Additional questions not in the FAQ

[John W]

well I couldnt see them anyway...

1. can IoT work on just your home network, or must it have external internet access ?
2. how does the system deal with connection issues if no broadband ?
   (our broadband has a lie down once in a while)
   
3. Does IoT permanently use up one of the connection ports on the UCM, or does it just connect when it needs to ?
4. If the latter, what happens if it cant connect (maybe in use by phone app or pooter for example), does it retry or what ?
5. how are potential security issues resolved ?
   (whats to stop others from the internet controlling my devices, or determining what \'things\' I have connected)
   
6. Can I use voice commands (e.g. via bixby on phone or amazon echo) to command certain responses, in the same manner I can using the comfort app ?

I am interested and see this as a way to control some of our HA and lighting, but dont want it to become \'yet another\' techie kit I have to fiddle with on a regular basis, or no one else can use / understand.


Cheers,
    John.

[schford]

My stab at answering your qs below, probably someone more knowledgable than me will come along soon.
[user=2269]John W[/user] wrote:

Well I couldnt see them anyway...

1. can IoT work on just your home network, or must it have external internet access ?

The conneciton between the Pi and Comfort is on your home network as is the Pi to the smart Things Hub.  However the smart things hub needs to use the internet to do the more advanced things eg voice control,  auomated pistons via webcore to do fancy things such as opening your drive gates and disarming your alarm when it recognisies you have come home (via your phone etc)

1. how does the system deal with connection issues if no broadband ?
2. (our broadband has a lie down once in a while)
   

wont be able to do fancy things above.

1. Does IoT permanently use up one of the connection ports on the UCM, or does it just connect when it needs to ?

Yes perm.

1. If the latter, what happens if it cant connect (maybe in use by phone app or pooter for example), does it retry or what ?

1. how are potential security issues resolved ?
   (whats to stop others from the internet controlling my devices, or determining what \'things\' I have connected)
   

Smart Things security

1. Can I use voice commands (e.g. via bixby on phone or amazon echo) to command certain responses, in the same manner I can using the comfort app ?

Amazon echo works a treat to do lights etc etc
I am interested and see this as a way to control some of our HA and lighting, but dont want it to become \'yet another\' techie kit I have to fiddle with on a regular basis, or no one else can use / understand.


Cheers,
    John.

[wexfordman]

With regards the stability of the iot device, I have mine in about two months now, and no probs at all since initial installation, had some teething issues buts its been 100% since I walked away from it after install.

[mattbrain]

John has done a good Job of responding to the questions, thanks for stepping in! - additional info below:

1. The current UHAI solution has an issues which results in the connection between the RPi and Comfort and ST failing if internet connectivity isn\'t available to the RPi. This is as a result of the telemetry server not being reachable. It will be fixed in a future version (which I have been promising for a while but is due shortly).

3. It does use a connection permanently but the process can be paused by stopping the service from the web console and then restarting it once you have finished with the UCM

4. It will retry until it can connect.

5. The RPi doesn\'t expose any functionality externally, ST security is pretty good, so as long as your username / password for ST is secure, you should be fine. The RPi does send anonymous telemetry data back to me which helps understand usage and performance and you may optionally send logs once registered, but that is all is outgoing from the RPi.

6. Yes, via ST, but shortly I hope to offer this natively which means that some users who only want voice control will no longer need ST.

Thanks,

Matt

[schford]

[user=912]mattbrain[/user] wrote:

John has done a good Job of responding to the questions, thanks for stepping in! - additional info below:

Its Stuart :-) but your very welcome!

[John W]

Thanks guys.

I am interested but not jumped yet.

I had assumed the Rpi connected to the UCM, and that was the interface to everything else.

This raises two further questions about the smartthings hub:
- is this essentially the amazon dot/echo or similar ?
- if its not and I need a seperate hub, are there any preferred hubs ?

Cheers,
John.

[schford]

[user=2269]John W[/user] wrote:

Thanks guys.

I am interested but not jumped yet.

I had assumed the Rpi connected to the UCM, and that was the interface to everything else.

Indeed the RPI acts as the interface from the Comfort UCM to everything else via the smart things hub.

This raises two further questions about the smartthings hub:
- is this essentially the amazon dot/echo or similar ?

No its a smartthings hub

- if its not and I need a seperate hub, are there any preferred hubs ?

Yes a smartthings hub

Cheers,
John.

Google is your friend - go google smart things hub.

[John W]

Thanks, I have been doing just that this evening ☺

I will get some kit ordered.

Cheers,
John.

[wexfordman]

Another question for the FAQ. What is the best way of comfort controlling a smart things device ?

For example I have a comfort macro which turns off all my velbus lights, how do I add to the macro to turn off hue lights ?

[schford]

Make the macro in comfort change the status of a flag - then using web core monitor for the flag changing maybe? Flag would be published to SmartThings ...