Brands and devices to add in 2018 for US/Canada roll-out

MantaAuto

Lots of great brands and devices supported already by both Athom and the community. Here are some must-haves that are currently not present in Homey's apps list for when the product rolls out to US/Canada officially (as mentioned at CES 2018).

These first two are by far the most important as they account for an immeasurable proportion of Z-Wave products available to the general consumer, including wide availability at so-called "Big Box" stores like Home Depot and Lowes.

Leviton Z-Wave range: switches,outlets, plugs, etc.

GE / Jasco Z-wave range: switches,outlets, plugs, etc.

Remote locks are a very nice addition to any automated home and the ones widely available here are:

Kwikset/Weiser, Schlage & Yale (one model supported in app already) - all supporting Z-Wave.
Above brands with WiFi bridges (for their BT locks)

Ecobee 4 and full-version 3 (certify/make sure they're supported with current app)


Nice to have, but not as important as the above:

Honeywell WiFi Lyric series thermostats & devices (cameras, leak detectors)

Honeywell Z-Wave thermostats
First Alert Z-Wave smoke/co detectors
Kidde Z-Wave smoke detectors

Go Control / Linear / Nutone (all the same) Z-Wave garage door opener remote/tilt sensor

Go Control Z-Wave alarms, switches, outlets, plugs, etc. 

Chamberlain / Liftmaster MyQ wifi-enabled garage door switch 

Lutron Caseta bridge  - IP to their proprietary RF

Roku media players two-way IP 
Android TV (Nvidia Shield & Nexus Player) two-way IP (with Google auth) 

For pro/custom installers, contractors and home automation specialists:

It would make integrating Homey into clients homes much easier with support for devices from Global Cache, like iTach series (IP/WiFi to IR, serial or contact closure) and GC-100 Network Adapter (IP to IR, serial, sensors, etc.)

Very high-end homes might be using Lutron's RadioRA2 which can be interfaced with using their Connect Bridge (IP to proprietary 418MHz).

mruiter

First , welcome

A nice way of learning and adding the devices is to create a app for it you’re self . It’s pretty easy to create a new driver app on the sdkv2 platform nowadays.

just look at a few zwave apps that are already on sdkv2 like xiaomi for zigbee and for zwave you could look at the neo coolcam , Id lock and a few more .
also developer.athom.com gives examples 

MantaAuto

Thanks for the feedback.  I definitely have plans to play around with piggy-backing on some existing apps to support a few products/ideas I have. A number of the above, especially the first two however, are important to be included supported directly by Athom, even if I (or someone else in the community) gets them working ahead of time.

lubbertkramer

MantaAuto said:

Thanks for the feedback.  I definitely have plans to play around with piggy-backing on some existing apps to support a few products/ideas I have. A number of the above, especially the first two however, are important to be included supported directly by Athom, even if I (or someone else in the community) gets them working ahead of time.

When Athom makes the big step i think they will support the most used brand, that's also what they do in the countries they start in Europe. From what i hear from Athom most prio is for Europe, America is nice to have but has a challenge for hardware checks. Best is to contact Athom directly (this is a community forum) with some of your questions. 

MantaAuto

Athom have confirmed the move to USA, just no timetable beyond 2018 (been talking with them plus info published from CES last month). IMO, it is simply not possible (not likely) for a product of this type to survive nor flourish without distribution in US at least (the volume/scale otherwise may never be adequate).

This list is more to simply track the most common/popular/prevalent HA/Z-Wave devices available in US/Canada. A lot needs to be done beyond FCC certification to get a product moving - that's by far the easiest and cheapest part of the puzzle. Distribution, marketing and development are orders of magnitude more complicated and expensive. And there's little to no sense in releasing a product half-finished (the way so many others do). That won't work in the US/Canada very well unless you are Amazon, Google or Apple.

RuudvB

MantaAuto said:

Athom have confirmed the move to USA, just no timetable beyond 2018 (been talking with them plus info published from CES last month). IMO, it is simply not possible (not likely) for a product of this type to survive nor flourish without distribution in US at least (the volume/scale otherwise may never be adequate).

