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NEEO - interesting read !!!
Lesley
Member
Hey guys,
First of all, I strongly believe that Homey will be THE ONE product that will able to control my entire home and everything that comes with it. On the other hand, there's always room for improvement/expanding with every single product 
I just checked NEEO's blog and it looks pretty promising!
@Emile, I know you're a bit skeptical about NEEO but their product seems te get better than expected (to me!). Question,... will it also be possible to implement sending discrete IR commands with homey (after shipment, since it’s software)? Also, their IR beam looks that strong that even if you put the brain underneath the cabinet, it'll still work just fine. I have seen the IR video from homey and it looks very promising but do you think that Homey’s IR beam will be comparable?
IR: https://neeo.com/blog/2015/11/29/lets-talk-infrared
@Emile, I still really really hope that it will be possible to use NEEO's remote to fully control Homey. I (and for what I have seen on Homey’s forum, many others) see the advantage of a fiscal remote 'with buttons' instead of just only a touchscreen on the moments that control by speech will not satisfy needs in situations like a party, people sleeping, etcetera. With their latest OS update, they proclaim to hit 60 FPS with a refresh rate of 60Hz without draining the battery to quickly. Would be wonderful if Homey’s OS could run on the remote with comparable specs! Are you guys willing to contact them to see if you could collaborate?
The display: https://neeo.com/blog/2015/11/29/speeeeeed-baby
Their remote UI: https://neeo.com/blog/2015/11/5/a-deeper-view-into-the-app-and-the-remote-ui
Looking forward in hearing from you guys!
Comments
Yes, their Infrared range seems pretty impressive, however in the video they don't have the top plate on, which triggers some alarm bells to me.
About the discrete commands- it's mostly marketing talk :-) We have a lot of partnerships going on with manufacturers, and we have a very large Infrared database (which we'll post a video of how easy it is to pair very soon- just press buttons on your remote and we'll figure out which device it is).
About the remote- we're not going to do it for obvious reasons
But anyone's free to connect it, if they allow it!
@Emile, that's a quick reply! Thanks
Must say, I agree about the top plate. I've just sent them a message to ask them to post a video of the coverage with the top plate on the brain
Sounds promising! Sounds almost to easy and I’m looking forward to the paring video with device recognition! =D
I, unfortunately have little knowledge about this but to me it seems likely that in 'a normal situation’, the ON and OFF command is exactly the same code. ‘If' what their telling is true, I do see the advantage of a discrete command with a difference between commands like ON and OFF don’t you?
There's definitely an advantage! We implement these codes as well whenever they're available! :-)
I don't see the NEEO as a real competitor for Homey. So the reasons are not that obvious for me
From the NEEO website:
A public REST API that lets you control devices in your NEEO setup from other systems on your local network. The API features will be nicely documented on the web available to everyone.
Custom HTTP commands that let you control any device with an HTTP interface on your local network. These commands can be used in actions, rules or in the UI. Import, export and share them.
For me this would be the ideal situation. Use your NEEO to trigger scenes in Homey. But also use Homey to trigger NEEO.
You could of course use Homey for everything, but I'm convinced that you need a physical remote at least for your audio/video. I'm really wondering how everybody here is planning on using this. Is everybody going to use his phone for this purpose? And how do you handle this if you have a wife and kids?
Wound easy enough to integrate then. I still don't see the advantage over a smartphone, which can even be multi-user.
I also backed Neeo and was happy to see something real! For the top plate, this was a temp plate but will be replaced with a black one. I am also very curious if that will effect the ir, perhaps the ir-transmitters are not located on the top but on the side so that would not be of influence.
For me I am going to use the Neeo besides the Homey, homey for the intelligence and flows (I think Neeo not even comes close in that area) and Neeo as a nice remote, probably only using part of the functionality of Neeo (but that was my intention from the start). What I hope is that it will be possible to start certain actions or scenes of Homey via the remote .
You missed the problems Athom had with the ir? Same situation! IR perfect when device is open, after placing the top on the device IR was very bad :-P
Nope, certainly did not miss that, as said I am curious if the ir will be effected when they change the top-plate!
I just returned to a real remote.
I was constantly pressing the wrong buttons if I didn't look at the phone/ipad every two, three presses.
Now I can physically feel the buttons again.
Much more conveniant.
