The Egg that Homeseer Technologies laid.

Skibum

Senior Member
I think that I have given HST more of a chance than they deserve with HS2.


I've got to vent... I've got to say I'm PISSED at Homeseer Technologies! Could support possibly get any worse? Could they possibly release a more buggy version?

It is beyond belief that they would release a version as buggy as 2014 and just leave it there for a week while everyone crashes. Support tickets do nothing.. (I've already given up with that avenue) Requests for help on the forum go to poor Rupp the excuse maker. (He does as good as he can)

What can be done????

IMHO, as always... :)
 
What can be done????

Well, typically the only way to show a company the marriage is going South (if they are not smart enough to get it by the normal complaints) is to take your hard earned dollars elsewhere. If enough people did that, they would get the hint.
 
Move over to an Elk..... I did all my automation tasks

HS only acts as a webserver and answering machine... Pretty expensive for $200.00

By the way I tried to get HS guys to get hooked up with the new Zwave SDK but haven't heard anything in 2 weeks. I wonder what would happen to my business if I operated it the same way.. Maybe I'll hire a marketing guy...
 
Maybe I'll hire a marketing guy...

Ouch... Sad but true.

Well it seems that many cocooners are turning away from HS because of their attitude and not because of their product. To be honest I would probably still be with them if they did not have the attitude that they do. But the bottom line is that there are a ton of options now.

First of all, the elk is controlled by a simple serial port or TCP/IP interface. I have never looked at protocol but if its as easy as electron makes it sound then you could write your own applicaiton to support the elk. It seems that everyone is extreemly happy with the elk and I plan on getting one as soon as I get paid for my last side job. However, I don't think the elk will be the complete solution, just most of the solution.

You have the very inexpensive Z-wave SDK available which would also allow you to write your own application. Although with an elk you would not need this SDK but it is available.

Then you also have mister house which is free open source HA application. PowerHome, and a few more that I am sure a quick search would turn up on this site.

Last but not least you have CQC which offers just about everything that HS does but it is designed for professional installers.

To be honest I would start off by getting an elk and learning how to program in VS .net (preferably C# so we can help each other out). Use your own application to add advanced logic to the elk. This may not even be needed because the elk has the ability to be programmed its self. Its only if you want to add things like web control that you would need to have software.

My point is that you are not at all stuck with HomeSeer and IMO they are no longer the best choice. And that opinion really has nothing to do with the fact that their software sucks (and it does in its current state) but it has to do with the fact that they have been shuting out their customers and act like we owe them. The bottom line is that most functionality in HS was written by its users anyway so what is stoping you from downloading the FREE express version of Visual Studio 2005 (C# or VB) and learning to write your own code.

That is my long term plan and I am sure a few others will end up going that way also.
 
Thanks for the suggestions.

Can Rich possibly be blind to what is happening?
I mean the current state of the software, the support, and the attitude comes under that infamous phrase "You gotta be kidding me" (Schwag, big)
 
I moved most of my HA tasks to my Elk M1 as well, since it is directly connected to my Ocelot and W800RF now. I currently use my.Elk with Homeseer, but already started the migration process to Girder, since it is much more powerful IMO (but has a very steep learning curve, for now), and can interface NetRemote, a touchscreen backend.

I am kind of surprised to see Skibum make this thread, since he was really happy at one point with Homeseer 2.0, so I guess things really did go south. I know HST watches this board on a frequent basis, so hopefully they will see that there are some problems, and work to resolve this issue asap.
 
Ski,
Not to take sides here but I've had 2014 running here for 5 days and 1 hour and haven't had any problems. I'm only running 37 events at the moment so it's not a large install but it runs none the less. The 3rd party plugins are killing HS. While it was an excellent idea to allow 3rd party development, the fact that there is no compliance testing is really giving HS a black eye. Apple didn't allow this and Microsoft did and we see where that went.
 
There are plenty of people who have mentioned in the CocoonTech chat room that they are having issues with this build, this is definitely not an isolated issue.
 
Rupp said:
Ski,
Not to take sides here but I've had 2014 running here for 5 days and 1 hour and haven't had any problems. I'm only running 37 events at the moment so it's not a large install but it runs none the less. The 3rd party plugins are killing HS. While it was an excellent idea to allow 3rd party development, the fact that there is no compliance testing is really giving HS a black eye. Apple didn't allow this and Microsoft did and we see where that went.
Hey Rupp

You are running HS 2 in a protected pristine environment. Try DELETING HS 1.7... so there is no way back, and start relying on HS 2. You will change your tune pretty quickly.
Why haven't you done this yet? Because HS2 is totally unstable.
This software has made steps backwards and not forwards, and is still barely at the BETA stage. This is NOT release caliber software. Not by a LONG shot. No one but HST is responsible ... resopnsible for stopping support of 1.7 ... responsible for FORCING the upgrade to 2.0 (Yeah I know... I dont want to hear that I did not HAVE to upgrade)

No disrespect... but your plug in comment is a totally lousy excuse. If you remember I warned of exactly these issues when the whole plug in thing was being considered. The only one to blame is HST for allowing this to happen!

