Homekit support?

[Sankotronic 2,370]

Hello @danone1973 and welcome to Fibaro forum!

 

Siri is depending on internet connection and Apple servers so it is only good as supplement to a real home automation system. Can you imagine if you can control your house only by talking to Siri and then suddenly she drop down silent (dead) due to internet provider problems? I don't want to be rude, but in my humble opinion only ignorant people who don't understand what is home automation will choose that option as the best choice to make their home "smart". Actually there is nothing smart in giving speech commands: "Hey Siri turn on living room lights to brightness 50", "Hey Siri turn on TV", "Hey Siri turn off light in kitchen", "Hey Siri bla bla bla bla bla.." Where they even found this name?

 

I can understand that it is in our human nature to communicate through speech, but to be honest I don't want to talk to my house, I want to talk with my family and only what I like is that my house give me some reports through TTS messages if it can. If not, there are always other means of communication. And I don't want to yell to get something done, I want my house to do things without needing my intervention in at least 90% of all situations. To achieve that you need device that can be programmed with real programming language which gives you a countless possibilities such as Home Center 2.

 

So I don't really care how Fibaro app looks, for me it would be good enough just to give me several buttons for those 10% of situations when I need to intervene. If Fibaro solve problem with geofencing and battery draining then that percentage that I need to press something will be even less. Probably just telling house that can turn on sleep mode will remain since we always go to sleep at different times and that can't be really automated  

 

I really hope that Fibaro will continue developing z-wave system and HC2 and do a better job with providing some more support and education for it. At this moment there are even some basic stuff missing what makes big problem to new users.

 

So, Homekit, maybe it is future of HA, but for now it looks to me like something for common people to play with until they get bored yelling around the house. I was yelling for one afternoon just to get thirsty and sorry for the time spent with Siri instead with my LUA scenes that are getting better day by day.

[robmac 173]

@Sankotronic so true but those Apple Fanboys will never see it. 

 

BTW I love your enthusiasm for current LUA scenes and virtual devices. You may want to save some effort for later though as the plugins were a lot better even in the version that was available as Beta before it was withdrawn.

 

I am holding off all development until @fibaro releases the new version of plugin.

 

 

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[Sankotronic 2,370]

7 minutes ago, robmac said:

@Sankotronic so true but those Apple Fanboys will never see it. 

 

BTW I love your enthusiasm for current LUA scenes and virtual devices. You may want to save some effort for later though as the plugins were a lot better even in the version that was available as Beta before it was withdrawn.

 

I am holding off all development until @fibaro releases the new version of plugin.

 

@robmac,

 

you're right, I was disappointed when I realized that support for plugins was removed. Such a good functionality is still waiting for better days. It's too bad. But scenes are not to be underestimated even they missing possibility for common functions and interconnections except through global variables. VD on the other hand is crippled. It is ridiculous that code between main loop, buttons and sliders have no common ground. That makes VD very hard to share, but I just couldn't resist to finally integrate coffee machine with HC2. That just couldn't wait any longer  With plugin would be much easier.

 

[danone1973 4]

10 hours ago, Sankotronic said:

Siri is depending on internet connection and Apple servers so it is only good as supplement to a real home automation system. Can you imagine if you can control your house only by talking to Siri and then suddenly she drop down silent (dead) due to internet provider problems? I don't want to be rude, but in my humble opinion only ignorant people who don't understand what is home automation will choose that option as the best choice to make their home "smart". Actually there is nothing smart in giving speech commands: "Hey Siri turn on living room lights to brightness 50", "Hey Siri turn on TV", "Hey Siri turn off light in kitchen", "Hey Siri bla bla bla bla bla.." Where they even found this name?

 

Yes, I tend to forget this since I live in a place where in the past 5 years my internet was down for less than 5 minutes accumulated.

Indeed, I perfect agree with you, this is not called home automation yelling around like an idiot, but this what the market wants and this is what Fibaro gives it with the new range of products, I hope not in the detriment of dropping the support and R&D for the current range.

Yes, EVERY NOW AND THEN only I would not mind yelling to Siri to do something for me, beside my fully automated house via the HC2 and my LUA code.

