HELP: Need alternative to HC2

[Scotfree 0]

I would just like to thank Shapa and Fergal for pointing me the Indigo 6 route. Fully operational in a few days and everything has been working a dream for 3 months now. As has been said before, I’m not trying to remote control my home, I’m trying to automate it and Indigo provides an amazingly flexible set of tools and plug-ins to be able to do that.

Struggled for months to try and get things like Sonos announcements and weather triggers working with HC2, even trying to do simple scripts with lighting based on LUX and movement was a major problem. It’s incredibly easy and straightforward with the Indigo software.

Takes a bit longer to design the front-end screens but once this is done, my system has never been so solid and looks so good that I’m setting up an iPad mini with a kiosk to run the Indigo touch app. After two years of frustration and lack of documentation, the HC2 is a door-stop and the scripts/software/icons are all filed under ‘Failed HA projects’

However, I still think Fibaro are doing the best and most configurable Z-Wave devices available right now. Almost all of my devices are Fibaro and running very well – they should just stay away from the Z-Wave controller market.

[Guest bozman]

I tried to see your posting on the Indigo forum, but I couldn't find it.. A little bit curious to on how to do pages to..

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[fergalmccarthy 5]

last post on this page

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[Guest David R]

all looks a bit to homebrew for me. And I dont like the idea of it on 24/7 on a mac.

[fergalmccarthy 5]

That may be true but it works 100 times better than fibaro ever will. And what's the issue with a Mac mini running 24x7?

[Guest David R]

How can you say it will run better than Fibaro for ever? May be to your needs at the minute yes. You probaly make statements like Apple are making a phone? It will never ever run like a Blackberry. Am I right?

[deanrparry 19]

Don't worry about David R comments I think he has shares in Fibaro

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[Guest bozman]

Thnx for that!

I'm guessing Indigo IOS app will run much better on my iPad 1 mounted on the wall much better than Fibaro IOS iPad app ever will!

I think it looked good enough for me!

Maybe I will keep the HC2 as a good icon repository!

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[Guest David R]

sigh.....

[fergalmccarthy 5]

How can you say it will run better than Fibaro for ever? May be to your needs at the minute yes. You probaly make statements like Apple are making a phone? It will never ever run like a Blackberry. Am I right?

David I do think you are a bit confused. Apple do make a phone, and what is this Blackberry you refer to ? Is that like a nokia ? Let me just get your answers to some of these questions, might help clear things up a bit for you.

1) How much do you think it would cost for me to ship my Mac Mini to the Indigo support team in Texas ?

2) How long would I be without my home automation system while it was being shipped at my expense to the support team in Texas.

3) Where does your HC2 record your IP cameras to ?

4) How many days worth of camera recordings can your HC2 hold ?

5) How many USB devices do you have plugged into your HC2 ?

6) What do they do ?

7) How are you getting on with your bash bug vulnerability on your HC2 ?

8) What media server is running on your HC2 ?

9) How many TV's does your HC2 distribute media to ?

10) How many hours of consistent uptime have you had without issue with your HC2 ?

11) How many protocols other than Z-Wave can the HC2 handle ?

There just a few off the top of my head, will start thinking of some harder ones, but if your having trouble with these, myself or some of the other guys can probably answer them for you.

[Guest David R]

You have to run a mac 24/7

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[dawiinci 5]

You have to run a mac 24/7

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That is not the problem. A Mac mini uses as much or even less energy as HC2 and is very capable of running 24/7 for months.

The only reason for HC2 in my opinion is the interface, the integrated logging capabilities and being independent from the Mac.

Everything else is better and faster on a Mac.

[fergalmccarthy 5]

You have to run a mac 24/7

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Which is what it was designed to do. I also run a windows PC 24/7 , 2 micro servers 24/7 , whats the issue ? Am I missing something or do you power down your HC2 at night ?

[Guest David R]

We get it you and dean are not fans of Fibaro. It just gets so boring all the time day after day hour after hour. Dont you see this?!

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[fergalmccarthy 5]

Answer some of the questions, the reason you can't is because HC2 can do nothing really. Its a space heater (that runs 24/7) .

I've invested heavily in fibaro hardware and been badly let down, as with most others here, what has your investment been that you are so happy with them ?

[ Added: 2014-12-02, 22:03 ]

If you want to bash the home brew as you call it, you need to be able to stand over your argument which it doesn't seem you can

[Scotfree 0]

It's a little ironic that alternatives to Fibaro are being called 'home brew'. On the back end, HC2 is the most string and cellotape solution out there.

Having measured the current for both the HC2 and the mac mini, the power consumption argument is bollocks. The mac mini consumes less power, runs a lot cooler and does, of course have configurable power options. And this is coming from a PC user.

[fergalmccarthy 5]

We get it you and dean are not fans of Fibaro. It just gets so boring all the time day after day hour after hour. Dont you see this?!

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Its a bit ironic you come into a thread called Alternative to HC2 to say we don't like Fibaro and you are bored of reading our posts.

If you can offer some ways in which HC2 is superior to Indigo, i'd love to hear them. All i'm doing is giving users the facts, not a one sided view.

[deanrparry 19]

Thought you blocked me! Obviously missed me to much and needed a touch of reality again! I understand...

[ Added: 2014-12-03, 09:57 ]

We get it you and dean are not fans of Fibaro. It just gets so boring all the time day after day hour after hour. Dont you see this?!

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Its a bit ironic you come into a thread called Alternative to HC2 to say we don't like Fibaro and you are bored of reading our posts.

If you can offer some ways in which HC2 is superior to Indigo, i'd love to hear them. All i'm doing is giving users the facts, not a one sided view.

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/emoticons/default_smile.png" alt=":)" srcset="https://forum.fibaro.com/uploads/emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> brilliant... according to his last post 'David R' blocked me because I was boring... but I feel some real man love here! It's alright I have a sensor on the closet but it's connected to Fibaro so we won't know if you come out or not

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[Guest David R]

Haha winding you two up. Only thing is you make it to easy for me

[ Added: 2014-12-03, 13:32 ]

Dry your eyes lads and shut those macs down.

[deanrparry 19]

x x x love you to!

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