There are couple of facts worth mentioning. The Neeo had cover on it. It wasnt just a bare top as in the early Homey demos. The final top might look black (more like a very dark purple) in the visual spectrum but transparent in the IR spectrum. Most IR windows on devices are “black”. The vertical IR distribution of Neeo will not be comparable with Homey`s. And also it has been designed around IR...
Nest become popular not because it is the best thermostat (which is not, ok it finally got to the point to have OpenTherm) but because of the stunning design of the product the great UX and great GUI of the app. Might want to ignore the remote but Neeo looks fantastic and not to mention of the GUI of the app and remote. We are mostly geeks here but average customer will make a decision differently. If the built quality will be right, it can become a potential Logitech harmony killer too.
I think they are a real competitor. Might sound harsh but if I would not need the 433Mhz spectrum I would of gone with the Neeo without thinking. The voice activation is a cool thing but can make my phone react (or wall mounted tablet in the living room) on custom voice command as well.
But to stay fair, nor Homey or Neeo is on the market let’s see when both products will be available how will they perform in real life. All I wanted to say, there always things to learn from the competition (Apple & Xerox) and never underestimate them.
Steve Jobs: "No one is going to buy a big phone."
@Moek, I have exactly the same thing. Tried to control my Smart TV, set-top box, Denon Ceol and XBMC via IP with my phone and without constantly looking to my phone's touchscreen, I'm missing the buttons all the time. Just using 5 different fiscal remotes again
For scrolling down my movie and music library, a touch screen is terrific but for basic A/V commands and stuff, for me I do need fiscal buttons. Especially in situations that speech doesn't satisfy our needs.
@Honey, I agree, stunning design mostly wins when it comes to mostly sold products. I do love homey's design and homey's GUI is really stunning but NEEO's brain and remote looks like an Apple product if you know what I mean
@Emile, NEEO replied with:
"@Lesley Vonk
Thanks!
In the video, the Brain has the clear acrylic top on it. It's identical to the production tops in every way except for color. The production tops will be black."
I've asked them for a video with the black acrylic cover on top. Awaiting an answer.
(Don't want to offend anyone so please don't get me wrong!) Also, you can't conquer the world just by yourself. What I mean is that I strongly believe in combining powers and learning from each other. With Homey's open-source mentality, I'm not getting the feeling that you do want to conquer the world by yourself but I'm not the only one who would love to use a remote like NEEO's to command Homey
I think one of the best parts of Homey is that you can use any remote, Infrared, Klikaanklikuit, etc. and trigger a flow with every button press :-)
Maybe something like this could replace the (expensive for solving this specific problem) Neeo:
http://www.zwaveproducts.com/Zwave-Controllers/Zwave-Remotes/Remotec-Z-Wave-Z-URC550-Universal-Remote.html
@Emile, you do have a point there! On the other hand, wile using basic controls with physical button's, I still need to use my phone/tablet instead of combining those two in 1 device. We'll see what the future brings us
@RobinVanKekem, Nice remote! Not the most pretty one but absolutely very handy
Thanks for the zwave controller link. The neeo remote seems too expensive/easy to damage (Children!) for me. How about Spin remote? http://www.spinremote.com/ I guess difficult to answer as the product is not out, but possibly could work (and around the corner
)
I've tried it a few weeks ago, and it was pretty good. Someone should write a Homey app (and link it to the LED ring omg omg)
I've just watched the video, although the range looks impresive I'm certainly not impressed by the speed.
To me it seems there's huge latency when the Apple TV is controlled. By the looks of it he is using an Apple TV 4 and I can tell you it responds lightning fast when I use the stock remote with swipes, but also when I control it with a gamecontroller.
There's nothing worse than a remote with latency, sometimes I want to throw my logitech harmony out because of it!
In this article https://neeo.com/blog/2015/11/29/lets-talk-infrared I read this:
"Adding a nest thermostat via its programming interface (API) was done in .... in less than two days."
Time to time I tweak source codes but I am not a programmer, never wrote something from scratch. My question is it realistic to write a device "driver" just in two days?
I wrote a Thermostat (Thermosmart) driver for Homey in under four hours
Wow! That is couple of toilet breaks
Or one really big toilet break! It really shows the power of Homey if you ask me. Can't wait to get my hands on programming for Homey
https://forum.athom.com/discussion/2819/neeo-remote-and-homey