pavalov

I received the below email about 4 hours ago. Please note that Iris cannot currently make contact with first responders if you experience an alarm state. Notice to Professional Monitoring Customers: Iris’ central monitoring station (United Central Control) is currently experiencing technical issues. Professional Monitoring customers will still be notified in the event of an alarm. However, should you experience an actual emergency, you will need to contact local authorities directly. We will provide updates on the Iris status page as they become available. Sincerely, The Iris Team

Well, as soon as I posted the above, they resolved it: Notice to Professional Monitoring Customers: Iris’ Central Monitoring Station (UCC) has resolved their technical issue and all systems are operating normally. Sincerely, The Iris Team

That is news to me -- thanks for sharing. I wish I had some advice for you. If you discuss this with support again, please mention the (what should be obvious to them) need for a cloud back-up of your system so that customers don't have to reprogram all their devices if their hub dies.

I'm not sure how accurate the reporting is from the hub. My 4G has gone from 3-5 bars to 0-1 bar, ever since they "tuned" the local cell tower. However, even when the portal is reporting 0 signal, the hub successfully switches over to cellular if the internet goes out. Storms took internet out last week for 3 days, and I don't think I ever lost hub connection even though I was getting "0" as to signal strength.

Yeah, they definitely did something funky with the cameras. One of mine (a Gen 1 outdoor camera) started recording upside-down right after I updated the app. Thankfully the app provides a switch to turn it 180 degrees.

Good reasons.

I'd snap up the motion sensors and make some money on eBay!

Otto: I have 3 different types of Sylvania smart bulbs on Iris. One of them is the dimmable bulb you posted. I had initial trouble with several of the Osram bulbs. However, they've all been completely stable for the past 5 months. I recommend getting the Osram Lightify hub (eBay - $17) and updating the bulbs through it. Once I did that, I had stable bulbs that did what Iris told them to do. Here's a string that might be helpful:

I still have one installed. Although it is listed as an unknown device, it still has the complete product information (Lowes item #, model # and Iris brand ID and device name) in the Product Information section. Since my Zigbee network has always been stable with it installed, I decided to leave it be.

I was carrying mine around tonight to pair a new switch. I almost dropped it and could just see days of rebuilding ahead. There seems no reason why they couldn't flash the system data to a new hub.

Several of my motion sensors seem to be depleting rapidly. I've also had that start happening with one of my CT101 thermostats that I use for crawl space humidity sensors. It is going through a set of batteries almost every month. They seem to have very limited range though, and I wonder if being on the edge of the signal works the batteries more.

Good idea. I would love to put my Blueline back into my main system.

Yes, you did! I never could figure out why yours were so unstable. Glad to hear you solved it.

Your memo presents an interesting option, with robust local processing as an obvious advantage. Iris has indicated that the cameras are the biggest challenge to their system. Would you plan for your system to provide for a functional video equivalent?

Well, he got me. I checked my list and was only cranking 50 watts.

You are right - live view is working well. Another thing they've fixed in the last few updates was how the Clips list would go back to the top every time I deleted a recording. Now it stays at the same place as the deleted clip.

Yeah, with the same list of improvements as the last version. I've not seen a difference since updating. Anyone noticed a change?

Well, I stumbled on to another type of SH system: Avi-on. GE makes switches for Avi-on that look just like the GE Z-wave devices (which explains why I now have 2 Outdoor Smart Switches off of eBay that won't talk to IRIS). The twist is, these are Bluetooth controlled. Seems really limiting, right? Well, yes . . . and no. Each device acts as a Bluetooth repeater, so the system can have a wider footprint than expected. More fundamentally, the programming resides on the device, not in an app, not in a hub, and most definitely not in the cloud. Here's how Avi-on describes it: Avi-on is built on a new technology called Bluetooth Smart Mesh: schedules and programs live on the devices, and the Internet is optional. Avi-on is a distributed architecture where the schedules and programs live on the devices. That means that once you have programmed a switch with sunrise/sunset, groups or other functionality, they work 24/7--without access to the Internet or your smartphone. There is a hub you can buy if you want to access these devices via internet; I don't. The distributed architecture allows me to use these in places where I want a schedule to run whether the web, hub, etc. is working or not. I'm thinking primarily security 'presence" lighting. I can set up 7 different on/off times per day.

I now have 8 or 9 of the Avi-on products installed, and every night they do exactly what I've programmed them to do. With those units spread around the house, the Bluetooth "repeater" network is robust. Although it would be nice to have a Remote Access Bridge (especially since it will now integrate with Alexa), I can't find them for less than $100, and I just don't have that much need for remote access for what are essentially lights scheduled to look like the house has people in it even when it doesn't.

Please do as scunny suggests. Even if you don't post a comment, please "Kudo" Gillion's original post. The Iris folks often don't pay attention to posts/requests unless they have been kudo'd at least 20 times.

Schlage deadbolts are finicky about notifying Iris of its status. This has long been recognized by Iris, and apparently much time was spent on it to no avail. Here's a thread from almost a year ago: I routinely receive notifications of a change in status several hours after I've actually locked or unlocked the door. The development team assigned someone to solve my problem in mid-2017. We talked and tested for months, but they must have abandoned the attempt to fix it because it is no better and I don't hear from the "Schlage team" any more.

I've found the system itself to be pretty reliable in regard to security. It's the monitoring service that worries me. See this post for a description of my experience: Even thought I posted over a month ago, I've never received a response from an Iris representative in the community forum. When I raised the issue with a Development Team member this week, he apologized profusely and said he would send the report up the chain again. He did say that I posted in a part of the community forum that may not be monitored as closely now that Professional Monitoring is up and running (It was an invitation-only section for early adopters of the service). I don't take much comfort in that, and still haven't heard anything back from my phone inquiries either. I'd at least like to be told that the third-party monitoring service was made aware of their failure that night, and that more resources are being added to that service's phone staff.

Thanks for the tip. I got one for the same price. I wonder why these are getting put out now? They are clearly old stock -- the package has the old logo/1st gen hub pictured, and the battery was dated 7/13.

On a related topic, an Iris Community Manager finally posted a response to a post started many months ago (July) in the Community Forum entitled "Is Iris going to be around much longer?": https://community.irisbylowes.com/t5/Professional-Monitoring/Is-Iris-going-to-be-around-much-longer/gpm-p/2742#M59 "Hi, Short of something unforseen involving zombies or perhaps a large asterioid, the end is most certainly not nigh for Iris. It is disappointing that your local Lowe's store's Iris display was not up to your (and our) expectations; we work with our stores to try to make sure your shopping experience is as good as it can be, and it sounds like this wasn't the case for you, which we will look into. In 2017, the Iris team added support for dozens of new devices, released an enhanced web user experience, introduced a reamped Security system and introduced Professional Monitoring, and shipped dozens of smaller features and fixes. Our 2018 plans are just as packed and we will continue enhancing and growing the Iris platform and ecosystem. Thank you for being an Iris customer and for posting here. Customers like you are why we do what we do. Happy New Year to you and your family! -Mike"

Thanks sparc -- I'll be checking tomorrow!