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How is the first experience?

ad6922ad6922 Member
in Archive
have to wait a little bit longer for my homey as early bird. As by now there are some hundreds homeys out in the field and I am looking for what the first experience is.

does it work out of the box?
what's the experience for settign it up?
how good does the voice control work?
how easy do you connect it to different devices?
is the product still in beta phase in experience or is it ready to ship in big quantities?

love to hear reactions from you, first lucky users.

Comments

  • theohessetheohesse Member
    Wow, congratulations for the troll post of the year!
  • MarcoVanDenHoutMarcoVanDenHout Member
    Yes, it worked out of the box. I have no problem with the USB cable being to rigid, because it's on a wooden shelf with space between the 'planks' (older IKEA shelving). 

    Setting it up worked nicely, except that I knew I already had an Athom account and had some trouble getting the password right. Setup via Wifi (Mac mini OS X) and browser (Google Chrome) went fine.

    Voice has been hit-and-miss at times, but in general it works fine. I went back to the default voice because at one time it completely stopped responding to any command after the 'ok homey'. I find using 'hey homey' more natural by the way, and that works as well. I now have my Nexus 7 tablet on my desk in front of me and it appears to pick up my voice because I don't have to speak loud and it still works. Homey is behind me, about 3,5 meters. I even have a mirror next to my screen to see what the LED ring is doing ;-) 

    IR (copying remotes) is flakey, and haven't seen it actually send an IR command (tried the tv but it didn't respond). Eurodomest 433MHz switches work fine by copying the remote.
    Hue lamps work, but a generic voice command like 'turn off the lights' doesn't turn them all off. Using a specific light in a flow using its card works fine.
    My best guess is that the hardware is fine (except for the USB cable) but there's a lot of work in the software before I would sell it to the general public. Most of it looks nice but you have to hand-pick the working parts. Still lots open for exploring though and I'm sure Athom programmers are working hard. 

    A new software version is said to fix a lot of problems, but we're waiting for it to be released..

    I am posting my experience (in short) at
    http://www.marcovandenhout.nl/Athom-homey/

  • ad6922ad6922 Member
    Great post Marco, thx.
  • scenarbelgiumscenarbelgium Member
    thx marco
  • axelloaxello Member
    Still have some difficulty connecting to my wifi in the setup phase. The Homey is swirling it's colours, I can set my wifi and password, but then it can't connect. Tried three times now.
    Hmmm. Where's you console when you need one?
  • MennoVanDerAatMennoVanDerAat Member
    Wifi = OK
    NFC = OK
    Looks = OK
    Cable = OK (after bend)
    Voice training = sometimes OK but most of the time fails
    Flow editor usage = OK very nice and easy to use
    Homey's response to my voice = BIG fail (maybe she doesn't like my voice or orders)
    IR remotes = Not OK
    Voice response = I can't seem to get a simple command to get working
    Switching NL <-> UK = OK
    Reset homey = OK

    After waiting for such a long time for my homey I'm a little bit disappointed for the current state, but I'm sure this will be fixed maybe my expectation was a bit to high.





  • spamenigmaspamenigma Member
    axello said:
    Still have some difficulty connecting to my wifi in the setup phase. The Homey is swirling it's colours, I can set my wifi and password, but then it can't connect. Tried three times now.
    Hmmm. Where's you console when you need one?
    I had the same problem, I was using my phone to set this up as my pc is wired. However it didn't work. I found another post mentioning the fact that 'if' the pass-phrase/password is entered incorrect... any further attempt will not work until you power off/on the homey unit. This worked for me, although a shame they don't mention that in the setup guide or not yet solved in the firmware after all this time.
  • JacobJacob Member
    For the guy's working with Homey, is there a documentation function? I can imagine one want's to have a clear overview of the created (and possibly linked) flow's and their triggers and actions when not working with the Homey for a while. Can you dump and print the configuration?
  • JacquesHeijndersJacquesHeijnders Member
    edited February 2016
    Trying to install my Somfy remote for my shades. 

    Connection is very slow.
  • JacquesHeijndersJacquesHeijnders Member
    Installing SmartTV Samsung remote --> OK
    installing garagedoor remote --> won't work :(

  • MarkVanWindenMarkVanWinden Member
    First impression,

    Its small, in a good way.
    I dont care about the USB cable, although its sloppy, as beta user im oke with it.

    The design of homey is cool, really like it, and it feels solid. The voice scared me the first time, its a bit loud, but so am I.
    The LED ring is really cool!

    The pairing of devices is really easy (8.16) and the flow editor looks and feel natural and smooth.

    Im a bit annoyed about the voice commands.
    its unclear to me what is allowed and what not, what is a bug and what is just a user error.
    E.G.  how to address/ call for a specific light, I think its really easy, and I believe its really thought trough, but I dont know how to use it.
    The only 2 voice commands that seems to work for me have something to do with "time" and "light".
    To my opinion this part is solely communication form Athom to the users. I think we are all oke with it being buggy and not functional.
    But I cant find what they are worked on and what the status is of some of the issues.
    - Immediate close the issues on git that are not true/solved/
    - State that this is beeing looked at atm.
    - or state it as later/not a prio.

    For now its just a beautiful shiny light that can tell me the time, but dont have a clue when I can use it for something else.
  • AthomeyAthomey Member
    edited February 2016
    My first impressions: Perfect so far for the phase we are in with Homey. Everything solvable by firmware updates so far. Nice progress on a weekly basis. Many of my issues submitted fixed. Athom communicative about issues when you try and reach out. Voicecontrol, I tried it once, didn't work really smooth. I have not much interest in it anyway, so I don't mind. (And I think it can be improved a LOT by the coders. The cable-thingy?  If you bend the cable for 5 seconds in 90 degrees, then it's working forever after that. I have 0% problem with the cable. The photo's of Homey tipping over are exaggerated in my opinion and solved in 5 seconds. For my impressions, issues, requests, etc., read the forum and github. My 2cts. Happy customer here!  :smiley: 
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