ControlThink Forums

Guys, I have been using a Hawking Home gateway for the last year or so but have finally reached a breaking point when it comes to the reliability of this thing. I love the remote access, no need for PC and small foot-print but if it can't get it to reliable turn lights off and on, there really is no point. So, I ordered a ThinkStick and ThinkEssential Pro that I will in a day or so... Hopefully, this will be a more reliable solution for me. A couple of questions.... Since remote-access is a big feature for me is it possible to keep using the Hawking gateway for this, and it co-exists with ThinkEssentials on the same network? Remote, all I really want to do is turn lights off and on and check status. I don't really need to change the programming so I could live with letting ThinkEssentials do that and only be able to manage that "locally". I understand that there is a main/master and a secondary controller concept in Z-wave and since I also have and use a Hawking remote control (that works ultra reliable btw), will this cause a problem with 3 controlling devices on the network, i.e. Remote Control, Home gateway and ThinkEssential. Should this be a problem, I'd be *very* happy to ditch the Home Gateway all together assuming that someone can tell me if there is a an easy and secure way to access ThinkEssential remote (I guess VNC or something would work assuming I can figure out how to set it up securely). Any help, pointers or information on these issues would be greatly appreciated. Cheers/ Carl

Carl,

You can do VNC (or something simple like using LogMeIn Free) to log into your PC remotely and control ThinkEssentials.  We'll also be releasing our ThinkConnect service a bit later which will let you use your mobile phone to connect to your home...

Chris

P.S.  You can have multiple controllers on the same network--no problem there.

Perfect! Thanks so much for your quick reply. So, given that I already have a slew of modules (multiple HA02C, HA03C and HA06C) a HA09 and a HRGZ1 (Hawking Home remote gateway), how should I configure the ThinkStick/ThinkEssential Pro when I get it...? I assume the HA09 is the Primary at this time? Should it continue to be so? From reading some posts here (very (!) helpful forum btw!!) it appears that in order to optimize the network, I need to make the ThinkStick the Primary controller? What would the implications of changing the ThinkStick to be the Primary be? Can I change back to having the HA09 as Primary? How would I do that? Related question.....I assume the network is stored in the ThinkStick (not the PC), so that if I move the stick from one PC to another PC, all I have to do is install ThinkEssential and configure it again? Sorry for all the newbee questions....I really appreciate all the help. Cheers/ Carl

twolap,

I'd make the PC the primary.  If you use ThinkEssentials Professional Edition, it'll let you upgrade it to Primary.  If you want to transfer the Primary role back to the HA09, you can do that via the "transfer primary role" feature in the software.

The basic network info (and basic network topology map) is stored in the ThinkStick, so moving it to another PC will take the network with it.

Chris

Very good. Thanks so much for your help!

Do I need to tell the HA09 that it is now "secondary"? I took a quick look at available documents for the HA09 but could not find any reference on how to do this. Anybody know?

Cheers/ Carl

Once the PC is primary, just press the "Add Device" button in ThinkEssenitals, and the put the HA09 in "replication receive" mode; this will make it secondary.

Please note that the HA09 may forget its "scenes" when receiving updates (although pressing channel 2 OFF may supress that issue).  We are trying to get a "scene setup" feature into 2.1, however, which would take care of that requirement for you.

Honestly, there's no big issue with the HA09 being an extra primary for a few days as long as you don't try to add/remove devices with it.

Chris