Whist going through all the options for home automation I remember always Thinking home seer was expensive and that hstouch (default mode) looked awful.
I started with Vera lite and have to say at first It was great. I work in industrial automation so knew plc's were over the top and would mean a rewire.
Vera was all I knew then i out grew it. Fibaro was next then BeNext then a Vera edge.
All sort it worked but had issues that you live with.
Fibaro has a pretty interface but remote access is iffy and I kept getting dead nodes. Speed was on par with Vera and maybe slightly faster.
Vera works with everything almost but for me the fact you can't even do and instructions in the default code was a loser and I had numerous issues with crashes and I had to use pleg. Great idea but not great to use and ultimately caused me to throw Vera in the bin.
BeNext was cheap and to be fair pretty quick. But had loads of bugs and simple issues like you could only give devices names with up to 8 characters.
To be fair the BeNext guys did sort loads for me and even changed the naming for me.
But bugs would reappear on updates of firmware.
When Vera edge crashed and locked me out when I was away from home I though I'd try Homeseer. I also evaluated indigo for the Mac. Indigo was excellent but I would need a Mac mini to run it on and as I am starting a home automation business that meant indigo was not scalable. So homeseer was next, As in introduction I bought the pi software as I had a zwave stick and a raspberry pi 2 gathering dust.
Getting it set up was easy enough with a few questions on here.
Then I was as impressed as I was with indigo.
Homeseer was fast and flexible. I'll come back to that later.
I have since purchased the pro version and hstouch designer. With that I've done things that Vera and the rest would struggle to get anywhere near. Even the zee s2 blows Vera and the rest away.
The other day I decided to look at Domoticz and HomeGenie. I had looked before but was put off by open source for potential bugs and they seemed a bit geeky!
I spend a fair bit of time setting both up in the house with a test set up in the office.
Installation for both was ok and both I'd say have features Homeseer could do with. However when the real test came to include a few device on zwave and do simple rules / events things were not so good.
Domoticz has blocky that is similar to the way Fibaro is programmed by the way it looks. Flexible and powerful. However within minutes I was having speed issues.
Domoticz was easy enough to setup and the interface was ok but any control from a touch screen or phone looked to complex for the average person.
Simple on and off works but nowhere near as fast as the Homeseer zee s2 / pi 2. Then I would lose the tbk wall plug in after a few operations for some reason. A re install and try again brought the same.
I'd have been impressed if I had jumped to Domoticz from Vera but I thought it was ok for a cheap system but I wouldn't like to recommend it for controlling a home that wasn't run by a technical person or at least an enthusiast.
I've run Domoticz on a Windows PC too in the past. Good but not brilliant. Again small niggles and the interface the wife wouldn't touch.
HomeGenie took a bit of getting going due to the website link for the pi image not working but I did get it.
Once I had it running I loved the features like weather flexibility but again not as fast to respond as Homeseer and I felt although very well done the interface was not simple.
Homeseer install was straight forward and I've ran a pi in the house for 6 months with only one issue. That turned out to be the clip holding the micro sd card had failed. Homeseer still ran but I just could access it. So not really a Homeseer problem.
I have sonos, heating, lights and camera in my system running from a pi with a 7" touch that even the wife and inlaws like.
Yes I had to buy hstouch designer and it isn't with out problems but it has been rock solid and because I've get it simple but elegant it's very usable and fast.
From pressing an on command or off command for a simple light or wall switch Homeseer is by far the fastest or all and on par with indigo.
The only scripting I've done is for my heating system and again after a few questions on here and messages from people I've got it rock solid.
The automation side is way ahead of Vera, Fibaro and BeNext etc. Unless you want to go grey learning lua.
In summary you get what you pay for.
I have the confidence to recommend Homeseer to anyone. Fibaro sensors and switches are great I fact most of my equipment is Fibaro, BeNext sensors and switches are excellent but Homeseer have yet to support them fully, but the controllers not so good.
If you are on a tight budget and love to fart around with tech then Domoticz and HomeGenie are good but I wouldn't feel confident enough to recommend them if the wife has to use them.
I'm installing a system in my parents house, to save money I had thought opensource and the system they want is simple.
