OK. Full incompetence of the Fibaro support.

[Guest shapa]

As my system is dead for 6 days already (latest "beta" not working at all, not possible to downgrade), I opened a support case (last Friday)

I specially asked them to check recovery partition (USB flash) for corruption.

Finally, after 5 days, Fibaro support managed to log-in to my Fibaro HC2 just to tell me: "I managed to login. It seems that everything is okay in that part of system.

"

Then they asked me (!!!): "In order to fully diagnose the problem with the control panel Home Center 2 please connect the monitor / TV to VGA or HDMI slot hidden under the aluminum plug cover."

OK, I did that. Guess what? The recovery is not booting as (for sure) the file-system / partition (ext2) is corrupted.

Brilliant. Instead of asking me to do this stupid procedure, they can easily check filesystem remotely.

Finally, I realised that Fibaro software simply not checking FS and in case of damage / USB flash errors you'll be completely unaware that something is really wrong, until you'll try to restore backup or downgrade for example.

Such a stupid design, honestly.

p.s. yes, usb flash is dying, a lot of I/O errors. Looks like flash drive worn out.

p.p.s. I'm angry, very angry. I'll definitely pay back as Fibaro is simply making fun of customers.

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[fergalmccarthy 5]

Completely agree palomaray, you also have to ask why the HCL has a battery backup and GSM modules, yet the big brother, at twice the price doesn't. Have Fibaro see the error of there ways ? But this does not fix the problem with HC2. We are stuck with no UPS support, no remote access if broadband is down, no backups of work if keys are damaged ( which you don't know until its too late ). I think Fibaro need to employ some IT architects as well as business people that know the in's and outs of accreditations like ISO and only then, with joined up thinking will they start to grow significantly.

I bought the HC2 as a trial, as I am looking to expand my business into the Home Automation sector, which is very small market in Ireland, for now, but I can honestly say, I will never recommend or install another Fibaro HC. The system is too limited. It runs a Debian OS , and we are not allowed even user access to the OS to backup ourselves.

There is also no upgrade path for the Zwave plus chip, that will require a whole new box.

[palomaray 5]

fergalmccarthy I agree if I was in the home automation system as a reseller I certainly would have to think hard at this point in marketing the HC2 (and Lite) as it seems it really is very much in development stage still.

With regards to the HCL bolt ons, whilst it was released as a product back in March, to my knowledge (I stand to be corrected and told where to get them) in September the battery and GSM modules are still not available in the UK.

I do feel for the guys that are spending hours and hours setting up their devices, and the almost flippant responses that I see from Fibaro with things like "remove and re-add device". It seems that the forget the fact that they have deliberately made the modules small enough to go in boxes and behind faceplates etc. which means it isn't a small job to start adding them again.

I have beta tested many products over the years, including believe it or not even Hotmail in its infancy, and have never seen beta versions with quite so many issues as I see with the HC2, and certainly not ones that could potentially result in hardware having to be shipped halfway round the world, leaving the core system useless for a number of weeks.

I migrated from HS2 and to be honest, whilst I am currently running a "stable" version, even this still has issues with dead nodes and poor Zwave performance. I am seriously considering going back to HS2, and have also been looking at Indigo 6 after seeing Shapa's comments.

I think it is all a real shame as the product looks pretty good, and as soon as I saw it originally I thought it was potentially and Apple of the HA world, so the potential was clearly there, but for me, with my system running in a remote property in Spain, it is simply too unreliable to be viable in this application.

Finally to reiterate my earlier comment, it is simply not acceptable to have a back-up which is permanently attached to the device and nowhere else. What if a leak in the house ruins the box? Surely you should be able to replace the box and install a "restore" from something or somewhere that hasn't been thrown away with the broken box as it is now useless? I just don't get it and think this could be a HUGE mistake by Fibaro going forward.

