The Egg that Homeseer Technologies laid.

[Steve]

As far as Tink goes he doesn't come across in a different demeanor but we all have our quirks. If you need help he'll help you. There's a lot of pressure on a developer in the situation as HST guys are in. If these other companies had as many customers as HS does then they too would need more help satisfying their customers. That's all the defending I'll do today.

Its all about perception. I don't own the product, so I don't need his help. And because of my perception of his attitude, I will never own his product. They created their own pressures by their decisions and the sign of a quality company is how well they handle it, and HS is not doing that well IMHO. And if HS has that many happy customers, then they simply need to hire more quality people to support their customers instead of making excuses. That's what separates the quality companies you want to deal with from the 3 or 4 man bands that shoot themselves in the foot.

 

[AutomatedOutlet]

Yeah guys, take it easy on Rupp, as most of you know, he's a great guy and knows a lot about this stuff. Sure, he is a little biased in favor of HomeSeer but he's been on the software a long time and likes it. I wouldn't blame him for that.

I'd suggest keeping this on a friendly note but I don't think anyone here is trying to attack Rupp.

 

[AutomatedOutlet]

How long has Elk been around?

Elk has been around for a while. The company was founded by Wade Moose (you might have heard of Moose alarm stuff - later bought out by GE). The M1 system came out last year.

Also is the battery used for power failure only.

Yes

 

[Bruce L]

Just to throw my opinions in here.

First let's not take our anger at HST out on any other board members, regardless of how frustrated we get.

I'm not running HS 2.0 even though I bought the upgrade. It obviously wasn't ready for me to waste my time on. I still haven't even tried to install 2.0. My 1.7 system runs just fine thank you. I would like a UPB plugin but not enough to try 2.0 yet.

As for the remote speaker clients I bought the wonderful Message Server plugin and have had remote announcements for over a year now. It's very reliable and I highly recommend it.

I do think HST jumped the gun on moving HS 2.0 to full production. New users can only get HS 2.0 - they don't have the option of running with 1.7. I would be very curious to know how many new users HST has gotten to pay the $200 after their 30 day trial is over.

I have also gotten the impresion from the HS board that Rich & Rick are pretty tired and frustrated also. I know they put a lot of work into 2.0 and a coder hate's to have their work criticised BUT when it don't work you gotta fix it. AND when so many people are still having problems with your code your public relations have to be even better. Otherwise customers get pissed off and move on to other systems.

Lucky for me I have the time and patience to wait on HS 2.0 to become stable. But it sure is hurting the companies reputation in the mean time.

 

[Rupp]

I do not use 3rd party plugins unless absolutely necessary.

That is a good indication of your justifiable lack of faith in the overall process & system of development & support.

Actually Wayne it's more of an indication of just how tight I am. I'm simply too tight to pay $40 for a plugin no matter what it does. In addition I personally believe most if not all plugins are becoming bloatware. I just do not need 85% of what they offer so I write my own.

 

[Skibum]

Hey Rupp... No hard feelings?

They are becoming bloatware in a vain attempt to justify the outrageous cost.

 

[WayneW]

Two essential 3rd party plugins are the W800 plugin and the UltraLog plugin. Both are free and there are other good, free, plugins. So it is more than being tight.

But, yes, $40 is too much for many of them and I believe that developers should be able to set their own price, but that is a whole 'nother thread.

 

[Rupp]

Ski/others no problem. We've both been there and done that many times. These discussions are an excellent way get things off our chest.

Wayne,
I agree with the W800. The fact that this is a paid plugin in HS 2.0 is killing me. I've tried the old one and it works so that was a close one. I find I never lool at my logs or I would probably try the Ultralog plugin as well.

 

[damage]

As for the remote speaker clients I bought the wonderful Message Server plugin and have had remote announcements for over a year now. It's very reliable and I highly recommend it.

i've been doing something similar for years now with xPL using the xpl tts application and SAPI. and best of all it's free. the author at www.xplhal.com, no longer hosts these apps on his site, so if you're interested in it, let me know.

 

[Squintz]

moved to another thread because Deans post got moved while i was replying

 

[Dean Roddey]

It got moved here:

http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?showtopic=2971

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

I have actually met Tink in person (a few times at CES here in Las Vegas) and found him to be a very friendly person who took a lot of "prime" show time to explain (to me) all the various happenings with Homeseer.

 

[Rene]

I would like to jump in with some comments on HS2.

First my HA background:

Started with x10 over 25 years ago, bought one of the first controllers with hardware inputs made by Steve Ciarcia of Byte fame, also upgraded to Ciarcia's second generation controller and finally upgraded to Stargate, which controlled lighting in my house for 8 very reliable years.

Felt that the Stargate provided very limited expansion at a very high price and look at Homeseer 1.5 about 2 years ago. Personal problems prevented me to pursuit the upgrade until recently at about the same time HS2 was in late beta.

Tested HS1.7.4 for a couple of weeks, HS2 was forced down our throats and went live with HS2 after removing Stargate (no going back)

I am currently running HS2.0.2014 with ACRF, Doomotion,HAI thermostat, Ultralog, Caddx AWX and testing MCS temperature as well as USB-uirt also the backup plugin without any major problems.

Of course, I am still very far from using all of the capabilities of the plug-in's but keep adding more sophistication to the events almost on a daily basis.

I do not upgrade to any release of any software, except for MS to close the holes, when it is first out, let someone else be the guinea pig. I know that you testing time should be about the same if not more that your coding time and most small companies do not have the resources to spend the time required to test any product.

I have had my differences of opinion with Homeseer. I also believe that they probably need more resources in programming than in marketing, except that they are trying to make it BIG.....

Allowing integration of user contributed code in the form of Plugins is very dangerous and really do not object for HS to charge a reasonable fee IF and a very big IF they check some of the plugin code and stand behind the developer in troubleshooting and support of problems.

I am happy with Homeseer as I have notice that things have quiet down. Only a few individuals usually trying to code their own plugins have major problems. I really believe that I have made the right decision as thing are improving.

I do not agree with some of decision (upgrade NOW as HS2 has been released (but still a BETA product), but remember:

The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, especially over the septic tank.

I apologize for the length, but felt I needed to speak up.

Rene

 

[deranged]

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,

I have no problem with your statement, and I agree if HS 1.7 is running rock solid why upgrade so fast. Wait until the bugs are worked out, EXCEPT HS stopped supporting 1.7. And the perfect example is the UPB plugin for 1.7, that doesn't exist.

And that right there ticks me off big time.

StevenE

 

[Skibum]

Rupp..

Ski if you honestly think that HS 2.0 is a true release version then you definitely need to head either back to HS 1.x or elsewhere. You know HST's history of releases and why you moved is beyond me.

I dare you to post that statement on the Homeseer board.

Guess not.... B)