Spend several years with Fibaro, had chance to use Vera and now Im with Homey. Yes, you need to invest time into all those systems to make them work as they supposed to and learn the basics. Its like with wifi. You can just plug and play the router from your ISP and use it with sometimes lower speeds, or learn how to tune the settings to make it more stable and fast (e.g. correct channel setting).
Its the same with all automation systems. First you need to understand how to control and setup them, than you should also understand how zwave/zigbee network works and than how to optimize it, to get max out of it.
As mentioned, moved from Fibaro to Homey with almost 100 devices and so far I do not regret this step. Did the antena mod to Homey, as the range issue was obvious problem (a lot of zwave routing devices used). But except if that, 100% of my previous scenes (flows) from fibaro works and more reliable then on fibaro (e.g. rain delay and weather forecast was pain in fibaro) and many new flows in place that was too complex to make on fibaro.
Definitely I would be greatful if someone give me a hint of better system with more details. Im willing to try it, its my hobby.
That is exactly it, you hit the nail on the head. The whole home automation arena is still in its infant years. There are a million products that are all incompatible with eachother. Zigbee, Zwave, WiFi, 433mhz, 866mhz Even within the same technology stuff does not work together. Controllers are even worse. Fibaro is only compatible with itself, Vera has its own niche. All kinds of open source and freeware stuff that requires the user to be a full fledged programmer in order to make something more difficult than āturn on a lightā work.
What I think the problem is? Homey is being sold as the low maintenance low effort easy to make work home automation solution. And considering where the rest is, itās true. But if you are just starting with this smart home stuff, it may still feel like you need to understand Pythagorasā brain before you can make something do what you want.
And that is exactly it. Building a smart home is not simple, unless you stick with the low effort stuff like connecting your Hue to your homekit to tell Siri to turn on the light. If you want something more, Homey offers this, but it takes a hell of a lot more time and effort. And this is the part nobody is talking about. And yes, Homey isnāt flawless, but hereās an annoucement: no product out there is!
Bottom line: Home Automation is still in its infant years. If you want to go for it, be prepared to waste a lot of time and effort. Homey brings some light in the darknes, but it is not the silver bullet. You still need to do a lot of work yourself.
Totally agrea. All the effort and time is often frustrating. Getting it to work the way you want is even more frustrating. But at the end when it works, it feels really good. But you have to be a geek, nerd, weirdo or maybe just a hobbyist. You may choose what you areš¤
Homey is not perfect. Far from, but maybe, just maybe one of the best (affordable) controllers at this moment.
I completely agree.
The funny thing you mention is what people do not talk about. The whole home automation āsceneā is way too full of things that no one talks about really. Itās pretty off-topic butā¦
I keep seeing people that recommend Home Assistant, because it is free, and argues that stuff like Homey is way too expensive. I however agree with Marcle_Ubels that Homey is actually very affordable, if it did everything we hoped it would. In my humble opinion, Home Assistant is by far the most expensive solution out there. The price of purchase of these cheap electronic devices are really negligible in my opinion - what matters are the stupid amounts of your valuable free time you need to invest for a very limited benefit. Nobody really talks about this, but I must assume that I am not the only one that thinks a few hundred EUR matters very little to my whole ālife economyā in comparison to spending hundreds of hours.
Also, go basically anywhere and ask a question about what network equipment you need, and you will see a ton of people recommend you UniFi. I do not understand why and how it has ended there. I owned quite a few Ubiquiti products for example, and I personally cannot see why I would recommend it to anyone. I mean, it is not all bad, and does the job, but it isnāt that great. Really the quality of the products is incredibly bad and their customer service is non-existent. I would recommend any ānormalā user to go with something a lot more simple, and for professional uses go with Cisco or Aruba or similar. So UniFi is in a funny middle-space, where I cannot really see many use-cases where it would be ideal. I have no idea why it is always being recommended - especially for people that no nothing about networking and have extremely basic needs.
Completely agree with the above: Home automation is not yet for everyone. Maybe Athom gives the wrong impression that it is. It is however slowly becoming more usable for enthousiasts, like myself.
What I do not understand is the cost issue. If you are a little bit serious in automating, all the sensors, lamps, motors, etc that you use (and buy) are IMHO way more expensive than the controller itself.
