What have I gotten into with Homeseer? (Lowes Iris user)

[Steve_HA]

I am one of the unfortunate users of Lowes Iris systems and will be forced to move away from this by the end of March. I have not been a fan of Iris since the Gen 2 hub fiasco a few years ago.

Since I must move I really wanted a new hub that will allow me to use ALL of my devices I invested in with Iris and keep it independent from a cloud provider so this debacle will not happen again.

I just bought a basic Homeseer unit direct from Homeseer and am getting frustrated with setting this up. From what I can see, Zigbee is not supported at least directly and the interface is not for regular users. I am a technical person but not a programmer and the info that came with the Homeseer is poorly written and extremely brief.

Is there a good resource for newbies to get a Homeseer up and running? I've attached one device so far and it's connected from what I can see but I can't tell you what it's doing because the interface makes no sense. I'd like to keep this hub if I can find some good resources for new users step-by-step with my situation.

I need to connect the following:
1. Schlage front door lock and manage users and codes
2. Iris door contact sensors
3. Iris smart plugs (gen 1 & 2)
4. Smoke alarm (connected so far)


Thank you for any help.

[sparkman]

HS is more geared to automation, rather than control from a UI. The web interface is really intended to configure the system, not for day-to-day operation/control. HS Mobile and HS Touch are intended as interfaces for that. If you were able to add the Z-Wave smoke alarm, then the steps for other Z-Wave devices are basically the same. What step are you stuck at? To see devices that are added, go to the View - Device Management page and to create automation rules/events go to the View - Events page. To add the lock, you may need to locate it very close to the HS. Are the Iris door sensors and smart plugs Zigbee or Z-Wave?

[ewkearns]

Steve, I feel your pain. We can help you through this, but there is a rather steep and long learning curve with HomeSeer, with no easy to read documentation to be found.

If you pick one task at a time and ask specific questions, we'll try to fill in the gaps. That said, I'm gonna go w-a-a-a-a-y out on a limb [I'm far from being fluent in Zigbee] and suggest that it is likely that none of your non-Lightlink Zigbee stuff will work with Homeseer. Having a Zigbee device is a lot like having a flower (ie. what color, how big, what kind, ad nauseum...)

One thing that may help in getting started is to "remove" each device from the network, before you try to "include" it. Of course, you can't remove that which was never included, but "removing" should erase all of the old Iris information stored on the device, so that you start with a clean slate.

[drparker151]

For local control of your zigbee devices take a look at the Jowihue plugin combined with hub based on deCONZ.

https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/li...jowihue-w-vuyk

[Eman]

I am one of the unfortunate users of Lowes Iris systems and will be forced to move away from this by the end of March. I have not been a fan of Iris since the Gen 2 hub fiasco a few years ago.

Since I must move I really wanted a new hub that will allow me to use ALL of my devices I invested in with Iris and keep it independent from a cloud provider so this debacle will not happen again.

I just bought a basic Homeseer unit direct from Homeseer and am getting frustrated with setting this up. From what I can see, Zigbee is not supported at least directly and the interface is not for regular users. I am a technical person but not a programmer and the info that came with the Homeseer is poorly written and extremely brief.

Is there a good resource for newbies to get a Homeseer up and running? I've attached one device so far and it's connected from what I can see but I can't tell you what it's doing because the interface makes no sense. I'd like to keep this hub if I can find some good resources for new users step-by-step with my situation.

I need to connect the following:
1. Schlage front door lock and manage users and codes
2. Iris door contact sensors
3. Iris smart plugs (gen 1 & 2)
4. Smoke alarm (connected so far)


Thank you for any help.

You will find a comprehensive user guide you can download/save from here : https://homeseer.com/support/homeseer/HS3/HS3Help.pdf and some helpful how videos from here : https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=HomeSeer .

Now you have your hands full!



Eman.

[Steve_HA]

HS is more geared to automation, rather than control from a UI. The web interface is really intended to configure the system, not for day-to-day operation/control. HS Mobile and HS Touch are intended as interfaces for that. If you were able to add the Z-Wave smoke alarm, then the steps for other Z-Wave devices are basically the same. What step are you stuck at? To see devices that are added, go to the View - Device Management page and to create automation rules/events go to the View - Events page. To add the lock, you may need to locate it very close to the HS. Are the Iris door sensors and smart plugs Zigbee or Z-Wave?

The contact sensors and smart plugs were Iris branded. From what I have gathered both of these devices are either Zigbee or a combo of Zigbee riding on Z-Wave.
From my research here it is being said that the smart plugs won't work.
The thing is I can't tell if Zigbee is supported or not. There's conflicting info I've found so far.

[S-F]

The contact sensors and smart plugs were Iris branded. From what I have gathered both of these devices are either Zigbee or a combo of Zigbee riding on Z-Wave.
From my research here it is being said that the smart plugs won't work.
The thing is I can't tell if Zigbee is supported or not. There's conflicting info I've found so far.

Zigbee is supported but the catch is that there is no clearly defined Zigbee protocol so guaranteeing that all devices will be compatible itn's really possible.

As far as working with HS you should really check out the event clinic forum here. There is just about all the information you need to know about using HS: https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/ho...le-of-contents

Beyond that if you have any specific questions please ask them. There are many very helpful people here who can get you going in the right direction if you get stuck.

Welcome aboard!

[jbfoster]

Hang in there Steve. I switched to Homeseer from Vera around May of last year. A decision I do not regret. I bought the Windows software and it's hands down better than Vera. There is a learning curve but it will get easier as you go. When you get stuck just post here on the Forum for help. I pretty much had mine setup and devices going in one weekend. I did my events over time. I have just gotten into ZigBee using Jowihue plug-in. It's a little different than Z-wave but things are going good so far. All I want ZigBee for is temp sensors and water sensors.

Jim