Setting up Cozify Hub

Cozify Hub is wireless, easy to install and setup, beautifully designed DIY home automation product. Setting up your wireless home automation is easy to do and requires no technical skills. Still, there are a few important topics you need to take into consideration to make everything work as you wish. In case you are in the middle of setting up your Cozify home automation, this blog post is for you.

You can buy Cozify Hub as a one at a time purchase or as part of Cozify starter package, which we call Cozify bundles. This post covers installation and setup of hub delivered with the Cozify bundle. In case you already have Cozify Hub and you’d like to pair new devices with your hub, you can skip the beginning of this post and jump directly into section Setting up Cozify Hub, or read instructions from www.cozify.fi/install.

What Cozify Hub package includes?

Cozify Hub includes following items:

1 pcs Cozify Hub

1 pcs Power

1 pcs Network cable

1 pcs Quick guide

All our bundles include one NyCe multi sensor and a few Osram Lightify bulbs. Based on the bundle, package might also include Sonos wireless speaker and Belkin Wemo Insight switch.

Where to begin?

I know you are in a rush of setting up your Cozify Hub, but hold on for a while. Before setting up your beautiful hub, you should setup Sonos speakers and Belkin products.

In case your package doesn't include Sonos or Belkin products, you can jumb into section Setting up Cozify Hub.

How to setup Sonos speaker?

Sonos speaker is installed following the instructions you can find from the Sonos product package. In practice, you will need to turn on the power, download Sonos application from your phone app store and follow the installation instructions.

Note for Windows Phone users! There is no Windows Phone application for Sonos speakers, so in case Windows Phone is the only phone you have at home, you can setup the speaker using your desktop or laptop. More in detailed instructions can be found from http://www.sonos.com/en-eu/support.

Sonos installation and setup video: Setting up Sonos speaker

You need to install the speaker into the same network with your Cozify Hub.

After the Sonos speaker has been installed, it will appear automatically into Cozify application devices view.

How to setup Belkin Wemo Insight Switch?

Just like Sonos, Belkin Wemo products must be installed using instructions provided by the manufacturer. 

Download Belkin Wemo application from the app store and plug the Belkin WeMo Switch into an outlet at your home. The device will form its own wifi network. Connect your phone into that network. Application will guide you to the right direction.

Like Sonos wireless speaker, Belkin Wemo Insight Switch must be installed into the same network with your Cozify Hub.

Note to Windows Phone users! There is no Windows Phone application for Belkin Wemo devices. You need to have either iOS or Android device to complete the setup.  But no worries, after you have done the setup, you are able to control the device using Cozify application.

Btw, Belkin Wemo application might ask you to update the device firmware. We recommend you do the update even though it might take up to 15 minutes.

Setting up Cozify Hub

After you have installed all your wifi devices, you can plug-in the Cozify Hub. So, plug-in the power and connect the network cable into your home wifi router.

When you switch on the Cozify Hub for the first time, new software version is updated into the hub automatically. This might take a few minutes. Please note, that during this time you can't connect the hub.

Be patient, this will take only a few minutes.

During the hub update you may install the Cozify application from the app store. The Cozify app asks you type in your email address. Registration code is sent into this address and you need to type in correct code to proceed. In case hub software update is still in progress, application might say it cannot connect the hub. In this case you need to wait for a moment and try again after a few minutes.

Important! You have to use the same email address you used when you ordered the hub.

Video about setting up Cozify Hub can be found from Youtube Cozify Hub Setup

After you have registered the hub, Sonos speakers and Belkin Wemo devices are shown automatically on Cozify application devices view. In case devices are not shown, ensure that all devices are connected to the same network with the hub.

How to setup NyCe multi sensor?

NyCe multi sensor is a Zigbee device. All Zigbee devices are installed from the Devices view.

1. Select (+)-icon from the top of the Devices view

2. Select Search Devices

3. When the search is on, turn on the NyCe multi sensor by placing the batteries

4. Device will appear automatically into the Devices view after the pairing has been completed

How to setup Zigbee bulbs?

Like NyCe multi sensors, setting up bulbs is done from the Devices view, too.

1. Select (+)-icon from the top of the Devices view

2. Select Search Devices

3. Turn on the bulb when the search has begun

4. Hub will take care of the rest. Bulb will blink a few times after successful pairing.

What next?

Now you have all your devices installed and you are ready to go.

Open Cozify app, create new rules and themes, and automate your devices to the way you like. More details about how to use Cozify app can be found from http://en.cozify.fi/support.

And finally, please remember to send feedback. If you find something that is not working as you like, please let us know. If you have ideas of what we should do next, please let us know. If you have found great devices you’d like us to support, please let us know. We are here to help you to solve all issues to enjoy your smart home and get everything working perfectly. You can reach us from support@cozify.fi.

Don't have Cozify Hub yet? Visit our webstore and order your hub today!

Have a great day!

- Tony / Cozify

Cozify now and tomorrow

Controlling home appliances and smart devices with smartphones and tablets is finally becoming mainstream. This development has been enabled by the decreasing price of connectivity and widespread utilization of the advanced features of smartphones. 

However, these are usually separate islands of functionality and therefore a link between them is needed.  

In this blog post we are going to take a peek into the great features of Cozify hub.

Cozify home automation is a new way to control the appliances and smart devices at home. You can automate things to happen based on time, movement, start or stop of an appliance or many other triggers.

