majorlance

Thanks for the great advice! I don't want to do it myself and I like the functionality you mention. I'll post back here once I make some progress on this...

That's my sense. Pro space systems work well overall with the trade-off of a little flexibility. For the use cases I described, would you lean toward Lutron or Control4? Thanks!

I've been using an ISY 994 and recently upgraded to an eisy for over 15 years with all switches/outlets using Insteon. Just upgraded to the eisy and use Home Assistant to link it to Apple Home. The configuration has been rock-solid for the last month since I installed the eisy (I think my 15 year old 994 was starting to fail after many years of faithful, just forget about it service...). However, we're building a new house from the ground up and I need to choose an underlying automation platform. I also don't want to invest in Insteon given the roller coaster over the last couple of years. My setup is not that complex but I want to use an installer to do the work and initial setup. As expected, they are pushing Control4, Lutron, private CCTV systems, etc. I guess I'm reluctant to tackle the job with a bunch of pieces and parts using zwave or zigbe. (I have my battle scars from the X10 days...) My use cases are pretty basic from an automation perspective - basically the simple things I can do with eisy. Turn on the lights at dusk, off at a set hour, gang certain lights for control from a keypad. Activate a light based on a sensor like motion or door, open/close the shades, ceiling fan as a group or when certain events or lights turn on/off. I really like the Apple Home interface and have linked my garage door, thermostats to it in addition to the eisy through Home Assistant. We probably have 30 switches that need to be automated, eight shades, a much of lamps and a handful of sensors. I use Sonos for audio and Apple TV/apps for TV viewing and don't see the need to link them to the lights, etc. Although I understand that the installer business model is to skip prosumer products or DYI stuff, I'm a little reluctant to step into a walled garden in terms of home automation. Any thoughts or comments? Many thanks... Lee

Thanks very much! I'll take a look.

Any other details on how to connect Home Assistant to Ring Alarm?

Thanks. I'm using the Ring Node Server with their cameras. Nice substitute for a motion sensor... However the alarm would also be helpful. Specifically, triggering events based on door openings, or motion in an interior room (with the ring motion sensor, not camera). Here's hoping it will be expanded.

Thanks!

Any update on this? It would really be nice to have Ring Alarm devices trigger ISY events.

I no longer use ELK and would like to remove it from my console... I can't see a way to do this but it must be something simple I'm missing. Advice?

I've found that the Echo is very picky regarding my wifi connection. Seems to require a strong signal to the degree that I actually had to change the location of one of my wireless access points. It sounds like your issue #2 is a hardware problem but that's just a guess. Here's a link from CNET for trouble shooting... https://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-fix-connectivity-issues-with-the-amazon-echo/ Good luck.

Wow! Best of both worlds (or two ISY's in this case ). Thanks! Lee

Michel, Agreed. And the Ecobee's have very limited functionality when it comes to the Echo. We have unlimited flexibility with an ISY. It may not be practical or possible to take the same approach... just an idea. Again, for me at least, having the Echo see one list of scenes, program, devices, etc. (even if there are multiple ISY devices) feels like it would simplify things. Every time I add my second ISY (again thanks for the help in getting my account straightened out), the Echo recognizes the programs I've setup when I do a discovery but then tells me she can't find them with I ask to turn something on or off. I need to do more trouble shooting. Lee

Michel helped me sort some things with the Portal to get two ISY's (I also have two homes) registered. It's been a bear with (most likely) some of it me and some of it the Portal. At this point, I've given up on trying to get the second one to work with my beach house and the Echo I have there. There's no way my wife will put up with switching ISY's or random performance issues. I also use Ecobee thermostats in both houses and both Echo's see the Thermostats and can be controlled from either house. This is nice. I wish the ISY portal worked this way. I'd like to be able to use one Alexa app and Amazon account and have it recognize all of the commands on any number of ISY devices. I can name the ISY programs or scenes (such as Beach Outside Lights) to be unique and represent where they are. This would be very clean. My two cents... Lee

By dropping one of the ISY's I was able to re-link my programs and have them execute consistently. I'm happy to do the work to move to 5.x but was waiting for the final stable release if that is what is required to be able to support two ISY's in the portal. I have an Echo and a Dot at my main house, along with one ISY, and everything worked fine through the portal. Adding the Second ISY seemed to have gummed things up. What I have learned (please anyone help and confirm): 1) You can only have one Amazon account tied to the ISY portal 2) My challenge is adding a second ISY. Even thought I'm only using programs with unique names between the two homes, it seems to be mixed up as to how to execute a command through the Echo with two ISY's on the ISY Portal. Any help or further clarification would be greatly appreciated. Lee

Hmmm. I'm running 4.4.x, not 5. so that may be the problem. But I'm seeing very inconsistent flaky behavior out of the setup. Can one of the admins comment on my setup? Thanks, Lee