Do you need help? I cannot program my way out of a paper bag and I can set that up. It's quite easy, but you just need to be shown how if you haven't learned from the resources that are currently available.
This is a hub that you need to work a bit harder at setting up. That fact hasn't escaped the creators. They have spent the last two years primarily building the hub features, compatibility and stabilizing it. If you were here from the beginning, you would have really not liked it. It was rough, but the potential was so obvious and the foundation was good.
On the Main Hubitat page of your Hub is a tile at the end named "Let's Get Started" and walks you through creating an end-to-end solution for a specific pair of devices.
Have you tried it? Is there something to be improved there?
Maybe thatās the problem. The āLetās Get Startedā is at the bottom !
Who reads manuals or documentation these days. Certainly not the majority of young people I deal with. They expect to be able to have the devices UI, show or guide them.
The documentation certainly doesnāt appear to be the first place a lot of people on the forum, have gone too for help.
It's a fair point. I always have to scroll a bit on my laptop to make the buttons at the bottom fully visible, but as a long time user, I sure wouldn't want them at the top, but then again as a long time user, I don't go to the home screen at all unless I want to change something in location and modes. I use the sidebar for navigation. But then again, I can get to Location and Modes from the settings too, and I can get there from the sidebar or the kabob menu at the top right.
I do find it odd the order though. We read english from left to right, but the buttons on the home page are arranged differently than the sidebar. They could be easily moved around and I don't think any of the long time users would be bothered. by the change.
As far as not reading the documentation, I think that's not a solvable issue. People just skip the numerous places that they are pointed to documentation.
Maybe I read it wrong but I didn't think @keithwinnfl was saying s/he was having trouble, but asking about how Hubitat might gain more followers and thus sell more Hubs.
I hear frustration in the comment, that's all. Yeah, it's hard to adjust to something new that takes a different approach. The interface we use today is better than it was originally. Hubitat isn't done, and they recognize that the UI can be better, but that's not the priority and I don't think it should be. They took a good look at the web interface before creating version 2 and while it's not the prettiest thing there is, it's very functional. There is room for improvement, yes, but you can't do it all at once, no matter what peoples opinions are. You must keep calm and carry on.
There are plenty of me too hubs out there that can't do anywhere near as much. There's a reason I'm here, and good looks ain't one of them. I'm here for the features, flexibility and local control. This hub is a dream come true for me. My house does everything I ever wanted it to do, and almost every week there's a new gift. Either in the form of a great new app or driver from the terrific community, or from the new features, device support and improvements added by the Hubitat team.
If anyone is thinking that Hubitat is missing the lowest common denominator, you're correct and that's because they're not currently aiming for them. The team is way too small to support primarily people that have never used home automation before, or have used only basic home automation systems. Their approach has been very smart. Get a good following of experienced users that are strong advocates, and they will help to support new users, users with less experience, and they'll promote the product at the same time. That is all exactly what's happening.
While it may require a decent amount of tech know how to make it work for you, or at least the patience to follow instructions and read a lot in the forum, true programming skills are not required even in the slightest with Hubitat.
I bought another!
I love you guys (Hubitat and community). I'm mostly a lurker on the board, which is because I'm on the uphill side of the learning curve. Forget Sudoku! Undoubtedly, it can get challenging, but that's all up to the user of the device., Which I love! Its solid on the things I need, but flexible enough to challenge me and let me learn. Yeah, it'd be nice to wheel around like those characters on Wally and have everything done for you, which Hubitat can help you achieve. I need challenges and the ability to grow. Every homeowner will have their smart home needs change. I don't see Hubitat letting me down! Sure I can purchase a different hub. BUT i always would have a deep eddy of regret. Regretting have bought it because of the OTHER hub's limitations and the suspicion that their "cloud" may whisp away. BEEN THERE!
Not here! Bravo Hubitat! Hang in there and I'll muster support from my ranks for more sales. Oh, I think that the govt just paid us $. So maybe if folks are not in financially stains, they can now purchase another hub. Challenging the brain, prevents certain diseases which impair cognitive abilities!
Apparently not for me, because I'm rambling.
Best regards!
Hugh
Maybe dumb question, but are newer hubs faster than the first gen one I have with the external z-wave stick? What's the migration process of all my devices to a new hub?
I'd be willing to buy another if it had a faster processor and was easy to migrate.
No faster, and not noticeably slower either. I've tested that on a new hub and I cannot notice a difference. The advantage of the external stick is when you have a lot of Z-Wave devices, if you have to or want to move the stick to another HE hub, you just move the stick and restore the database backup from the old hub. With the C-5 hub, you have reset and rejoin all your Z-Wave devices, and then repair or rebuild your rules that use Z-Wave devices.
Slow performance is something in your setup. I have proven this to myself by finding the cause and others have found the same. There is a slowing issue over time that for most an automated daily reboot resolves. The HE team is taking steps to address this, rest assured.
I would also add that if you buy an OTG Y cable then you should be able to move all your devices over without excluding/including again.. but you have to keep using your existing stick.. and do an external backup on your old hub and restore it to your new one.
something like this:
Also additional hubs make good backup devices if you are planning on keeping the HE around for a while (and you should !!).
Interesting thanks. It seems to me that the external stick is a better design overall, at least for me. I can see how they'd want to internalized the radios for a larger market though.
As for slowing over time, I have daily reboots setup to address this. I make extensive use of MQTT, and any processing speed increases that would help this app run faster would benefit me.
Hubitat is my first automation hub that I bought. Although itās been quite steep learning for me, I like the community here. Just bought another one to show support.
U know itās interesting... Iāve been using automation on and off for years and āease of useā is and remains the biggest challenge in this space ... even the hubs that are better are just better at the initial setup but not any more straightforward when going any deeper .... it strikes me that this tech is ripe for Machine Learning (ML) ( also confused with AI ) .... if you were able to apply ML to a automation system like Hubitat things would become crAzy interesting .... eg I go down stairs in the morning I turn on the lights in the landing and in the kitchen, the system sees that Iām doing that ( motion sensors , contact sensors , time of day , etc ) and it decides hell this happens every day Iāll go and setup a routing that turn on the light in the landing and kitchen ....
I know itās simplistic but man that would be powerful ( and annoying potentially lol ) ...
One could also have a learning routine, like macro recording in excel, turn it on and it records what u do and then letās you play it back and modify it ... that would be awesome .... example = I want to automate a few things to happen when I open the front door so I pick the front door sensor and all the devices Iām interested in ... hit record , open and close the door , turn on and or off and set the devices And stop recording ... that macro could then be replayed ...
There's past and ongoing attempts, but to date the efforts have failed to turn a sustainable profit and the companies implode. Hopefully someone will figure how to inexpensivley do what you're suggesting. So far that end result is illusive.
