Convince me

1

For 20+ years I’ve used HomeSeer, but the recent half-hearted changes and the SDK/API changes have definitely soured the milk.

So Iooked around and OpenHab, interesting maybe, ooh, HA gets slightly better reviews.

My background, developer for decades(machine code to Ada/C/C++/Java, little bit of Python [hate not declaring - dangerous]) BUT, I like simple things - they work and that is what home automation should be.

Example - in HomeSeer I have to set a device to (say) 99 to turn it on. That is ridiculous and I wrote an AbstractDevice plugin that allowed me to say _Device(“Kitchen Lights”) = “On”

This also worked over TCP/IP so my mobile phone app could control it easily too.

This meant that my automation was simple scripts that said -

    If (_Device("Occupied") = "True") Then
        ....

(ASIDE - No dissing VB, it is just like all the other 3rd gen languages.)

(Wrote other plugins to control MediaPortal and Velleman K8055 kit.)

So been poking around HA and it still seems interesting (even although I couldn’t get it installed on a Pi 3 I had lying around - no idea why, so bought Pi 4 and I can try again).

Getting back to the topic, and I’m sorry if this sounds like a call to arms - it isn’t.

Give me a reason to ‘jump ship’

How hard will it be to move over?
What about my plugins for the K8055 and MediaPortal?

Sensible answers please.

Oh, and thank you for having me - Jim

1 Like
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Jim, welcome. There are quite a few of us here that have recently jumped ship from HomeSeer. Mostly because of the botched HS4 deployment.

There is another thread going on you might be interested in

I have been able to recreate everything I had on HomeSeer and things are now much more stable. The rules engine in Home Assistant recently got an update which in my opinion makes it superior to HomeSeer.

It allows trigger / conditions as usual but then there is a Chooser for the payload, example

If door open (trigger) and alarm is set (condition) then CHOOSE:
option 1 when someone home do this
option 2 when nobody home do that

In HomeSeer I used to have to have many events that were very similar to account for my requirements. One automation in Home Assistant takes care of it.

Anyway, welcome!

3

Hi Jim,

Welcome to the party. When I started that post nearly six months ago, I was, and still am, happily running HS3 but saw no future with HS4. Taking HS4 out of the discussion for a moment, what isn’t working for you with HS3? That’s something only you can answer.

When I saw the state of HS4, I started looking around for a new boat but I didn’t consider what I was doing “jumping ship”. In fact, the pyhs3 module and homeseer custom component fit the bill nicely for what I needed. That being said, I’m still running all of my critical functions on HS3 and have started experimenting with HS4, initially to verify proper functionality with pyhs3 and the custom component.

Yes, there’s a lot of cool stuff you can do with Home Assistant, but for me there’s a couple of downsides. I’m continuously getting hit by changes that are not documented as “breaking changes”. In fact, my primary use for HA right now is as a UI and that has become a mess with all of the UI tags getting renamed and not documented.

The biggest downside for me, and you can’t get around it, is the fact that you have to restart HA every time you want to add a new device or even modify an existing device. When I started you couldn’t even define an automation without a restart but that’s changed.

This may not be what you want to hear but I guess the best thing I can offer is look at what it takes to run both HS and HA in parallel.

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Thank you for the replies/opinions - currently trying to install HA on a brand new 8G Pi 4 (seems to be sitting on an update script, but I can leave it for a while).

I ALWAYS found the best part of any automation group was the users, so I’m pleased that this is still the case. Maybe being a tinkerer is the best group.

I’ll be getting this up and running (have a spare Z-Wave stick) so wish me luck!

And, again, thank you all, readers and repliers.

5

Reading @kenm his question was what didn’t work in HS3, answer - nothing it was all fine. But I know from bitter experience that sooner or later company X will pull the plug and then you’re bailing. Hence my upgrade to HS4.

The continual upgrades are some concern, but as I always used (VB) scripts, all that my event did was register some sensor and then the code checked - I am/was expecting to do the same in HA.

Just in the interests of sharing I use NetBooks (remember them, got a dozen!) as room clients, these run MediaPortal [MP] (which I donate to) and my own plugins, MS Agent (and a Desktops Mates talking head) which talks semi-random phrases at me and iSpyConnect which give me cameras everywhere.

And, of course I have Google Homes (Alexa got annoying trying to suggest.buy things).

I write plugins for MP and HomeSeer [HS] as I need, so HS can drive the MP simply. For example to turn on the radio on MP HS sends over TCP/IP a few text lines, like -<Screen=“Radio”/> pressing buttons just as you would.

Even my day job is about automating things, so HS/HA is a bit of a busman’s holiday - sad isn’t it!