 

10 hours ago, Sankotronic said:

I can understand that it is in our human nature to communicate through speech, but to be honest I don't want to talk to my house, I want to talk with my family and only what I like is that my house give me some reports through TTS messages if it can. If not, there are always other means of communication. And I don't want to yell to get something done, I want my house to do things without needing my intervention in at least 90% of all situations. To achieve that you need device that can be programmed with real programming language which gives you a countless possibilities such as Home Center 2.

 

Agree again, don't forget you, myself and other honoured members of this forum are such a small segment of the market, mostly people want to use their easy and flawless Apple Homekit to get the so called "home automation" And Fibaro as a clever business (not being sarcastic at all!!) has started to give the market what the market wants.

 

10 hours ago, Sankotronic said:

 

So I don't really care how Fibaro app looks, for me it would be good enough just to give me several buttons for those 10% of situations when I need to intervene. If Fibaro solve problem with geofencing and battery draining then that percentage that I need to press something will be even less. Probably just telling house that can turn on sleep mode will remain since we always go to sleep at different times and that can't be really automated  

 

I think it is a good thing to care how the app looks like! Simply because an amazing looking app (like the new one!) will draw along some part of the market, helping us to have Fibaro keep developing the current range and improving the HC2.

And c'mon, all that someone like me would like, beside the flexibility of the HC2, is to have some of the beauty from the new app transferred to the old app, the major graphical work has been done already.

 

10 hours ago, Sankotronic said:

 

I really hope that Fibaro will continue developing z-wave system and HC2 and do a better job with providing some more support and education for it. At this moment there are even some basic stuff missing what makes big problem to new users.

 

Again, I really want the same! And also I cannot agree more with you, great point you make here! What Fibaro needs is a bunch of brilliant and enthusiastic coders like yourself to have the basic stuff nailed and some nice and useful scene templates in LUA (even maybe in graphical blocks) And of course better training documents. In this way the new users will recommend their products even to the hart fainted person which has no clue what and AND block means...

But business always comes in front of everything and I cannot blame Fibaro for their new move since will bring them real money.

 

I hope you don't get offended, I seriously admire your work and please keep it on!!! I expressed just my humble opinion above.

 

Still waiting from Admin on the answer to my question regarding the iPhone app improvement, thought....

[Sankotronic 2,370]

Hello @danone1973,

 

Since you just complemented what I wrote and I agree with you there is nothing I can add more. You are actually right about application, it should be visually improved, but again this is personal matter of each of us. I prefer Fibaro to finally solve problem with geofencing and battery drainage when location services are turned on for their app! That is priority No. 1 in my opinion, and how light bulbs look in app or what background is there that is less important, but again this is my personal opinion  .

 

I'm still waiting for forum administrator to approve my new posts with Weather status VD. I posted this solution more than 24 hours ago and is still not available for forum members!

[danone1973 4]

2 hours ago, Sankotronic said:

I prefer Fibaro to finally solve problem with geofencing and battery drainage when location services are turned on for their app! That is priority No. 1 in my opinion

Hello @Sankotronic,

Indeed, the Geofencing is an absolute must fix. I would also put it in front of the app revamp. I have tried it first time few days back and currently turned it off as it drove me insane. I have not experienced the battery drainage problem on the other hand  Neither on my iPhone nor on my wife's phone.

As I am new on this forum, not sure how can the guys at Fibaro can get such messages, perhaps not listening much to a new guy's requests either.

[danone1973 4]

On 28/12/2016 at 8:15 AM, danone1973 said:

 

So I am taking this opportunity to ask @T.Konopka, is there a chance now that the legacy Fibaro for iPhone app will get an update on the old GUI?? I think it is now overdue and I am quite surprised that you have release a new awesome app and not updated in the same time the old one. The new app for Homekit enabled devices is simply awesome vs the outdated old app. The icons of the new app are unbelievable nice. Can we have the same thing with the old app?? I think all of your existing customers will highly appreciate this and recommend Fibaro to friends and work colleagues.

Thank you in advance for your answer!

 

 

@T.Konopka

Mr. Slack, can you please at least pop up a simple answer here? Yes or No would be enough. With all due respect, you want people to purchase your products at least give them a bit of consideration. I have nicely asked you a question, a short answer would also nice. Thanks.