Abode iota – An All-In-One Security and Smart Hub

If there was a list of topics we could never get bored talking about, the topic of “smart home” would be near the top of the list. Smart home products have been continuing to evolve over the years, turning into intuitive systems that nearly anyone with a basic knowledge of computers could set up. For the most part at least.

One of the most difficult parts of a smart setup is the hub. A central brain that controls everything. However, even these are becoming so user-friendly that it takes only a basic understanding of home networks and control panels to get the hang of it. Especially, if the hub acts as a single source to control every layer of your home with. This is where Abode falls into the picture with their “iota”, all-in-one security and smart home hub.

Not only does it offer the familiar options that help to connect a network of smart home products together with, but it supports multiple platforms and protocols, and takes the place of your home security system. You can set it up to be a basic self-monitored (you) solution like most smart hubs, or you can opt to pay for an affordable monthly professionally monitored service, without the need of having to integrate with any third party companies and products (ie, ADT). The hub can control everything and their service attaches to the hub itself, and all of it’s paired devices, to create your security setup with.

Not only that, but it comes with a sensor to get started with, to use on a door or window within your home. It also comes with a key fob so that you can arm or disarm your home like it was some kind of a car alarm. How many hubs give you that option right out of the box (without having to take out your phone to use an app at least)?

Design

The design of the hub itself could be likened to a full-size Alexa speaker in a way, only rectangular with rounded corners vs cylindrical. As you can see in the image above, the color theme is split between black and a light gray (near white). The top half a fully plastic shell, and the bottom similar but with a mesh cloth layer running around it.

Starting with the front side, the top half houses a camera, an ambient light sensor, and a motion sensor. Pretty much covering all of the typical needs you would find in an IP/security cam. The bottom half contains a status LED (for things like connectivity or power status), a microphone (to work along with the camera), and a speaker on the right side of the unit (if facing the camera).

The back side of the bottom half contains the input for the AC cable, an ethernet port for using a wired connection with it, and a both a SIM and microSD slot that is protected by a rubber flap/cover. The SIM card is provided and comes already inserted into its slot.

The bottom side contains a single switch that is used to enable the internal battery (yes, it has its own battery backup as well). Switching it on will allow the battery to be used if the power goes out or while you move it from one plug to another. This way you never miss a moment if recording to the internal SD. Of course, your other devices and internet connection all depend on your power still (unless they are battery operated), but the hub will keep on functioning. Especially if you are using the SIM card as a backup solution in case your internet goes out.

As for the accessories it comes with, the keyfob shares a similar design to the hub, with four buttons to select from. The sensor comes in two parts (one installs to a door or window frame, and the smaller one to the door or window), making it similar to just about every sensor in existence.

Setup

Getting everything set up is a breeze with iota. Their app (for both iOS or Android) walks you through everything step by step with friendly instructions, and it gives you the chance to do it via a browser on your computer as well. As long as your WiFi is going strong, you should be up and running in very little time.

You begin by plugging it into the wall and connecting the ethernet cable to the back for a wired connection. The basic instructions it comes with will have you flip the switch on the bottom to enable the internal battery so that it can begin charging. You then download the app and register for an account with Abode. At this point, it will send you an email so that you can confirm your address. This will take you to the instructions to run through it all (if you open it on a computer, your browser will do all the magic).

It will take you to the pairing process for the devices that come with the hub. For us, the keyfob already showed as paired, so the only thing we had to connect was the sensor. It took only a brief moment to connect the sensor and it was ready to be installed somewhere using the double-sided tape/pad that comes in the box.

Next, you have the ability to add additional users to the hub, which would typically include any friends or roommates living within your home that you would like to have access to interacting with the system. Then it brings you to the page where you choose which professionally monitored protection package you would like, or if you’d like to continue without one and simply manage everything yourself like most hubs.

We, of course, chose Basic so that we could move forward with the setup ourselves, but the decision depends on the type of user installing this in their home.

