This is the forum archive of Homey. For more information about Homey, visit the Official Homey website.
The Homey Community has been moved to https://community.athom.com.
This forum is now read-only for archive purposes.
The Homey Community has been moved to https://community.athom.com.
This forum is now read-only for archive purposes.
Comments
Allright. Thank you.. guess I’ll have to wait then.. this is gonna cost me
im glad they came through on The project.. Good Luck to those people..:)
Only 180 m3.. but the latest owner had an extra living room added with 10 windows and the ceiling is made of glass windows (8).. so that took it self eats 18:(
- "There's a weird, subtle ticking noise, also when you don't use it"
It would be good to know how 'subtle' this is and if they are going to do something about it. From their comments it doesn't feel like they have a solution for it yet.Also is the opposite that open/close is a lack of noise
Quote @jorden:
Answer Slide from the same update where you quote the problem:
My question is towards backers that have received the slide. It would be good to get some feedback or video recording of the problem. Also, they might know more about the status of this problem.
Nailing this problem might make the difference for me and others between backing it or spending a few more bucks on an alternative that works (with possibly more noisy when operating the curtains; which personally is not really an issue for 10-20 seconds per day).
@jorden already posted his expierence and @julian also has recieved a beta unit, for as far as i know there are no more Homey users in the beta test at this moment but maybe they can let us know how they expierence it
But nothing beats first hand user experience, so it would be great indeed to keep updates on experiences from users and copies of communication from Slide coming (esp. the updates only backers receive).
In my case I have not heard the ticking noise they mentioned, so it will be hard to post a video of that. I have probably a good unit, because apart from some connectivity issues which are known and they are working on it works really good. Again, the lack of noise is really amazing. The main noise comes from the moving runners themself, so I can hardly blame Slide for that
If there is any noise around (a tv that is on, for example) you won't hear the ticking. I didn't hear the ticking this week.
It is quite basic but works really well:
- Installation, the app searches for all Slide devices in your current network
- The added devices can be controlled by a "slider", to open and close as far as you want it.
- There is a trigger card that has the #level of how far it is opened/closed (0.00 for fully open, 1.00 for fully closed)
- There is an action card where you can set the position
- There is an action card for "immediate stop"
- I poll the device(s) every 15 seconds so if you open by hand or using the smartphone app, it will also be detected. Shorter than 15 seconds didn't work too well for me since it then reports in "steps" (I tried with 3 seconds, then you get a trigger every 3 seconds with 0.03, 0.10, 0.15, 0.21 etc)
Next saturday our curtains will be placed, you said the space between the rail/wall was to close should 10cm be enough?
Great, installed it immediately!
But my Slide cannot be connected to Homey, when trying to add the wheel keeps spinning. I restarted both Homey and Slide and Slide does respond to its own app.
Please let me know what else I can try?
Hey everyone!
It’s another Monday, which means this is Kaj and Thijs with the latest update on Slide. I’m genuinely excited about this one, because we’ve had three good weeks that we’ll brief you on. We also went through a planning meeting with our production partners to put together a timeline from now till the moment Slide lands on your doorstep. Let’s go!
In our last update we shared some of the initial feedback from the first beta test round. Based on that, we identified three key to-do’s: (1) malfunctioning servo (hardware), (2) connectivity issues (software) and (3) curtain system compatibility. I’ll go through the progress/status on each of these below.
1. Servo is out!
As mentioned previously, the servo has always been a troublemaker. We know these updates are already quite detailed (and we think that’s generally appreciated) – but they still just cover a fraction of the things we do. One of those things is that Kaj had already been working on a servo-less design in the evening hours for a few months. We didn’t share it as we didn’t think we would go that way – but based on the beta test, we decided to accelerate that R&D effort last month.
So here’s the good news – we have a working proof of concept. Instead of a servo, we ‘copy’ the primary acceleration from the DC motor onto a secondary axis (using a slip clutch) which acts as a coupling. The result is full elimination of the servo in what Jesper adequately dubbed ‘an excellent piece of engineering porn’. Importantly, the servo was the last internal problem we could not get right. The next step is to iterate on this proof of concept and test it at length, but we are quite confident about this because compared to the servo, this coupling is significantly simpler. For those who want to know more on the technical details, I’ll shoot a video with Kaj for the next update where he’ll explain it in more detail.
