Thinking of moving to Homeseer? Things you should know

Don't get me wrong, I think Homeseer is a great solution just not for a first timer. 

The interface is really aimed more at installers than end users but when you get to the point you need for instance multiple Z-wave networks it makes sense to  move to the next level with Homeseer. Before you run out and buy there are a few things to keep in mind.

Coming from SmartThings:

I do find it odd no one has made a plugin to use a SmartThings as a ZigBee bridge for Homeseer. Seems like it should not be that hard to do. I might have to do it myself at some point. Just got about 300 things ahead of that in the queue. Especially seeing as how my SmartThings account is locked out right now due to all the recent Samsung conversion mess. The "temp" IFTTT linkages I setup way back seem to still be functioning for now. In case you didn't know many of the SmartThings sensors and devices will not work with most other hubs. Many are ZigBee based which Homeseer has only limited support for. This is why it is important to get devices with cross hub support as much as possible. Many ZigBee devices, like Hue, also have "hubs" (bridges/gateways) available that allow them to work with many brands of hubs and multiple systems at the same time. Being able to connect to multiple system not only give you multiple control paths should one fail but makes migration easier. For instance if you have Hue bulbs linked directly to a SmartThings hub you need to access them through SmartThings and moving to a new hub, even a replacement SmartThings requires pairing the bulbs all over again. Using the Hue "hub" you just link the Hue "hub" to the new one and you are done. They also tend to give you added features and might help avoid issues.

For anyone else thinking of moving to Homeseer:

• Get it on sale. The software is 50% off a few times a year. Their hardware is discounted frequently too.
• Try before you buy. You can download a 30 day trial and run it on any PC. Just get a Z-Stick, download the software and go. If you do not like it you can probably send the Z-Stick back and be out nothing.
• Do not get Pro. Get the standard version. Most the plugins you will want are not included in the Pro version anyway. The only real advantages to getting Pro are the HSTouch Designer and Z-Seer+ Z-Wave Diagnostics are included which at sale prices Pro might save you around $20. But odds are you will not get to using the designer till you get most of the system setup and you can spread the cost over time. You might never use it, I still primarily use the voice or web interface a couple years in now. Note the HSTouch phone apps work without designer. It just has the default interface. If you decide you want a flashy custom GUI you can always pick it up at the next sale. See my post A quick start for HSTouch Designer for an idea of what using the designer is like. Want to see how flashy you can get check out these YouTube videos.
• Get the software and a PC instead of their "hubs". Especially if you get a refurb or used PC you get a lot more power for the cost. Even though you might not need it for Homeseer it gives you power to run other things on there as well. Or if you have a PC that is always on and not maxed just use that. For example I'm running on a 4th gen i7 with 19 plugin instances, 4 Z-wave networks, 4 Hue networks, 3 Harmonies among other things. As I'm writing this mine shows 1928 connected Homeseer "devices" (data/control streams not physical things). I also have several external things hitting the Homeseer API updating values. The CPU rarely reaches 24% .
• Go Windows. I hate Windows but some plugins only work on Windows so if you go Linux you limit yourself. Windows 7 if you can, just to avoid Windows 10 things like updating at the most inconvenient times. Another reason to go refurb / used PC.
• Get a Z-Net instead of a Z-Stick. You can put the Z-Net anywhere that has WiFi or an network port letting you put it in the middle of your network to reduce mesh hops. Or in an area of high interference. Or my fav another building from the controlling server. Note Homeseer supports multiple Z-Wave networks which work as one.This is the best way to reach other buildings and problem areas. Assuming you are not just doing an eval of course. You could probably send the Z-Net back too if the eval did not live up to your expectations but the price of the Z-Stick is easier to tolerate if you end up not being able to send it back.

Homeseer with 2 interfaces yields Z-Tool issue

There seems to be a bug in Homeseer where instead of using the bind address specified on the config page

It uses the first interface it finds as its primary. In this case 192.168.2.45 instead of 10.10.1.45. Normally this is not an issue as setting to (No Binding) lets it work with either address. A problem arises however when using the Z-tool app on the 10.10 network as it will connect to the server on the 10.10 network but it reports back the 192 network which then fails to find any Z-Nets. It seems the only way around this is to disable the 192 network before starting Homeseer.

