I have quite a few of them and they all work reliably, but kind of wish I had gone with Picos (looks mostly, and the extra button). The Hue dimmers also have updates that need done prior to moving them to Hubitat. I used to have problems with them losing connectivity with Hubitat, all mesh related. Bad repeaters will destroy your mesh. If you can find a couple hiding places to put Samsung plugs in, I would recommend you do that. They will repeat for about 10 devices each and are the most dependable outlets I've had. Four of them do the majority of the repeating for most of my button controllers, motion sensors, contact sensors, and zigbee locks. The GE enbrighten zigbee dimmers have also been good for me. You can also use Sengled bulbs reliably with Hubitat since they don't repeat, but I love Hue as well so I understand. I also would recommend the CoCoHue app that Robert @bertabcd1234 has created. I think it has some really improved functionality over the stock integration.
Just a heads up. I have switched all my zigbee and zwave switches, dimmers, and fan control over to Lutron as I have never had a single issue with them vs having various different issues with the other switches. Lutron intergrates into not only hubitat, but also homekit, if that is important to you. I would highly suggest taking the Lutron route and if your house is average size I would suggest going with Lutron Caseta. I have used it in a 1900 sq ft house and a 2300 sq ft house with no issues even with Lutron not being mesh.
This home is 3,000~ sqft, so, that may could be a concern for me.
Technically, Lutron (ClearConnect) does not use a mesh protocol. On Caséta, you do have two options for "repeaters" that will extend the range and can use up to one of each. On RA2, you have the ability to add multiple Auxiliary Repeaters to extend the range of your Main Repeater (which is basically the equivalent of the Caséta Smart Bridge Pro). So, you at least get the "range extension" characteristics a mesh provides without some of the worry that comes along with those protocols sometimes. For Caséta, you'd probably need a repeater to get your whole home based on the size you mentioned (Lutron estimates up to 2500 sqft without a repeater). With a home that size, however, you might also run into device limits, which are capped at 75 for Caséta. Hubitat will let you integrate multiple Bridges, so there's no reason you could just use two to solve both problems as long as neither Lutron Bridge needs to talk to the other directly. Lutron would probably steer you towards RA2 instead, which would also work, though it's a higher price tier (and none of the in-wall Caséta products will work with it; Picos will).
But yeah, another protocol, more worries. I get it. I just really like Picos.
For Zigbee, you'll definitely need some repeater with those Hampton Bay units, or at least I know I did and there are probably dozens of posts here from others with problems before they added repeaters nearby, too. Unlike most powered devices, these units are not repeaters themselves. Hopefully one of the in-wall options like a smart plug would work if you don't trust "wall-wart"-style plugs with kids and whatnot. If you can get low-voltage or even mains voltage there, the Trådfri USB repeater would also be an option and is pretty small so should be easy to conceal somehow. Even if these devices weren't problematic, Zigbee (and Z-Wave) would probably need a repeater to reach the edge of that size home, anyway.
Okay, that makes me feel far more comfortable with the solution. I was under the impression you needed more hubs, giving you that not-so-integrated feel. Definitely worth a second look!
Yes; totally agree. I have planned out dedicated areas to add Zigbee extenders (and will run additional electrical to hidden areas if need be) and also antennae range extenders for the fan module, though a previous post mentioned this is no longer possible? More research required, but my ground zero is Zigbee, for sure.
Maybe you're thinking about what I said? I replaced the antenna following the instructions here: Hampton Bay Zigbee Controller - Intermittent Connectivity - Resolved - #13 by neonturbo. However, I've seen a couple people mention that they were either no longer able to do this or at least that their units looked different when opened up (one example: Trying to pair the Hampton Fan controller to HE - #26 by techbill). Maybe the manufacturer fixed this problem, or maybe that's an unrelated change. But repeaters are a good idea regardless--you just might really need them (or want to replace the antenna) like most people with these units find.
Yeah, it was you! Haha, sorry, been a busy Friday.
