To Indigo from SmartThings

Hello,
I'm looking to switch from SmartThings to Indigo.

My automation is really pretty simple – three motion detectors, a few sets of lights, an Aeotec doorbell, and a ZSmoke smoke detector.

But here's the biggie. I have bulbs located all around the house screwed into adapters that plug directly into wall outlets. When the doorbell rings, the bulbs flash for 10 seconds. I also plan, in the future, to have a bulb flash, and bed shaker activate when the smoke detector goes off.

I don't see the "Things" listed in the officially supported devices to accommodate this. I've seen in the FAQ that more Z-wave devices are compatible than are listed.

For motion detectors, the EcoLink is readily available. I have seen mention in these forums that somebody successfully uses it.

Is the ZSmoke compatible (not the ZCombo). I have this connected to SmartThings as a Z-Wave device.

How can I control bulbs? I have one group of bulbs that can be controlled by an appliance module. I have a second group of bulbs, which are inside a fixture, that will not work with a wall switch, outlet module, or light socket Z-Wave adapter. In SmartThings these bulbs are controlled as Zigbee devices. The bulbs are a mix of GE Link, Cree, and WeMo.

Finally, most important, are the bulbs which I have blinking. I use these as alerters. I need to be able to locate these blinker bulbs all over the house, they need to be obvious, they really can't be in a fixture, and they can't be too obtrusive (as in a wall plug outlet for each bulb).

Any suggestions how I could achieve this?
I am drawn to Indigo for the reliability and robustness.

Thanks,
Barry.

Your system is feasible on Indigo but you will need to spend some money (you didn't mention budget).

None of your existing smart bulbs are going to work directly with Indigo. There are several Z wave bulbs that do work, Domitech, Zipato, Aeon labs, 2gig, etc and Insteon light bulbs. You could also plug your conventional bulbs and adapters into Zwave or insteon hardwired (non-obtrusive) outlets and make the bulb flash by turning the outlet on or off when the doorbell is rung.

In general, most Z wave devices work out of the box with Indigo except for some of the Zwave plus (gen 5) devices.

There are numerous Zwave motion sensors that work as well and Insteon motion sensors.

Aeotec doorbell appears to work viewtopic.php?f=58&t=15287

ZSmokes work (I have two).

Not familiar with a bed shaker but I'm assuming you have a hard of hearing situation. If the bed shaker has a low voltage trigger or switch you can tie that in as well with a low voltage contact.

Once you have your devices in Indigo your possibilities are endless in terms of grouping bulbs together, creating triggers and personalizing your system.

Thanks for the reply.

You are right about the hearing assist.

It's nice to have verified that the things mentioned do work with Indigo.

The alerter bulbs are the sticky point. I have Zigbee bulbs screwed into outlet adapters located throughout the house:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41lB5z05xbL._SX342_.jpg

These bulbs flash when the doorbell is pressed. I would also like to have a bulb flash and the bed shaker activate if the smoke detector goes off.

The bed shaker is going to be custom hardware based on a smart wall outlet and car cigarette lighter type 12 V converter - but that's for the future.

Having a separate Z-wave outlet for each bulb with one of these adapters plugged in is a last resort option. Purchasing Z-wave bulbs is another option, but I hate to throw away the bulbs I have.

A really great option would be they had some kind of Z-wave adapter similar to what I've shown above. Is there anything like that ?

Barry.

I'm not aware of a zwave adapter like that.

A good comprehensive site of Zwave products is here http://www.zwaveproducts.com You'll see the domitech bulbs are down to $29 and they are Zwave plus and work with indigo viewtopic.php?f=58&t=13763

Thanks. I just found that site two minutes ago and the domitech bulbs.

Those would work very well and I like shape more than the rounded shape of most in A19 bulbs.

All the pieces are falling into place.

One thing, I am assuming that it will be possible to create some kind of script or something within Indigo that will blink bulbs response to a trigger.

When the doorbell is pressed, it generates an event. Indigo would recognize this event and execute a script that would turn the bulbs on and off at say a one half second rate for 10 blinks.

Actually, this is where SmartThings fails. Since they do everything from the cloud, the commands to execute bulb blinks seem to be delayed by network latency and don't execute properly.

I have seen some mention on the forum about a version 7 of Indigo. I haven't been able to find any hints about what may be available in this version – maybe Zigbee support?

Barry.

Yes, you can do a doorbell trigger that would execute a script. I'm not a script guy so someone else can comment about your 10 second idea. Usually, a search of the forums will turn up hits on what you are looking for.

One other thing worth noting is all of the bulbs (Zwave and Insteon) I have ramp up and ramp down (not instant on/off) that might not let you toggle the light on and off as fast as you would like. I'm not sure if that can be changed by modifying a configuration parameter with the device as the Indigo software does allow parameter modifications. You would need to check the manufacturers instructions and those can be buried on the web somewhere for you to find on your own.

Matt or Jay wold have to comment on the Zigbee and Indigo 7, not sure.

[jay (support)]

Zigbee support will not be added in the initial Indigo 7 release.

Instant on. Yes, very good point. My GE Link bulbs have an instant on, but as you mention my Cree and WeMo bulbs ramp up and down and this creates a problem.

Unfortunately, the GE bulbs are Zigbee.

I found some Domitech bulbs on a page that was mentioned. These specially mention "instant on". Hopefully that means what we think.

The Domitech DTA19-750-27 is a Z-Wave controllable, instant-on, LED screw-in light bulb that provides pleasant soft-white illumination equivalent to a 60-watt incandescent bulb, yet uses only 9 watts of energy.

I think I've seen mention of Python scripts within Indigo. Theoretically this would allow a blinking script to execute over a 10 second duration, if I'm assuming correctly.

I hope this is true.

Barry.

Yes, blinking will be fine in Python.


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None of your existing smart bulbs are going to work directly with Indigo. There are several Z wave bulbs that do work, Domitech, Zipato, Aeon labs, 2gig, etc and Insteon light bulbs.
You could also plug your conventional bulbs and adapters into Zwave or insteon hardwired (non-obtrusive) outlets and make the bulb flash by turning the outlet on or off when the doorbell is rung.
.There are numerous Zwave motion sensors that work as well and Insteon motion sensors.