Suggestion

[heardc]

I think UDI needs to make a version of the ISY that supports multi channel Zwave (not alpha) and Zigbee. Wink, Smartthings, Iris and now Echo plus are becoming more attractive. I have been using the ISY for 3 years and have another home automation project coming up, struggling to justify buying another ISY at the moment.

 

 

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[oberkc]

Yes, I want it all as well.  Still, for me, it would be an easy decision.  If multichannel support for zwave were important to me, I would not hesitate to move to 5.x.  (as it is, the zwave devices I have seem to work just fine.)  Furthermore, the programming capability of the ISY is still second-to-none as near as I can tell, and I fear those other devices' reliance on the cloud to be a fatal flaw.  I have avoided most ZigBee devices, so I cannot feel your pain there.

On the other hand, if simple timers and remote control are sufficient for you, there are some good options out there.

[larryllix]

ZigBee is a very low-level protocol standard and there is no standard implementation across various devices, making it generally unusble in the HA world.
Philips Hue products use a protocol implementation of Zigbee. Many utility meters use another protocol implementation of Zigbee.
UDI has a ZigBee plug-in card for the ISY994i but it is only compatible with the utility metering style of Zigbee.

[lilyoyo1]

The echo plus only controls certain zigbee devices and is a glorified voice remote. It does not control any other automation protocol so you're even more limited than the Isy on 4.0 software. Yes, you can add support for insteon and zwave by adding hubs geared to control those devices. Now you're stuck with having multiple hubs along with basic timers and control. If that's appealing to a person so be it. 

Have you tried wink, Iris, or smartthings? Peruse their forums. You'll see they aren't as cracked up to be. The limitations to programming, cloud based, server fails, etc. are enough to keep me away. Pick them up and compare them to the ISY. I have. Depending on how you are using the Isy you will find those controllers are Jack's of all trades and masters of none. The closest out of all of them is Smartthings. With that one, it doesn't support every zwave device natively (especially when it comes to multiple channel). There is a community (and other ways) that does allow Smartthings to support additional devices but that is does not natively support. However, good luck calling them up and getting help with non-native devices. 

All systems are good devices for what they do as long as a person is aware of their limitations and it fits their needs. My thing is and has always been to simply try something before complaining. If you try 5.0 and it sucks, then yes one has a complaint. If the title simply makes you complain and compare it to controllers that one has never tried, then that's a disservice.

[larryllix]

37 minutes ago, lilyoyo1 said:

The echo plus only controls certain zigbee devices and is a glorified voice remote. It does not control any other automation protocol so you're even more limited than the Isy on 4.0 software. Yes, you can add support for insteon and zwave by adding hubs geared to control those devices. Now you're stuck with having multiple hubs along with basic timers and control. If that's appealing to a person so be it. 

Have you tried wink, Iris, or smartthings? Peruse their forums. You'll see they aren't as cracked up to be. The limitations to programming, cloud based, server fails, etc. are enough to keep me away. Pick them up and compare them to the ISY. I have. Depending on how you are using the Isy you will find those controllers are Jack's of all trades and masters of none. The closest out of all of them is Smartthings. With that one, it doesn't support every zwave device natively (especially when it comes to multiple channel). There is a community (and other ways) that does allow Smartthings to support additional devices but that is does not natively support. However, good luck calling them up and getting help with non-native devices. 

All systems are good devices for what they do as long as a person is aware of their limitations and it fits their needs. My thing is and has always been to simply try something before complaining. If you try 5.0 and it sucks, then yes one has a complaint. If the title simply makes you complain and compare it to controllers that one has never tried, then that's a disservice.

I owned two Winks (simultaneous Christmas list presents) and after trying to integrate a few things I discovered all the bragged about 7 hardware interfaces it housed were Ethernet calls to other brands of hubs. They did a really good job on their app using videos showing how to push the link button on each and every hub I had ever heard of.

They went back for a refund and I bought Hue bulbs and Hub (yuk) in exchange for the funds.

Since then Wink bit the dust and somebody else bought them with big thoughts of making it big again. I suspect the greedy HA industry wouldn't share their APIs with them and despite having seven different hardware protocols in them the licencing and secrecy so enjoyed (sarcasm) by HA enthusiasts killed Wink again.

There are lots of things I would like in an ISY995j but I have learned to make the most of what is already there from many bad experiences  spending my life re-learning so many techniques.

The grass is always greener from a acute angle on  the other side of the fence.

[lilyoyo1]

7 hours ago, larryllix said:

I owned two Winks (simultaneous Christmas list presents) and after trying to integrate a few things I discovered all the bragged about 7 hardware interfaces it housed were Ethernet calls to other brands of hubs. They did a really good job on their app using videos showing how to push the link button on each and every hub I had ever heard of.

They went back for a refund and I bought Hue bulbs and Hub (yuk) in exchange for the funds.

Since then Wink bit the dust and somebody else bought them with big thoughts of making it big again. I suspect the greedy HA industry wouldn't share their APIs with them and despite having seven different hardware protocols in them the licencing and secrecy so enjoyed (sarcasm) by HA enthusiasts killed Wink again.

There are lots of things I would like in an ISY995j but I have learned to make the most of what is already there from many bad experiences  spending my life re-learning so many techniques.

The grass is always greener from a acute angle on  the other side of the fence.

I agree with you. What gets me is that so many people talk about needing all these different protocols. From what I see, it's simply the same devices except with different protocols. Why does the Isy need to control all? If I need a switch or an io type device etc., I can use insteon or zwave. Most WiFi devices (with an API) can be added as well.