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Hello-Need some initial advice


elo

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Hi I am impressed with what I see concerning the Fibaro Smart Home controll system. I am a Z-vawe "user" for many years and I have been through HomeSeer and Vera (currently) as gateways and control systems. Currently I am using Vera but I am sick and tired of it and the many bugs and shortcomings. I am seriously consider to change to Fibaro HC2. I have some 50 nodes comprising on/off, motor control, shutter control, thermostates and HVAC controll, safety devices, movement detectors, temp-hunidity-movement sensors, integration with home theater components, integration to servers,  etc etc.   To make my decission more easy I am wondering if someone in this forum can answer the following questions:

 

  1. Is there a working plugin to interface with Logitech Harmony remotes (hubs). I see there is a plugin and wonder about the experience with it
  2. Is there interface to LAN based IR units (for instance Kira IR controll)
  3. For Vera there is a PLEG (programable Logical event generator plugin) that enables seting up advanced logical expressions with following actions. (WIthout this in Vera , Vera is useless). Can someone point me in the right direction to read about the possibilities to set up advanced logical expressions in HC2
  4. I have some Phillips hue light and IKEA traadfri in my home. Are the supported either directly in HC2 or through plugins?
  5. Support for older Z-Wawe devices. I have a number of older Merten devices (battery). Like Merten 507119, Merten  508019 . If these are supported this will alone compensate for the higher price og the HC2. Thes divices can be included in the Vera system but it turns out impossible to configer them!!!!

 

I will be very thanfull if someone take the time to write some advice!

 

Rgrds

.../Elo

Edited by elo
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Hi @elo ,

 

  1. I don't use Logitech Harmony remotes (hubs). I hope someone who does will answer your question
  2. I use iTach IP2IR and it works flawlessly with HC2 and virtual device made by me. I can control with it any device since it can learn all codes from their remote controllers
  3. HC2 uses LUA programming language giving wide possibilities to program logic and actions, downsize is user need to learn LUA
  4. Philips HUE work with Fibaro plugin and also with my Philips HUE AIO VD installed on HC2 (see download section). I don't have IKEA traadfri so don't have experience but I think there is also VD for those lights
  5. Don't have such devices, but you can check compatibility on this site: 

    Please login or register to see this link.

 

  • Like 1
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Hi @elo ,

welcome to forum!

 

 

1. there is a working plugin for harmony hub. I have a hub and working

3. You will need to learn LUA, to do real home automation. there is also the fast way but trust me, you will end up coding. It is not bad. LUA has a big community as also you can start read others code and start fitting in your needs.

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  • Topic Author
  • 16 hours ago, FSE said:

    Hi @elo ,

    welcome to forum!

     

     

    1. there is a working plugin for harmony hub. I have a hub and working

    3. You will need to learn LUA, to do real home automation. there is also the fast way but trust me, you will end up coding. It is not bad. LUA has a big community as also you can start read others code and start fitting in your needs.

    Thank you for your answer. I am familiar with LUA but it will be a very big job to set it up from scratch writing all the conditions etc

    Link to comment
  • Topic Author
  • On 3/10/2019 at 9:40 PM, Sankotronic said:

    Hi @elo ,

     

    1. I don't use Logitech Harmony remotes (hubs). I hope someone who does will answer your question
    2. I use iTach IP2IR and it works flawlessly with HC2 and virtual device made by me. I can control with it any device since it can learn all codes from their remote controllers
    3. HC2 uses LUA programming language giving wide possibilities to program logic and actions, downsize is user need to learn LUA
    4. Philips HUE work with Fibaro plugin and also with my Philips HUE AIO VD installed on HC2 (see download section). I don't have IKEA traadfri so don't have experience but I think there is also VD for those lights
    5. Don't have such devices, but you can check compatibility on this site: 

      Please login or register to see this link.

     

     

    Thank you for your answer. I have checked the compatibility info and Merten battery operated controllers are not there. Neither is Duewi switches which populates my home in large numbers. I would guess that the later can be included as generic z-wave devices but I would waste a lot of money if not. 

