What do you think of zipato? Should i try it?

Hello David,

I tried the Vera Edge before. It does not work with the Danfoss LC13 Thermostat. A no go for me. I found the Zipato Box. It is a project under construction but on a high level. Why do I stay with the box:

- very fast support, when you open a ticket and make it urgent and it is really a problem (my new box had some start problems. It came on a saturday and the problem was fixed on sunday!)

- a active communitiy

- the rule creator is the best on the market

- the alarm section is unique

- home automation is never a turn key project, but when you have your devices run and the rules tested, it works reliable

- even there are nearly NO documentation, for the real problems you will find an answer here

AND: With Z-wave you do not make a big error. Worst case you change the box, but all your devices can be used in the future.

I like it.

Andreas

Yes! Go for it!

Yes! Go for it! :-)

It is always a bit one-sided to ask an enthusiastic product based community what they think of the product. Most vocal members of this forum will undoubtedly recommend the platform. That is just human nature I suppose. Those in the community want indirect reassurance that we did indeed make a great decision.

I have not tried other home automation systems but l was in the same situation as you about three months ago. I was moving and I wanted a burglar alarm. I was also very interested in home automation and didn't want to put multiple sensors on all the doors (one for burglar alarm and one for home automation).

Like you, I read about Vera and also Fibaro and was concerned about how negative some of the forum members were.

I live in the UK and "Vesternet" is a z-wave supplier that can provide local support and great prices on equipment.

I read about Zipato and particularly liked the modular flexibility of the platform. I could start with a smaller investment and then build upon it.

I also loved how Zipato supported multiple protocols (Z-wave, Zigbee, LightwaveRF etc) and there support forum (this one) seemed to have a very active and supportive community)

Call me a control freak if you wish, but I like to be in control and the idea of a cloud based security and home automation system gave me some concerns. The beauty of the clould based architecture is that updates to the "back end" can be done centrally. Also the CPU power needed to keep everything in order locally is vastly reduced compared to something like a Fibaro HC2.

Plus points for Zipato from my experience are:

1. Good supportive community
2. Zipato will work with you on a trouble ticket - you get a login when you register your Zipabox and you can raise support tickets directly with them. You also can track your support tickets with their web based ticketing system. I recently wanted a dual channel switch supported and Zipato added it in just two days. I feel that was good service.
3. Great support on other trouble tickets - which is free of charge
4. FTP Storage for Web Cam snapshots is currently free of charge
5. Storage on their cloud for sensor events is currently free of charge
6. Modular architecture - you buy whatever modules you wish and the modules are not expensive compared to other solutions.

The downsides of Home Automation that I have found are not specific to Zipato at all. Rather I have issues with some of the radio technology.

For example, z-wave devices come in two main categories: battery powered and mains powered. Mains powered devices will automatically become part of the z-wave mesh network but battery powered devices are simply "end nodes" on the network. They cannot pass or repeat the z-wave communication onwards. This was a problem for me because I used only battery sensors initially and found that the range between my Zipabox and the sensors was appalling. I had to purchase additional mains powered devices to get the mesh working properly.

Unfortunately, this means that my entire home automation system is now fully dependent on the power. If the power fails then the battery powered sensors can not all communicate with the Zipabox.

By the way, my Zipabox DOES have a battery backed module but that won't help because the Internet router needs power to send the alert to the cloud.

Also, my Zipabox DOES have a 3G dongle but I found out that I live in a "no signal" area for pretty much every carrier so that was a bit of a waste of money for me.

Other negatives with Zipato kit:

• Documentation is very poor both for the new User Interface and the Rules creator and the API
• The plastic casing of my Zipabox was moulded very badly and I had to dissassemble it and add some small washers as spacers. Without these additional spaces the external buttons were permanently being pressed on - with very unpredictable results.
• Noone told me that streaming in HD and SD modes could only be done with WebCams supporting the Real Time Streaming Protocol (rtsp)
• The software has been recently comprehensively updated but you get the feeling that there are still many elements of the software that still need to be finalised. If you are OK with "beta" software then the developer has a google+ community and is very helpful indeed. I cannot compare it with other HA systems out there but you really do get the impression that it is still not quite ready.

All in all, I am very happy with Zipato as my home automation system and I use it now for home security, main heating control, flood warning, fire detector, main hot water control, some lighting (via fibaro relays), some external lighting (using RGB bulbs) and some power (using plug-ins).

I have additional projects in the pipeline: individual radiator controls (since it supports the Danfoss LC13 TRV head), additional lighting controls inside and outside, additional sensors inside.

And believe it or now I have not even started on Rules yet....

Hope this helps you with you decision making and personally I would wholeheartedly recommend Zipato.

/Marcus

I got my zipabox today. It does not work. out of the box. I find that unacceptable after a product that is on the market for so long.

I have opened tickets with no obvious solution or outcome yet. I was really impatient and exited and was waiting for the unit to start pairing my Z-wave devices. Instead lots of bugs, no pairing, cloud does not work properly etc.

Lets see what will happen on day 2 but i am already filling disappointed.