Off topic reply to Pandaym: I am one of those Unifi enthousiasts 
That stuff just works and the apps and software are (my opinion) much more usable for the average enthousiast-level user. But hey, we canāt all fancy the same
Smart Home stuff just isnāt there yet. One could argue, it may offer smart services but the stuff itself isnāt smart at all. Every vendor and dev group is preaching to their own choir, developing their own āsmartā way of working which in the end isnāt smart at all.
I previously owned a Home Wizard (actually I still do, anyone interested? ). That thing had the same promise Homey has, but 3 years earlier. And it worked the same way Homey does: with hurdles and bumps. Software updates that tip earlier carefully built flows, stuff that just refuses to work, range issues, etcetera. On the other hand, some parts worked wonderfully. The thermostat controller they sell saved me hundreds of euros. The geo fencing worked like a charm (hint, Homey folks). They already had wifi cam integration way before the rest was even thinking about it, way before Ring Doorbell even came on. But it only properly did 433mhz and 866mhz and Hue integration. No Zwave, no Zigbee. And a lot of the nice stuff is Zwave. And then development stopped. No updates for more than 1 1/2 years. In fact, I think they are slowly picking it up again but it still has not had major updates for ages. Which is why I turned to Homey.
With regards to Unifi, I have to admit Iām one of the enthousiasts that are very happy to own en extensive Unifi infra. But as you point out correctly, it is not for the average John Doe who just wants internet. Unifi fills a gap for the enthousiast like me, who do not want to spend thousands of euros on an enterprise wireless infrastructure but do want that functionality. Unifi gives you that for about 1/4 of what you pay for Cisco or Aruba.
Is it the silver bullet? No it isnāt. The switches are dumb, the firmware updates are frequent and the controller software really needs to be running all the time, even if they tell you it does not. But it is so much better than all the other solutions out there that promise homewide wireless but really donāt.
Itās kind of like with Homey. Itās not the most fanciest solution, but if you know what you are doing, it can provide exactly what you want. And it is improved upon constantly.
I Feel absolutely the same way. And I have some reference. I did use a stick with Domoticz and now for a couple of years, Iāve been using HC2 from Fibaro. Actually never any range issues at all. I have battery powered sensors and Neo+Fibaro wallplugs through the house. Never any issue and it never made me want to look into details about the mesh network, it just worked.
With Homey, which potentially is/was great for me, all Im doing is looking into these things. Not only for zWave, but also for Zigbee. And the logical answer seems āit is something in your houseā. That answer I would have accepted if the HC2 and Domoticz with stick would have had the same issues, which they didnt.
So I dont know what it is. Either a faulty Homey, or just a crappy product. I really dont know. I could order another Homey and go through all the pain of adding the devices again(which really is annoying with the wall (double) switches. And it shouldnt be this hard. I do know HA is a struggle. And I have struggled a lot, as well with HC2 and Domoticz, but this range thing is another levelā¦
That is my experienceā¦
Just visit Fibaro forums and search for dead nodes / dead devices. Also wishes of Fibaro users to have at least some view on how the mesh is build in case of troubleshooting. Every coin has 2 sides. I had HC2 before Homey and yes, range was much better. However after antenna mod, I donāt have single issue with range.
You can imagine that an antenna mod is something I may want to do on a more bleeding edge device. 10 dollar chinese stuff which has no support. But I feel that a consumer product like Homey should not need that. I will have a look at it though, but it should not be this way.
Same for zigbeeā¦ the temperature sensors of Xiaomi/Aqaraā¦ dont get updates for over 20 hours sometimes, but the temp did change significantly. I have routers connected to the homey(Aqara E27 bulbs) but it just does not take a route over the bulbs. Im perfectly ok with them not meshing and deciding the direct route is the best. But I think it is quite obvious that 20 hours with no update for a temperature sensor, is beyond discussion. So the thing should just use the routers which are spreaded well between the homey and the sensors.
Im frustrated, yes. Not because of the 300 euros, or whatever this thing may have costed me. Im just disappointed that it has huge potential for the average (not IT) person. But it lacks in the range/meshing capabilities. Whether its the software or the hardwareā¦ it just does not work.
