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.
Closed
My precious! [updated 2016-03-08]
Just wanted to share the first 24 hours with my Homey. I'm a pre-order but got too impatient and bought a secondhand Homey for the price of a pre-order. I thought about keeping my pre-order as well but decided to cancel it for now and stick with 1 Homey. So all pre-orders after the 23rd of april will move one spot up the list if my request is accepted ...
In general, I love Homey! It's a really great device with huge potential BUT it's not there yet. As mentioned by others already, a lot of it's functionality needs further development. Some functionality is more in alpha state then in beta state at this moment and might not even work. Luckly this all seems software related and just needs (a lot of) time, effort and some love. The flow editor is magnificent and sets it apart if you ask me. Having said that, Athom has a lot to learn as a company, specifically concerning communication. As most of us, I'm also wondering what the timeline looks like and just cant understand why Athom is not open and transparant about it. They need these first batch of enthousiast to make the product better.
Some of my findings up until now [updated 2016-03-08]:
I'll continue to replace my current hacky solutions consisting of programmable remotes and time clocks with flows within Homey. So unlike others, for me my Homey is not just a nice looking sphere with a LED ring that just sits there but an actual domotica controller and I hope it will get better of time (as well as Athom as a company).
In general, I love Homey! It's a really great device with huge potential BUT it's not there yet. As mentioned by others already, a lot of it's functionality needs further development. Some functionality is more in alpha state then in beta state at this moment and might not even work. Luckly this all seems software related and just needs (a lot of) time, effort and some love. The flow editor is magnificent and sets it apart if you ask me. Having said that, Athom has a lot to learn as a company, specifically concerning communication. As most of us, I'm also wondering what the timeline looks like and just cant understand why Athom is not open and transparant about it. They need these first batch of enthousiast to make the product better.
Some of my findings up until now [updated 2016-03-08]:
HARDWARE
Homey looks awesome, the LED ring is a work of art. The holes below the LED ring are hardly visible in every day use. There is nothing wrong with the USB cable, yes it needs a one time bending to avoid tipping it over but I cant believe the fuss some people made over this. The cable is long which is a big pro.
VOICE
The voice control is not there yet but seems to be getting better. Only about 6 out of 10 times it recognises my "OK Homey". About 5 out of 10 times it understands the (built in) voice commands. Using voice in the flows does not work that good yet. But when it works it's really awesome, I can image it becomes quite natural to give Homey voice commands!
FLOW
The flow editor is a piece of art, it's very intuitive and with great capabilities. I do have some wishes for improvement and I have also seen some great suggestions on the forum that will hopefully make it even better but this can set Homey apart as in usability.
- The sunrise/sunset flow isnt working yet
ZWAVE
- Adding Greenwave sockets (1 and 6 socket nodes) was very easy and worked perfect.
- I can manage the Zwave network from version 0.8.22. It's not perfect yet but I was able to remove ghost devices.
- Sometimes z-wave devices time out and cant be switched on/off from the zone view and a refresh node is needed for it to wake up. It works fine in flows however, even when the device can not be managed from the zone view.
- COMMAND_CLASS_METER_V2 is not yet implemented in the z-wave API which is why I can not see current power usage per socket on a Greenwave Powernode 6.
KAKU
- I'm not able to pair the KAKU ACDB-7000B doorbell even though it works to switch a KAKU socket. Some other have reported that they where able to pair this doorbell so it might be related to my installation (using a relay in the default doorbell closed circuit).
- I was unable to pair remotes in 0.8.20 but havent tried since as I dont need them since the bitflip device was introduced in the BetterLogic app.
ATHOM APPS
- For the Buienradar app I have a flow that should inform me 15 minutes before it starts raining but this never gets triggered, asking Homey if it's going to rain works fine though.
- I have been unable to voice trigger Homey for a Chuck Norris joke, the voice control is not accurate enough.
- I have been unable to do a voice controlled Wikipedia search, , the voice control is not accurate enough.
- It was a breeze adding my LIFX light bulb and I can control my light with it. Understanding the settings of the card took me a minute as it differs from the LIFX app it works well.
ANDROID APP
Contains only the basics right now but works reasonably well.
- I noticed sometimes it takes long to load the device cards.
- I also miss access to flows. I'd like to trigger flows with shortcuts/widgets. It's in the pipeline but without it the app has less value in daily use.
- The presence based on the GPS location through the app is unreliable, not sure if this is even fixable, I will probably look into a solution involving connected devices on the network
IMPROVEMENTS
Stuff that I would really like to see improved or added are (most if not all are already on the backlog of Athom):- Better management of flows, the grow like mushrooms and become unmanagable in the current GUI;
- Bluetooth radio
- Spotify integration
- Widgets in the Android app
- Being able to manage built in voice commands (either Athom or apps) to avoid conflicts with
- A better scheduler functionality
- Samsung Smart TV app
I'll continue to replace my current hacky solutions consisting of programmable remotes and time clocks with flows within Homey. So unlike others, for me my Homey is not just a nice looking sphere with a LED ring that just sits there but an actual domotica controller and I hope it will get better of time (as well as Athom as a company).
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
Concerning the apps:
- you have to ask Homey to 'tell a chuck norris joke'. I wouldn't really want it to start telling jokes at random times!
- you should be able to say 'wiki <subject>', but I couldn't get it to work either like that. However, throught the /speech-input page, it does work!
Apps will improve over time. Some documentation on some of the apps might be nice.
My Buienradar app was quiet for days. Then all of a sudden, it told me it stopped raining. 20 times in a row. I had to pull the power to make it stop. My Girlfriend is still teasing me with it
The triggers are dependent on an external service. I think the app currently exists as an example. I'm sure more and better weather apps will get developed in the near future.
Try "Tell me a Chuck Norris Joke"
- The trigger contains the "when something is said" card
- The AND conditions are "text contains watch" and "text contains videos"
- First action after voice confirmation is switch on the power of all devices (TV, Reciever, Media Center, Harmony Hub) using z-wave. There is a Greenwave Powernode 6 in the closed cabinet below the TV. Switching this on is done using a bitflip device from the BetterLogic app so I can also use a device button in the app to start this flow (which increases the WAF by a million)
- Then switch of the light in the corner which is connected trough a KAKU socket. Is is on a delay as I need to wait for all devices to power on any way.
- Then start a Harmony Hub activity using the Harmiony Hub app. Also on a delay as I need the hub to connect to my network.
- Then turn the LIFX light off in the center of the room using the LIFX app. Also on a delay so I have time to settle in.
- By then Kodi is started and I use a voice command to start a movie through the Kodi app
- And then I pause the movie with the Kodi app
Brilliant stuff if you ask me, ISo now I at least know it is actually listening...
[edit]
And... It's gone. No reaction anymore, not even when I use your video to try and trigger it... Very frustrating
I am at work now @Phuturist so I can't watch your video. Will watch it at home. So cool to see people are already using my Kodi app before it has even hit the app store!
If that's really what has been keeping me from using voice, I'm going to cry