My life without Homey

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Thursday(19-12), Homey is acting weird, flows do not work and I can’t access my flows on my iphone app anymore. I am investigating what is going on

Frydag(20-12) after a night PTP and with great help off the community Homey still does not work. 15:30 Have tried everything and decide to give Athom a call for help. Mmmm I can’t find a telephone number, I do find a form to request Athom’s help. Advice from Athom is to make a diagnostic report and add the diagnostics number in the request. I directly get a email that it will take up to two days before they can react. But because it is holiday time it can take longer.
Ouch that hurts, I immediately realized that this wasn’t the right moment to have Homey stuck, I also realize that the WAF can get me in trouble.

I immediately take precautions. I look into drawer and find a good old analogue pen and something weird cald a “Sticky Note”. After some googeling I found out how to use it. On every door I stick a note with the following text; “Homey has died, for lights on, push the button”.

Saturday(21/12) As soon as I am awake i think off yesterday and my dead Homey. My girlfriend is also awake. She looks a bit grumpy. Oh oh the WAF is already declining. After making breadfast I decide to ad a remark to the Sticky Notes. “ For lights off also push the button.

After explaining my girlfriend how to get the Music on, and explaining that she has to make herself a choice which radio station she wants to listen to i go to my kids to tell them the bad news.

In the evening my daughter shouts really upset that the television is not working. After explaining how the AB works and explaining how to group and ungroup the Sonos boxes she starts a little grumpy watching TV.

Sunday(22-12) Oke first I make a little tour for the lights. I also have to kneel to get the Christmas light on🙈. The lights in my garden are still on, ouch! How did I live without Homey?

Monday(23-12) A littke bit shaken I wake up. Another day without my best friend. HOW To i think. How to survice the next days.How much did Homey cost. How long ago did I buy Homey. Mmmm 2 years and 2 months ago for 299,-.
Lot off money. What if…

As nothing works in my house i start to rethink. For this moment i walk to the mailbox. Shh… is is completely full. Realizing that I don’t get a notice when it is full and don’t get remembered by the lights turning purple.

I am making some little workarounds. Philips Hue lights upstairs are working again with the Philips Hue app and the Hub.

Maybe I have to do this also in my hallway, but how to manage that with the door sensors? Tomorrow i will re-think that. For now just trying to get used to my “Homey alone” Christmas weekend.

Thumbs up, maybe Athom will contact me tomorrow, maybe with a solution. Remembers me instantly about a nice Spotify number” Imagination with “It’s just a illusion” But how to get that on Sonos? Ok, tomorrow I will try to get that also done.

17:30 Good old moderator @Rocodamelshekima adviced me to go on the Slackchannel. Maybe they have clue how to solve my “Dead Homey”. Thanks @Rocodamelshekima

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Thuesday(24-12). Only one day untill Christmas. Ho Ho Ho Homey I think.

Each day I myself get a little grumpier. Grumpy cat meet your opponent!

I just realized that I forgot to put the GFT bin outside!!! Ofcourse Homey “would have reminded me with a push notification and a text warning :warning: on my Lametric Clock. Because it are the Holidays the garbage day is a different day and Homey would have reminded me offcourse.

I also liked the emoticons very much in the push notifications. Everyday a little smile. Therefore just teesing myself some emoticons

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Overwhelmed by emotions I also realized that the fruit flies will have two happy weeks. Ho ho ho Homey

11:30 After many days off switching on the lights in my garage and forgetting to turn them off i decided to search for a couple off Hue sensors. I found two spare Hue sensors. So decided to mount them in the garage and use Hue Labs to make them a Sensor couple. Now waiting if this works. Previous i had about 10 flows to make it work. The problem here is the cat flap and three cats.

12:00 I get an email from the helpdesk👌With the enclosed RMA form I have to send MY HOMEY to Athom for repair. Unfortunately the RMA form us not enclosed. I ask twice for this form. But untill now I didn’t receive it. Guess it is holiday. Hope I get the form after Christmas.(edit: looking with your eyes shut is not advisable😮, a link to the RMA form was enclosed👍)

At this moment almost all my lamps are automised with the Philips Hue app. Only the Livingroom not Have to search for some Innr plugs. Nice job for Christmas.

Wednesday(25-12) it’s Christmas time. Christmas tree not automatically on, so on search for a Innr plug. Unlucky this is also the plug for the internet router. Wow what a christmasfeeling I get from my children🌧. But after 15 minutes if restarting they coil down. Sky Radio the Christmas station also goes on after 15 minutes. Hohoho Homey

Thursday(26-12) Second Christmas day. Nice almost all my lamps are working. Lights in my garden house also installed. Afterwards I am very happy I had chosed for Philips Hue with bridges. This way I was able to get this done. What i am missing is a motion sensor in my livingroom, so when it’s getting dark and someone is home the lights turn automatically on. Same goes for the garden lights in the morning.

Have to rethink those little problems. At this moment the WAF is increasing. That gives some thoughts of rethinking.

13:20 I am diving into Hue’s ecosystem. Because i use three bridges i had to make two extra accounts(1 account for every bridge). This way the away/home mode gets activated. Just fooling around with that option. Homey worked perfect for me with two timers. 1 hour and 1 24 hour timer. That way when everyone was out or in house several things could happen.

