New guy...questions

Hi,

I'm an old homeseer 2 user and current vera user. I'm looking to change from vera back to a more flexible, extensible HA system. I'm pretty mac-centric with many devices in the house and I love the idea of Indigo. I have tried the demo but it is tough to get a full feel without going all in.

I'm to the point now of either buying a $475 HS3 pro package (already have PC) or under $200 (?) Indigo (will also get a mini, $600 give or take). A big investment either way, but the main thing to me is that I'm happy with how it works. My time is worth alot to me.

Questions (I think I know the answers to some of these, but validation would be great):

1. z-troller via USB. I did not test this, and I have not even unboxed my z-troller. I understand it is an awesome device (my only point of reference is vera's clunky wave add/remove). Does this work GREAT with indigo? Anything not work? Experiences?

2. DSC 2DS plugin. I did test this with the demo and it seemed to worked instantly. Almost too good to be true. Any negatives with this plugin? I assume it is an additional cost.

3. HS Touch-like custom web pages? I did not yet try the IOS client, but is it customizable in any way? Are there third party options? That's one great thing about vera...there are several great IOS apps that are very customizable.

4. I don't care about A/V integration. So ignore this and skip ahead.

5. iMessages. iMessage/messages is one of the greatest thing in the world to me. I currently use prowl with vera. Are both of these available with indigo for notifications?

6. Sonos plugin. How well does this work?

7. Netatmo plugin. does one exist?

8. Web server. I have never used a mac web server. Is this one stable and secure?

9. z-wave locks. I was able to get the vera plugin to somewhat control a schage lock, but it is clunky. Not really a question, but a real mental hurdle for me. I have 4 locks that I rarely need to unlock remotely/automatically, but i do use the keypads as triggers.

10. Irrigation Caddy exists?

Thanks for any input and advice.

Regarding #9 - I control 5 Z-Wave locks (kwikset) using the Vera plugin. Response has some lag compared to direct Indigo control of Insteon or Z-Wave devices, but it's not bad - maybe a couple seconds. The plugin's functionality is notably less extensive than we enjoy with natively supported Indigo devices. For example, Vera (not the plugin / Indigo) sends me a text when someone inputs an incorrect code into a lock b/c that's not supported via the Vera plugin. Using lock status as triggers, e.g. to lock other doors when one is locked, works very reliably via the Indigo / Vera plugin.

In answer to a few of your questions that i know about:

2 - Nope, Travis (who makes the plugin) doesn’t currently charge, but you’d need Indigo Pro. I’ve been using it for a while and found it to be most stable and well built.

3 - have a look at some of the awesome control pages people have created here: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1506

5 - there’s some AppleScripts floating around that works well with the current version of iMessage. Quite customisable to your own needs

7 - have a look at this one: viewtopic.php?f=22&t=9948

9 - I’m afraid not at present: viewtopic.php?f=58&t=9248

Hope this helps!

[jay (support)]

Hello and welcome to the forums. I'll fill in where other's haven't responded already or where I can add something:

1) The only trick, aside from getting a serial-to-USB adaptor, is making sure that the firmware of the Ztroller is 1.17 at a minimum - earlier versions had bugs.
3) Custom Graphical Control Pages is one of the major features of Indigo Pro.
5) The built-in Growl plugin does notifications to the Mac's notification center and Prowl. Not sure exactly what you're looking for in iMessage, but here's one interesting script (though I haven't tried it)
6) Seems to - the thread shows how responsive nlagaros is in terms of support.
8) It's the popular open source CherryPy server - so it's very solid in our opinion.
9) The 3rd party Vera plugin is currently the only way to control them - and it's looking unlikely that Indigo will ever be able to support them directly. We may consider taking a look at the Vera plugin (at some point in the future) to see if we can isolate the issue that some users are seeing with it - no promises as to when though.
10) One developer has started working on a plugin for it though I don't know what the status is.

1 - the z-troller/usb worked immediately from my air running the 6 demo. It looks like i'll have to import each device one at a time? Still very nice.

9 -

Regarding #9 - I control 5 Z-Wave locks (kwikset) using the Vera plugin. Response has some lag compared to direct Indigo control of Insteon or Z-Wave devices, but it's not bad - maybe a couple seconds. The plugin's functionality is notably less extensive than we enjoy with natively supported Indigo devices. For example, Vera (not the plugin / Indigo) sends me a text when someone inputs an incorrect code into a lock b/c that's not supported via the Vera plugin. Using lock status as triggers, e.g. to lock other doors when one is locked, works very reliably via the Indigo / Vera plugin.

Very interesting. I had played with this vera-->locks before, and I just fired the demo back up. This actually works pretty well. The control from indigo is a little sluggish (no big deal), but it sees status changes made via vera quickly.

3 - very impressive control page flexibility. I loaded the iphone app and is is simple and snappy. looks like the possibilities are endless with this design.

What about the notion of rooms or device groups or other organization?

And what about scalability? 50 z-wave devices, several triggers and schedules. I assume there are no real limits to the size of the setup?

Also, simple things like countdown timers? How do I handle that?

Regarding the control pages -- WOW!