A similar issue you may encounter is having to log in even though No Password Required for Local/Same Network Login (Web Browser/HSTouch) is checked. Note this must be checked for Z-Tool to work.

You can enable the 192 network once you are done using the Z-Tool app.

Update:

It seems this also causes a problem with the Sonos plugin as well as it only does discovery on the first network it finds. So I went in search of a better solution and found this info on How to change the network connection priority in Windows 7 which seems to be a better solution. For Windows 10 it is just a bit different of course. See this document How to change network connection priority in Windows 10

The summary for both is get to the window showing your adapters and use the ALT key to expose a hidden Advanced menu, select Advanced Settings on that menu, then alter the order of adapters in the list to put the one with you IoT network on top.

Multiple hubs or all in one?

I've been seeing this question posted a lot lately as people have been taken in by the Echo Plus ads. I ususally reply with something like

The starter kit with a bridge and 2 bulbs + Echo 2 is actually cheaper than the Echo Plus. You can do way more with it and it leaves you open to add an Automation hub later without having to relink all your Hue stuff.  And a link to the article The Amazon Echo Plus Is a Horrible Smarthome Hub
(Note it looks like the V1 starter kit is getting hard to find. The V2 kit is $20 more making the total cost $20 more than the Echo Plus though you get an extra bulb so the "hub" is costing only about $10 really.) 

Problem is hub, like "works with Alexa", is a vague term these days. I've heard it used for anything from a bridge from something like a Z-Wave network to WiFi, like Homeseer's Z-Net, up to a PC like I use running home automation software and connected to multiple networks of multiple protocols. BTW as someone pointed out Ethernet hubs are yet another thing. Pretty no one uses them anymore but in case some misguided person mentions them you can find a good over view of Ethernet hub vs switch vs router here.

As for what you need, it depends on what you want to do. Again what people call automation is anything from an Echo controlling a WiFi device (which is really just remote control) up to systems that learn on their own. Kind of like drones that way. It is all about interoperability now. I think the best way to look at it as like your entertainment setup. If a Smart TV does everything you need that is fine. You might have wasted some money but if you are OK with that then it is still fine. If you want surround sound then you are going to need a receiver / home theater system linked in some how. Same with if you want to stream stuff your TV does not have an app for or the app sucks or you just do not trust the TV apps to be maintained then you want a streaming box like Roku. Same with DVR, Blu-ray.... So if you want full control of your Hue stuff you want their hub/bridge. Plus once you have the Hue hub you can link it to multiple things. For instance you decide later you want some Z-wave stuff and add a SmartThings hub. You can link the SmartThings hub to the Hue "hub" as well and control your lights directly from SmartThings or Alexa. You could connect the bulbs directly to an Echo Plus but then you could not control them with SmartThings. Or connect them to SmartThings and still be able to control them from the Echo but in both cases you lose features you get with the Hue "hub". Same if you add a Harmony "hub" in as another control interface.

You might also want to read "Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Hub?"

Note to self, NEVER make changes within an hour of bed time.

Went to move my house Z-NET onto the new network as the last thing before bed. Almost 3 hours later I'm back online. 😞 Part of the problem was according the the user forum all I needed to do to update the IP was restart Homeseer. When I did that it asked to install and update which I decided to do. Unfortunately I moved my instance to a SD awhile back to improve performance (the logging was killing the drive that also was recording security cam footage) and it seems the upgrade was confused and wiped most of my install and put a new instance on the old drive. Fortunately having a paranoid bent I backup my Homeseer instance every time the server is restarted so I was able to get a list of the files still in the folder newer than my back up saved off. Then I copied the files in form the new instance and finally the saved files back in. That sorted. I think at least. But it did not find the new IP for the Z-NET. Not surprising since I'm moving from 192.168.* IPs to 10.* IPs. After a bit of file scanning I found the IP needs changed in \Program Files (x86)\HomeSeer HS3\Config\Z-Wave.ini so after changing that and a restart I'm finally back in biz. Time for bed.