We have paid special attention to the set-up process. You don’t have to hire an electrician for the installation, since everything is plug and play.

When you start the application for the first time, it searches for smart devices and connects them automatically. It also comes with pre-installed themes and rules that are typical for us all: home, night and away. It is very easy to add rules to the themes, or create new themes according to your preferences. 

BelowI've listed a few examples how you can improve your life using beautiful Cozify home automation.

Pleasant wake-up

Tired of being woken up abruptly with an unfriendly alarm? Just set the Cozify Hub to start gently raising the brightness of your smart lights in the bedroom. After a while the system can start playing your favorite music from Sonos loudspeakers. 

Worried about leaving the iron on?

Never mind, now you can check the status of all electric appliances that are connected to the smart wall plug even if you are not at home. If you want to automate this, you can set the maximum time a smart plug can stay on thus eliminating the danger of overheating of the iron or any other electric appliance. 

Welcome home 

Lights turn on and music start flowing when you come home. Your home welcomes you the way you want. 

Motion guard

You get notification when your child comes home from school. You can also set the system to notify you if it detects any movement when nobody should be at home.

Party or romantic moment?

You can set the color of lights, brightness and music to match your mood.

What next?

All of the above will be available at the time of launch. However, we have no intention to stay put. 

The first new area to be covered later this spring is home security. By adding window and door sensors, cameras and smoke sensors you can increase security significantly. A smart water valve can sense even a small leak and shut down the water supply in order to minimize damage while Cozify Hub sends a notification to you. 

Later on we’ll expand to energy efficiency and heating. Smart thermostats benefit from the information Cozify Hub can provide about the usage of the house and external conditions. 

All of this will be added to the existing system thus creating a truly silo-breaking solution. 

Supported devices 

Cozify has no intention to re-invent the wheel when it comes to smart devices. Quite the contrary – we support the best-of-breed products that you would be buying anyway. For the moment we have chosen to start with Sonos wireless speakers, Osram Lightify lights and bulbs, Belkin Wemo smart electricity plugs and Philips Hue lights. 

We have not limited the number of devices that can be connected to the system. If you already have connected devices, chances are they are already supported. 

In fact, the Cozify web shop is open, so hurry up and get a sample of our earlybird edition. 

Cozify Pilot Kicks Off

It can be difficult to show others what you have been working on. Often, feelings of doubt can creep in. Are we really ready to Go Live? What will others think? Will we meet their expectations? What if the feedback is negative, or will they be happy with the result?

When Cozify began installing pilot systems, we struggled with these feelings. Especially, when the decision was made to charge users for the pilot version. The pressure was on to release a functional, total solution which consists of reliable and high quality equipment. If this wasn't enough, the entire system had to work on a variety of platforms from different smart phone manufacturers.

The pilot package included light bulbs, a motion sensor and a power socket. Customers were offered a selection from which they could select Philips Hue compatible basic bulbs, spotlights, as well as LED-string and indirect light (Bloom) for their pilot installation. Belkin's motion sensor and power socket were also available. The aforementioned products were chosen for the pilot thanks to their reputation for quality and reliability. In addition, they connect seamlessly to our home automation solution via open interfaces.

In order to help us understand how our product is deployed from a user perspective, we participated in the installation phase in the homes of pilot customers.

An important learning for us is that the installation and setup of the system is not yet as easy as we would like it to be. We noted that customers have a variety of different network configurations in their homes. It is important that our solution takes these into considerations. It is important that the installation and setup of Cozify home automation is simple and does not require any technical expertise.

As this was our first pilot version, some features were not available. Regardless of this, we received positive feedback. I’m proud to share a few:

"I wanted lights in the stairwell that switch on when someone is walking on the stairs. The lights worked to this end as expected. Our one-year-old son was excited about being able to change the colors of the lights."

"One room downstairs has been dedicated for leisure, for example to watch movies and spend time with family or friends without disturbing other family members. As the room does not have any large windows, it is nice to have the lights switch on when someone steps into the room, and switch off again with a delay when there is no one in the room. During the World Cup Football championship games we selected our favorite team's colors into the lights, helping to cheer them on."

"We installed the automatic power control to the fan in our living room. Now I can switch it on or off without needing to get up from the couch."

Despite the pressure during the launch of our pilot, some notable strengths emerged with the very first pilot release: the system is easy to use and it can be controlled using any of the three major smart phone platforms.

We very much appreciated first-hand experiences from our pilot customers. As with any pilot, a few issues emerged which required further investigation, for example:

“The lights turned on in the middle of the night. Perhaps out of their own free will or something?"

“The application doesn’t quite adhere to the phone manufacturers' recommendations. This is something you should look at and consider. By following manufacturer recommendations, you can guarantee that usability across different applications is consistent."

"The Hub needs to be restarted from time to time. Sometimes the software hangs and won't function properly until I restart the hub."

Taking these experiences, we are working on resolving the technical issues, as well as addressing ease of use concerns are at the top of our priority list. Quality and simplicity are key in everything we do.

It has been great to notice, that our home automation system is stable enough, even in this early pilot stage. We are pleased to learn that the solution is easy enough to use in different homes and across various environments. Stay tuned, as we will publish more details on our progress and our pilot program over the coming months.

Check back soon, as the next phase of the pilot will be kicked off later this year. If you would like to participate, please complete the pre-reservation form here. Next pilot group will be chosen among registered users.