Iobroker+raspberrypi or Homey

Hello everyone,
I’m new here in the forum and would like to ask the experienced here a question:
So far I have controlled everything via Alexa and now I found out how I can expand my smart home and make it more professional. My devices are a mix of everything. Zigbee devices from Aqara, WiFi from Yeelight / Xiaomi, Ecovacs vacuum cleaner robots, Osram Zigbee light bulbs, IKEA Tradfri etc.
I bought a raspberry pi and am currently trying my hand at iobroker. That’s pretty good and I’ve already set up a lot. But I find it a bit awkward. So I kept looking and came across Homey. Is Homey Easier Than iobroker? Can you use it to connect and link as many different components with one another in the SmartHome as with iobroker? And the last and most important question: Is it more intuitive to use than iobroker? Let´s say more easy to use?
Best regards
Carlos

Hi

I have used the IObroker only to connect to VW we connect servers, so my view of usability might be quite limited. But here are some thoughts, some may disagree.

  1. Homey usage is easier and in some matter more intuitive. You can make the logic and connections to other equipment more user friendly manner. Ofcourse I am a Homey user so my point of view might be biased.
  2. I think IObroker has more “connections” to other components. You can check the Homey compatibility of your equipment here.
  3. Homey has inbuild wlan, zigbee, zwave and BLE antennas and you don’t have to add those to the equipment and make adjustments to the software as you have to in IObroker.
  4. IObroker may have more flexibility over the more complex home automation. But for example I have made quite complex automations with Homey and haven’t had problems. Usually my own capabilities with the automation design are more limiting the solutions.
  5. With IObroker it is good to have some german language skills. :wink: You can manage with google translator, but may be hard in the long run.
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Thank you. I also feel that Homey is easier. E.g. I wanted to switch off all lamps at once in iobroker with the push of a button. It takes some time until I have all the lamps in iobroker in a blockly script. With Alexa I simply put all the lamps in one group, which took me about 1.5 minutes. Then I was able to turn off the lights with a voice command.

Is it as easy with Homey as it is with Alexa?

There are so many apps for Homey. The one you need is called < group > app. You can add all of your lights (or devices) you want to switch to a group “device”. This device you can switch on or off in a flow.
It can do much more.
F.i. if you let group app search for all lights with the same dim capabilities, you can dim all those lights by sending dim commands to just that one group device