Help & Advice - Fibaro / Vera / etc!

[SimonH 0]

Hi there,

 

I've been using Home Automation for a few years now; and I'm really looking for some advice.

 

I've gone through X10 and HomeSeer (hard work to set up / maintain, UI stuck in the 80s) and currently own a Vera 3 with Z-Wave, Hue and Sonos plus a few other bits. Vera's UI is ugly and also rather slow. The final straw was a recent S/W upgrade that broke the integration with my Visonic PowerMax alarm panel.

 

I am really considering a wholesale switch to Fibaro & HC2, but I've been browsing the forums for an age now and can't really get a sense of what's compatible with what.

 

I would like to switch to HC2.

 

1) With a UPS, can it reasonably be used as a standalone alarm panel, that you can arm/disarm from the web or phone UI, using only Z-Wave sensors? I could then buy a load of matched Fibaro sensors, which seems like the best / most compatible solution?

2) If a physical alarm panel would be better, which ones are recommended by the community that use wireless sensors, where the sensors are also available to HC2 to use as scene triggers etc.?

 

The main constraint is that any solution needs to be available for sale in the UK and work on European frequencies. The alarm integration should also ideally be officially / natively supported.

 

I'd like to control InfraRed devices in a couple of rooms - not sure what to use to send the IR commands? Needs to be a wireless IP device. Currently use iTach Flex and Roomie.

 

I would also like it to work as easily as possible with Philips Hue, Sonos and Foscam FI9826W IP Cameras.

 

Purchase timeframe is within the next couple of weeks.

 

I have scoured all the forums for a simple list of devices, panels etc. that are fully compatible with HC2 but no luck.

 

Hopefully one of you experts will be kind enough to offer some thoughts - many thanks!

[blawre0000 1]

@ SimonH

 

Try this fo a compatiblity chart.

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Hope this helps

 

Brian

 

Ps A few of us use Satel alarm on 3.9x. Bit flaky on 4.xx

[SimonH 0]

Thanks Brian - that's helpful and I had come across the link you mention before; I was sort of expecting there to be something "official" from Fibaro somewhere. Obviously Vesternet only list devices that they sell themselves; it won't tell me (for example) if there's a plugin (does HC2 call them "gateways"?) for Sonos, or Hue, etc. or how well they work.

 

Can I ask where you bought your Satel system from?

 

If Satel integration is "flaky" then I can get PIR motion, magnetic contacts and smoke sensors from Fibaro (plus

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 as a glass break sensor), so I suspect I'd be happy with HC2+UPS as an alarm system for a property that's fairly secure anyway.

 

What's the built in alarm panel capability of HC2 like? 

[SimonH 0]

Why has this been moved into the "other devices" sub-forum? The main question was what the functionality of HC2 is as a standalone alarm panel....? Is anyone able to give me a flavour, maybe a screenshot or two? 

 

I'm just trying to get a sense of how much will work "out of the box" if I just buy a set of fibaro sensors and HC2, without having to faff about writing luup etc.

 

Any advice would be much appreciated.