New to Indigo, new to home automation

Hi Folks,

my name is Marcus aka RageDoctor. I am from Germany. I am searching for weeks now the internet in order to find a suitable solution for my new house. As this topic is pretty much complex, it took me a while to decide for the proper standard (z-wave), gateway (Aeon Labs Gen5 stick) and software solution (Indigo). To find out whether my decision was right, I just downloaded the 30 days trial of Indigo 6.

I was pretty much successful including my z-wave toys (wall plug, sensors etc.). Everything works nicely so far.

Are there any suggestions or nice to knows I should consider? And how about users from Europe (Germany) are there any?

I am really looking forward to gain lots of experience before I move into my new house and to be part of a great community.

Best regards,
Marcus

Willkommen in der Indigo Community.
Ich lebe in Dallas Texas.
Mit Indigo has du eine sehr gute Wahl getroffen. Ich habe Indigo seit 2+ Jahren Es ist sehr stabil und die User Community ist das beste was ich bisher gesehen habe. Wenn du konkrete Fragen hast oder mal reden möchtest kannst du mich gerne anrufen. Schick mir eine Email auf diese Website.

Karl


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Welcome! There are other users from Germany (as Karl will attest) and many users in Europe. A few things spring immediately to mind that you should be aware of regarding the current implementation of Z-Wave within Indigo.

1 - Locks: Currently, Indigo does not support Z-Wave locks natively; users that want to operate locks can do so using the Vera plugin and a Vera Z-Wave hub.

2 - Scene Controllers: Indigo's ability to manage scene controllers depends on the controller chosen. You should read the forums to see what will work in your area (I am less familiar with the European market, so any advice I might have would be limited.)

Don't hesitate to ask questions. As Karl said (thanks Google Translate!) this is a great community and extremely supportive.

Good luck,
Dave

Thank you for the warm welcome

Speaking of questions:

1) I am just familiar with z-wave. How do I manage wired products (for outside)? How do I connect this to my Mac?

2) Speaking of Mac. Is the Mac Mini a proper "server" for Indigo? What hardware do you use?

I guess there will rise many more questions, even though I am searching through this board

Hi Marcus -

For wired products, you'll have to be a bit more specific, I'm afraid. For external high-voltage lights, I use Z-Wave in-wall switches from Leviton (I am in the US.) For landscape lights, I use outdoor Z-Wave modules from GE.

A Mac Mini is more than enough to run Indigo. The necessary software (Indigo, Z-Wave driver, etc.) does not tax current hardware at all. Presently, I run Indigo on a mid-2010 iMac (along with many other things) and this is more than sufficient. Any current hardware will do, but I believe that the jury is still out on whether El Capitan is completely bug-free. My system runs on Mavericks with no issues whatsoever.

Dave

Hi Dave,

so you are running even outside "things" with z-wave?

Is it possible to run Indigo as server on a Mac Mini (let's say on the 1st floor) and I can also install Indigo UI on my Mac Book to use it on the ground floor?

Marcus

- mac mini is fine. 4GB should be enough. the indigo system will consume ~ 3-5% of cpu time. Some plugins likely more than that

- outside / distance: just make sure that the distance is not too big between the wave devices. In the USA the walls are made of wood, in Germany most likely stone. Hence the distance between the devices will likely have to be shorter.


- yes you can run the GUI on the mac book. BUT you can ONLY see the indigo application (home/log/variables). Not outputs of other plugins (i.e. indigo plot creates plots and the interface has a button "show Plots" That only works on the server. For that you would need to do screen sharing.

Karl

so you are running even outside "things" with z-wave?

I have a few outside Z-Wave modules that are working fine - two energy monitors (sitting just outside the electrical boxes), a couple of temperature/humidity/motion detectors and similar. One thing I had to do was to add a repeater when the distance was too much - these were relatively inexpensive and worked fine... was necessary when penetrating several masonry walls.

Is it possible to run Indigo as server on a Mac Mini (let's say on the 1st floor) and I can also install Indigo UI on my Mac Book to use it on the ground floor?

