Migration from Homeseer

[automationfan 0]

I've used a variety of home automation over the years, all with it's pros and cons.

Up until recently I have been using a Homeseer Hometroller SE with the following hardware:

Aeon Labs Z-Wave stick for 30 node z-wave network

RFXCOM 433MHz USB Rx/Tx - Oregon scientific environmental monitors + Lightwave RF Wall Controlers

Sonos Plugin

Philips Pronto control plugin

Philips Hue Plugin

Homeseer is very flexible, but is stuck in about 1983 in terms of user interface and 'out of the box' functionality. As a technical person used to enterprise IT, Homeseer still manages to frustrate me in how much effort you need to put in for very little return.

So, a few weeks ago I took the plunge and purchased the HS2.

User Interface - Welcome to the current millenium (although still room for improvement)

Compatibility - Less z-wave support than Homeseer - I have several devices that don't yet work with HS2 that did with Homeseer

RFXCOM - Not yet, but I'm optomistic - alternatively would someone please develop a wall mounted battery scene controller that has more than 1 button! This seems like such an obvious requirement for home automation to me.

Sonos - Virtual device offers some basic functionality - still using Homeseer for this at the mo

Philips Hue - With Virtual devices I can control Hue perfectly

Philips Pronto - Maybe there is a way to integrate this controller with HC2?

Anyone else have Homeseer to HC2 migration experiences/tips they would like to share?

Maybe someone has also found a z-wave scene controller that works with HC2 - I need something with more than 1 button to control all the devices I have in each room - Lighting/Music etc.

[robmac 173]

Hi,

I converted at start of year: I now have everything I did with homseer working at some level with HC2 and I have not had to build my own iPad interface this time. As you say pros and cons.

I was hoping to use all out of the box but that is not possible yet but it is moving.

I still waste a lot of time having to build stuff (that you also had to build in homeseer) and it does take a lot of effort on HC2. Part of that is the community is smaller so answers are slower. The other part is poor documentation. There are a lot of good features that are not well documented.

The only thing I really miss is the lack of plugin interface on HC2. Third parties can not boost HC2 capability so as you have found not all devices are as well supported and you are on your own a lot of the time if you have something that is not.

As you have noticed it is a struggle to build a media interface but there are basic options for XBMC, smarttv, SONOS and Squeeze from the community.

On the up side:

Interface and apps get better each release and the Fibaro vision is great.

We do get regular releases and BETA are not years in coming.

Fibaro give great support through the support channel if you get really stuck and monitor and respond on here when they have time.

so while I do sometimes post caustic comments I am on the whole happier with Fibaro.

and the tip is have a sense of humour

[darren-mc 11]

Welcome to HC2. I have been migrating from my 15 year old HS2 setup over the last past few weeks.

I have had some strange things happening...but the lack of documentation and plugins is a real issue.

Lets all hope that we have made the right decision.

Cheers,

Darren

[automationfan 0]

Yes, I hope so.

As capable as Homeseer is, I think HS2 is in fact more robust (Linux vs Windows) and built from more modern automation principles - Homeseer was built around X10 which has been around since about 1840 - still big in the US for some reason!

In terms of the zwave part, and the virtual device functionality, so far so good.