Next case... what ever happened to TESTING before RELEASING an update?

Wait... forget that for now... what has happened to SUPPORT for the product? Tickets are ignored, the board is ignored... becuase it is "too much trouble" THATS BULL!
 
I have noticed some error messages (once they start, lots) with the latest build. I haven't stopped to debug yet though - too busy. So, I don't know if it is a plugin, one of my keypunch errors, or the core application. But, HS2 keeps working reliably even through the error messages. HS2 hasn't crashed on me since one of the very first private betas.
I continue to like it a lot. Better than 1.7. Worth HST's trip. They are getting close to getting the major gremlins behind.
I haven't touched 1.7 since private beta of HS2. I don't think it would even run now.

I have hundreds of events and hundreds of devices in HS2 now.

I recently bought an ELK. I am starting to move "critical" functions to the ELK. One example is a check that the mode is not changed to "cool" on the thermostat if the outside temp is near freezing. This is instead of eliminating the Cool button in MainLobby for fear someone would click it at the wrong time.

But, you can't compare what you can do in Homeseer with what you can do in the ELK. That is no "diss" on ELK at all. It is just beyond the scope of a security panel. I like that the ELK allows to do medium to low level tasks with reliable execution, and that Homeseer allows you to do everything else complicated (possibly with slightly less reliability that is usually not Homeseer at all). And that MainLobby provides a simple great looking user interface. Best of Breed across the board.

Other applications stress that their "one stop shopping" approach is more reliable and less complicated. Maybe those are true statements. But, not Best of Breed.

Depends on what you are looking to do. If relatively basic automation, the ELK is excellent. Next level would be Homeseer on a Pro100 server (reliablity, but not as much horsepower as most PCs). Next would be Homeseer on a PC. Add MainLobby to it. Add MainLobby AddOns (DVDLobby, MusicLobby, new graphical libraries). Spend a bunch of time configuring and testing. Way cool.
 
electron said:
There are plenty of people who have mentioned in the CocoonTech chat room that they are having issues with this build, this is definitely not an isolated issue.
Dan,
There have been plenty of people having issues with EVERY build but that's not to say that there are several of us that are not having problems. Having said that, I see absolutely no reason to move a perfectly working HS 1.x install to 2.0 just so I can say I'm running 2.0. I believe many users are making poor decisions to move there home controller to a newly revamped software package. I may never move unless there is something that 2.0 offers that can't be done in 1.7 and so far I haven't had that problem. The ELK is a nice replacement but for those of us that do not need or want a security system it's a bit of a non fit.
 
Rupp,

That statement just scares me. If HST advertises the HS2.0 product, then why shouldn't people upgrade to the latest and greatest? MS Office and other popular applications run fine on Windows 2000, but does that mean people will stick with 2000? The answer is no. once Microsoft released Windows XP, people migrated to XP, it's called progress, and most people will follow the upgrade path once available.

Having said that, I see absolutely no reason to move a perfectly working HS 1.x install to 2.0 just so I can say I'm running 2.0
There is a reason tho, it's called support. From what I understand, 1.7 isn't actively supported anymore.

I may never move unless there is something that 2.0 offers that can't be done in 1.7 and so far I haven't had that problem.
If that's the case, then why are you running to 2.0 at all? Just so you can say that you are running 2.0? :eek:

As for the Elk, that's an entire different discussion, for another time.
 
Rupp said:
Apple didn't allow this and Microsoft did and we see where that went.
...that's right, Microsoft became the dominant player! Not that I admire everything Microsoft does, but an open system is what the majority of customers want in terms of versatility, even at the expense of some stability.
 
That's just great... the biggest HS cheerleader sez it is not smart to upgrade to 2.0.

Let me clue you in here Rupp... this is RELEASED software, not some beta test program. It costs $200 and I expect... no I demand that it function as advertized.
 
I'm sad to hear the troubles that appear to be affecting the new release.

From my perspective though, it seems I may want to try one of the other trials first (I was torn initially even without these reports, although many have been unhappy for as long as I have been lurking here) to determine how I want to handle my needs.

Could always start out with my.elk while I decide (my TCP/IP interface comes this week for the Elk along with the first of many serial expanders).

It is surprising how long these troubles seem to have been out there (but the third party bit probably does not help things a bit).
 
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