Alternatives to Z-Wave

[jeubanks]

@ogiewon

This thread has gotten a bit out of control and off topic... PEACE ALL!

What?!?! it's on the normal crash course collision heading as most threads!

[mailtomatte]

[Stephan.J]

I apologize if anyone took offense to any of my posts. Everyone's views and opinions are valid. There are some really knowledgeable people in this community. Some are very technically savvy (I am not one of them. LOL).

I appreciate everyone's posts and learn a lot from them. Posts from @ogiewon and @waynespringer79 @JasonJoel @aaiyar have all helped me a lot in the past, along with posts from many other users. For this I am thankful to them.

I think I just simply want a solid zwave implementation on hubitat, or for hubitat to drop zwave. Only half working is not good enough for home automation. It is obvious some of my frustrations came through in this thread.

This will be my last post in this thread, thanks for the conversation. Hope the OP finds a solution to his problem.

[bobbles]

@Stephan.J

I think I just simply want a solid zwave implementation on hubitat,

that we get this with the 2.2.4 update coming to a hub near you.................soon.
It could be a thanksgiving present to all of you in the U.S.

[aaiyar]

@bobbles

It could be a thanksgiving present to all of you in the U.S.

Who knows? Maybe even a Guy Fawkes Day gift for our friends across the pond.

[jeubanks]

@mike.maxwell

Bruce is not all Lutron, as I said, no current staff is.

Please Mike reference where I implied or stated that any staff are "ALL Lutron"? I stated:

@jeubanks

Also to note most if not all of the HE founders and staff all use Lutron and Zigbee and Z-Wave has always been the redheaded step-child of Hubitat.

That most if not all of staff USE Lutron...

There's always been a higher emphasis of support and quality for Lutron and Zigbee over Z-Wave.

@mike.maxwell

My general point was Z-Wave isn't the ignored Hubitat step child that you claim.

Ok... sure. It's just lower on the preference from the primary development staff then. Except for Bryan he likes Z-Wave.

[JasonJoel]

@Stephan.J

took offense

No offense taken here. I get excitable sometimes, but never really take offense unless it devolves into personal attacks. And even then it depends if I give a rat's patootie about the person's opinion that is attacking me.

Life's too short.

[cwwilson08]

Lol I picture a private staff section of the forums where the staff make fun of us for carrying on..

[jeubanks]

Only for those not in the office... they just laugh about us openly

Course... who's in any office these days????

[neonturbo]

@cwwilson08

Lol I picture a private staff section of the forums where the staff make fun of us for carrying on

I suppose I was naive about this stuff, but I found out by becoming a moderator on some (non-Hubitat) forums, that most forums have a private staff section hidden from the rest of us.

This is a place where lots of things are discussed. Everything from banning users, to subforum changes, to just chat about stuff that - while not secret - isn't on topic for the forum. Sometimes that place is used to debate and vote on these changes.

I wouldn't doubt Hubitat had one of these hidden subforums too. It isn't nefarious. A place like this needs to have this "secret" forum to communicate with other staff members, especially when you don't have an office, or are in different time zones, different work schedules and so on.

[JasonJoel]

@jeubanks

Course... who's in any office these days????

I only worked from home for 2-3 weeks. We've been pretty much 100% in the office since June. Heck I've even started to have to travel for work again already.

[BorrisTheCat]

I have a mix of both but mostly z-wave plus. I think that is a key thing, I now have 2 z-wave networks with C-7s. One has 8 or 9 z-wave input devices working well now. That hub also has ZigBee LL lamps on it.

The other hub has ZigBee 3.0 lamps and a few buttons. Then z-wave plus devices about 15-20 device all powered apart from 2 device. I'm in a old town house so all the devices are on top of each other with hubs in the middle room up high in a cupboard.

For my z-wave works perfectly, no issues to report once hub was stable. Yes it's a bit of a pain to get there but once it's settled it's as fast as z-wave can be.

Would I prefer ZigBee if they made equivalent devices? 100% I'm always looking for them even though it's working fine. For me z-wave just isn't as good or fast as ZigBee, it's fraught with little niggling and annoying subtleties that I would prefer not to have to deal with. Unfortunately the range of products and capabilities are not matched with ZigBee devices currently.

So does hubitat support z-wave and does it work with HE? Yes, 100 % the question here is z-wave a good protocol to start with compared to others? Nope not in my opinion.

@waynespringer79

When I first purchased Hubitat, I only had a few devices that were mostly zwave. After seeing how much better other than zwave performs with this hub, All my future devices purchases were other than zwave unless no one other than zwave makes the device I'm looking for.

I do the exact same thing

[lewis.heidrick]

I haven't been into the office since Feb.

[cwwilson08]

@jeubanks

Course... who's in any office these days????

Me fortunately. Hospital didn't close for a single day

[jeubanks]

@cwwilson08

Hospital didn't close for a single day smiley

Hmm... I can't imagine why a Hospital wouldn't close... just doesn't make sense

[rick.guthier]

As the topic says 'Alternatives to Z-wave'.... For me the answer has been wifi devices with Tasmota. I have 27 devices on wifi - on/off switches, fan controllers, dimmers, 3-way switches, color bulbs, and an IR blaster. It takes a little effort, but the majority of these devices were around $10 each. Integration with the Tasmota for HE app has been awesome. I have 10 other devices to still install, already flashed with Tasmota.

Pros:

• Cost - the best prices out there. Many of these switches were $7.50 each, all Amazon Prime.
• Reliability - works flawlessly. Don't believe the wifi devices do not scale hype. No mesh, no ghosts, just wifi devices that have a signal strength levels reported.
• Features - grouping bulbs together (Tasmota console commands) to sync them works pretty good without the popcorn effect. Rules and automations can be setup for only one device in the group.

Cons:

• Complexity - Many of these Tuya devices can no longer be over the air converted to Tasmota. Having a 3d printed jig with pogo pins makes this work great, but its an effort to get that.

At the end of the day, my Hubitat is for the 30+ Zigbee motion/leak/open close sensors. I've got about 10 z-wave devices and will only replace a few. The point is there is an alternative and it does not break the bank.

[lewis.heidrick]

Keep in mind unless you're using wifi 6e with wifi 6e capable devices you could potentially saturate your wifi network. I've had to beef mine up with alternate band ap's a couple of times already. I probably have way more traffic on mine than the typical user though.

[Navat604]

So the topic should be alternatives to z-wave and Lutron
I have 3 locations with z-wave, Lutron, zigbee and wifi. Guess which one is my least favorite?
Z-wave is just a needy little child in my opinion. You just can't leave it alone for a day.

[JasonJoel]

@Navat604

You just can't leave it alone for a day.

Obviously experiences vary. I have >80 zwave devices, and haven't rebooted or messed with my C-7 hub in over a month...

[JasonJoel]

@rick.guthier

Many of these Tuya devices can no longer be over the air converted to Tasmota.

Yeah, that's annoying. While I have a bunch of esp8266 devices, I've never messed with Tasmota at all. I need to / it is on my list for someday. I'm sure after I did one, I would be hooked.