About to make the switch from SmartThings

Is that overkill? I bought the Pro Bridge when I was still on ST, just for a single Pico! :rofl:
I now have a grand total of two! :grinning: But, they're amazingly useful and reliable. I'm going to benefit more now that the fan controller is being sold. No regrets on that investment (which was only $50 for me). The sale of my ST hub covered the cost.

2 Likes

@skelsey915 years ago before I got into HA I tackled my undercabinet lights and leveraged the gang boxes to help with wiring. I pulled out the “new work” box that was nailed to a stud, used a hack saw to cut nails. Then that gave me room to fish the wires to the cabinet and transformer mounted underneath. I then installed an “old work” box to get the outlet back. Around the sink I did the same to fish wires from crawl space since there is a gap between cabinets. Point being don’t be afraid to leverage the outlet and switch boxes to help pull wires.

You could do something similar and install a micro relay to control the transformer power to toggle the lights.

Here is a picture:

1 Like

That's a great idea I did think of running a separate wire from that box, but didn't think of cutting out the box as you suggested. I have tile like you so good to know that it looks clean.

So just to be clear you have a 110v wire spliced in at the box you replaced and running out through that hole just below the cabinet. And then that's a transformer box to get DC out?

Thanks!

In my case actually I cut the box out so I could run a wire up into the wall and through that small hole below the cabinet because this section of cabinets is tied into a switch on the wall that also controls another section of undercabinet lighting using a different transformer.

But in your case yes you would need a large "old work" box so you could install a micro relay in it to control 120v power to the transformer. Then yes 120v is the white wire coming out of the hole that feeds the transformer for DC out to the lights.

I have used Alexa extensively when I was running on ST and a mix of wifi and ST devices. I have integrated everything with a few hiccups onto HE with so few problems. It is a refreshing change.

It just occurred to me to mention that you can use the Google Home app. You don't need to have a Google Home as far as I know. I think you can just add it once you setup a Google Assistant account. Then just add Hubitat to the accounts and you'll see your devices to select from, including virtual switches. So that can be things like arm the alarm, etc. It also has groups, to you can group lights in the Google Home app. Hubitat groups might show up too. I've never tried that. As you can see in the screenshot, you can invite family members too. Plus, they can just use Google Assistant by voice, to control devices by just tapping the mic icon.

this is what i use if needed. you can voice control the colours as well then. It allows you to group all your lights in rooms as well.

1 Like

I completely forgot about it as an option. While I prefer HomeKit (and have that option) because of the integration and ability to monitor sensors, this is a really decent interface for Android and iOS users alike. Maybe they'll add sensor monitoring at some point as well.

I Alexa app isn't bad, but it's sooooo sloooow to load and navigate, whereas the Google Home app is really fast and feels lightweight, despite the very large feature set.

1 Like

I am totally on the fence about these things.. I do own both an Echo and a Google Home Assistant. One the one hand convenience on the other I am bothered by the ability of Google/Amazon to monitor my devices.

I actually just hooked my Google Home app back up to HE because of how painfully slow the Alexa app is. Plus, the Home device layout is much nicer. I won't ditch my Echos for voice, routine, and TTS control, but I think I'll be using the Home app as a mobile "controller" until something better comes along.

1 Like

You can try both. No need to choose. Don't need to own a device for either really (I don't think you need a Google Home. That one I'm not positive about the Google Home app).

I get your apprehension, but if you are already using them for voice, they already monitor you.

1 Like

They aren't the only players in the field though. If you want a truly local only voice assistant solution, take a look at Mycroft. You can run it on your own hardware and it is truly local only processing, but there are a lot of caveats to running it.

With that said, with good voice control comes the "big brother" aspect. That's something we aren't going to escape from any time soon.

1 Like

You don't. You can run the Home app and connect up services without having a single "Home" device at all. I don't have any of my Minis or Homes hooked up as I factory reset all of them months ago.

1 Like

Indeed! I use voice only for the Amazon Echo and then only 2 virtual switches. You have to be careful when adding devices because it's really easy to add all your devices instead of just selecting a few. I also have that Echo hooked up to a smart outlet and enable/disable it on a schedule.

I tried to connect the Google Home to do the same thing but it started asking for additional permissions etc and decided not to go there just yet..

:grinning:

For simple voice control that looks very interesting, thanks for the link!!!

1 Like

Do you know how to remove individual devices? I've tried unlinking Hubitat, but the devices I don't want remain. Do I need to somehow delete the "Home" in the assistant app after unlinking the Hubitat integration?

Personally, I don't care if Google or Amazon has my device list. That was one of the trade-offs in having a smart home that functions the way that my family needs it to. I do take steps to limit what Google and Amazon get though (blocking telemetry requests through pi-hole and such), but at the end of the day, being able to automate my home by voice is more important than what Google and Amazon can do with the data they receive from me.

In HE, go into the Google Home app and uncheck the devices you want to remove from Google Home. Click done and wait for the refresh. They should disappear from Google Home within about a minute.

The trouble with that thinking is we are slowly giving away our right to privacy and independence. I do not know where this is headed but I would at least like to retain as much control over my data as possible and know where it's being used etc. It's so easy to get complacent.

This was one of the reasons I chose HE.

Yes, but devices appear in the list that I never even selected. Not sure how to purge them. Is there an empty cache feature for Google Assistant or Home app I'm not finding?