HomeSeer HomeTroller Zee S2

Im thinking about getting HomeSeers HomeTroller Zee S2 (on sale today) and get into the world of ZWave lighting.

https://shop.homeseer.com/products/hometroller-zee-s2-home-controller?variant=20307970438

Does anyone have any experience with this particular controller? Pros and cons?

Im wondering what exactly can be added to the USB inputs for future needs such as possible analog to digital converters or contact closure/relay modules.

Thanks,

BSR

Here have both the Zee2 and HS3 Pro running on two boxes.  I have answered your questions over on the Homeseer Forum.

Thanks Pete. I was just wondering how much I could do with this vs. the old PC based system I used to have (that interfaced Davis Weather Station, Elk M1 (not needed now), Ocelot, PH Anderson A-D converter (with custom script), X-10, NetCallerID Box, etc... I also had the DS10A’s interfaced with the W800 unit.

I realize this is old stuff and I don’t anticipate actually using all of this, just curious...

I know it does have voice announcement capabilities as well.

I do like the Alexa capability and plan on using that. Probably get some Z-Wave light switches and door sensors...

I could do with this vs. the old PC based system I used to have (that interfaced Davis Weather Station, Elk M1 (not needed now), Ocelot, PH Anderson A-D converter (with custom script), X-10, NetCallerID Box, etc... I also had the DS10A’s interfaced with the W800 unit.
 
Is the old PC based system Homeseer 2?
 
The Zee2 can interface with
 
1 - the Davis Weather station (via a serial port on the console) - here purchased a Davis Console cable made in Australia that has twice the buffer space than the Davis serial console cable.
2 - Elk M1
3 - Ocelot
4 - X10 via the CM11A or Ocelot TW523
 
PH Anderson A-D converter (with custom script) and NetCallerID Box might be a custom script.  There is a generic serial plugin available for HS3.
 
does have voice announcement capabilities as well?
 
It can utilize the build in Linux text to speech or you can connect it to Homeseer speaker and use MS SAPI voices. (I do this today).  The Linux speech is very robotic sounding.

Today the HS3 Pro box here running in Linux also runs Oracle Virtual Box W7 for MS SAPI. (from the Zee2 and HS3 Pro box).
 
I do like the Alexa capability and plan on using that. Probably get some Z-Wave light switches and door sensors...
 
It works well with the Amazon Alexa and comes with a Z-Wave controller (not sure if it is a stick or a GPIO Z-Wave card these days).

What would be the best way to link this HomeTroller Zee with my Amazon Echo device via BlueTooth?  What BlueTooth USB stick will work with this device?
 
I thought it came with BlueTooth, but apparently it doesn't.

The RPi3 comes with integrated WiFi and Bluetooth.    To get the Z-Wave GPIO card working you disable the integrated bluetooth.
 
 
To get both working you have to use ttyAMA0 for the onboard bluetooth adapter and the Pi3 with enabled bluetooth uses ttyS0 for the GPIO serial.
 
Not sure how Homeseer 3 lite does it with the Zee2 purchased.
 
If you current Z-Wave configuration is using the GPIO setting of ttyAMA0 then the integrated blue tooth is disabled.
 
Guessing that the configuration for this is in the config.txt file in the boot partition of the RPi2.
 
So the rule of thumb for using the GPIO Z-Wave card is:
 
Generally, due to the way the UART ports work, we need to use the UART Port 0, since that one is not coupled to the CPU clock or the load - this would be the same over every version of RPI. On RPI 3 though, since Bluetooth is active though, it will use UART0 before us and our ZWave GPIO card would use UART1 which is a horrible port.

sudo -s
echo "dtoverlay=pi3-disable-bt" > /boot/config.txt
systemctl disable hciuartY
You would need to undo this stuff such that your bluetooth becomes ttyAMA0 and your ZWave becomes ttyS0.
 
You will not lose the ZWave configuration as it sits on the controller.  I am not sure how well this works.
 
Before tinkering with stuff above you can check to see if the drivers are being loaded for blue tooth anyhow...this way...using SSH
 

systemctl status bluetooth
It will probably show that the bluetooth drivers are not being loaded on boot.  They typically are there with the Jessie lite or Stretch configuration for the Pi3.
 
Desert_AIP also purchased the Zee2 for use with the Amazon Echo and might be able to provide more details about the base Homeseer 3 Zee2 RPi configuration as it is a bit customized for Zee2.

Wow, thanks for the detailed reply Pete!
 
I was hoping it wouldn't be that complicated.  Why is everything so hard these days?
 
I posted on this question on the HS boards as you would think I wasn't the only one with this question :; but no reply so far.

actually, i'm thinking of just getting this and plugging it into the 1/8" audio output jack on the HomeTroller:
 
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0757F93LV/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A2KUZVNQ9LP7N9&psc=1

Yes that will work.  The text to speech audio on the Zee2 is functional and robotic sounding.
 
Best speech stuff is via Microsoft SAPI which runs on Windows XP, XPe, W7, W7e, W8, W8e and W10.
 
You can do remote SAPI speech running speaker.exe on any windows computer and connect the instance to your Zee2.

Ordered it, will let you know how it works out.  Thanks for the help Pete!

The Homeseer/OmniPro/Alexa integration was surprisingly easy to setup and the available lexicon of com anew is surprisingly large.

UPB lighting and thermostats are straight forward.
I just started experimenting with voice control of Homseer virtual devices to add control for other items.

The Homeseer Omni plugin won't do UPBscenes. But the UPB plugin will, I just Need to add a PIM.

How are you inputting the voice to the Zee?
 
I procured a bluetooth device that I was hoping to use for sound output to my alexa, but the voice output of the zee is so low i had to turn alexa all the way up (which won't do because it's to loud for normal use).
 
Is there anyway to increase the volume of the zee?  I know it's the zee output because i tested the bluetooth with a regular phone (playing music) and inputted the music via the 1/8" jack.
 
I also tried using a headphone to listen to the zee directly

The HomeSeer Device name is used.
Under that there is a Voice Command entry box.
If that is blank it uses the full device name.
If there is an entry, it uses the Voice Command name.
So the device name might be "Kitchen Under Cabinet Lights" and the voice command is "Kitchen Counter".
You don't need the word "lights", you can add it when you speak the command, Alexa won't balk. I believe it is implied.

You have to activate the Homeseer skill. There are two, but the basic one is more natural to use, controls the devices directly, and has most of the commands I need.
When you tell Alexa to discover devices, she pulls in all of the devices.

Yes, I have Alexa controlling the lights.  I just want the voice output of the zee louder.
 
I guess I can use something like an Elk 800 amp, was just wondering if there was a volume control in the zee (I'll look up more on the Raspberry Pi audio out)

Roger, you're referring to the HomeSeer voice.
Sorry for my misunderstanding.