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.
Reason for Homey
Aaron
Member
Hi Emile,
Why did you start developing Homey? Do you think it will be better than other controllers, like vera, HC2, zipato, domoticz, Gira and many others? If so, what are the things it is better in.
I am not asking this to bring down the others, they all are nice controllers, I only think you must bring something new or better to sell your product.
I would like to hear from you what you think that something is.
I know what I would like to see :-)
greetings,
Aaron
Why did you start developing Homey? Do you think it will be better than other controllers, like vera, HC2, zipato, domoticz, Gira and many others? If so, what are the things it is better in.
I am not asking this to bring down the others, they all are nice controllers, I only think you must bring something new or better to sell your product.
I would like to hear from you what you think that something is.
I know what I would like to see :-)
greetings,
Aaron
Comments
Multiple reasons, really. My main motivation is that home automation is insanely cool, but I found all of the existing solutions to be solely targeted on the techies and DIY-community. With Homey, my vision is to target the average user, let's say my mom, as well.
So I hope that we will succeed in creating a product that is so easy and fun that everyone can use it, and additionally can serve as a powerful tool for all developers and techies at the same time. Our job is to make it easy for both parties to use, and develop for Homey.
Secondly, you might be familiar with this comic from xkcd:
Personally, I don't see a dominant standard for the Internet of Things emerging soon, and maybe that's a good thing too. My goal is to get technology out of the way, so I saw this need for a device that makes you waste less time on technology at home, so you can engage more in things you like to do
Normally I liked to dive in and start programming, but now I just wan't it to work and program stuff the simple (fast) way.
Have you thought about expanding the system when a new protocol emerges? Can we plugin extra hardware?
It all seems to be very nice! Keep up the good work.
Then why do I have to talk to it? Do I have the wrong interpretation of automation?
Is it possible for an average user to trigger a light by a motion sensor with a timer?
I.e. if motion detected light turns on for X seconds but will the timer be retriggered if the light is still on and motion is detected again?
Can I set the level of a dimmer and a duration so the light turns on (or off) smoothely given the time and level?
Emile talked about average user like his mom, I expect his mom does not have any programming skills and therefore called average user. But what if the average user "needs" complicated scenarios?
I tried many commercial and non-commercial "gateways" for HA but always get stuck.
And no matter how good this product will be I don't want to spent a lot of euros again and stuff the device away because I can't use it for my needs........
Homey is more than just a regular home automation device. It's more of a personal assistant that connects everything together.
One of these days I'll send you an e-mail in Dutch maybe I can explain myself a little bit more clear with what I'm exactly looking for.
I don't want to get this forum to get a negative "taste" with my questions/remarks.
So please ask your questions here, so Emile can inform all of us with the answers
When I walk into a room, a motion sensor is tripped that turns on all the lights. As long as the motion sensor detects motion, the lights remain on. After a set time of no motion (I have mine set to 2 minutes of no motion), the lights will turn off. I know this can be done on the hardware level, I currently have that implemented on a software level using an event (I'm thinking that would be similar to programming it in the flow editor?
His second question sounds like "ramp rates"; you program the dimmable light/interface to turn on over a period of time (so for instance I could set the light to turn on with a ramp rate of 3 seconds, which means the light would slowly increase in brightness from 0% to 100% over the course of 3 seconds).
That's at least how I interpreted it
With most of the controllers you can write scripts like that. The difference is not really there.
No question that Homey is the best controller if you want to control wide range of wireless devices. Homey supports most of the wireless standards. On the other side it does not support wired home automatization systems like KNX (Zipato has KNX module if you want to get access to the largest number of HA devices or want to go toward the High-end).
Of course the voice recognition is the other feature what make Homey kind of unique (it`s not the only system has this feature). Also you can write apps or download apps. It`s a nice decorative device.
However Homey cannot be safely used where you have want security elements to be integrated to the system (door lock, alarm, motorised windows and doors). Homey does not have batteries or an option to add one, so the system is gone in an event of a power cut. And also it does not have a GSM module so if someone cut`s the data cable your security is isolated.
The other systems:
Fibaro HC2: It is a high quality product with fine tuned software but it is a bit over-engineered. This is just a Z-wave controller.
Vera: Also it is Z-wave only. The lite products have batteries so you are not affected in the case of blackout and it is cheap.
Domoticz: I believe it is more for DIY enthusiast. If you need only Z-wave than it is cost effective but if you need the other standards as well like 433MHz, Zigbee than it will cost you much more. So the price will be comparable with readymade systems like Homey or Zipabox.
Zipato: Modular system, but easy to set up. You buy the only the modules what you need: Zigbee, 433MHz, KNX, Battery pack, GSM. The flow chart editor is advanced yet easy to use. It won`t stream music, don`t have speech recognition, not a display unit and you cannot write apps on it but more secure, won`t have early hardware and software issues and you only buy what you need. It is a quite professional system.
Alyt: Like Homey this also a crowd funded project and has voice recognition. It also supports all the protocols supported by Homey. It has built in camera, humidity sensor, battery pack, GSM module. It is much cheaper than Homey. But on the negative side it does not have 433MHz. Also their development is slow especially on the software front. They still don’t have any nice flowchart editor or just a nice UI.
WD My Cloud NAS: Western digital developed a Mini USB Z-Wave stick. You plug that in to your My Cloud NAS and you got a Z-Wave controller. This is purely Z-wave and has no speech recognition.
Because like "honey" mentioned: With most of the controllers you can write scripts like that
I can't!
Hi!
I´ve tried a few different home controllers during the last years and I've frankly been quite disappointed in them, mainly stability wise. This one seems like it might actually work (holy cow!), and what I read about it seems like music to my ears, but I have a few quite technical questions that I hope you can answer!
What is the design philosophy behind the operating system on this thing, does it handle multitasking in a timeshare system manner or in a real time system manner? (To put in in old time terms, that a "grey haired hacker" like me would be able to relate to, is the design philosophy behind the software akin to RT11, RSX or RSTS/E on the old PDP, as a system?)
How about all those radio protocols, are they decoded/encoded by the main CPU or do you have dedicated hardware for this task?
On the subject of radio, are there one or more radio transceivers in this unit, and how about different antennas for all those frequencies?
If I would like to connect purely digital I/O, like common alarm sensor or switches, what would you describe as the preferred method for doing this?
The same as above for RS232 or RS485, or telnet/ssh, including defining protocols/keywords for different functions, both sending and receiving?
Is there a simple script language to use when doing advanced operation rules based on existing interfaces, and/or how hard is it to get into the developer community to do more advanced stuff?
How would I go about to develop a connection to some kind of interesting but unusual or perhaps archaic equipment, and make it available to the community? (Which I would love to do, if possible!)
Thanks in advance for your answers!
/Jonas
I hope the Linux kernel is real time, not time share, even though it might not be as critical since the radio decoding is done separatley. Seems like a good system design over all! I'll try this system out! Thanks!