Long Time Mac User, Ready to Abandon SmartThings

Hello all!

The title really says it all. If I had discovered Indigo at the start of my holiday vacation, I would likely be ready to pull the trigger on the Pro license right now. As it is, I don't have the spare time left to begin the process of changing my home brain out right now.

So I'll approach this carefully, starting with asking a lot of advice about the best way to make this happen. Perhaps there should be a SmartThings Switcher's Guide?

I'll talk about specifics of my setup and needs later, but for now:

IS there a switcher's guide I just haven't found?
What problems have ST users found in switching?
What's the best process for excluding/including my Z-wave stuff? My Hue stuff?
And most importantly, what are the biggest gotchas I'm going to find? I'm aware my Zigbee stuff isn't compatible. Don't have much of it anyway.
I don't have an outdoor Lux sensor. Instead I've been relying on the Weather app in ST. Is there a way for Indigo to know how bright it is based on the local forecast?
Any IFTT.com integration? I don't have specific ideas here, I just know how powerful it can be.

I'm a professional Mac desktop support guy with some AppleScripting chops, super-basic HTML skills, absolutely no Python familiarity, and I in no way consider myself a programmer. I have a 2008-era Mini running 10.11.x I can dedicate to Indigo, I run whole house Airplay speakers with various last-gen AppleTV, Airport Expresses, and Airplay-compatible speakers. I have a Harmony Hub, which I understand isn't Indigo compatible. And I'm running Plex on another Mini. Also, we're burdened with relatively slow DSL service as our only internet option.
My wife and I both have iPhones and Apple watches. I also have a box full of 1998-era X10 stuff left over from a previous house where I used XTension for control. Not planning to make X10 a serious part of my set up, but might use it for unimportant things.
My current SmartThings setup is all about lights and a bit of AV setup. That's partly because I'm saddled with a highly proprietary Carrier Infinity Heat Pump, which no one seems to be able to talk to. Not especially interested in using the system for security, in part because we have dogs and live in the country.

Not familiar with ST but just to touch on a few parts of that:

In general it's easier to move everything you can in one fowl swoop rather than over time. Someone once described the process like ripping off a plaster/bandaid... It hurts but then it's done and you don't need to worry about it anymore.

There are various forecast plugins but none that I'm aware of that show lux. To be fair they're not exactly expensive, I'd probably invest in one and save hours of work arounds anyway.

There's no incoming IFTTT integration (that needs to be done at their end and they've not yet shown any interest in that)

There's no integration with the harmony hub (I'm hoping someone will write a plugin some day) but if you can get a global cache itach or gc100 you can use that for IR control.

Also some Zigbee stuff might be compatible.. There's a hue plugin and from what I've read about the hue system you can sync devices with its hub, so depending on what they are it might work!

Also no applewatch integration yet but I hope for it someday. However there's a few apps out there you can get (like HomeRemote) that work really well with it and indigo.



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Here's a good indication of my level:

global cache itach or gc100

Say what? these are hardware? Software? Typos?

The "one fell swoop" thing makes me realize another question: How would any of you with Indigo experience recommend I go about trying the free trial without killing my current set up?

The "one fell swoop" thing makes me realize another question: How would any of you with Indigo experience recommend I go about trying the free trial without killing my current set up?

I came over from Vera in 2013 and did it all at once. I have no regrets, and have never looked back.

I would suggest evaluating the Indigo trial with one or two rooms, and go all in with those rooms. This will give you some idea about control, schedules, and so on.

With respect to Python, if you can handle AppleScript and HTML, you can handle Python. One note on that--Indigo Domotics have said that Python is the future of Indigo and that AppleScript may be phased out over time. That said, native Indigo can do an amazing amount of stuff with no need for Python or AppleScript.

Global cache itach and gc100 are IR emitters, as in allow you to control your AV equipment if there's no direct integration for indigo already

ITach and gc100 are great products for IR and Serial control as Durosity says.

http://www.globalcache.com/products/itach/models2/

http://www.globalcache.com/products/gc-100/models1/

I've got an iTach wifi2IR and a GC100, both controlled through indigo with the Cynical plugins (which you'll find once you start exploring).