Absolutely, there are tons of folks on the forums using Mini's hidden away in a closet, basement, etc. Only real concern is that your Z-Wave controller will be attached to it, so it should be tucked away in such a location that it can talk to at least a few of the Z-Wave modules.

You'll enjoy Indigo, I believe that everyone does!

Adam

I've been running Indigo on a mac mini for over five years. Although I updated my mini about 2 years ago, the limitations weren't because of indigo... I'm running a lot of other software and was also using it as my main desktop at the time. I would agree that you'll find the community here extremely helpful and friendly. Welcome to the club!

Thanks to all of you

The start couldn't be better! I was thinking about another Software from a German developer...however, I am pretty sure that I am in good hands here And Indigo is doing great. Easy and self explaining...most times...

Here are some more questions coming into my mind after playing a while:

1) I am running Indigo on my Mac Book for testing purposes. It took some time after Indigo got connected to the z-wave system after my Mac Book turned to sleep mode. And directly after the connection was established the wall plug switched to "on". How can I prevent changing the status to "on"? I would like the system to stay as it was before my Mac Book "got tired" over night?

2) How can I address an action to more than 1 device? Lets say, when the luminance is below x all shutter should close (of corse except the door which is open to the yard)?

3) Speaking again of a Mac Mini. I just have a Mac Book at home. Apart from that, Android and Windows is ruling my live. So I have to buy (and of corse I would like) a new Mac Mini (used ones are pretty expensive). As I read, that the smallest model has a bad performance, you are saying, that this 1,4 GHz Core i5 having 4 GB of RAM has enough power for Indigo and my home automation tasks?

4) Is it worth to invest also in an iPad to monitor and controll Indigo rather than using a web browser on an Android device? Is the GUI nicer for the iOS app?

Have a nice sunday!

Marcus

I've been running Indigo, SecuritySpy, and AirFoil on a 4 year old Unibody MacBook for the last year (still running Mavericks). Performance is fine for these applications as they aren't taxing the CPU to badly right now. My plan is to get a Mac mini at the next revision with lots of RAM and a SSD drive, which should be fine for years to come.

My advice is to keep using the MacBook until your become more familiar with Indigo and what you want to do with your setup. Nice thing about the MacBook is you don't have to go get a UPS just yet.

And you must never let your Mac running Indigo go to sleep. You have to change your Energy Saver setting in System Prefs. to not never allow the computer to go to sleep when on battery or power adaptor. Just have the screen go to sleep.

Simon

Hey Simon,

Thanks. You're right, I will change the settings on my Mac Book...keeps me out of trouble.

I was just thinking about running the system in the future on my Mac Book anyway. Because in case of a power failure the system will keep running for several hours. Otherwise the whole system will shut down. And I do have my screen and keyboard "on board" Isn't nice, is it? How do you handle this issue?

Marcus

Hi Marcus -

2) How can I address an action to more than 1 device? Lets say, when the luminance is below x all shutter should close (of corse except the door which is open to the yard)?

One way to accomplish this is to use an Indigo Trigger. Triggers are things that react to other things (when it gets dark, do this thing.) Set your trigger similar to the attached image, and then you can:

Screen Shot 2015-10-04 at 10.30.24 AM.png (64.77 KiB) Viewed 4488 times

Set Conditions:
- execute the trigger only when you are home,
- execute the trigger only when it's evening,
- etc.

Screen Shot 2015-10-04 at 10.40.12 AM.png (79.26 KiB) Viewed 4488 times

Set the Actions:
- Pick your shutter, set it to close,
-Select Add New Item (at the bottom)
- Pick your next shutter, set it to close, and
- repeat.

Screen Shot 2015-10-04 at 10.41.28 AM.png (77.07 KiB) Viewed 4488 times

I don't have shutters to show an example, but hopefully this is clear. Cheers,
Dave

Hey Dave, didn't notice the small "add new" at the button. Thank you

Btw, how do you tell your system, that you are "on vacation" or at home?