This list is more to simply track the most common/popular/prevalent HA/Z-Wave devices available in US/Canada. A lot needs to be done beyond FCC certification to get a product moving - that's by far the easiest and cheapest part of the puzzle. Distribution, marketing and development are orders of magnitude more complicated and expensive. And there's little to no sense in releasing a product half-finished (the way so many others do). That won't work in the US/Canada very well unless you are Amazon, Google or Apple.

No offence, but I personally do not agree. I realize that the US market has a huge impact for companies that are heading that way. I hope that athom does not make the US a priority, sorry for US customers....

What do you think will happen if they really put their focus on the US market? They are a very small company so US efforts will weigh heavy on all Dutch (European?) users. Suppose they might even succeed on the US market, how long will it be until athom gets eaten by Google, Microsoft, Amazon; you name it. For me that would be very undesirable to say the least.

So, sorry to probably disappoint you, but I really hope they don't....

MantaAuto

So far, none of the big players, except Samsung, have been interested in acquiring HA/Hub developers.  There are countless (of crappy) platforms out there these companies can invest in - but nothing indicates they plan to do anything other than develop their own paths.

Besides that, head-burried-in-sand in hopes you don't get noticed by a bigger fish is no way to run any company.

IMO, a move to officially supporting US via distribution and marketing is how Homey will expand and the platform gain more stability. Don't think of it as division of labour, but instead an influx of long-term capital and establishing a critical mass of customers, many more than now with ability/desire to contribute to app development.

https://novelt.com/en/homey-at-ces-europes-leading-smart-home-platform-is-coming-to-the-us
https://www.digitaltrends.com/home/homey-smart-home-hub-us-launch-ces/

Incidentally, there is no reason to exhibit at CES other than to promote a product for US distribution.

lubbertkramer

MantaAuto said:

So far, none of the big players, except Samsung, have been interested in acquiring HA/Hub developers.  There are countless (of crappy) platforms out there these companies can invest in - but nothing indicates they plan to do anything other than develop their own paths.

Besides that, head-burried-in-sand in hopes you don't get noticed by a bigger fish is no way to run any company.

IMO, a move to officially supporting US via distribution and marketing is how Homey will expand and the platform gain more stability. Don't think of it as division of labour, but instead an influx of long-term capital and establishing a critical mass of customers, many more than now with ability/desire to contribute to app development.

https://novelt.com/en/homey-at-ces-europes-leading-smart-home-platform-is-coming-to-the-us
https://www.digitaltrends.com/home/homey-smart-home-hub-us-launch-ces/

Incidentally, there is no reason to exhibit at CES other than to promote a product for US distribution.

I did read them all but no official press release has been made from Athom (yet)  -> https://www.athom.com/en/press/ (see for example Homey launched in Belgium or Homey available in UK and Nordic retail )

I believe it's coming that's also what Athom said but they also said Europe will be the main market. USA is easy to do because Homey already support English but there will be some hardware problems because our 433/866mzh  is not used/licensed in the USA

MantaAuto

That's a good strategy on Athom's part. No sense in making any kind of release/statement until distribution is ready to roll. Homey is long past the Kickstarter days. Look at their other market announcements - only done when product is ready to sell.

Athom already has hardware builds with the correct frequencies for US/Canada.  I'm just in a quick holding pattern to order Homey myself with these frequencies. 

433 MHz is not however one of the different frequencies - that one is wide open in US/Canada for hobby/product use on remotes - there are some stipulations on automation though. 

RuudvB

@lubbertkramer
>>USA is easy to do because Homey already support English <<

If it would really be that simple The US market has huge boundaries, UL, FCC certification is not something to take lightly. I was a spectator a the sideline when a serious European player tried to get UL certified for several products. 2 years and a lot of frustration later it was not happening. Only when apple decided they wanted their products for their new headquarters, all was up and running within 2 months...
Do you remember the credo from Mr. Trump; America 1st!! This will certainly not make things any easier.

