To follow up, the C-7 is pretty new, all things considered -- with current global supply chain issues, even if they wanted to distribute a C8, it would be hard to do at this time. I'm running a C4, C5, & a couple of C7's, and they all work fine. Each hub has offered some incremental improvements (some greater than others), yet none of the hubs have been obsoleted by the next gen hub. As far as home automation devices go, it seems to me that the Hubitat has been a relatively "safe" purchase, unlike many of my other devices.
My understanding was that the C-7 was introduced to take advantage of the Zwave 700 chip; given that this chip will also be the foundation of Zwave LR, and given that there have been assurances that the C-7 will be able to accept a firmware update to utilize LR, and given that no announcements that matter have been made from the zigbee alliance regarding immediate availability of new devices/standards I'd wager that a C-8/C-9 probably isn't in the cards for immediate future.
There are many reasons to run multiple hubs. Some use a separate hub (or three) for testing. Some have multiple locations. Some like to put problem children in their own playpen. Some have garages or shops (or both) that are too far to reach with the Z's but have ethernet wired between them. Some have several of those reasons (me). Its a cancer that keeps growing.
A lot of us do. For a myriad of reasons, including:
Size of house
Separation of zwave & zigbee networks
Separation of locally-controlled vs cloud connected devices
etc
Ive yet to see any thread over 3 replies that hasn't gotten off topic. If it gets bad enough, we get put in the Time Out Room, sometimes to never reappear.
The C-7 hub was released to incorporate the 700 series Z-wave chip. That was a significant upgrade.
The current hubs have Zigbee 1.2 radios. Upgrading the hubs to Zigbee 3.0 would be nice. However, there is no compelling reason to upgrade. Zigbee 3.0 devices work just fine with the Zigbee 1.2 radio in Hubitat.
The Connectivity Standards Alliance (formerly the Zigbee Alliance) has recently announced a delay in the rollout of the Matter protocol. It was originally slated for late 2021, but has been delayed to sometime in 2022. Thus, it seems unlikely there will be any upgrades to Hubitat hardware until CSA standards are finalized.
Probably thoroughly answered, but I run multiple hubs, mostly because my C4 has been running all my Zwave and Zigbee stuff for a couple of years, and I can't face moving all the Zwave hardware onto the C7.
The C5 was bought to run all my rules, to take some of the load off the C4, and the C7 was because...Shiny!
One day, I'll move the devices to the C7...and install the second C7 to carry the rules...or...well, who knows?
Actually it’s not too bad if you use Hubitat’s backup and restore service with your ZWave devices. However ZigBee devices are not as cooperative. You will have to manually re pair the devices with any new hub you get.
As you explore the forums more you will even find owners who run multiple hubs that aren't Hubitats (e.g., Hue, Home Assistant, Smartthings) The reasons are as varied as the people, the places they are from, and their experience with home automation.
Don't get overly wrapped up in some of these rather advanced details. They can be serious rabbit holes you can fall into.
Absorb the information you find. Build a plan. Keep it simple. Before you buy ANYTHING, search the community for the experiences of others. This will save you a LOT of time and money.
Your success with Hubitat and home automation in general will be enhanced by this very active community. They are polite (usually). They are ready to help, even if you ask what you think is a dumb question. They are always very straight forward with their opinions, and respect your right to your opinion.
We look forward to seeing you participate in the community and helping you on your HE (Hubitat Elevation) journey.
There are many instances where I'm glad that I run multiple Hubitat's.
I'm also of the impression(confirmed by my own personal stats), that 1-2 years ago, Hubitat was not nearly as efficient as it is today. I used to have situations where I would have to reboot on a regular basis to recover memory. I believe that those type of situations do not exist any longer due to the hard work of the Hubitat staff in eliminating "memory losses". I'm not sure exactly when that was solved, but it appears to be the case that today, Hubitat runs much more efficiently than it ever has.
I'd second that, I have made a very hap-hazard attempt to address some of my inefficiences, i.e. code I wrote myself, as well as adjustments to settings on other LAN-based integrations I run on my C-4 hub, but I am sure that the significant reduction in issues with performance are 95% down to the efforts of those who know the system better than I do.
I also would applaud the additions of a number of monitoring features by HE staff, both behind the scenes and some more visible, such as the Runtime Stats. There have always been those little gems tucked away in topics on the Community, but in recent times there have been more tools added to a users toolkit for troubleshooting and just general monitoring of the performance of their HE setup, and efforts by people such as @thebearmay have helped bring many of them to the masses.
Unfortunately, I do. My C4 didn't ship with the Backup and Restore service compatible Zwave Stick -- I'll have to look more closely, but to my recollection, I don't have the short "Zwave.me" stick.
So -- starting from Scratch it is. Really, I want to migrate some of my stuff to a new C7 on the middle floor to see if I can enhance my Zwave coverage on that floor -- but just getting started with triple clicking all the Zooz wall switches -- remembering how to do the GE's and those horribly difficult Zooz Power Strips ---arrrghhhh. Yuck.
have been made from the zigbee alliance regarding immediate availability of new devices/standards I'd wager that a C-8/C-9 probably isn't in the cards for immediate future.
I hope you don’t have to start from scratch!