It is. However, if it is the sensor or Homey that causes it, is notā¦
Wellā¦ The net is closing however. In the beginning it was not. But meanwhile a lot of debugging time is invested and Iām not totally unaware of how you analyse a problem.
I know that it still can be something unexpected or a combination of things, but the most obvious thing is the Homey still. All sensors behave like this. Even from 1 or 2 meters from the Homey. I have 8 temperature sensors from Aqara and 4 motion sensors. Those devices work fine with the Aqara hub. Safe to say that the sensors are not defective. Maybe it has something to do with Aqara / Xiaomi screwing something up in the standardized Zigbee. Maybe.
Then still there are the issues with zwave devices. Worked fine over a long range. The Homey comes and it does not work. Resetting. Rejoining. Adjusting position. Etc etc. There mesh seem to be established but it just does not seem to be doing the last hop most of the time. Switched the devices for others that work fine close to the Homeyā¦ No difference.
And I did many more steps to get a clue of where this is caused hoping I could find something that is not Homey related. I do love how simple and mostly effective the UI is.
I have about 12 active Aqara devices (motion sensors, climate/door/window/water sensors and buttons/switches) and they work fine with a third-party controller (not Homey and not the Aqara hub).
Which controler do you use?
On the risk of being marked āoff-topicā: Conbee/deCONZ.
Well, yes one would expect that something like antenna mod wont be needed on device like Homey. But thats reality. Unfortunately, there is no better substitute with such a compatibility, user friendliness factor and price that would be available on the market. Thats why doing an antenna mod was a simple decision for me - if there is a chance to improve performance of hearth of automation, lets do it.
Currently I do have 48 zwave and 26 zigbee devices connected to Homey, integration with google home, Sonos and using 2 online services for weather and polution monitoring. 25 apps installed on Homey, one additional GW connected (Ikea) controlling 5 additional zigbee devices (lights). So far:
- I am amazed with such a huge compatibility list (definitely when comparing to Fibaro) that enables to connect almost everything.
- Everything works without problem. I did antenna mod and zwave routing was decreased significantly (see antenna mod post for details). All devices are reachable and works perfectly (even door Aqara sensor closed in thick trezor that is build into the wall )
- Mobile app deserves more focus in terms of usability and performance. In this respect, Fibaro was much better.
- Price for complete home automation was decreased significantly, due to availability of much cheaper zigbee/wifi devices compared to zwave.
- I had one issue with Ikea devices not responding - simple Ikea GW app restart solved the issue.
Actually youre right. Now you mentionā¦ I had them connected to that one as a test a while back(really, I tried a LOT) and that seemed to work fine.
With also some āofftopicā risk: you use them with OpenHAB?
Hi Igyā¦ question then, and youre contribution I really appreciate though. Not trying to fight your points, Im really eager for looking into solutions and checking if I miss something or maybe my device is faulty.
The question is: do the Zigbee devices create a mesh network. You have 26 of them, probably some or all connected directly to the Homey, and maybe some of them can act as routers since they are powered. If you go into the dev page of your Homey, are all devices routed directly from the Homey to itself or do you see any hops? Really curious about it. Range issues are not a big issue for me as long as the creation of a mesh is working properly and it seems not to do that at all at mine.
I was motivated by this to try Homey in the first place, so fully agree.
Partly agree. I think the Homey app looks better and is equally fast or a bit faster compared to my Fibaro app. I really think the UI of the Fibaro app is from early this century and the Homey looks fresh. Another reason for me to make the Homey project work over here.
Also agreed. It saves a lot of money. Even the Homey itself is already a lot cheaper than the Fibaro HC2. On top of that the savings on devices compared zwave devices are significant.
n.b. meanwhile I ordered another Homey to test with and verify if my other Homey is maybe one with an issue. Just want to check if that is the case.
No, Home Assistant 
There is one ābugā or feature when you look on zigbee device page. When you open it, it looks like this:
But if you leave it open for a while, then the routing will apea:
And to be able to compare with zwave, this is routing/mesh on my zwave network. 4 and 5 node devices are battery operated devices (one is remote frequently changing location and scond is battery siren with low batteries ):
Okay. Made a start to set it up with deconz and openhab, it that certainly was not straightforward. So I guess you deserve some kudos for your setup 
