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The Homey Community has been moved to https://community.athom.com.
This forum is now read-only for archive purposes.
Use for home security
martinn1209
Member
For my holiday house in France I recently subscribed to a home security system Homelive, sold by the local internet provider Orange (formerly known as France Telecom). I had to buy the equipment and I have to pay a monthly subscription on top of that. Since the sensors work with Z-wave, Homey might be able to replace the Homelive central controller. But for a proper security system, the system should have a battery to continue to function for some time in case of a powercut (Homelive does not offer this) and a way to send a text message via mobile, in case the internet connection is cut (Homelive offers this only to French numbers). Other providers of home security systems also work with a lot of proprietary equipment to keep the customer locked in. Can Homey provide a solution here?
Comments
The reason is simple; Homey is not reliable enough for that. I use it to switch on the outside Hue lights and use the sundown trigger e.g. But once in a while the lights are not on. And sometimes the lights in the house do not switch on when it is dark and there is movement (Fibaro Motion Sensor with Fibaro Switch). Luckily I can still switch the lights manually.
If you want a reliable system, get a different system. If you want a hobby system and see where it goes, Homey is OK.
Homey can be reliable enough. To say it isn't is just so small minded.
The only concern is that homey would crash or hang. Were are getting to a point that that does not happen so often any more.
But , there are some simple rules for alarm systems.
UPS Backup power on Homey (Realy simple Phone power bar will work between it , who doesnt have one after the pokemon go rage)
UPS Backup power on your internet connection and wifi accespoint.
And depending if you want some extra backup dial out / inssurance discount a Z-Wave Phone dialer that calls you up on a land or GSM line when something goes wrong)
My Homey Alarm system has more sensory input then a townsize bank.
It has
35 Motion Sensors active and still rising
14 Sensitive Strip Door and Window Sensors
4 Danalock automatic door locks
4 Fibaro Smoke Sensors
2 Inhouse NEO Sirens
1 Outdoor PoPP Solar Siren
4 Aeotec Keyfobs
1 MG236B NFC Keypad connected to the fibaro binary sensor (not in use , experimenting but i want it in wall)
I Run the Homey Alarm side by side with my PowerMax Alarm system with the PowerMax alarm app on homey.
There have been no false positives yet.
There where 3 cases the alarm went off at my place. Once i forget to turn of shield wen i went out a morning , one when the cleaner lady could not find her keyfob and one when we were away for a few days and the pa of my girlfriend forgot his keyfob and opend a door.
Both Homey and the real Alarm alerted me at the same time. Only Homey did this by Homey App push, A SMS and A Pushover Notification .
My alarm just send me a slower e-mail and tried to call me. The call came in when i was already calling the GF Pa to ask what was goining on.
Its a massive mess of flows to get it working. If i have to change something i have to look twice, tripple even quadrupel to see what i must change but i try to get the basics in global Better Logic vars.
This wil also get easyer when device grouping might come in the near future to Homey.
I also did not try the State Contol app. I think i have to change to much flows to implement it and i dont have the time at the moment.
I have a Homey and I use it for several things, switching light is one of them and I can tell you that it is not realiable. Maybe for you it is, but for me it isn't. And reading this forum, I am not the only one having problems with reliability of Homey.
It is a fact that it doesn't run reliable here and has nothing to do with an opinion.
And then you say:
-- Were are getting to a point that that does not happen so often any more.
So what is it? Reliable or only sometimes not reliable?
And what is the 'Were' (I guess you mean We're)? Maybe you identify too much with Athom that you think you are part of Athom? Could it be that this will form your opinion about the product and that you cannot stay objective anymore?
Mostly you will not see that everybody without issues wil tell you on a forum.
Here homey is very reliable and I use it also in combination with an alarm.
Now you have to ask yourself the question: Do I let Homey, which is not reliable in some cases and we do not know why, take care of the security of my house?
Now my opinion: No, I won't let Homey do security tasks, because I (notice the 'I') don't think Homey is reliable enough.
edit:
just a recent topic: https://forum.athom.com/discussion/2536/fibaro-motion-sensor-movement-sometimes-not-processed-by-homey#latest
Tell hem that it is working for you and that it is reliable and he can use it as home security
Dont be petronising, and definately don't feel like a better person because your English is better then others.
I used Homeseer (other Domotica) as my alarm installation. Got the same responses from a few people. But it has worked like a charm for me. Still working on my transition to homey.
Okay, it might be less reliable than an actual alarm system, but I dont have a million dollar painting in my home. So Homey or other domotica can certainly be a good way for that extra protection of your home. So if you aren't narrow minded, Homey certainly is an option for security.. It will probably be more reliable in future.
I still think my dog is better protection :P
In this case:
If last person leaves the house a preset " onderweg" gets activated
Here the Virtual buttons slapen,thuis, and vakantie are turned OFF and button "onderweg" is turned on This is because I can also turn the presets on/off manual
WHEN contact front door goes on AND preset in NOT "thuis" and " slapen" THEN trigger "Alarm onderweg" with Better logic
IF alarm onderweg is triggered AND preset slapen,thuis is not true AND alarm onderweg is true THEN do your thing.......
I sometimes get random behaviour from the hue lights but LightwaveRF had been exceptionally stable.
Is it better logic ?
I use indeed Better Logic
The virtual button do i make by using a switch from Klik aan Klik Uit
If you fall over the were we're on a big piece of text typed on a small phone screen.
I couldnt care less about typos as long as the info goes out.
And i'm not thinking im part of Athom, i have sevral domotica systems in my closet to test and play.
Guess you are new , than it can happen, amd so dont know me. Else you would have know that i promoto but also can be negative about Homey on some parts.
Also please read better . I said we are getting there. So yes that confirms youre nagging that some users are still having trouble.
Maybee youre troubles are not completely Homeys problem, maybee younaee using the cheap 1 way com kaku, youre zwave network is not in a great mesh state, hell you can even have crappy flows. its hard for me to smell it form here.
Do with Homey whatever suits you, my alarm system is just as reliable as homey at the moment.
Personally I would never depend on Homey for security. I love the little fellow but it's for hobby, I literally do not have one sensor or other device that did not fail at some point. Add some updates that break drivers or logic and you are looking at a very unreliable system that you simply can't leave running unattended.
Personally (did I say that before?) I would not depend on any wireless connections for serious security. It costs a few euro to make a small battery fed transmitter that will make any 433 or zwave connections fail. Heck with a 9 volt cell and a wire you can make some sparks that cause havoc on these protocols.
Signals indeed can be interupted , true . But if a burgler wants to come in he will come in. No matter what. The ones you are talking about know what to do and would also already know what to get. They dont care less about a siren making noise because they know that it takes some time for people to react and way longer for the police to arrive.
And dont forget, wireless is the future.
Even the really high end systems are starting to use them on big scale.
Great thinking @glijie why did I not come to that idea
@Mathijs you can create a pretty good security triggering with Homey but not only depend on Homey as it can be switched off.
But if you combine it with Nest cam you can trigger an alert very quick and yes that will not make police come any sooner but I live in a very close community where only one whatsapp will make about 20 people step out of there homes in seconds catching the bandits.
I think the bandits require a quick call to 112 to have an ambulance in time ;-)
Wish it were otherwise... I spend a bloody fortune.
- Hue not working
- Smart Presence not working
- No data from Fibaro motion sensors
Reboot and PTP do nothing!
Glad I'm not using it as home security!
For smart precense there Was an update yesterday. You have to save the settings again in the settings menu. Then it works again..