I have toyed with the idea of Indigo for quite some time now, but never pulled the trigger. I received a Samsung SmartThings device for Christmas last year and played with that device instead. I am able to do just about everything I want...but the cloud based nature of it makes it very unreliable. I will not mislead here, I am torn between Indigo and Homeseer. I already know I can do everything I want with Homeseer. With Indigo, I *think* I can do everything I want. But I'm willing to start the free trial and take a stab at it. I will be ordering my Aetec stick today and will start the free trial once that comes in. If it works, it would be more native to me as I have an OSX server that already runs 24/7. Putting Indigo on it makes more sense than purchasing another hub.
So here is what I have so far:
- 22 of my 41 swithces are GE Z-Wave Plus
- 7 of my 9 2-way switches have also been upgraded with the GE Z-Wave Plus Add-Ons
- 30 hue bulbs with an additional 7 Hue dimmer switches
- A few assorted Z-wave outlets for low voltage lighting and occasional holiday lighting
- 2 HVAC thermostats upgraded to Ecobee 3 with multiple Remote Sensors each
- A few zigbee motion sensors that I use in areas not covered by an Ecobee sensor
- Ring doorbell at front door
- Kwickset Z-wave lock at front door
- Iris Z-wave garage door opener
To clarify the sensors, in my larger rooms, I use the Ecobee sensors to determine "motion". In these rooms, the lights do NOT turn on due to motion. Lamps turn on by timer, overhead lighting is manually turned on. But overhead lighting is turned off when the Ecobee sensor changes to unoccupied or remains unoccupied for 40 minutes. In the smaller areas (garage, laundry room, closets, pantry, etc), I use Iris zigbee motion sensors and in these cases the lights do turn on automatically for motion and then turn off 5 minutes after motion stops.
My GE Z-wave plus switches have a double tap feature. I use the switch for local control of overhead lighting, but use the double tap to control related lighting. For example, hitting the living light switch off once turns off the living room overhead lighting (direct control). Double tapping the switch triggers a WebCore pison on my SmartThings that turns off all lights in my living room area.
These are my short-term goals for the system:
- Automation of exterior lighting at sunset, midnight and sunrise (combination z-wave and hue)
- Detection of home presence mode (home, away or sleeping) based on Ecobee sensors and presence sensors
- Verify front door locked when set to away mode or sleep mode
- Automation of lamps (hue) turning on and off at sunset and midnight when a room is unoccupied based on ecobee sensor
- Automation of turning room lights (z-wave, not lamps) off based on ecobee sensors going to unoccupied
- Establish lighting scenes based on double tap on the GE Z-Wave switches
- Turn on/off lighting in small areas (Z-wave switches) based on local motion sensor
- Turn on garage lighting based on opening of garage door
- Closing garage door when home mode changes to away or sleeping
My thinking on presence is that if my presence is detected (iphone and/or zigbee sensor) and Ecobee shows "Occupied", then home mode is "Home". If my presence is detected and Ecobee shows "Unoccupied", then home mode is "Sleeping". If my presence is NOT detected and Ecobee shows "Unoccupied", then home mode is "Away". I suppose I could also capture presence is NOT detected but Ecobee shows "Occupied" which would mean we have been gone less than some threshold, perhaps for an errand or something, so I would not change the home to "Away" per se, perhaps some kind of "Errand" mode...this could even be triggered by being in the backyard out of wifi range for example. The idea here is lighting automation would be a function of this. For example, I would not want to turn lamps on in the bedroom at sunset if we (or kids) are sleeping. I do want them to turn on if we are Away or otherwise active around the house.
Other items I think are self-explanatory. On the garage door, the z-wave opener already includes an alarm, strobing light and 5-second delay and I also have functioning sensors in the track, so I am not concerned about the door closing unattended.
My long term goals for the system:
- Upgrade all exterior doors to Z-wave locks
- Update remaining light switches to Z-wave
- Integrate (5) ceiling fans and operate based on occupancy, house mode and room temp
- Integrate DMP Alarm Panel
- Integrate exterior camera system
- Robot vacuum cleaner
- Integration with the living room stereo (turn off at sleeping, play radio at away, etc)
- Potential home audio system?
The first two items are self-explanatory.
On the alarm panel, I have a hard-wired dumb alarm that works well and I want to keep it that way. No outside tampering or hacking. However, I do want to be able to capture a tripped alarm due to fire or burglary so I can get instant notification. The panel as the option to add in and program relays that trigger on either of these two events, and I should be able to tie-these relays into a Z-wave sensor. Not sure what kind yet. Additionally, I can add-in "arming sensors" so that when a sensor is shorted, the alarm system goes into the corresponding arming state. So for example, if my home goes into Auto "Sleeping" mode, I can auto lock doors, turn off lights and short the "Sleep Arming" sensor. I think a Mimo would be a good tool for this. I would have a "Away Arming" zone and an "Sleep Arming" zone. I may or may not add a Panic zone for remote trigger.
On an exterior camera system, I am not sure what direction I am going with this. It should operate fully independent of indigo (or any platform) but I suppose there is benefit to some kind of integration.
Robot vacuum cleaner, I almost bought one already, but we got a puppy instead. This now has to wait until he is fully house broken.
For the living room, I already have a Logitech Harmony Hub, but with my current reciever, my options are too limited. So this will involve a receiver upgrade.
The home audio system, such as Sonos, is a contender and may render the previous item unnecessary. Not sure yet.
I know have some older previous threads on here, but playing with the SmartThings hub has given me some ground truth expectations for what we want from an HA system. I have my current system about 35% of what I want, but with SmartThings, I am hitting a wall with cloud computing reliability issues. I would like to change back to a local direction instead of putting more resources into this.
Any feedback or direction on how to perform these tasks would be appreciated.
Computer is the old style Mac Pro, the case mounted one, not the trash can mounted one