Wink hub experiences

[bkenobi]

I am looking for anyone who has experience with the Wink hub to provide some feedback on how well (or not) they work.  I am considering adding on to my current system capabilities and need to consider better motion sensors among other things.

I am currently using X10 as my automation system and it works really well for PLC and after much fiddling/hacking have gotten the RF controllers reliable too.  However, when it comes to motion sensors I am less than satisfied (trying to keep it clean here).  They work ok when they are kept dry, close to the antenna, the air is dry and relatively warm, you stand on one leg and pray...  But, I have not really found them too reliable over time even with the improvements I have come up with and those from the X10 community.

That said, I need to replace a motion sensor (a 3rd in 3 years has failed) and I'm open to other options.  I have a hacked together solution that works great for my garage motion sensor (Zenith Heath module connected to a RPi GPIO), but all others are MS16A's.  I'd prefer wireless, but suppose I'm open to suggestion.

Back to the main question:  Does the Wink hub work well with RPi and HG?  I need something that can receive RF from some kind of motion sensor and the Wink appears to receive everything making my selection easier.  But, is it stable?  Does it require a lot of tinkering to keep it working?  Does it reboot for no apparent reason?  What's the range like?  Can rooting it (assuming a new one can still be rooted) fix these types of issues?

[bkenobi]

I was doing a little more research and it looks like the Wink hub runs linux with a pretty sporty system specs according to the teardown post I found:

https://community.smartthings.com/t/wink-hub-teardown/3288

It looks like it has enough horsepower to pretty easily run HG.  Does anyone have any experience trying it?  I'm willing to void a warranty if there is confirmation that it has potential!  I've seen some posts suggesting that the hub can be easily used WITH openhab, but I haven't yet seen where it's used as the openhab system.

I suppose if connecting to the Wink is easy enough then having HG run on it isn't required, just seems like a cool option for a nice compact setup.  Of course, the biggest issue for my setup would be losing the GPIO that the RPi has, so I'd really only be playing with it as the host for the HA software.

[kevin1]

That seems like a great solution, run HG on Wink hardware!

[bkenobi]

On the other hand, since HG systems can be linked, if HG would run on the Wink, it might be a nice second system to provide connectivity to those other automation systems.

[bkenobi]

I swung by HD this morning and picked up a hub to check out.  I don't have any Zigbee/ZWave/Lutron/etc, so I don't know how much good it will do me other than seeing if it has the capability to be hacked via web rather than having to solder the header for a UART connection.  I guess I could see what the cheapest compatible light bulb is and get one for testing, too.

[bkenobi]

I was able to apply the exploit to the Wink hub last night without too much difficulty.  I didn't want to solder a header on in case I couldn't figure things out, so I used a pretty cool technique to get my serial connection.  I used 3 IC test leads pushed through the unpopulated header holes attached to insulation.  This gave me sufficient contact to use the serial without voiding the warranty!

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9741

I then used a larger sized test lead to hook through a grounded unpopulated header hole with a wire attached to the other end and tickled the NAND chip at the right time to get access for exploitation. 

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/501

https://www.exploitee.rs/index.php/Wink_Hub%25E2%2580%258B%25E2%2580%258B

It was a pretty cool process that my wife seemed uninterested in.   

I still don't have any devices I'll be using, but I picked up a motion sensor to check the range for a potential device (IRIS brand zigbee protocol).  It claims 15 feet detection, but I don't know what the transmit range will be.

[hybridview]

I'm glad to see more posts about the Wink Hub. I bought one almost a year ago but after rooting it, I never really did anything else with it. 2 young kids demanding more time from their dad on top of more responsibilities at work, meant I didn't have much spare time to keep up with all of this. Things settle down this time of year, so it might be time to do some more tinkering.

[bkenobi]

I couldn't get anything to work with it so I put it back to stock and returned the device.  It was pretty easy to make it go back and without any devices (the motion sensor didn't work for whatever reason) it was basically useless to me.  I figure if I decide to get ZWave or Zigbee in the future, there was a USB stick posted here for ~$30 that would work for less without hacking (meaning more reliable hopefully).  In the end, I only wanted the hub for ZWave and Zigbee anyway, so why not save physical space and a few green backs!

That said, if you continue to work with the Wink, I think it would be good for everyone interested to hear about the progress.  I searched everywhere and couldn't figure out what to do with the hub once it was free from the cloud.