An extra hub?

I feel I can handle most of what you are saying except for a factory reset.. and why would I ever need to do that over a soft reset / backup restore? For me it's not impossible but just very unlikely and if I ever did I would probably have to go with my backup hub...which has already been activated. Will be doing the same for my upcoming C7 switchover.

The Wireguard VPN I have in place works great - very fast and in fact sometimes I forget I have it activated on my phone. You don't have to route everything through it just the hub(s) of course. Also I am relying more on automation/alerts than remote control so changing things via phone is not all that common a thing for me.

Using the opensource Node-RED allows me to future proof things by being able to integrate many different systems and use the same rules (sequences/flows) etc. Very powerful and flexible.

A little planning goes a long way.. I am confident my system will continue to function even without the internet or HE Inc.

Disclaimer: This is just for my use-case (and my residential clients) and will not be suitable for everyone but it does demonstrate that you should be able to continue to use HE even if the company changes direction or goes away.

My goal is to have HE function as a home appliance like a dishwasher or washing machine rather than a disposable tech gizmo. Sure it may get dated but should continue to function for the duration..

The power went out now Hubitat won’t control my lights!

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Well, if the power is out, how are your lights working? Do you mean the power went out and came back on....?

Since that is a separate issue from the one raised by the original poster in this thread, I would start a new thread.

I think lairdknox was just being sarcastic.

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Yeah, cause sarcastic jokes always come across so well in written text.
(See, that's one example of when sarcasm actually works. Context is key.)

I think the overall point for many of us here is that - yes, while it would be bad it Hubitat the company ever died and went away, that is true for all these solutions (even those backed by large corps as they always kill services or drop support of things), yet out of all of the options, the local nature of Hubitat would probably be the less severe of them all, and the community could step up and fill almost all if not all - the gaps.

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No, I deliberately avoided registering until the whole system was up and running complete with automations, just to prove to myself it really was local. I only registered at the last moment when I was ready to do the Google integration and therefore needed a cloud account for Hubitat. Though it's certainly true I had a big red "nag" icon until I did so. There is a certain amount of pressure to register your hub, which I didn't experience with Hue.

ok. so here is another answer.

As mentioned before, you would lose the ability to register the device, after that you should be good. if they DO shut down for some reason, before that we might be hopeful that they would send a software update that would allow 100% full non cloud activated devices. Pebble did this to their old watches, they gave you a small update and new app that is 100% local to the watch device. that helped people make apps and keep the hardware alive.

  1. a few people mentiond that IFTT and Amazon etc would die. Most likely that is possible, BUT with some creative apps made by some of the amazing dev's here, I bet they could make an app that talks right to Amazon's API and a new skill that would mitigate that.

Remote access, same thing, Sharptools for example could make their own service that would let you talk directly to their dashboard.

These things are all possible. again we have some epic dev's here, this could be ok.

Heck man, people have reversed engineered the old Xbox and you can setup your own Xbox server to play old games with your friends.

At the moment, I don't see HE selling out yet, but you are right, it could be done. But I think how HE setup local processing almost 100% (minus some of the stuff mentioned) that there is little reason for other companies to want to buy them out.

As far as for you to worry? no , I think there is less chance that you have to worry about HE then others.. but there is still nothing perfect in this world.

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I bought into IRIS from Lowe's and then they dumped IRIS. Now I have Hubitat and just bought the C-7 hub. Most of my security system is built around my IRIS devices. I'm still using IRIS contact and motion sensors and my keypad is IRIS. Lowe's did good by their customers and reimbursed them for what they purchased but Lowe's is a big company and it's not likely Hubitat would do the same if they folded.

My point is there are other systems out there that do what Hubitat does and would support some if not all your devices. I still think Hubitat is the best but if they folded it would not be the end of the world.

If they did fold I'd just pickup the next shiney thing I came across.

Agreed, while I "could" build my own Alexa skill and all that kind of stuff... why would I want to? I'd move on to the new latest and greatest. I wouldn't try to force my HE to work forever.

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It depends on what you want to accomplish for your home automation.

You invest a certain amount of money for your devices and system and get things working the way you want - why should you have to change that just because a company went away/changed direction/got bought out?

Of course to your point trying to keep the existing system functioning by hacking custom apps/drivers etc is not something people might not want to spend time on especially if something newer fills the need better with less work.

A compromise solution would be to run some sort of "meta" controller that allowed you to incorporate both old and newer system(s) and provide a standardized method of control across each. This is one of the main reasons why I use Node-RED with HE.

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The only way that you could write another version of the Google, Amazon or IFTTT integration is to stand up your own cloud server to redirect the traffic to your hub. That's how the messages from Amazon and Google get to your hub...via the Hubitat cloud servers. That's why you don't have to expose anything on your hub directly to the internet. So, someone would have to pay for that setup or each user would have to stand up their own, including all the Oauth and account verification services that each requires. It's not just figuring out the code in the Amazon or Google cloud. There's a lot more that goes into them.

Using any cloud service carries potential risks. Terms/API's can change, services can be cancelled etc etc. Also the data collection/privacy (especially for those of us in the US) is problematic as well.

In my setup my Alexa service is a "convenience" function not a "core" one. If it went away I would not miss much and everything would continue to function.

It all depends on how you've set things up and what your goals/expectations are. I do not really "trust" anything outside of my home devices and local network..

I don't trust anything in my network. I treat my wife's stuff like an active attacker. She gets soooo many viruses on her computer from all the stupid games she plays.

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Excellent point!

It appears that you would be better of with viruses that using smartthings

Same here, except mine is all original AlertMe gear here in the UK. They're great devices and being able to develop my own drivers for them has been great. They work better with more features now than they did on the original platform. :slight_smile:

If a company goes under, the platform will die (sooner or later). I think the issue with SmartThings is that they can turn it off, or cripple it. That can't happen with Hubitat, unless/until they implement automatic updates. The same thing applies for the other options like HASS or OpenHAB. Being open source, they're probably a bit more future-proof, but they could still hypothetically sell out or fail to compete.

Honestly, I wouldn't sweat it so much. Stick to Zigbee and Z-Wave devices, and the hub is almost incidental. I just paid almost a hundred for one smart relay. My locks were over a hundred, times two. Light bulbs, $20 to $40, times 20. etc. If $125 for a hub makes you worried for the future, then stick with SmartThings. Same thing with migration. An hour/couple hours to switch to a new platform isn't really a big deal compared to sourcing smart devices, installing them, and designing automation routines.

The other issue is the time spent creating code. If you're a developer of apps, then all the code being useless some day is a concern, but at the same time, the switch to Hubitat is a no-brainer. All the groovy code will transfer with a few changes. edit: Migrating rule machines usually isn't a big deal unless you have many hubs (ie AirBnB units) or you're doing some really advanced stuff. /edit

Point being, let's keep some perspective. Google's and Amazon's planned IP protocol may make Zigbee and Z-Wave niche products. If it does, worry about it when it happens.

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