Honestly, with as many third-party integrations this hub supports and the potential that it has for future improvements, most users will likely choose Basic (assuming they are at least somewhat conditioned with smart home setups). I’ll get to this in a moment though.

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From here, you move towards the option of selecting a WiFi network. This step is optional as you can choose to remain on a wired connection. However, allowing you the option of going wireless means you can install the hub anywhere you would like. This is especially helpful since it is also a camera. So you will want a placement that makes the most sense for where you would like the camera to be watching.

That is it! You are set up and ready to start customizing your hub to your specific needs. It drops you into the main dashboard of the hub where you can browse the various options you have to choose from, and where you can configure actions so that the window/door sensor that comes with can notify you or turn on the lights when it goes off (as you can see in the above image, we made sure that sensor was doing its job).

Performance

This is where the important stuff comes into play! How well does it work? Well, so far it has been doing quite well. Setup was a breeze, and it seems that getting to know the dashboard is just as easy for the most part. There is some learning curve, just as there would be any hub, but it isn’t much.

They break everything down to simple sections, and the main page of the dashboard gives you a timeline breakdown of events for quick viewing. The left menu takes you to all of the sections:

• Alerts: Any logged alarms
• Live Video: Allows you to live-view the camera or any other cameras in your setup (as you add more). You can also take snapshots and record clips.
• History: A more complete version of the timeline that you can sort through with filters.
• Quick Actions: Where you can create quick actions that operate like shortcuts to immediately trigger something, like the recording of a camera, turning on a light, etc. Think of this as a remote control for your home.
• Automations: These are pretty much the main scenes that are triggered when certain events take place. This is where you could automatically have your lights turn on when motion is detected, and so forth.
• Integrations: At the moment, this section is gold. This is where you can connect your iota to multiple third-party services that include Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, IFTTT, nest, and ecobee. Chances are, they will likely add more in the future. I will get to what makes this so important in a moment.

You also have various screens to adjust account settings, seek support, WiFi settings and so forth. That makes up the most of what you find inside though.

The entire system feels quite responsive with little latency and very detailed logging of every event that takes place, let it be a simple note of a door opening or closing, to actual alarms triggered. We found that opening a door with the sensor attached, and closing that same door, resulted in a near instant notification in the app/dashboard, as well as the hub making a chirping sound so that you can hear when a window or door that contains a sensor has been opened somewhere in the house (it’s loud too).

It works with so many devices thanks to it having support for things like Z-Wave and Zigbee. It also supports Philips hue setups, LIFX, Yale, Kwikset, First Alert, Linear and more to come. This places hundreds of devices at your fingertips that should work just fine with this hub (we could never get bored talking about Z-Wave alone).

Multiple notifications can be set up to either email you or trigger mobile alerts, always letting you know what’s happening around the house. You can spread the notifications around to other users if you like, and include others in case you are out of town. Maybe your neighbor would be a good example.

Of course, the meat of it all rests within the Automations section where you can set up how devices interact with each other. Doorbell rings? Turn on some lights! Motion sensor triggered? Turn all of the lights on! Maybe power to a plug that feeds a small radio that immediately resumes playing a file of dogs barking.

This is where you really dial in every device to match your personal needs using “if this, then that” rules. You can drill a little deeper on some of the rules too. For example, you can set an Automation for when a door is opened, to notify you. Or, you can take it further by saying if the door is opened and remains open for more than 2 minutes, to then notify you.

You can add multiple triggers and can even set conditions. A condition could be a lot of things, like if your phone location is away from home, or it is past a certain time of day.

It isn’t as perfect as some of the hubs out there that offer advanced modes for scripting. These usually allow you to create all sorts of custom scenarios with whatever code you write (assuming you know how). The iota doesn’t offer any scripting options. So you are limited to the options presented to you at all times. Thankfully the options do include most of the common scenarios, triggers, conditions, actions, etc. It would just be nice to get a little more nerdy with it. So hopefully they might have plans on giving deeper access to such in the future.

