“After much research and trialling of other options, I took the plunge and purchased a Homey Pro. It is a great piece of kit – and has surpassed my expectations. Everything I wanted to integrate with Homey has been able to do so, and it is now acting as the master controller of all my home automation kit. Setting up new automations has been dead easy – the ‘flow’ structure is very logical and surprisingly powerful. For example, you can set up you own variables, as well as start other automations (flows) from a single flow, which helps keep things in order.
My situation was that I had built an array of ‘best of breed’ home automation solutions over the last few years. This included Hue lights, LightwaveRF relays (for outside lights), Honeywell Evohome for home heating, Somfy for blinds/curtains, Sonos for music, Alexa for voice control, Rako for some home cinema lighting, Harmony for AV and Yale for smart door locks. I was very happy with each one, but it was getting a bit tedious to use many different apps to automate each one. For example, on leaving the house for a short time (‘out’), I wanted to set Hue lights to come on randomly, blinds to shut in the evening and outside lights to come on. However, if I was away for longer (‘away’ for a few days). I would want the heating shut down, and blinds to open during daylight hours. All perfectly do-able, but involved activating timers/scenes in different iOS apps.
So I needed one controller to rule them all – and Homey has done a great job at this so far (Hue, LightwaveRF, Honeywell, Alexa, Sonos, Yale). It was a bit of (long) job adding in all the home automation devices, but once there adding in automations (‘flows’ in Homey language) was dead easy. I have a z-Wave button for in/out/away, which sets the appropriate presence state, and timed flows which activate depending on which state the house is in.
A couple of thoughts following the install and using the system. The number of integrations (‘Apps’ in Homey language) is huge, but it’s not always obvious which are provided by Homey and which are provided by third party developers (sometimes several apps for one piece of hardware, which one should I choose?). A more comprehensive app selection interface would be helpful.
On the subject of Homey Apps, I am slightly nervous that, for example, my Yale Smart Lock may be controlled via an integration built and maintained someone I have never heard of. I am not quite clear what role Homey has in approving apps – does it act like Apple and only allow approved Apps on its integration list? Does it have any responsibility for these if, say, the developer stops making them? The same issue exists with other HA systems – I trialled HomeSeer HS4 and it also has inbuilt and third party integrations. Getting Homey up and running was a breeze compared to the user-unfriendly world of HS4!
The other area I think Homey could do some work on is the iOS App itself. It is really a ‘Homey configuration tool’, rather than end user application. As such it works incredibly well, a real testament to the developers for making something so complex so easy to use. The issue is that I have over 100 devices on the app, and 20 odd flows (organised in a logical manner, with master and sub-flows), and that’s a lot of things visible in the App. What I want is an iOS app which I can configure, so I can have (say) In/Out/Away button, and buttons for ‘Outside Lights On’ or ‘Blinds Up’ or whatever on the first screen. It is not really useable by (say) my wife, who wants a straightforward set of screens with a small number of buttons being shown, not (for example) lists of lots of individual Hue bulbs! HomeSeer do have a solution for this with their Touchscreen Designer, but in the end the complexity of the rest of their system outweighed this advantage. If Homey had such an option I would be adding a lot more flows and making much more use of the system. For example, having an iPad on the wall as a dedicated controller would become possible if we could configure how a Homey Controller iOS App looked.
Next steps for me are looking at integrating my Ring Doorbell, Harmony AV controller and possibly security cameras. I have decided to keep my alarm system separate for now.
In summary, Homey is a great home automation solution. Easy to use, intuitive, powerful, and really is the ‘one ring to rule them all’ (if you know your Lord of the Rings!). And it looks very cool on the shelf in the living room…”
“I bought the Homey Pro because I've been having increasing issues with my old 5-year old Vera Edge, both in terms of integration with newer API-based devices (Tuya, Lightwave Smart, etc) and general usability and reliability. Having only installed the Homey hub about 2 weeks ago, I've already unplugged the Vera Edge having found I can easily replicate everything the Edge did and much more.
It is significantly more expensive than Vera, but overall Homey is a big step forward in a number of ways. In particular the range of integrations is better, there seems to be a much more active community of app developers for third party devices. The quality and usability of apps is generally a big improvement compared with Vera, and avoids the need for coding or working out all the right config variables to enter manually just to get an app working. For example with Sonos, on Vera I had to use Luup code to start a specific playlist by name, but with Homey I can just select from a list that it displays in the main app .
The other thing I have found much easier is the automation part. I have found creating Homey flows simpler and more intuitive than Vera scenes. The only catch is that currently a flow can't have multiple alternative trigger events, but this can be worked around quite easily using virtual buttons, although this does then mean having more flows to manage. Being able to organise flows into folders is helpful with this, and the web app is easier and more responsive than the Vera one.”
“I really like Homey, it is closest to an appliance based Home Automation I have found so far.
But the 433MHz has an awful range and you can’t connect an external one.
Also basic issues using the Secure Zwave central heating/hot water controllers so a no go for me.”
“Want a simple yet effective HA hub? Look no further. Simple, lots of protocols supported and many devices.
Maybe not best if your HA expectations are for a super complex system, but for many of us more than enough.
Vesternet also has been spot on with their delivery and service, thank you guys.”
“Voice recognition is too bad
It can't just listen/send RF signal
Awful Device tab
Music isn't usable at all
BUT
Great Flows (automation) editor
Zigbee, Z-wave, 433, 868, IR, Wi-Fi, Bluetoth, (!)NFC(!)
Nice LED Ring
A lot of apps and good CLI for creating your own ones
Homekit by Sprut (v2) is amazing (add only devices you want to be there)
Virtual devices, timers (CountDown plugin)
I'm glad and satisfied ~.^”
“I bought Homi for building a smart home based on mysensors.
When adding devices with a large number of sensors it is inconvenient to display the devices in the Homey interface. It is necessary to rewind the slider in a small window. In the interface Homi huge free space, where you can beautifully and informatively display the work of sensors.
It would be ideal if the sensors were individually in the Homey interface.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1vxUzU0x8vIbDhwTk8xcEltV28/view
I have one ithernet geteway running on wires, and tow on NRF 24, and I can add only 1 in the plugin "Mysensors" in Homey.
I tried Mqtt. But here, too, disappointment. All my mysensors hubs were identified with NideID 0. And in the small window of the Homey (Mysensors) device I got 30 pieces (((
In my old Vera edge everything worked much nicer and more stable, including mysensors
Homey is a promising hub for a smart home, but because of the open system and lack of incentive for developers we get a very raw product. And all the charm of Homey are plugins.
I hope the developers will think and take control of the development or promotion of people who are trying and writing applications. That each plug-in should work like a clock !!!”
