“So far there is not much of an improvement over the HC2, and most of the added functionality is not yet available… Hopefully the additional features are added soon”
“I like the kit, but in reality have I noticed any improvement over the HC2 - no.
Note also you *have* to use the new mobile app (which is fine for me, but others hate it).
Good: the hardware is smaller and looks modern (but less tough than the metal HC2)
Good: the new migration worked (for devices only though)
Good: I guess the specs are higher, and blahblah Z-wave Plus
Disappointing: all that extra connectivity is still unusable
Disappointing: all your scenes will be lost”
“Expect a massive learning curve. Great back up and much needed help from Vesternet. Don’t expect any manuals. Don’t expect any help from Fibaro. Avoid the updates. If you value your marriage, then avoid like the plague. If not then EVENTUALLY you may love it.”
“I started out with Domoticz on a Raspberry Pi, but soon found I needed a proper proprietory controller. I tried Zipabox... what a joke. Homey was even worse! So I bit the bullet and stumped up for the HC2... and I'm glad I did. It works very nicely and the new methods are not overly complex. I did hit one major snag. There is no way to use virtual devices or scenes containing Lua code through Amazon Alexa. I mean seriously? I fixed this by setting up a Z-Uno with 10 virtual switches that the HC2 sees as physical devices. Each one is accessible by Alexa and can activate a Lua scene or VDs or whatever I want. But I shouldn't have to do that.”
“I was a little unsure at which home automation controller to buy and thought this was a little pricey.
I initially saw this at a 'Grand Designs' Exhibition and immediately I got the "Wife Acceptance Factor", which is really important as once you start in Home Automation you keep buying more devices to work with it. My wife is not a technical person and some of the other controllers on the market seem to be aimed at the technical people and are overly complicated.
This unit allows you to start with simple "scenes" and when you're ready, you can dip into more complicated "scenes". I've had mine for about a year now and as others have mentioned, periodically 'beta firmware' does comes out, it is labelled as this and you do not have to install it. I personally, don't and wait for the fully tested versions to be made available.
The free tablet and phone 'App' are a handy bonus, allowing you to control things and run scenes as you wish. You can even control things whilst you're away from home!”
“The Fibaro is the best gateway available to date, if the user can understand the product, he would enjoy more and more, for sure the user should be little bit tech savvy. I would rate this product to a professional category which can compete with other matured automation systems. Very stable and response if configured properly. All the products of Fibaro work great with HC2.”
“Nice product to start with.... Shiny on the outside, not reliable at all. Does not deserve 1 STAR!
Every new firmware upgrade on HC2 is painful... users are used for beta testing it would appear, and QA of the new firmware release is non existent . Recent migration to Fibaro ID (new login system) is yet another fiasco!
I am now locked out from local access!
Simply steer away and go and find another z-wave gateway
https://forum.fibaro.com/index.php?/topic/24201-fibaro-id-bug/
BTW, It does not surprise me in the slightest that vesternet are now offering £70 discount on HC2”