For WAN access to the web server, do most people simply port forward? I have a separate subnet for my vera and blue iris camera server that is segregated from my main lan/subnet. edit: just found the prism service.



edit: and one last question for the night. On a control page, can I run an action group from here? I don't see an obvious way to assign an action group to a page/button.

edit: and one last question for the night. On a control page, can I run an action group from here? I don't see an obvious way to assign an action group to a page/button.

In the editor add a button, of which the display type can be anything (though i suspect you’ll probably use variable, static and device most often) then below that you’ve got the server action option which lets you select existing action groups or create new ones. I favour having all my action groups setup pre-existing then just assign them to the relevant buttons.

[jay (support)]

I very briefly looked at the Vera plugin the other day, specifically because I had just gotten a Kwikset lock in and installed it. The slow response time (~2-3 seconds) is between the Vera and the lock - when I click the lock or unlock button in the Vera UI it's consistently 2-3 seconds before the lock operates. I don't know if this is a Vera issue or a protocol issue (I believe that the beaming technology in Z-Wave might be introducing the delay but don't know for sure since that's part of the information we can't get from Sigma).

The command from the plugin to the Vera doesn't seem to add much of anything in terms of extra overhead. Now, one thing I did notice is that the the plugin doesn't automatically switch the state of the Indigo lock device when it sends the command - rather, it lets the normal polling cycle pick up the state change. So sometimes it's several seconds before the lock state switches after it's been operated. Without actually hearing the lock work it might seem as if it's working much slower than it actually is. I haven't actually looked at how the polling works but that's one thing that perhaps could be improved with the plugin.

Also, I can report that I've yet to have to bounce the plugin. It's been running now for 2 days and it's still working properly so whatever the issue is that others have reported about the plugin becoming unresponsive have yet to occur here. I have some suspicions about what the cause might be but until it actually happens to me I won't really know.

[matt (support)]

1 - the z-troller/usb worked immediately from my air running the 6 demo. It looks like i'll have to import each device one at a time? Still very nice.

Correct, you'll need to include the devices with the Z-Troller and then create a new Device for each one. I have the EZController (same as the OEM Z-Troller) and like it quite a bit -- no problems to report.

What about the notion of rooms or device groups or other organization?

You can create Folders for Devices in Indigo in the main window. Note, however, that each device can exist only in a single folder. You can also create unlimited graphical Control Pages and organize your devices on individual pages however you want (device controls can exist on unlimited Control Pages and you can have the same device on the same Control Page multiple times; if you want to for example show its text value as well as an icon value).

And what about scalability? 50 z-wave devices, several triggers and schedules. I assume there are no real limits to the size of the setup?

That shouldn't be a problem. The Indigo Server is very CPU efficient.

Also, simple things like countdown timers? How do I handle that?

You probably want to use the Timer of the Timers and Pesters plugin.

Folders works well. Simple, clean. Enough organization for me.

Timers plugin also works well. I got the start, restart actions working in a test.

The netatmo plugin works great.

I'd like to see a native imessage notification option in addition to growl/email. But I can make it work with applescript or the plugin that someone wrote.

So far, I love what I'm able to do. Everything feels clean, simple, and organized.

I got the mac mini and indigo pro setup. Adding my 30 or so z-wave devices was quick and a pleasurable experience compared to vera. I got my DSC door zones added and working fine.

I'm trying to set up a basic trigger that I have used in both homeseer and vera, and need some guidance as to the best way in indigo.

If door1 or door2 or door3 become open, start a 15 min countdown timer and turn on a light. If any of these same doors opens again before the timer has completed, restart the timer.

Is 'device state change' the best way to go? How do I do 'or's with a trigger device state change? Or is there a better way?

Previously, I would have a virtual device for 'any door open' and trigger from that.

I did the above by making several triggers:

anydooropen1 -- door1 opens, set variable garagedoorany to open
anydooropen2 -- door2 opens, set variable garagedoorany to open
anydooropen3 -- door3 opens, set variable garagedoorany to open

lights on -- if garagedoorany becomes open, turn on lights, off after 15 min

alldoorsclosed1 -- door1 closed, conditions of door2 and door3 closed, set variable garagedoorany to closed
alldoorsclosed2 -- door2 closed, conditions of door1 and door3 closed, set variable garagedoorany to closed
alldoorsclosed3 -- door3 closed, conditions of door1 and door2 closed, set variable garagedoorany to closed

Seems to work. Any advice is appreciated.

[jay (support)]

I don't know how the zone devices were implemented in that plugin, but you may be able to use a Device Group for the initial trigger. We have a request to add the second type of event for the Device Group device type but for the moment your approach is the simplest.

Rather than use a variable, you could just start a Timer device as the action on the first 3 triggers and stop the Timer (if its still active) on the second group.

I just discovered using the client from a mac on my lan. totally impressive.

With the DSC plugin, the DSC devices do not show up in device groups devices. Also, they the box to 'show remotely' is greyed out and they do not show up in ios. Is this a limitation of the plugin or the way it was written?

I'd like to be able to see my doors status in my devices list (I can make control pages to show the state). Then I'd like one device to indicate 'any door open' or 'all doors closed'. The device group seems like it would work if the DSC devices were available to it.