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Home Depot

WINK HUB 2 $79 - Home Automation Device

  • Last Updated:
  • Jun 26th, 2018 6:10 pm
Jr. Member
Aug 9, 2006
123 posts
68 upvotes
Markham
would there be any real reason to upgrade to this from the original Wink Hub?
Member
User avatar
Feb 11, 2007
256 posts
619 upvotes
Markham
Encryption is added to avoid hackers
5ghz support
Ethernet port
Bluetooth LE
wireless radio compatible with Nest’s wireless Internet of Things standard., which is in addition to wireless systems built into the original Wink hub 1: Kiddel, Lutron Clear Connect, Wi-fi, Z-Wave and ZigBee.
Deal Addict
Dec 22, 2005
1289 posts
463 upvotes
Calgary
Oksijan wrote: Encryption is added to avoid hackers
5ghz support
Ethernet port
Bluetooth LE
wireless radio compatible with Nest’s wireless Internet of Things standard., which is in addition to wireless systems built into the original Wink hub 1: Kiddel, Lutron Clear Connect, Wi-fi, Z-Wave and ZigBee.
I think I read somewhere that more “local” robots are available in case your internet goes down?
Deal Addict
User avatar
Mar 30, 2006
4927 posts
17525 upvotes
TORONTO
Good deal, thanks OP.
gameon12 wrote: Wink v2 vs Smartthings hub v2??
Smartthings.
Member
Feb 22, 2017
429 posts
513 upvotes
Canada
just remember this is a meme company and as much as I hate subscription fees, this thing has none but still requires servers on the other end to function. it's one thing to look at samsung, or google/nest and imagine that they have the compute capacity at their disposal such that all the IoT shit in the world won't register a blip: wink isn't that. this is a company that's gotta pay bills and salaries of people from a revenue stream of whatever margins they eek out of these devices.

it's an OK price if you won't miss the $100 in a year should they happen to go belly up. it also isn't a great product - before I returned mine, they had long outstanding bugs and their development team is slow and of questionable competence. responsiveness was faster if you were on LTE than if you were on your own Wi-Fi because of a "bug that our team is working hard on!" and my z-wave stuff would just die, but the Wink interface doesn't let you actually work with the z-wave devices directly. (Aeotec stick has no problems at all for 6 months now)

if you aren't serious about home stuff, this is fine, it won't be a maintenance-free installation but the initial setup will be easier.

best is to use a home depot card to get the year return policy keep the packaging etc. and return if you outgrow it or will-i-am tanks them.
Member
Feb 22, 2017
429 posts
513 upvotes
Canada
Battscrew wrote: I think I read somewhere that more “local” robots are available in case your internet goes down?
only if the things that you have are locally controlled. there's a difference between the robot running and evaluating locally and the action being local. for example, hue is NOT local with wink. or at least was not. I confirmed this by signing up as a developer and actually stepping through the API of exposed devices, and hue ones are omitted. z-wave for example is local... but when the Wink Hub has lost it's connectivity it's a shitshow anyway, very unreliable, it's not so much that local is for 'lost internet' as it is a hopeful optimization for access latency. if wink servers or your internet goes down, don't expect your home stuff to work.
Newbie
Aug 31, 2013
79 posts
77 upvotes
Victoria, BC
Thinking of getting that DirecTV Apple TV deal. What will this do that HomeKit won’t? Thanked OP regardless.
Deal Addict
Nov 27, 2005
3579 posts
610 upvotes
Picked this up today to try it out. Not really impressed. Currently have Vera Edge and aeotec z-stick running OpenHab2 ona rpi3. Have been looking for something to replace the Vera...
Member
User avatar
Dec 18, 2017
240 posts
137 upvotes
GVA
bjanzen wrote: Thinking of getting that DirecTV Apple TV deal. What will this do that HomeKit won’t? Thanked OP regardless.
There are many devices that are not Homekit compatible. I have Wink 2, AppleTV for Homekit and an Echo running various IoT devices with lots of overlap with the controllers except one Lutron switch that can only be controlled by one hub at a time.

Edit - forgot to add that I replaced my original Wink with a Wink2 hoping for a speed increase in responses but that didn't happen. I hooked it up via Ethernet as well, but again not much different than the original Wink. Maybe it has a very slightly better range, but even my Orbit irrigation IoT device and iHome outdoor switch reached my old Wink with no problem. So if you are thinking of upgrading and getting greater capability then you might be disappointed. I suppose there will be greater support for the newer device in the future though.
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User avatar
Dec 18, 2002
3127 posts
320 upvotes
GTA
daveinsurgent wrote:
only if the things that you have are locally controlled. there's a difference between the robot running and evaluating locally and the action being local. for example, hue is NOT local with wink. or at least was not. I confirmed this by signing up as a developer and actually stepping through the API of exposed devices, and hue ones are omitted. z-wave for example is local... but when the Wink Hub has lost it's connectivity it's a shitshow anyway, very unreliable, it's not so much that local is for 'lost internet' as it is a hopeful optimization for access latency. if wink servers or your internet goes down, don't expect your home stuff to work.
All good points though they will likely end up being bought by a bigger competitor at some point.
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User avatar
Dec 18, 2002
3127 posts
320 upvotes
GTA
I picked up a wink 2 but I am not able to add it to Google home. Google home says it is added but it doesn't show up on the list.
I was able to connect it to Alex without issues. Any ideas?
Deal Addict
Jul 5, 2010
2143 posts
1566 upvotes
As somebody with no devices other than a few HomeKit plugs, which would be the most efficient way to add some light functionality to my home? Purchasing the Hue Starter Kit ($10 more but comes with 2 bulbs), or this?
Deal Addict
Jul 3, 2017
3859 posts
2814 upvotes
Awjvail wrote: As somebody with no devices other than a few HomeKit plugs, which would be the most efficient way to add some light functionality to my home? Purchasing the Hue Starter Kit ($10 more but comes with 2 bulbs), or this?
There's a deal from Telus in another thread right now, Philips Hue starter kit with 2 ordinary white dimmer bulbs for $70.