[fergalmccarthy 5]

palomaray yes although announced, they are yet another no show, as with the swipe for motion control that didn't seem to make an appearance at CEDIA so will assume that is dead. I'm a long time Indigo user and worked with the guys on the V6 beta's with Z wave support, the difference in response and attitude is remarkable, can't speak highly enough of them, thats why i'm trying to get a refund on the HC2 and move back. I was sold by the marketing rubbish and mislead is all I can say really, pipe dreams and pie in the sky stuff.

I was testing the alpha version and made countless changes and added about 50 devices while in Alpha, and then to be told i couldn't go from Alpha to beta, i was disgusted, so i started from scratch. The dead nodes are not as bad now, but the system is still far from fully functioning, plugins are a joke and the fact there is no documentation to back them up, they might as well not exist as any query i've asked in the forum has been ignored, any bugzilla i've logged hasn't even gotten to acknowledged.

This is still a complete alpha / beta system and is not yet at fit for purpose, I put Fibaro about 3-4 years behind Indigo, yes they have a nicer GUI and apps, but Indigo works, is extremely solid and that is what most people want. I'm going to spend some time making nicer control pages in Indigo but could not be happier with the support and reliability of the system. New devices are fully supported in a matter of weeks.

Have already emailed my reseller to see about getting a refund but I think Fibaro are the ones should be offering refunds for the lies and misleading they are doing.

[Guest shapa]

+1

3 days in a row.

No any single dead device (with Fibaro I've got dozens per day, the only way to stop this madness was to disable dead node detection functionality completely).

No any delays (blazingly fast). Pairing process is 1-2-3, works 100% reliable.

Only one z-wave network with all devices. With Fibaro I was forced to have 3 networks to split z-wave traffic.

My wife is finally stopped to complain about "not-so-smart-house" (in fact she told me before, that I made stupid house instead of make it smarter - when everything was managed by Fibaro).

Control screens - not a big deal, there are only a few operations should be managed manually, everything else must be 100% automated.

Now (Indigo plugin) I'm detecting automatically "away" mode (pinging smartphones and checking motion sensors), house behaviour is so friendly.

BTW, sonos plugin is excellent - including MP3 group announcement.

It can speak English as well as my native language (+ many others) - for example when postman inserts letter to our postbox, group announcement on all Sonos devices in my house (except child-room) made ("your mail is arrived").

So convenient...

A lot of other announcements configured already - including warnings (like fire alarms, etc), kitchen timers, medicine cabinet door opened...

Screenshots removed due to forum rules violation, paragraph IIIe

[gomba777 2]

Hi

My box has arrived to Poland yesterday (it took 4 days from BE to PL using bpost). Let see how long it takes to be fixed and comme back. Because right now I look stupid here with my smart house

Please login or register to see this image.

/emoticons/default_icon_smile.gif" alt=":-)" /> My wife and kids are laughing at me

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/emoticons/default_icon_smile.gif" alt=":-)" />

Also my 4 fibaro smoke detectors are making a small BEEP every 30 minutes because they can't see the HC2 and that is making my wife crazy (which is kind of cool

Please login or register to see this image.

/emoticons/default_icon_smile.gif" alt=":-)" /> ) I know I could take a ladder and climb up there but I prefer to wait for my box.

@shapa, I agree that Indigo 6 looks cool but that is not the case regarding their mobile application! First it is only available for iphone and it is not even updated to the iphone 5 screen format (still the old 4 format.). That is an important point for me and the fibaro one is better I think. But I am perhaps missing something.

Anyway impatient to get my hc2 back and hope I will not have to start the +60 device setup again...

Update on 18/9 : My box was back from Poland on Wednesday. Fibaro support has been fast as it was delivered to them on Friday and they sent it back on Monday with DHL. So it took exactly one week from sending to receiving it back.

As I was away, I only reconnected the box today and everything (I didn't test recovery mode) work again. Except all custom icons are gone. But the box is back to 3.590 with the last backup restored. So I have to admin support was quite good for me.

[Guest shapa]

gomba777 - they are (Indigo guys) working hard to release a new application. It should be ready by the end of year, and I trust them.

Professional top-level developers. Completive opposite to the Fibaro team.