2. Software: Connectivity issues (& Homey App)
We’ve narrowed down the rather broad multicast connectivity issue into two separate bugs, one relating to DTIM/Beacon interval changes and the other to a hostname addressing issue. The first issue, which caused Slide to become fully unresponsive and require a power reset, is resolved. We will roll out an OTA firmware update later this week to fix the issue. The update will also include an optimized calibration algorithm. We’re still working on the second connectivity bug, which requires you to re-add Slide to the Slide App.
For those Homey-powered beta-testers who missed it: Jorden has done some awesome work in releasing the first version of the Homey App for Slide. Here’s to many more community integrations in the future :-)
3. Curtain system compatibility
Over the past weeks we’ve thought a lot about how to transform Slide from a solution that works with many curtain systems to one that works with virtually all of them. We have made several iterations of the Slide Mount design, which now fits into Slide itself (recessed). But a large part of that thinking was about how to test the compatibility, ASAP. The good news is that the mounting system is modular, which means it’s separate from the Slide main unit itself. This means we are going to deploy a large field test of approx. 100 Slide mounts that we’ll send out to backers from Feb 19th onwards. The objective is to quickly verify that you are able to place the Slide mount on your system without trouble. Most of you have completed the Backerkit survey, and many of you submitted photos of your curtain systems. We’re using that to make an initial selection of ‘outlying’/untested types of curtain systems.
Timeline
As those who regularly read the updates know, we are always careful when it comes to communicating production/shipping timelines, simply because it’s difficult to accurately estimate how much time it takes to complete engineering something new. Internally, we review and adjust our planning every month, but we also know it’s always subject to change. Towards you as backers, instead of shouting production estimates too often, we focus on talking about the underlying work and progress, which ultimately determines how fast we can move forward.
But as always, it’s important to stick to transparency, so we’re including the latest copy of our internal planning doc below. It’s updated to reflect our recent meetings with our production partners, and incorporates the to-do’s based on the beta round. In summary, here’s what it says:
Obviously, we know it sucks that there’s still a few months of waiting before Slide rolls of the production line in volumes. But compared to two months ago, the beta test verified to us that except for the servo replacement, all other internal components are now at the ‘optimization’ rather than ‘engineering’ stage. That’s convenient, because it’s much easier to estimate how long it takes to prepare parts for production than to estimate how long it takes to engineer (invent) parts from scratch. This means, in a nutshell, that this timeline comes with a much higher degree of certainty than before. :-)
‘One more thing’
When we redesigned Slide on both the inside and the outside last year, we built it around an aluminum extrusion frame. Over these past few months of engineering, all the reasons to choose for aluminum disappeared one by one. In its current version, we’ve managed to achieve the same structural integrity using an aluminum L-profile, without the weight of a full aluminum chassis. Opting for two separate side panels also further simplifies product assembly, which is a major asset.
At the same time, people that saw Slide in real life often remarked that the design looked cool – but also a bit cold, boring and uninspiring. It’s 2018, and smart home tech should fit in your home – even if it’s always hidden behind your curtain. ;-) So, we figured: take a shift in the mechanical design, add aesthetic consideration, and turn a necessity into a virtue (‘van de nood een deugd maken’, as we like to say in Dutch). Here’s a sneak peek of what’s coming your way:
In conclusion
So – that’s a wrap! Per usual, we hope you find this update informative, transparent and ideally, fun to read as well. I started off writing I was genuinely excited, and hopefully you’ve caught on some of that excitement as well. We’re always looking forward to hearing your thoughts, so let us know what you think, as well as any questions you might have. Also let us know if this degree of detail is valuable – because it does take time to write it down. ;-) In any case – have a good week and our next update is out in three weeks on Monday February 26th!
Cheers from freezing Amsterdam,
Thijs & Kaj
P.S. - We have a little bit of backlog with our emails - if you're waiting for a response, please bear with us for a few more days, we're looking to answer all messages by the end of the week. Thank you!
@Julian: I have discussed with Kaj why your Slide may or may not be detected. At the end of this week you'll probably receive an "Over the air" (OTA) software update, as stated in their update. If by next week your Slide still doesn't get detected, please contact me so we can investigate further. I can make a javascript file that scans all devices on the network and we might be able to see more then (you'd have to install NodeJS on a PC in the same network though)
Ok, will wait for the update, hope that resolves the issue!
I think that, because they got the "Servo out" as they described in their last mail, the problem will be 100% solved.
My Slide got updated, I tried to pair it with Homey but this still does not work, too bad. The Slide-app on Homey crashed so I unstalled and re-installed it. Now it does not crash but gives a time-out or invalid session after some time.
Any update regarding the slide app? I tried a couple of times now but still no success.