Is HC2 worth it?

[CollabSensei 0]

I am evaluating z-wave controllers. I was looking at the ISY994 and then building my own interface, but that would be quite time consuming. I have been reading a lot of the forums. Would you recommend the Home Center 2 platform? The polished user interface is what drove my interest toward this platform.

[alandee 79]

Well it's very qualitative.

There is nothing better on the market in my opinion at the moment.

The HC2 is without doubt very powerful, very capable and yes the interface is pretty & polished, but a pretty interface isn't the important part to be honest.

The number of supported devices is slowly growing, the stability is improving, and the support appears to be getting better too.

 

Having said that, it depends what you want to do. If you want to run a few lights it's overkill, if you want to run a few cameras it's overkill .. but if you want to slowly grow your system into a full house, then it is the best option at the moment. There are a lot of alternatives all with pro's and cons, the Fibaro system comes with it's own pro's and cons, but for the later scenario the pro's out weigh the cons on my list.

 

I'm not a Fibaro Fanboi, indeed I only know it is good because i've tried opensource and commercial alternatives in moments of extreme frustration, and while some of the things they do are good, there is a lot they do that isn't. Others will dispute that, some people have left the HC2 for other systems and sing their praises, but I suspect they were only running very basic systems compared to what you can do with HC2. Don't get me wrong, the HC2 can be monumentally frustrating at times, mostly due to me or my lack of knowledge, and occasionally due to a bad beta or device, but the stable releases for the most part do what they advertise.

 

If you do get a HC2, or any HA system infact, my advice to friends and family has been get one or two devices for starters, see how they perform, see what you can do with them, then slowly add more devices, grow it as needs or ideas arise, then you don't have both an empty pocket, and a house full of tech you don't utilise. I usually suggest a sensor and something that does something to start playing with, so an RGB  module or a dual relay switch or similar so you can monitor / activate and have feedback  to complete the circle to see how it all goes together. From there ideas blossom, and implementations make themselves apparent.

 

Oh one other thing .. If you go the HC2 path, be prepared to get your hands dirty with LUA, blocks are good, but LUA is what makes the HC2 as powerful as it can be in the right hands ( not mine I'm still learning it ! ) Checkout the

Please login or register to see this link.

 

Good luck and welcome to the forum ! Be sure and let us know which path you start down 

Cheers,

al.

 

Edited December 1, 2016 by alandee

[Sankotronic 2,370]

@CollabSensei Welcome to the forum!

 

I totally agree with alandee in all points! I haven't try other solutions. I just search the internet and found FIBARO. And I was never in doubt what I wanted so HC2 was easy choice for me. After I installed my first bunch of sensors and devices then I joined this forum. Thanks to many good people on this forum I learned many things about HA, HC2 and LUA programming, they are always ready to help. After a year playing with my HC2 I'am also ready to help if I can with my modest experience.

 

So good luck from me too!

[gucio1234 79]

@CollabSensei

I am using HC2, although I did not check any other systems form the market (and there is quite a lot of competition), I like its flexibility.

 

Yes, form time to time I am going through some frustraction with this, several times I was in touch with Fibaro tech support and I always received good advise from them.

And I have to say most of the cases of my frustration were my faults which were because lack of experience and knowledge (eg, I saturated my Z-Wave network with too often checking my temp probe, I moved the movement sensor to another location and I did not reconfigure the z-wave network for it). These are very basics but they are not very clear when you start your adventure with HC2.

 

Big advantage for me is LUA programming of HC2. I am not very experienced but I have some programming background and, as time allows, I am implementing own and others ideas.

 

The other thing I would like to point is the interaction between HC2 and Z-Wave devices. In theory all Z-Wave labeled products should work between themselves, but in reality it is not always as expected.

Eg. the TKB Home wall swithches are not always reporting back thier state back to HC2. I went through internet and it looks not to be an isolated problem. I am sure there are more glitches with different configurations which one has to face.

 

As a summary I would reccomend HC2 for somebody who likes to interact with technology, but I would be very careful offering it to non-tech customer - unless only very basic functionality is to be utilized.

 

 

 

[CollabSensei 0]

Thanks for the detailed feedback. The API and LUA capability plus the GUI is what has peaked my interested. 

[Guest FredrikKarlsson]

On 2016-11-28 at 4:18 AM, CollabSensei said:

I am evaluating z-wave controllers. I was looking at the ISY994 and then building my own interface, but that would be quite time consuming. I have been reading a lot of the forums. Would you recommend the Home Center 2 platform? The polished user interface is what drove my interest toward this platform.

 

3 hours ago, CollabSensei said:

Thanks for the detailed feedback. The API and LUA capability plus the GUI is what has peaked my interested. 

 

Yes, if you are not looking for an extensive hobby, then rolling your own solution right now is not worth it. The HC2 is for sure the best controller on the market for Z-wave and managing your house, but please note that what you get is basically a Z-wave controller with a Lua and REST API. These APIs are not great, but will get you where you need to go usually. If you would like to connect to other systems, like a harmony system or hue, then perhaps you should not be too disapointed if at times these connections will not work, and there may be limitations to how you may interact with the external systems. But, within the Z-wave world, there are very few limitations. Just a boring API (IMHO). 

 

If you go the DIY route, please consider the more open frameworks before trying to do it all yourself. OpenHAB is super flexible and all systems that you get working with it integrate at the same level. Don't know about Domoticz, Home assistant and other systems, but they seem also very flexible. Neither of them will get you the Fibaro polish to the phone and iPad apps though, so the WAF will be lower. Just saying.