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.
States
Lucky
Member
I'm using Z-wave in my house to control the heating and the lights but I'm not happy with my current software (not flexible enough). I've decided to move to another system and I hope Homey is the right choice, the flows look very flexible and promising!
I'm playing around with Homey for some days now but there is something I don't understand and I can't really find a solution for it on the forum.
In my current software I use 'States', Home - Away - Sleep and I have rules based on this states. I understand Homey doesn't have this states but I have no idea how to set up flows that do the same as my current (simple) rules.
I know that there are apps that check the presence of people but I read that they don't work very well and since I often have family members and friends visiting my house (also when I'm not at home) I don't really see how I can manage that.
Some examples of simple things I do now are:
When I go to bed I push 'Sleep' (on my phone or on a button) and my lights go off, my heatings goes off and the next morning the heating in the bathroom and bedroom switch on again when I have to get up.
When I leave the house I push 'Away' (on my phone or on a button), everything switches off again, but after dark some lights switch on for safety.
Can someone tell me what is the easiest way to do this in Homey? I can tell Homey: If time is 23:00 Then Switch of the heating. But how does he knows not to do this when I'm not at home? And how does he know when my sister is over to water my plants that the lamps should not be switched off until she is gone?
I understand that Homey just works in another way then I used to, but I find it difficult to find the right ways to work with it now. I see there is an app 'State Control' that adds this options but no one maintains it and it doesn't seems to work well in the desktop app.
If this States would come to the flow builder, I would be very happy and this would definitely gives me endless options for the future. But for now it's not very clear how to do (simple) things.
I'm playing around with Homey for some days now but there is something I don't understand and I can't really find a solution for it on the forum.
In my current software I use 'States', Home - Away - Sleep and I have rules based on this states. I understand Homey doesn't have this states but I have no idea how to set up flows that do the same as my current (simple) rules.
I know that there are apps that check the presence of people but I read that they don't work very well and since I often have family members and friends visiting my house (also when I'm not at home) I don't really see how I can manage that.
Some examples of simple things I do now are:
When I go to bed I push 'Sleep' (on my phone or on a button) and my lights go off, my heatings goes off and the next morning the heating in the bathroom and bedroom switch on again when I have to get up.
When I leave the house I push 'Away' (on my phone or on a button), everything switches off again, but after dark some lights switch on for safety.
Can someone tell me what is the easiest way to do this in Homey? I can tell Homey: If time is 23:00 Then Switch of the heating. But how does he knows not to do this when I'm not at home? And how does he know when my sister is over to water my plants that the lamps should not be switched off until she is gone?
I understand that Homey just works in another way then I used to, but I find it difficult to find the right ways to work with it now. I see there is an app 'State Control' that adds this options but no one maintains it and it doesn't seems to work well in the desktop app.
If this States would come to the flow builder, I would be very happy and this would definitely gives me endless options for the future. But for now it's not very clear how to do (simple) things.
Comments
If you want virtual buttons to change the states in the State Control app, take a look at the BitFlip devices in https://apps.athom.com/app/net.i-dev.betterlogic.
Thanks, yes that is the app I mention in my post (State Control), but last 4 comments are negative about current state of the app, not very promising.
My main problem is that I have no idea how to communicate with Homey if there are people in the house or not (besides with a presence app, but I'd prefer not to use this).
With the Homey android/iOS app, you can see all your devices and control them. If you make a BitFlip device via the BetterLogic app, you can make a flow that if that device is turned 'off/on', something happens (i.e. turn of all the lights, set the heat down, etc).
This way, you can get a lot of stuff done with a single button on the app.
@KoenMartens I see that I can only use the app in the browser, and not in the deskop app (impossible to remove items), but the browser says browsers are not supported.
And to be honest, it looks way to complicated to me... I'm not a programmer but usually I find my way in software and with gadgets. I have checked the wiki and the examples but I have to idea where to start now. With my old Z-wave software I could at least start with simple rules and make it more difficult and challenging if I liked that, but it seems that in Homey it's hardcore from the start.
Is it possible that you please tell me how I can add: If time is 23.00h and state is Away --> Switch on lamp.
As Athom writes in their advertisement: "Easy and Fun", that's kind of where I'm looking for