90 Devices

šŸŽ¬ Get Started Migrating to Hubitat
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I have about 90 devices running OK on a ST hub. I am thinking of moving to Hubitat. I have 90 devices, mostly Leviton Z Wave, not Z Wave Plus. I moved a couple devices to H and see they dont update their status. I set up polling and that works OK. What would you do:

Buy all new Z Wave Plus.
Set up polling for all 90 devices. Can H handle that?
If I buy new devices should I go Z wave or Zigbee. I probably will use Leviton devices.
Just use the devices I have even though I wont get status updates.

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I setup polling for my non pus Z-Wave devices when I first migrated then when Inovelli came out with the Red series switches I started replacing all the non plus Z-Wave switches in the house. Polling worked most of the time but plus Z-Wave works every time without extra processing required.

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This is what iā€™m slowly doing

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Yes, my homework before coiming here from ST prepared me for the expense.
The old Z-Wave don't update and polling is stop-gap at best.
I'm a little over half way through the expense in 4 months.
It was time for a faster, more intelligent switch anyway, it's been almost 7 years.

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this

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Actually this :wink:

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I love my zigbee switches. No worries about ghosts either.

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For locks at least - Zigbee, Zigbee, Zigbee!!!! Just works - although to be fair some have had great success with certain ZW+ brands like Yale. In my experience though far less headaches/issues with install and responsiveness.

I also have a few Zigbee relays controlling closet lighting that are working great too.

Have not used ZB switches as they are kind of rare in the US but Jasco/GE has a few out. The Z-Wave+ switches do seem to have a lot of cool features like LED indicators/smart bulb light modes etc.

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Polling seems inefficient to me. I migrated over to Hubitat because I had a house full of Wemo Wifi switches and read that HE would work with them. They did! But the switches weren't notifying status changes and periodic polling just seemed half baked to me, so I'm now 90% done replacing them all with z-wave plus and so far I'm extremely happy with it all.

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Or soppy optional security levels.

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:joy::rofl:

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I like zigbee, but don't use it much.

Writing drivers for zigbee devices is a royal pain versus zwave... I can do it, I just don't like it. And I have custom drivers for pretty much every device I use, as I don't like "generic" drivers that don't give me full functionality (in general), so that is kind of a big deal for me.

I actually have more LoRaWAN devices than zigbee at this point.

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I guess there are advantages and disadvantages to each of the wireless protocols. I have a mix.

Most of my lighting uses Lutron Caseta Clear Connect which means my light switches, dimmers and PICO are on their own hub and interface with Hubiutat using Telnet. The devices work well.

I do have a few Hue bulbs which use the Hue version of Zigbee. I only use Hue for lamps with single bulbs that plug into an outlet. Lamps with multiple bulbs are on Lutron plug-in dimmers. For a lamp with a single bulb, using Hue is a less expensive option. So far, I have not used the LED color capabilities.

Most of my sensors are Zigbee HA with varying versions depending upon when I purchased them. They generally work well.

I have started to add some Z-wave devices to my network. I have a Schlage Connect lock that uses Z-wave. I had to add an Aeotec range extender 7 to insure reliable operation of the lock. I had Smartthings multisensors on the garage doors using the x,y,z tilt sensors to monitor door opening. However, since they are no longer available, I have switched over to Ecolink tilt sensors that use Z-wave.

I know there are some advantages to having everything on one protocol. However, sometimes the "best" devices for a specific application use a different protocol. Thus, I have decided to have several systems with enough devices for reliable communication.

Thus, if you are faced with a situation in which you have older Z-wave devices that need replacement, do some research to determine whether one system (Z-wave or Zigbee) can do it all, or whether multiple system will do it better.

Also remember that Z-wave is currently in a transition phase. Some Z-wave Plus devices use the older 500 series chips while some of the newer devices use the 700 series chips. If you stick with Z-wave, do you purchase 500 series devices or wait for more 700 series devices to hit the market?

The latest Hubitat hub uses a 700 series chip, so I purchased Aeotec 7 series range extenders to match. For some devices, it might not matter whether they are 500 or 700 series chips, do the research so your money is invested wisely.

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Honestly I think the majority of us run a mix of things. Lutron just farking works. Some things zigbee are better than z-wave and some things z-wave are better than zigbee. And yeah, I have a hue bridge for shitty zigbee bulbs for the occasional table lamp.

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I am not a big fan of Hue bulbs either. I was using some in outdoor lights that turned on a dusk and off at dawn. They seemed to work OK, except for one just outside my garage. I had to add a "dummy" lamp with a Hue bulb inside my garage to act as a repeater in order to get the bulb outside to connect with the hub.

I recently switched my outside lights to Lutron Caseta dimmers. They work perfectly. I still have a five Hue bulbs in lamps that have no way to control by wall switch or dimmer.

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