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And I might add, that I have no Python experience whatsoever, but everyone here is extremely helpful. For me, the reality is nothing I've done in Python can't be done in the GUI, but just takes a lot more Triggers. But, I'm a novice, have a very basic understanding of how Python can "clean up" and combine a multitude of things like Triggers, and, as I've said, you'll find the folks here on the boards extremely helpful when it comes to answering questions.

And as others have said, just Dive In.

I'm not familiar with SmartThings, but I have no doubt that Indigo is, hands down, better!

Welcome aboard

Here are the two (euro)cent of another new user of amazing Indigo 6

I did have no idea of home automation, Indigo and Python until September/October last year. Since then I learned a lot (also thanks to this community) about it at all. First, z-wave is my first choice standard, second Indigo in combination with my old MacBook is the best choice for controlling everything, and third I like Python very much (I am totally no coder).

My suggestion would be: First off all, you need an interface. I can highly recommend the Z-Stick Gen 5 by Aeon Labs. After installing the trial and setting everything up, take 2-3 devices (e.g., switches and motion controllers) and see how to include them into Indigo 6. And then you get easily familiar with the software by playing around with triggers and schedules.

You can find a starter guide here.

And here you can find the supported devices so far (that doesn't mean, that other won't work).

And last but not least: in case you are interested in coding with Python I can recommend "Learn Python the hard way" by Zed A. Shaw.

Have fun,
Marcus

Thanks all, especially for the link to the starter guide.

Could someone please explain what the devs mean when they say Python "is the future" of Indigo? Will AppleScript stop having the same functionality with Indigo some time in the future?

Will Indigo remain Applescriptable?

Also, is there an alternative weather source for Indigo besides WeatherSnoop?

[matt (support)]

It appears to us that Apple is deemphasizing AppleScript even in their own Mac OS applications. That, coupled, with AppleScript problems we've seen in more recent Mac OS versions (which Apple has yet to fix) leads us to promoting python as the scripting solution for Indigo going forward. It isn't a 100% replacement since AppleScript is still very good at handling inter-application communication/scripting. But for any scripting where the primary target is Indigo itself we encourage the use of python. The ultimate fate of AppleScript support in Indigo is not yet known – some of that will depend on what Apple does in future Mac OS releases.

To answer your last question though, the Indigo 6 server is indeed AppleScriptable.

Also, is there an alternative weather source for Indigo besides WeatherSnoop?

The Wunderground plugin is what you're after.

Huge feature set and well-maintained by Dave.

Peter

There's also cynical weather that gets its data from forecast.io. I use them together for weather.. I plan at some point to setup some script to compare their forecasts to determine % chance of being accurate.. (Living in the Scotland/north east of England means very frequent, hard to predict changes in weather )


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Congratulations on selecting that Carrier Infinity Heat Pump! It's also the system I use. I have a small project that I've been working on to support the Carrier Infinity / Bryant Evolution Connex systems. I'm not a programmer either, so it's sometimes slow going.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10567&hilit=carrier+infinity

I recently did the same thing. While it was a long weekend, I went through every device and unassociated with SmartThings and re associated with Indigo. I actually still have the SmartThings hub running because I have 2 GE ZigBee lights. Indigo doesn't support Zigbee and I haven't gotten around to replacing them so I let Smartthings just turn them on and off using a schedule for now.

As far as Python, don't let it scare you off. There are lots of samples here. I was able to recreate the wakeup/sunrise feature in SmartThings to gradually turn up my bedroom lights to wake me up. If you have any experience programming in any language, you can quickly pick up the basic syntax of Python in an afternoon. Just find a good online tutorial site and play for a few hours. Then, look over some samples. Being a newbie at Python with Indigo, I may not be the best person to learn from, but here was my first external script.

viewtopic.php?f=107&t=15311

At the very least, it gives you an idea of how to access a device and change a setting. You can also see the community was very helpful with fixing my errors (although, I'm sure this can still be greatly improved).