I've ordered a Zee S2 for them. Then I don't have to worry about it. It will work.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I started with Vera lite and have to say at first It was great. I work in industrial automation so knew plc's were over the top and would mean a rewire.
Vera was all I knew then i out grew it. Fibaro was next then BeNext then a Vera edge.
All sort it worked but had issues that you live with.
Fibaro has a pretty interface but remote access is iffy and I kept getting dead nodes. Speed was on par with Vera and maybe slightly faster.
Vera works with everything almost but for me the fact you can't even do and instructions in the default code was a loser and I had numerous issues with crashes and I had to use pleg. Great idea but not great to use and ultimately caused me to throw Vera in the bin.
BeNext was cheap and to be fair pretty quick. But had loads of bugs and simple issues like you could only give devices names with up to 8 characters.
To be fair the BeNext guys did sort loads for me and even changed the naming for me.
But bugs would reappear on updates of firmware.
When Vera edge crashed and locked me out when I was away from home I though I'd try Homeseer. I also evaluated indigo for the Mac. Indigo was excellent but I would need a Mac mini to run it on and as I am starting a home automation business that meant indigo was not scalable. So homeseer was next, As in introduction I bought the pi software as I had a zwave stick and a raspberry pi 2 gathering dust.
Getting it set up was easy enough with a few questions on here.
Then I was as impressed as I was with indigo.
Homeseer was fast and flexible. I'll come back to that later.
I have since purchased the pro version and hstouch designer. With that I've done things that Vera and the rest would struggle to get anywhere near. Even the zee s2 blows Vera and the rest away.
The other day I decided to look at Domoticz and HomeGenie. I had looked before but was put off by open source for potential bugs and they seemed a bit geeky!
I spend a fair bit of time setting both up in the house with a test set up in the office.
Installation for both was ok and both I'd say have features Homeseer could do with. However when the real test came to include a few device on zwave and do simple rules / events things were not so good.
Domoticz has blocky that is similar to the way Fibaro is programmed by the way it looks. Flexible and powerful. However within minutes I was having speed issues.
Domoticz was easy enough to setup and the interface was ok but any control from a touch screen or phone looked to complex for the average person.
Simple on and off works but nowhere near as fast as the Homeseer zee s2 / pi 2. Then I would lose the tbk wall plug in after a few operations for some reason. A re install and try again brought the same.
I'd have been impressed if I had jumped to Domoticz from Vera but I thought it was ok for a cheap system but I wouldn't like to recommend it for controlling a home that wasn't run by a technical person or at least an enthusiast.
I've run Domoticz on a Windows PC too in the past. Good but not brilliant. Again small niggles and the interface the wife wouldn't touch.
HomeGenie took a bit of getting going due to the website link for the pi image not working but I did get it.
Once I had it running I loved the features like weather flexibility but again not as fast to respond as Homeseer and I felt although very well done the interface was not simple.
Homeseer install was straight forward and I've ran a pi in the house for 6 months with only one issue. That turned out to be the clip holding the micro sd card had failed. Homeseer still ran but I just could access it. So not really a Homeseer problem.
I have sonos, heating, lights and camera in my system running from a pi with a 7" touch that even the wife and inlaws like.
Yes I had to buy hstouch designer and it isn't with out problems but it has been rock solid and because I've get it simple but elegant it's very usable and fast.
From pressing an on command or off command for a simple light or wall switch Homeseer is by far the fastest or all and on par with indigo.
The only scripting I've done is for my heating system and again after a few questions on here and messages from people I've got it rock solid.
The automation side is way ahead of Vera, Fibaro and BeNext etc. Unless you want to go grey learning lua.
In summary you get what you pay for.
I have the confidence to recommend Homeseer to anyone. Fibaro sensors and switches are great I fact most of my equipment is Fibaro, BeNext sensors and switches are excellent but Homeseer have yet to support them fully, but the controllers not so good.
If you are on a tight budget and love to fart around with tech then Domoticz and HomeGenie are good but I wouldn't feel confident enough to recommend them if the wife has to use them.
I'm installing a system in my parents house, to save money I had thought opensource and the system they want is simple.
I've ordered a Zee S2 for them. Then I don't have to worry about it. It will work.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk