overhead using the new and amazing Dynamic Refreshing URL plugin for the IWS.

Most of my cameras are Foscams, and as hardware, I have no complaints. The software is not great and it seems every time I log directly into the cams I get a "plugins need upgrading" or "no plugins found" message even though I have the plugins installed. But once they're configured, they are quite reliable. And they provide local streams that Indigo needs to serve a pic. Just block their WAN access at your router! They're known to phone home more than is polite.

If you're looking for the Ring's functionality with greater robustness and don't mind the steeper price, look at DoorBird.

No experience with blinds, sorry.