     

    I am familiar with LUA but it will be a large job to write all from scratch. I really think that such logic evaluations should be part of any controller's basic functions and today only HomeSeer has this included (Vera through a user written plugin PLEG). I know that HC2 has a very simple capability ..

     

    Today i attempted to upgrade my VERA to the latest Firmware and AGAIN it stooped working after the upgrade which seems to be the rule more than the exception and this adds perhaps the final nail in the coffin as I would need to contact their support to fix this!

     

     

    Link to comment
    2 hours ago, elo said:

    Thank you for your answer. I am familiar with LUA but it will be a very big job to set it up from scratch writing all the conditions etc

    I have one scene for all daily stuff, written in lua. There some very advanced ones by @jgab and @Sankotronic, really worth looking into. I will probably use one of them in future, but I started with my own daily scene to explore the pitholes.

    Then there are some simple if "dev x" then "dev y" end rules. Some of them are just "magic blocks", others are "block scenes" and one lua scene.

    Link to comment
    • 4 weeks later...
  • Topic Author
  • Hi

    I did get an answer from Fibaro support and threy simply say:

     

    There is no official support for user written plugins

    There is no support for IR device wotking over the LAN

    There is not support for advanced logical equations like PLEG for Vera and similar for Homeseer.

     

    I have also looke through this forum and there seesm to be a substantial volume of problems like for the Vera and Homeseer.

    I think my conclusion is that "its seldom greener on the other side of the fence" and the HS2 is also nearly 3times as expensive

    Link to comment

    There is a LAN/IR device, it's called "Blastbot", there is a script on the marketplace available. 

    Please login or register to see this link.

     

    Blastbot has an database, smartphone app and webinterface. Additionally you can learn almost any regular IR device into Blastbot and copy the command into a virtual device in fibaro.

     

    Hopefully this will help you. 

    Link to comment

    Hi @elo ,

     

    • It is true that Fibaro removed support for user made plugins due to some security issues. As it looks now they have no plans to bring them back. Users can still use virtual devices (VD) instead of plugins. VD's are not so sophisticated as plugins but can still do the job.
    • Please login or register to see this link.

       devices work nice with Fibaro home center. I use iTach IP2IR (LAN to IR) to control my multimedia devices. Advantage is that any device with infrared remote control can be controlled since iTach has learning mode and can learn all commands from original remote control.
    • Fibaro Home Center 2 does not have PLEG, but it has built in LUA programming language which opens many possibilities and allows users to build some very comprehensive and complex automation. 

     

    I'm really surprised with official replay from Fibaro with all negative answers regarding IR devices working over LAN and not mentioning LUA programming language as a powerful tool for building some very advanced HA scripts. 

     

    Link to comment
  • Topic Author
  • Hi @Sankotronic

     

    First. They DID mention LUA programing which is also available for Vera. To have to program more advanced functionality in LUA instead of using a available advanced programmable logic evaluation system add a rather high complexity that is for the few. It is strange that they did not mention the LAN2IR system you mention and I have also been tipped about Bastbot  further up in the thread. 

     

    Most issues does however most often lay in details that is difficult to be aware of before one tries out the system. I do read about several functional details in this forum that is problematic associated with specific devices that does not integrate  very well, the zwave network loosing nodes or having difficulties with nodes etc. etc.

     

    AT the moment Vera has released a major upgrade in beta version that will fix a lot of current problems. My first test of this did not go to my full satisfaction. I will wait a while and make a new evaluation but I think the HS2 system has some serious drawbacks that will lead to a lot of work on my part.

    Link to comment
    • 2 weeks later...
    On 3/11/2019 at 1:29 PM, FSE said:

    Hi @elo ,

    welcome to forum!

     

     

    1. there is a working plugin for harmony hub. I have a hub and working

    3. You will need to learn LUA, to do real home automation. there is also the fast way but trust me, you will end up coding. It is not bad. LUA has a big community as also you can start read others code and start fitting in your needs.

    Hi FSE,

    I'm also looking for some LUA commands for Harmony

    can you give some simple examples like

    Device ON /OFF

    Volume up / down

    All devices off

    etc......

     

    Cheers

    Link to comment

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