Anyway, Fibaro phone application looks nice but very inconvenient to use and crashing a lot. Again, it's like a Chinese car.

I already designed some basic control pages for current Indigo Touch and very happy with that. In fact, you need only a few buttons - run some scenes only. Everything else should be automated (like home / away / holidays mode, etc).

Very simple to detect home / away, in case of 1+ day absence - to switch on "holiday" mode, etc.

I'll better spend 10 minutes to program some smart login than to do something manually via "remote control applications".

Even Fans in my restrooms are fully automated with humidity and presence detection

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/emoticons/default_smile.png" alt=":)" srcset="https://forum.fibaro.com/uploads/emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />)

In two years, I used Fibaro's phone and ipad applications only to show how it works to my friends, but otherwise they are pretty much useless for me - bulky, overloaded, unstable.

But looks nice.

[Guest merylion]

Hello,

I also decided to switch to something else. Due to facts everyone knows.

I have to prepare new system first to minimize downtime as I have everything being performed by Fibaro (even wall switches are connected to UBSes). So without controller I will be completely f...cked.

Someone mentioned here a way to backup of recovery key.

Can anyone explain how to do it?

First of all I would like to make myself bit more secured.

Is it just purely copying of recovery dongle content onto new formatted usb pendrive?

Or it has to be done with special copying software which is able to make an exact mirror bit by bit.

I know it matters in some cases especially when data is some way encrypted.

Marcin

[Guest shapa]

Marcin,

The USB backup partition is FAT

The file structure looks like this:

root@readynas:/data/Distr/Fibaro/backups# ls -la

total 0

drwxrwxrwx+ 1 root root 1976 Sep 5 13:46 .

drwxrwxrwx+ 1 root root 22 Sep 9 22:29 ..

drwxrwxrwx+ 1 root root 52 May 1 2013 backup01_05_13-2014

drwxrwxrwx+ 1 root root 52 Aug 2 2013 backup02_08_13-1508

drwxrwxrwx+ 1 root root 52 Aug 2 2013 backup02_08_13-2127

drwxrwxrwx+ 1 root root 52 Dec 2 2013 backup02_12_13-0952

...

root@readynas:/data/Distr/Fibaro/backups/backup01_05_13-2014# ls -la

total 6420

drwxrwxrwx+ 1 root root 52 May 1 2013 .

drwxrwxrwx+ 1 root root 1976 Sep 5 13:46 ..

-rwxrwxrwx+ 1 root root 117 May 1 2013 checksum

-rwxrwxrwx+ 1 root root 120 May 1 2013 info

drwxrwxrwx+ 1 root root 1164 May 1 2013 scenes

-rwxrwxrwx+ 1 root root 6543360 May 1 2013 sql

-rwxrwxrwx+ 1 root root 16528 May 1 2013 zwave

Dumps are not encrypted, standard SQLight, scenes lua code, etc.

The only real issue is zwave chip dump - without Fibaro, it will be impossible to restore it, and they are refusing to do that remote (it is possible but they are simply ignorant).

Therefore, in case you'll save you backups somewhere, it is not going to help too much.

[Guest merylion]

So as you said.

I will have to wait for this day ...

What I can do at least is to copy to notepad scenes so in case of HC2 crash

I will have to add new devices again. create new scenes. then paste my code into them with new ID numbers for devices and scenes.

It is huge job but at least less than writing scenes from scratch

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Best Regards

Marcin

[UrSv 6]

What I can do at least is to copy to notepad scenes so in case of HC2 crash

I will have to add new devices again. create new scenes. then paste my code into them with new ID numbers for devices and scenes.

Check out HC2 toolkit. That is a great tool for exporting VD and scenes.

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[sjauquet 16]

Also my 4 fibaro smoke detectors are making a small BEEP every 30 minutes because they can't see the HC2 and that is making my wife crazy (which is kind of cool

Please login or register to see this image.

/emoticons/default_icon_smile.gif" alt=":-)" /> ) I know I could take a ladder and climb up there but I prefer to wait for my box.