Friday(27-12) Still no RMA form received. Bit disappointing(edit: the RMA form was already send, bit disappointing I didn’t look better🙈)

Monday(30-12) Philips Hue has the possibility to make routines. I just can’t get the hang off it. Sometimes it works sometimes not. Investigating what I am doing wrong. In the meanwhile i automate the light myself by switching them on when my wife is in the bathroom. WAF is still increasing😮 I wonder why🙃

21:30 Just put my Homey in a little black box with the RMA form. Hope it will soon pop out again

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Friday(03-01) The Philips Hue app workes really nice and also quite fast. Have to admit Homey ads some latency, but I also realize Homey ads many features I miss ad this moment. My garden lights automatically turned off after 20 minutes when the lights in my livingroom were turned off.

My Dyson Airwasher also has to be operated manually, as before Homey’s death it turned on when humidity was less then 50%.

I somehow start missing Homey, despite the problems that were around.

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02-01-2020 11:00 My black box arrived at Athom.

08-01-2020(Wednesday) Send an email to Athom what the status off reparations is. No answer.

09-01-2020(Thursday) Another email send. Until now I have send a total off 4 emails, none off them were answered. This is number five!!! Get annoyed and disappointed. Customers care looks quite bad at Athom. Hope this will change in future. No answer

10-01-2020(Friday) Another attempt sending an email considering the status of repair. No answer

13-01-2020(Monday) another e-mail send. I have send a Total off 6 emails now, none off them were answered. This is the 7th email! No answer

14-01-2020(Thuesday) contacted te seller(Robsshop.nl) If they can help. Yes they can and contacted Athom. My repair is sorted out iff a whole bunch off defected Homey’s. Same day my Homey has been repaired(new adapter and new software). Seem day it will be sent back

15-01-2020( Wednesday) delivery has been postponed by 1 day.

16-01-2020(Thursday). Waiting if Homey arrives today. And it arrives, and…
Still broken!!!
16-01-2020(Thursday) Send it back again, but in this case with help of the original sellers shop.

25-01-2020 Still no working Homey. Seller has sent Homey too Athom with a request for a replacement, due to the not working flow ability.

30-01-2020 Did receive Homey back from the seller. Immediately tried if Homey works. Wow, it works again. Unfortunately all flows are gone, but hey with the knowledge at this point it will be no big problem. Many thx to Robbshop for the quick repair of Homey.

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My condolences. I hope you get through these rough times OK.
If you need someone to talk to, we’re here for you…

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Big Bummer. But hey, at least you can spend the holidays talking to each other and sharing knowledge. That should be considered a good thing… :innocent:

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Ok, I will google that to! Let see what I can do with that.

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Oh mannn that sound’s terrible! Buttons that has been a long time since I used them! Good luck, hopefully your relationship is strong enough to survive this. My thoughts are with you.

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You mean… she normally not a grumpy person? I don’t follow.

Since you don’t have Homey right now, could you perhaps explain this? I prefer an electronic respons, but using that ‘pen’ you talked about sounds a bit retro. I’m open to that.

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My homey died a few months ago. Its terrible. I lost all my flows. I had a back-up from 8 months ago before i upgraded to 2.x. But these flows can not be imported.

I instantly bought a Homey Pro to do some basic functions. But i’m still years behind in what i achieved with my previous Homey. I lost all motivation to reprogram.

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This is my biggest fear also.
Having to add all the devices again first of all, and then having to start from zero reprogramming everything. It’s a real nightmare. :slightly_frowning_face:

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At this moment my homey is dead and as i assume i have to rebuild about 400-500 flows. I am searching this moment where Homey is nescessarily and where not. Those flows were from the beginning and I will not be able te make them all new. Therefore i am searching which eco system i work with, or maybe which eco systens i am going to work with. At this moment Philios Hue does de lighting job “better” as before. This wil probably stay that way. I only have to make some extra flows to make it a little better.

But in case of Somfy(heater, sunscreen), Sonos( 6 different radiostations automatically start every day), and all the doorsensors from xiaomi and Neeo I am still thinking. Also my gardening From Gardena was quite nice with use of the weerlive api. But extremely much work. Im looking for making that as good as it was, but with less flows( about 7x24 flows, with 25 calls per flow(4200 calls to make by hand)

What happens when Homey goes dead again. Not willing to set all my cards on 1 brand.

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Wait for the Backup&Restore functionality that might be introduced soon.

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For everything that is really important I learned ‘een is geen’ (one is none). So I am also very interested in having a second Homey installed that can take over immediately when the first one fails or working in pairs as a load balancing couple.
@Marcel_Ubels Hope you are OK with the WAF now and you soon reveive a new Homey. WAF will decrease again while rebuilding the couple of 100’s flows I guess…

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Thank you so much for writing this, I had a lot of fun reading it. I’m sorry for your problem with Homey and I hope you get it fixed soon again. This and the lack of backup is also my biggest fear. I also think you have a higher WAF than I do, probably also cause we hardly have any light switches anymore so our fallback scenario would be a lot worse.

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Now there will be alternative for Homey. Fibaro HC3 supporting zigbee BT and wifi devices. More info here.

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But according the Fibaro Homepage it support only Z-Wave and WiFi?!

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Then I dont get the reason to go for upgrade if HC2 is powerful enough. We will see the reality.

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In official press release it has zigbee as a capability.
Message from Fibaro: Although support for ZigBee devices will not be available right away, we will do our best not to keep you waiting that long :wink:

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As in, it will be available “SOON”. So no reason to move to the HC3 yet.

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If we have to wait for Fibaro to add ZigBee support as long as we have to wait for the Homey ZigBee re-write, we apparently have to wait forever… :slight_smile: