The Wink Hub ($50) that was announced just last month is now for sale at Amazon and Home Depot. This new low cost smart controller for the home promises to be the most connected hub there is and competes directly with the newly priced Staples Connect Hub. Supporting Wifi, Bluetooth, Z-Wave, Zigbee, and Lutron’s Clear Connect protocols, there is reason to believe that statement might be true.
I was able to snag the Hub at Home Depot here in Indianapolis. My first online order was promptly cancelled with a call back to me saying that they had not received them. Not really believing the message (Home Depot stated they were in stock), I decided to drive to the store where I was able to pick up the Hub, the Spotter sensor, and a TCP Connected lighting starter kit.
The Hub itself is about the size of the older Airport Extreme from Apple (the square white one), but stands upright. Your first need to download the Wink app for iOS or Android. Once you have downloaded the app, you can then connect the Hub to the power cable. The interesting thing about the Hub is that it’s not required to be connected via Ethernet. This means you can place the Hub in your house that gives you the best coverage, unlike SmartThings which requires a wired connection. Once I had the app installed and Hub turned on, you are then guided through how to add the Hub to your network. After adding the Hub, it notified me that there was an update so I went through the update process…again…and again…and again. There seems to be some kind of bug where the Hub thinks that there is always an update. I’ve reached out to Wink support to see what can be done. Waiting to hear back.
Despite the update bug, I was able to add the TCP Connected lights and the Spotter sensor to the Hub. First off, the Spotter sensor needs a major update. Yes, I was able to get the sensor to connect, but after that the thing never really sensed anything and would constantly require a reboot as stated on other Amazon reviews. The TCP Connected lights had a better experience. You first needed to log into your TCP Connected account via the Wink app. This pulls in the information about your Connected light bulbs which you can then control directly through the Wink app. You are also able to setup certain activities or “robots” depending on the situation. Arriving home, you can make sure the lights are turned on, etc.
I’ll wait until I hear back from Wink in regards to the update. I have a feeling that this might help solve some of the issues I’ve initially seen.
Update: Quirky support got back to me in regards to the updating. Seems that’s just a wording error within the iOS app (not sure about Android). This should be fixed within the next few hours. As for Chamberlain MyQ, that will be launching July 14th.