Two WiFi bulbs would be cheaper, but if you expand much beyond that, a hub with Zigbee or ZWave bulbs starts to look cheaper. The Philips Hue bulbs seems fairly pricey to me, but there are others. Ikea just announced an update that their Tradfri smart lighting is compatible with Google Home now.
Deal Fanatic
Nov 26, 2008
7360 posts
5511 upvotes
Exp315 wrote: Ikea just announced an update that their Tradfri smart lighting is compatible with Google Home now.
And with Hue.
Deal Addict
Aug 19, 2011
4226 posts
3152 upvotes
Markham
Some HD in the US are discounting these to USD $25.xx! I found stock in Dunkirk NY and few people have reported seeing same price in GA and CA stores.

Not sure if this means a V3 might be coming or worse, Wink is in trouble but I think Wink is big enough that someone would gladly pick them up eventually.
Deal Addict
Jan 26, 2018
1173 posts
759 upvotes
Lol, I watched an ebay auction ended this morning for $81 CAD this morning.

I already have a smartthings and I am playing with Home Assistant now, just learned that wink 2 has Bluetooth and WiFi connections, will I benefit in anyway if I make a switch?
Sr. Member
Sep 21, 2006
666 posts
249 upvotes
Amherstview
hmm, I just got my feet wet in home automation by purchasing the Echo dot and Smartthings hub last week. I have a few GE bulbs and Ecosmart connected bulbs. Had a hard time getting the new Smartthings app to talk to the bulbs ( it pairs fine but constantly gave "Cannot connect to device " error for either bulb brands). Finally got them to work by installing Smartthings Classic app (which apparently is being discontinued) Both bulb brands are not recognized by ST hub so I had to change the device type to GE bulb for them to work. I am liking the customization you can do with ST both on the web and on the app. I have few concerns/questions I am hoping the wink users might help me decide to jump ship to the Wink Hub v2 or not:

1) Will I lose the ability to get future bulb firmware updates for the non-recognized bulbs if I continue to use ST hub? Both bulbs are apparently supported and recognized by Wink hub v2 so in theory they should get updates when wink releases them

2) My Echo dot is currently integrated with ST hub. So to run a routine, I say " Alexa, turn on <routine_name>. To switch the bulb\lamp off, I have to create another routine (say "lamp off") and then say "Alexa, turn on lamp off". It feels weird that I cannot say "Alexa, turn off lamp". Someone mentioned that I have to create a virtual switch which ties each state of the switch to their respective routine. After doing this, then i can say "Alexa, turn off <virtual_switch_name>"
Is this a limitation of Alexa or ST hub? Will I have the same issue with the Wink hub? Or it's easy with the Wink Hub

3) If I wanted to run a scene, say Movie time, where the front two lamps in the tv turn off and the rear two lamps turn on and dim to the lowest settings. On which platform is it easy to accomplish this? ST or Wink? Also, what will i have to say to Alexa to execute this scene on either platform?

4) Next step is to control the TV and AV receiver. I believe I need to get a Harmony Hub for that. Which hub is good for integration with Alexa and Harmony, ST or Wink hub?
Member
Aug 6, 2012
349 posts
192 upvotes
TORONTO
crimsondr wrote: Picked this up today to try it out. Not really impressed. Currently have Vera Edge and aeotec z-stick running OpenHab2 ona rpi3. Have been looking for something to replace the Vera...
So you still prefer the Vera Edge? What didn't you like about the Wink 2?
Deal Addict
Nov 27, 2005
3579 posts
610 upvotes
jeremy4 wrote: So you still prefer the Vera Edge? What didn't you like about the Wink 2?
It's not that I didn't like the Wink 2, it's that it didn't impress me. Doesn't give me anything extra from the Vera Edge. Integration between OH2 and Vera seems better than with Wink. I use OH2 mainly for programming rules and behaviour. Also, I'm not completely sure but from my quick reading it seems that Wink 2 still depends on the cloud which is not that great. I tried IFTTT and it is no where close as responsive to the OH2/Vera combination I use to implement all my logic.

Originally I moved everything to OH2 with the z-stick but my Leviton switches didn't work properly (instant status was not working). So I moved all the switches back to Vera and now rely on the binding to integrate them into OH2.

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