Like I said, any connectivity issues are the least of my concern. In fact, I look forward to experiencing and remediating them! Call me a masochist, but I may just rock a house full of S****** just to see what all the fuss is really about.
That being said, I missed a couple components:
Door Locks: Would LOVE to use August, but honestly, gonna try S****** Connect, first
Thermostat: Ecobee
WiFi: Orbi AC3000 (not that it matters much for HE)
Actually, Hubitat hubs have a history of not negotiating well with Netgear. I personally have the Velop AX and love it. Previously had a Netgear X6S and there were many things it didn't get along with. Plus, I can now finally get the gigabit speed I'm paying for, which didn't happen with Netgear.
I am using all Kwikset Zigbee locks. So far they have been reliable.
That's.. Very interesting. Any technical aspect behind the reasoning? Netgear will be only be providing WiFi. It will not be the router, switch, firewall, etc. I'm full stack Meraki for network infrastructure (yeah, yeah, that evil cloud-based stuff)
Kwikset is what I determined I wanted on paper/prebuild. Then, I looked at their options.
The WAF had me terrified to even present them as an option after promising these beautiful August Locks from a quick-read post I skimmed through, here.
I know there is, but networking is not my forte. I've read that it affects the C-5 and I believe the C-7 as well. Something with autonegotiation. But since it won't be effecting your ethernet communication....
I thought that my wife would like the looks of the touch screen one, but she prefers the physical pushbutton one (faster and easier to unlock), so I ended up with 2 of each. I know they are ungodly large on the inside door, but I haven't had to replace batteries yet.
Ah, okay, that's a very simple fix. About three clicks on my Meraki, if it encounters a similar issue. Too bad HE isn't POE.
Can you swap modules on the Kwikset? In the event I wanted, for some reason, to tie it into Ring's Z-Wave Plus network as opposed to my HE controlled Zigbee network somewhere down the road? (Purely hypothetical, as I really don't want that much control over my house via Ring.)
I know that people on here have. Usually from z-wave to zigbee though. You could probably find it with a quick search.
I'm with you on that. I don't have locks exposed to Alexa either. I do have them on Apple Home though, but at least that runs locally when not invoking Siri. If you use any i devices you should check out Homebridge integration with MakerApi.
Hell, I'm not entirely sure I even want a 'Smart' Lock. I don't have any real intention of automating anything with it, as that's such a massive security issue.
Someone forces my daughter to the door, and her proximity unlocks and disarms? Um, no.
System is compromised remotely and can access my house without force? Um, no.
There isn't a single viable use-case I've found that made me so .."ooooh.. That's totally worth the safety and my three little girls lives!"
..Maybe I'm paranoid.
..Maybe I don't own enough guns.
Yea, stuff like that is where I draw the line. However I do like to be able to bring up Alexa on my phone (My Motorola has built in Alexa) and say unlock the XXXX door, give her the code, and I am in.
And those are different how? And I didn't know there was such thing as too many guns.
My house is 3300sq ft and lutron has been flawless, many more issues with zigbee and zwave based switches when I started with those!
Okay, I’m half sold on Lutron.
How do you handle dimming/fan speed on a single switch/remote? Doesn’t appear possible.
Do you mean both dimming and fan speed control on the same remote? If so, I agree that it would be confusing, but there's nothing stopping you from doing whatever you want--you can assign any action to any button (any button event, really: push button 1 = turn on light, hold button 1 = turn on fan, for example, if you wanted nobody but you to be able to figure out how your Pico works). You could also get as creative as you want if you're willing to put in the work to make it happen--e.g., maybe the middle button a 5-button Pico could be some sort of "alt" button and pressing it toggles between the remote acting on the fan or the lights (you'd need Rule Machine or a custom app for this).
But Picos are so cheap I'd probably just get two to make it easy. The fan-engraved Picos are more expensive for no reason (because ... Lutron, I guess), but on Hubitat, this doesn't matter--you can use any device for any purpose, so the cheap lights-engraved Pico would work just as well, or you could be like me and put a label on top of the engravings to make it clearer.
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