RuudvB

MantaAuto said:

So far, none of the big players, except Samsung, have been interested in acquiring HA/Hub developers.  There are countless (of crappy) platforms out there these companies can invest in - but nothing indicates they plan to do anything other than develop their own paths.

Besides that, head-burried-in-sand in hopes you don't get noticed by a bigger fish is no way to run any company.

And they are right; why invest in crappy platforms... But you can be certain that Google-Microsoft-Amazon are already keeping their eyes on homey. There is already integration for their home-speakers.

I suggest in this case Europe 1st

MantaAuto

RuudvB said:
I suggest in this case Europe 1st

And you got your wish. Homey has been in Europe-only for 2 years.  Time for 2nd now...

swttt

I kinda agree with MantaAuto, we could only hope for massive adoption in the US.
This would make development for Homey easier in a two ways:
- More community developers
- Athom would be able to hire a few more devs, invest more in HW etc.

Seeing with what kind of passion they are creating this product i don't think they will sit that much on their money. And just want to create an awesome product.

lubbertkramer

MantaAuto said:

RuudvB said:
I suggest in this case Europe 1st

And you got your wish. Homey has been in Europe-only for 2 years.  Time for 2nd now...

The Netherlands was first (and second + third at the olympic games :P ) after the international kickstarter. There are users all around the globe from Australia to Russia to USA. They can still order at Athom.com. As Athom told us last saturday on the event at their office in Enschede they are looking to launch in Germany/France, that's a market close to home. USA will be done (soon) but will not be the main market, they are too small to just make the big jump at this moment with the resources they have. Until now it has been The Netherlands, Scandinavian, Belgium and Uk wich sell Homey by retailers.

Lets just wait until Athom official makes the move to the USA and gives a press release. They have visited a lot of places like CES the last two years but still have to launch in some countries. Germany/France retailers are already pulling to get Homey sold but they wont until they have the language ready. USA has some advantage in that with English   

But i agree with @swttt that it can give a boost to development, but i don't see it happening  before Q2/Q3
Until then it's always free to developers to make apps and submit them to the app store, so always good to take a look at developers.athom.com. Some USA companies already have the new Talks with Homey thing like LIFX 

MantaAuto

This thread has kind of gotten off the rails.   It wasn't intended as a starting point about whether Homey should or shouldn't come to the US (or any other country) just that when it does, these are some products which it should, and some products which it must, support. 

I'd personally like to see this play out so I can sell/install as part of my integration/renovation services. At the moment, pretty much other products are a bit of a nightmare at some level, either to me or to the client (or both).

swttt

Well if its just about the device... i would say you have allot of work to do as new community dev.

Or is that too much pressure? <span></span>

RuudvB

MantaAuto said:

This thread has kind of gotten off the rails.   It wasn't intended as a starting point about whether Homey should or shouldn't come to the US (or any other country) just that when it does, these are some products which it should, and some products which it must, support. 

I'd personally like to see this play out so I can sell/install as part of my integration/renovation services. At the moment, pretty much other products are a bit of a nightmare at some level, either to me or to the client (or both).

Sorry about derailing. And of course I do welcome all international users and app developers. Just order a homey and create some amazing apps, I will be happy to test and use them 

jtmpush18

I would like to confirm what MantaAuto stated in his first comment.
In order for Homey to be considered in the US/Canada market, they have to support, in a native basis, those devices that were listed in the first post. I couldn't state it better myself. Those products represent at least 80%-95% of all Zwave devices in the US/Canada.

MantaAuto

It would also be beneficial if any Z-Wave item that didn't have a dedicated app could also (and easily) be included by matching against a more generic profile while maintaining its (more or less) full "standard" functionality.

The list maintained here is both large in terms of device count, and comprehensive in terms of detailing what each brand/model supports: http://www.cd-jackson.com/index.php/zwave

VR2P4yvVCQLPBF

To add to the list of technologies to support for the US market: 

INSTEON
https://www.insteon.com/

and related Universal Devices ISY994
https://www.universal-devices.com/residential/isy994i-series/

I assume most if now all of the support could be done via app.