I wish I can do this to my wife

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/emoticons/default_icon_wink.gif" alt=";-)" />

[fergalmccarthy 5]

gomba777 Indigo Touch app does need updating, and that is top priority for the guys at present, but it does support iPhone 6 resolution, and iPad retina resolution.

[sjauquet 16]

gomba777 Indigo Touch app does need updating, and that is top priority for the guys at present, but it does support iPhone 6 resolution, and iPad retina resolution.

What about android ?

And remote access trough cloud ?

[fergalmccarthy 5]

There is no native android client,and may never be as it is very Apple centred, but there are plenty of users with control pages on Android tablets / phones via browser. There is remote access via prism reflector or via your own setup, not sure what you mean by via cloud. Mac mini can obviously backup to any cloud service. You have a lot more flexibility when you have access to the OS.

[sjauquet 16]

maybe someone else can give you this files

[JanJoh 1]

maybe someone else can give you this files

That would be illegal to do without permission from Fibaro if we want to get technical.

[Guest shapa]

jin,

They continuing to insist that USB flash key is "linked in hardware" to the specific HC2 unit.

Which is obviously could not be true - it's just a USB key

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/emoticons/default_smile.png" alt=":)" srcset="https://forum.fibaro.com/uploads/emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />))

Yes, your way to fix they issue is exactly the same I tried. But again, until they will share recovery image to download (or someone else - it should be perfectly legal as it's a GPL code / Linux, and in case fibaro selling their products - they must share modified source codes) - no way we can fix the issue by ourselves.

image.gz - it's a linux boot image (kernel + initrd)

BTW, you give me an excellent idea:))

I will send some official letter to them to provide all sources / modifications made to GPL code. Will se what happens in case they will refuse to do that

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It is not obligatory to provide download link but they can write some CD and send it back to me.

[JanJoh 1]

jin,

Yes, your way to fix they issue is exactly the same I tried. But again, until they will share recovery image to download (or someone else - it should be perfectly legal as it's a GPL code / Linux, and in case fibaro selling their products - they must share modified source codes) - no way we can fix the issue by ourselves.

Sorry, but your interpretation of GPL is somewhat flawed.

Yes, they need to make modified sources available for the GPL code in use.

They do NOT need to provide source for derived products nor do they need to make binary code avail

available.

So, let's say I use OpenSSL in a commercial product without modifying the source code for OpenSSL. In that case I am not required to provide any sources or binaries to anyone.

If I, however, decide that OpenSSL is not working the way I require in my product and modify the source. Then I am provided to disclose the source code if requested.

So, by all means, ask Fibaro for disclosure. But I have a feeling that they have not modified any source code for GPL components.

Phrased differently the Fibaro Homecenter is what is known as an "aggregate product". For more information, take a look at thenwikipedia article on GPL under the section of

Communicating and bundling with non-GPL programs

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[j.nowacki 5]

jin, as far as I know your case is being in progress, support worker asked you for a remote access, could you please contact him via PM with possible time of such action?

[jin 0]

jin, as far as I know your case is being in progress, support worker asked you for a remote access, could you please contact him via PM with possible time of such action?

Hi j.nowacki,

i'm in PM with b.kreczmer, but it doesn't solve my problem because my system is not in recovery mode right now (and I can't reboot now because i'm out of house), however, I wrote all infos into

the post that someone of fibaro support has deleted today because it violate the forum policy (I wrote that post to help support team).

However i repeat again here, because I think that fibaro support members doesn't exchange infos:

$ cat /home/fghc2/recovery/system/checksum

5c3cbde66de2387648951b4736d52e50

$ md5sum /home/fghc2/recovery/system/image.gz

45ee095708bf40f07e0f896502bc88de /home/fghc2/recovery/system/image.gz

do you see that checksum differ?

Well, can you copy a new recovery image.gz into my usb recovery key and verify if the md5sum is correct, nothing else, just a download, can you tell this to b.kreczmer?

Let's me know, thank you.