This is where the Integrations come into play thankfully. They may not allow you to code your own stuff into the hub, but they do work with a good number of services. Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant are great, as it gives you voice control over your home, as well as interaction between devices on the hub and those that only support Alexa or Google. However, IFTTT support is the big one. You can accomplish a lot with IFTTT to create your own managed security/smart setup. If you are good enough with the service, there isn’t much you can’t accomplish, making it a powerful relationship with plenty of potentials as new recipes are added (or you find ways of making recipes interact with others via various methods like email, text and more). Heck, at this point you can easily figure out a way to post a tweet every time your front door is opened. Can’t say that I can think of a reason why you’d want to do that, but the options are yours nonetheless.

Live video streaming/recording seems pretty normal when it comes to features and controls. We did find that live video streaming is a bit choppy on the web interface while using a browser. The app is much better. However, at times the camera on the hub does like to stop responding. For example, once it did this after we flipped the switch in the dashboard for the camera to off, and then eventually back on again. We had to fully cut power to the iota and wait a number of seconds, plug it back in and wait for it to boot up, and then we would have the camera back. Another time is simply just stopped responding on its own. Neither app or browser would deliver anything but a black window where the feed should have been. A reboot fixed this. Yet another time, it stopped responding to the app, but the browser could pull it up just fine. Hopefully, this is just a simple firmware update in order to smooth things out.

When it does work, the camera has a nice viewing angle that can cover a large area. You can switch between 1080p and 720p, adjust streaming bandwidth consumed (compression), flip the video (if you installed the hub upside down somehow…) as well as configure are few other options like record/capture times. Personally, we kept it at 1080p and max bandwidth setting, since our network and internet connections are pretty darn elite here.

At times you can’t access certain things near the very bottom of the page, like controls under the camera for snapping a picture or recording video since they might be covered by a bar/layer/nag running across the bottom with an ad for “Ready to Protect your home 24 x 7? Select a Plan” to get you to upgrade. We are sure they didn’t mean for that, but there is also no way to close that bar and ignore it. So you are stuck with that always on the screen no matter what page/section you are in. You might have to send your browser into full-screen mode in order to access any covered options. Sometimes, you can’t do anything about it though. So they really need to add a way to close that layer.

As mentioned, the keyfob is an awesome addition to the kit. Very few hub options come with this. Some allow you to buy something 3rd party, but the remotes don’t always work well. The keyfob seems to work quite nicely. You can’t, however, customize any part of it. The buttons (left to right, top to bottom) include “Away”, “Home”, “Standby/Disarm”, and the last one is for future use. You can’t change it up. So if you didn’t really use the home/away/standby options (in some cases, you might find those that don’t need it as they prefer to keep their current alarm/setup), then you wouldn’t use the remote. You can’t adjust the buttons to trigger custom “Quick Actions” or anything.

It does operate well within a good amount of distance from your router if you choose to take it wirelessly on your network. Most users will likely choose this option due to the camera (as previously mentioned), so this is a powerful win for the hub. We got it to operate as far as 50ft from the nearest node during our tests.

Update: iota now offers support for Apple HomeKit

Our Conclusion

Nothing is perfect, but this one strives to compete with some of the best. It’s a speedy hub solution with an incredibly easy to understand interface. It supports a lot of devices thanks to things like Z-Wave, and it supports a lot of third party services like IFTTT (the most important one). You can do all sorts of things with the Automations section, and for everything else, hopefully, IFTTT can fill that gap. For anything beyond that, you hit a wall since there is no coding allowed. The camera doesn’t always play ball, but hopefully, this can be sorted with a firmware patch. Image quality could be better though for sure. They need to add an option to close the small ad bar at the bottom for protection services, and it would be nice to customize certain elements of the keyfob (at least the extra button that doesn’t have a purpose yet). Beyond that, it is a wonderful start to a speedy hub with plenty of potentials, and the addition of professionally monitored security (if you want to pay for it). It’s like a Swiss Army knife in a hub. You get a LOT of function right out of the box, and the price range puts it right in there with some of the best.

*Average price is based on the time this article was published

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