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lwillerton Member
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Hi All, Not had a lot of time with my system over the last couple of years.... work in the NHS and something has been taking our time up. Hope everyone if keeping safe and well. Still love my Comfort system and the team at Cytech. I am aware of Matt's PI interface, but haven't purchased it yet and not sure how easy it is to program. However, the world of smart home is exploding with many companies building loads of things that could help, but that interface between us and the equipment becomes ever more complicated. I use comfort for many tasks, using relays, IR, z-wave, and in some cases just simple 12v outputs. The problems I have faced is new z-wave equipment is not supported by the UCM, zigbee seems to be a choice of protocol for some manufactures. I have also started to look at Hue bulbs (one at the moment they are very expensive) they just get rid of the need for hardwiring modules. I would like to take input messages from comfort PIR, smoke detectors, dry contact switchs etc and the alarm mode status, off, day, night, away, holiday into another hub.... currently the Hubitat looks interesting as it supports z-wave, zigbee, hue which would allow me to get rid of 2 or 3 other smart home hubs, vera, smart things, Hue hub (not yet purchased). Has anyone else looked at smart home hubs and interfacing with comfort / Matt's UCM? in particular I would be very interested in views on the Hubitat-C7. Can anyone suggest how I move forward with the exploding number of smart home products and continue to have Comfort at the core of my system? Amongst other things I have been looking at Ikea electric roller blinds, but their remote is rubbish. I have a dry contact button connected to comfort to open and close my curtains..... but this won't work with zigbee (I think) Ikea blinds. Any thoughts much appreciated. Lee  |
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lwillerton Member
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Sorry not sure how I managed to put the emojis on my post. |
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slychiu Administrator 
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I have not heard of Hubitat. but if it woerk with Z-wave then UCM/Pi shpuld be able to communicate with it. But UCM/Pi is not so easy for a non-IT type user |
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Ian Member
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I am using Koochirat's (I think that's his 'name') python script to read Comfort and send it to MQTT. From there you can do many things. I interface with HomeSeer and Node-red. HomeSeer, Python, MQTT broker and Node-Red all run on a PC. Well actually on a virtual PC (VM) that runs on a server. |
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lwillerton Member
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Thanks for the feedback. I had a play right back in the beginning with a stand alone PI. It was reasonable, but I didn't get very far with it, think I managed to get it working with Alexa. Is the UCM on the same basis? just a bit worried in investing nearly £300 inc Pi and not getting the results I want or it being to difficult to program (I work in IT but not been operational for 10 years)... ST and a lot of the other integration services are cloud, but Hubitat sits on the local network so available when the internet isn't big plus and suspect that also improves security. However, this adds another £135 to the package. Are there any security implications I need to consider by introducing the UCM PI? As mentioned I am looking to integrate (as many others are) with: Philips Hue or other smart lighting Z-Wave (Vera and Fibaro) Zigbee Ikea blinds.... unless anyone can recommend a uk hardwired roller blind. Tado (Heating/Aircon) I have all of these working with Alexa except the blinds which I am yet to purchase I am also very interested in using old iPhones or cheap Fire Tablets as room dashboards to make it easier for other home users to use my smart home tech Once again thank all |
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