Hey Guys,
HomeSeer's controller software is up for 50% off again.
I personally use HS3 Pro for my Home Automation setup which includes Z-Wave, Amazon Alexa, Logitech Harmony, Blue Iris CCTV, Plex and Sonos and it's been very solid.
Stacks of plugins available, see here for a somewhat complete list: http://www.homeseer.com/homeseer-plug-ins.html
Will try to answer any questions about it also!
Prices in USD
HS3 will run on Linux or Windows, they also have a rPi specific build.
You just install it and begin adding plugins/devices, creating events etc
There is definitely a learning curve there, but it's nothing you'd need a PhD for.
can we integrate homeseer with homekit and alexa?
There is a Homekit Bridge plugin, it costs $40USD which is about what most plugins cost for HomeSeer, the major benefit of this is that developers are very active and update/fix problems pretty quickly.
Description
HomekitBridge publishes all HomeSeer devices as a Homekit accessory. It lets you map your devices to predefined HomeKit profiles so all devices can be controlled using the native Homekit framework on iPhones and iPads and even work with SIRI!
Please keep in mind, this plugin does not offer an iOS app. You need to use one of the many apps already available in the iTunes store that supports the Homekit framework like Insteon+, Eve or Home.
There is an Alexa skill that currently supports on/off devices and thermostats. I use "Virtual Devices" and events to control things in some funky ways.
I personally use HS3 Pro for my Home Automation setup
I just use my kids for home automation… (Not cheap though)
Surely they'd be too old to be living at home by now, gramps?
Homeassistant.io is a good, free (Oss), alternative. Lots of plug ins for different protocols.
Yay!
I knew this was coming. Did they do discounts on 3rd party plugins last black friday?
Not that I know of :(
They def aren't cheap, but always had good support when I've had issues.
Yeah had a look through my emails they didn't offer discounts on any 3rd party plugins :(
thanks!!
Any good hardware for this softwares? looking for small and a bit powerful.. do we need fo add thise z wave stick? if ur running z wave any recommended zwave stick?
I run it on a Celeron NUC with an Aeotec Z-Wave USB stick, not all plugins are Linux capable so it runs on Win10.
I was just looking into all the home automation stuff recently and was going dive in soon having just a got a lifx globe lol
Do you have any more info on your set up and what you do with it? Sounds like it would be similar to my wants. Amazon Alexa, Logitech Harmony, Blue Iris CCTV, Plex etc
What NUC do you run it on and how is CPU usage with Plex?
I have a HP ProLiant MicroServer N54L that I use for Plex atm running home server 2011… upgrade needed?
Hey! Welcome to the hobby!
The NUC is basically dedicated to HomeSeer duties, the only reason for this is it requires a USB port which (due to running Windows Server) I can't pass through to a VM on my Gen8 microserver. It was left over after an Upgrade to a Shield TV so put it to use.
Plex runs on my Gen8 MicroServer with a Quad core Xeon in it, they're pretty pricey for what you get, the main benefit over a DIY server being remote access while the power is off etc.
HS3 has plugins for Harmony, basically you get a list of devices and all of the buttons for that device, you can create events based around what is happening on the Harmony hub. For Example:
IF Plex on the Shield TV becomes "Playing"
AND the Harmony Hub is currently set to "Watch a Movie"
THEN dim the Living Room Lights to 5%
Blue Iris is similar, you get a couple of "Devices" in HomeSeer that list your cameras and the traffic light status, I created a on/off device I can control with Alexa called Cameras, which changes the traffic light Color based on whether it on or off. I can say "Alexa, turn the cameras on" and she will change the BI traffic light to green.
Alexa now has an actual skill for Harmony Hub which I've just enabled and am working through the kinks at the moment.
not trying to jack this post. but you can achieve with opensource software called Homeassistant, best of all it is free (including the plugins)
I have the HA running on Raspberry Pi 3 with zwave dongle. works beautifully.
Thanks kwetiaw got mine working on windows 7 box ( + work with homekit too).
glad to hear that! it's truly an awesome home automation application, 400+ components and growing!
How many plug-ins do you find that you use with Homeseer?
I'm interested in the Raspberry Pi version as I don't really fancy running it on Windows, but I notice that it is limited to 5 plug-ins.
I have an Echo, Sonos, Sensibo AC and a few z-wave devices and it feels like I would almost hit the limit immediately…
I use Sonos, Harmony, Z-Wave, Plex and Blue Iris mainly, but also have a few others installed that I don't really need, but have.
There's a 30 day trial, maybe give it a go in the next week or so and see how you find it before this deal runs out on the 9th.
Previously, they have extended the sales to be the full month, but no guarantees this time.
Do you run Blue Iris on the same PC?
I run BI on my Microserver
What do I run it on? And how do you set it up?