During my early Pulse setup, I had to use an inclusion controller (a special Z-Wave remote control) in order to pair devices that were too far from the hub. Recall that Z-Wave is a mesh network, so devices can connect to the network either by talking directly to the controller, or to other nearby devices. Like back in the day when I was originally adding all my Z-Wave devices to Pulse, I had range issues. Pretty straightforward, especially if you’re coming from another home automation system like I was from Pulse. HomeSeer detects the device type, so it knows a switch from a dimmer and displays the appropriate options (see the screenshot below). Once I had the outlet paired, I could click the virtual power switch in my web browser to turn it on and off. You can also use the Z-Tool+ mobile inclusion app (which is what I did). The new device (and a lot of its internal settings and functions) appear in HS4. Pairing a Z-Wave device is easy: put the controller into pairing mode (through the HS GUI), press a button on the device itself to initiate the pairing, and wait for the magic to complete. Now that you’re in HS4, it’s time to start adding devices.ĭuring my initial proof-of-concept, I removed a few Z-Wave devices (an outlet, light switch, and door lock) from ADT Pulse so I could pair them with the HomeTroller. It also walks you through creating a MyHS login, which is HomeSeer’s cloud service allowing remote access (for the mobile app and integration with other online services like Alexa and IFTTT). Once the LED is green (indicating everything is booted up), you point your browser to which redirects to the HomeTroller’s local IP address and allows you to log into the web UI, activate the HS4 license, and then change the system password. The quick setup involves using the included ethernet cable to connect the HomeTroller to your network, then powering it up (AC adapter also included). The plastic case is sealed and while you can access the ethernet, USB, HDMI, audio, and power jacks, the SD card slot is inaccessible.
SetupĮven though the HomeTroller Pi is built on a Raspberry Pi 3, it’s meant to be treated as an appliance. I opted for the Pi-based HomeTroller which, despite being based on older Pi 3 hardware (1.2GHz quad-core CPU, 1gb of RAM, and 16gb SD card) and only supporting a max of five plug-ins, seemed to be a good entry-level way to determine if HomeSeer would meet my needs (spoiler alert: it does, and yes, this means I now have 5 Raspberry Pis in the house (4 actively in use)).
#FIND MY HOMESEER PLUS#
Oddly, the more expensive Windows-based HomeTrollers don’t include any Z-Wave hardware (you need a separate Z-NET device), yet the cheaper RasPi-based version has Z-Wave Plus included.
#FIND MY HOMESEER WINDOWS 10#
HomeSeer sells smart home hubs (called HomeTrollers) which are basically a Windows 10 PC or Raspberry Pi running their HS4 software (you can also purchase the software separately and run it on your own hardware if you prefer). I waffled a lot between the Hubitat and HomeSeer, but decided to start with HomeSeer since it seemed to have more broad compatibility with my existing devices (specifically my garage door opener, door locks and light switches).
While Ring does have some basic integrations with its lights and cameras, I decided that splitting the security and automation systems apart was the smarter and more flexible approach.Īfter researching (via online reviews and the community forums) solutions like SmartThings, Hubitat, HomeSeer, Alexa (which turned out to be Zigbee-only), and even briefly considering revisiting Home Assistant, I went ahead and pulled the trigger on a HomeSeer HomeTroller Pi hub. It wasn’t a 100% feature-complete replacement though, I still needed something to handle the home automation side of things. 2021 Home Security/Home Automation Re-Design Īs I posted a few weeks ago, back in January I decided to cancel my ADT Pulse service and replace it with a Ring Alarm security system.
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