Thoughts Seeked - Indigo, Lutron and HomeKit

There's a very good plugin that integrates Indigo with Lutron systems. I have a RRA2 system with two main repeaters and over 100 devices. I can control any of them from Indigo, and do Indigo triggers based on the state of the Lutron system.

I noticed your plugin and it's what got me very curious. How do you split up responsibilities between RRA2 and Indigo?

I can't believe that actually worked! Wait a minute, he didn't say Thanksgiving of which YEAR!!!

I'll keep the skinheads on ready standby then.

I noticed your plugin and it's what got me very curious. How do you split up responsibilities between RRA2 and Indigo?

There's lots of ways you can do it, but I do all "scenes" in Lutron, so that lighting/shade changes happen simultaneously. I do timing logic and motion detect actions in Indigo. I do use the "Vacancy" programming for the Lutron motion detectors to turn lights off, but I could do that in Indigo if I wanted. RRA2 is a great lighting and shade control system, but it's not an automation system. So That's how I split things up.

It's EXCEPTIONALLY stable. I think Matt & Jay (the developers) prioritise stability and making sure it's right above all else. Now that does make for perhaps slower addition of new modules than we'd like, but at the end of the day the fact you're not having to deal with some gawd awful cloud based system or some finikity slow vera box or something like that is worth the wait for updates. Also whenever there are any issues M&J do go above and beyond to fix them very quickly. .

Thanks! That is great to hear. When I was younger, I had the time and patience to endure, but with a family time is a precious commodity and usability and stability are a priority.

re: cloud based system, I'm with you. Even though internet connection is pretty stable, I don't want a non-functioning system if the internet or cloud services go down.

When is thanksgiving anyway? 4th July? Oh no wait that's traitors day.

I literally laughed out loud at that one!

re: cloud based system, I'm with you. Even though internet connection is pretty stable, I don't want a non-functioning system if the internet or cloud services go down.

+1 on that; my Kevo locks have gone from great to becoming a real annoyance; I'm pretty sure that somewhere in the routing between the satellite ISP at my house and Kwikset's server there's a slow link that often times out and blocks the authentication, so once the phone links with the house's WIFI, the "tap to toggle" feature quits working about half the time when I try to leave... as long as the linkage is still the 4G on the way into the house, they work perfectly. IF the 7 rumors turn out to be true, I'll be selling both Kevos and going Z-wave very shortly.

I enjoy the tinkering part, but by no means does Indigo require it. If you prefer to add devices, set schedules, set actions based on events, or other types of automation, Indigo will eat that for lunch and hum along nicely with no drama. If you want to add your own touches through plugins or custom scripts (Indigo supports both Python and Apple Script, although Python is recommended) you can do that too.

Count me among those that shy away from cloud-based services whenever possible. I had a Nest Thermostat (loved the hardware) but if my WAN access was down, my climate automation would break. Switched to Trane Z-Wave thermostats and have never looked back (I'm 100 percent Z-Wave). Indigo doesn't require WAN access to function, but it's great to be able to fire up the Indigo client on my laptop and interact with the server as if I were sitting right in front of it, and of course trigger things through control pages, Indigo Touch, Home Remote, or Domotics Pad (for those that prefer to use phones that explode). Of course, WAN access makes life even better with access to external data and such that further extend Indigo's capabilities.

With it's built-in functions and extensibility, Indigo is virtually limitless in what it can do and can be used in true automatic mode, full on tinker mode, or anywhere in between.

Unless Matt and Jay totally wig out on us and make a valid reflector link an absolute REQUIREMENT for I7 to run... In which case, I'm bailing or sticking with I6 till the OS won';t support it any more... and then bailing.

I doubt they'd make it an absolute requirement, but it will be part of the subscription for i7 as they've already stated. But i don't think they'd force you to use it (at least i hope not.. it's painfully slow here so i'm hoping for an alternative secure method for remotely connecting.. either that or some UK based relector servers to speed things up )

I doubt they'd make it an absolute requirement, but it will be part of the subscription for i7 as they've already stated. But i don't think they'd force you to use it (at least i hope not.. it's painfully slow here so i'm hoping for an alternative secure method for remotely connecting.. either that or some UK based relector servers to speed things up )

I have no problem with paying an ongoing maintenance fee; whether is is wrapped up in a subscription service to a remote server or if they simply made a flat out requirement to get a new key every so often; as I've said before, Indigo is so far ahead of every other competitor I've looked at as to make them not even in the running, so a monthly or annual subscription doesn't bother me at all. But (as I have told the Kevo folks) I can NOT accept or recommend for a control or security application any program that dies if the internet connection gets interrupted.

As far as the slowness of your reflector access (which I assume has to run all the way to Dallas and back across the Pond), have you considered setting up a VPN server that allows you to securely bypass the firewall? That's what we use to look at a couple of old panasonic cameras that only talk to their own app and won't serve up refreshing URLs for Indigo.

Yeah that's how I do it at present. Just would be nice to be able to have a secure connection directly to the service

Possibly getting off subject, but are Siri, Homekit, Alexi, etc subject to the same latencies over there, or have Amazon, Google, and Apple set up local cloud servers in Europe?

They tend to have localised servers for such things but there's still the occasional latency issue, I'm gonna guess when either their local servers are over capacity or more likely just my local connection is just pants

[matt (support)]

We definitely won't be requiring a cloud/WAN connection, as we know one of Indigo's big strengths is its ability to run independently. Reflectors for v7 won't change much; they'll just get included in the Indigo subscription as we don't want to have to maintain 2 different subscription models. We have plans to add some more cloud/reflector specific functionality in the future, but that won't be required for Indigo to operate.