Just got my C-8 Pro successfully installed and wanted to share some impressions. I was coming from a C-5 which has same CPU\memory specs as the C-7.
The areas I noticed immediate improvement are:
LAN connected devices. I have quite a few Tasmota devices and I notice a big improvement in responsiveness of these devices when initiating action on the Tasmota device from the hub\dashboard.
Z-Wave Range. I had two z-Wave devices that would rarely connect because of distance and were essentially orphaned. I bought the C-8 Pro mainly to fix this problem vs investing in Z-Wave repeaters and I was not disappointed. Instant access and fast response. For context the two troublesome devices are both around 30ft from the hub (which is below ground level) and 1-2 two floors up, so there were significant obstacles.
UI Responsiveness. The C-5 was not bad on a good day, but this is noticeably faster moving screen to screen.
I do quite a bit of app\driver development so I'm frequently saving large files. I don't have any stats but I'd guess it's about 40% faster. I had hoped the Pro would have the gigabit ethernet but from what I've read it's only 100Mb. This is probably one of the few use cases where this would make a difference.
Hub stats. My C-5 was consistently in the 10-20% utilization. The same configuration on the C-8 Pro has a utilization of 0.6% for devices and 2.9% for apps.
Memory. This was never something that I had trouble with on the C-5. But it is nice to see all that memory there if I need it.
A bit like that feeling of having a full tank of gas.
Do I need a C-8 Pro? No. Do I want a C-8 Pro? Hell YES!
I had a few issues with the migration but overall very happy with my purchase.
One last piece of feedback on this topic is that it has been a great improvement in the coding process. A 3,000 line app takes 8-10 seconds to save on my C-5\C-7 and only 4 seconds to save on my C-8 Pro. This is a huge improvement in productivity.
Now I'm changing my earlier statement. I really do need a C-8 Pro and if you are doing a lot of development you probably need it too.
I just ordered mine, I’m looking forward to having all my automations and integrations on the one hub again. My second hub can go back to being an emergency backup unit / dev hub.
I started Hubitat with C5s, switched to C7s when we built a new house, and then upgraded to C8Pros when they became available.
The memory and overload issues which were ever-present with the earlier generations have completely disappeared with the C8Pros. They have vastly improved my overall Hubitat experience (not to mention the WAF).
The C8 Pro is clearly much faster. But my C5, acquired in 2019, was working fine. I wanted the improvement and to support Hubitat, and the promised migration made it seem a slam-dunk. But...
The C8 Pro may not be able to actually migrate a functional, clean-looking but heavily used C5 Z-Wave network. They were never able to pinpoint why, but apparently invisible ghost orphans haunted it.
The power requirements are so sketchy with the C8 Pro that I was repeatedly asked if I was using a different supply or PoE. Nope, was using the supply that came with it. Was then asked to swap out and try a more powerful supply. (Which didn't make a difference; those phantoms were apparently the problem.)
The C8 Pro is officially incompatible with devices that the C5 is officially compatible with. It doesn't seem to actually matter; they work. But if you're promising migration, that's worth mentioning.
There's no or very little support to nail these down. Although Bobby eventually got involved enough for it to be clear I had to rebuild the entire Z-Wave network manually.
My situation is apparently worse than most, and part of the explanation is that they didn't/couldn't mimic and test compatibility with ancient dirty C5 networks. And the C8 Pro is fantastic once configured. But if we're sharing impressions, let's be fair and cover the rough spots too.
I’m sorry to hear that, I went from c7 to c8 to c8 Pro. I did have an issue with the c7 to c8 zwave migration, but it was just one ghost that I was able to remove.
I found the Zigbee migration to be more troublesome as I had to power cycle multiple battery devices to get them to reconnect.
The c8 to c8 Pro was pretty close to perfect, except I had to power cycle a bunch of Zigbee devices and a small number of zwave devices.
The power requirements aren't sketchy. The issue are a lot of POE splitters are sketchy and cause z-wave issues.
This is an issue with the devices themselves. Such as older schlage locks (which could be taken care of with a firmware update but schlage won't release them). Devices like the iris v1 devices just aren't compatible with zigbee 3.0 and there is no way to update the firmware there either.
On the c5 there is no way to see ghosts without using a z-wave stick and the silabs software. This isn't a hubitat issue, it's a silabs SDK issue. If you clean up your z-wave table with the silabs software chances are you won't have a problem with migration (though iris v1 products still won't work properly)
Mine were ZWave device, not Zigbee.
I understand that there are technical reasons why backwards compatibility can't be promised, and also that those invisible ghosts I mentioned caused issues, but the facts are:
The C5 worked fine, and had no visible issues
That mesh could not be migrated.
Not mentioned, but in the re-adding of those older devices, I got on the C8P a visible ghost that couldn't be removed without the silabs and a USB Z-Stick. It may be a problem that cannot be solved in consumer devices.
I'm not banging on the C8 Pro, nor the C5. Just on the "Initial Impressions" when trying to do a migration. That's the title of the thread. After the initial impression, all has been fine.
Doesn't mean there weren't issues just because you didn't notice them..
Again using a stick might have cleaned that up.
Oh no no, I get that. Not picking a fight or anything. Just saying there are ways to mitigate. That said, a lot of it has to do with the silabs SDK and having to adhere to it which causes roadblocks like this.
Actually, that's quite literally what it means. They're not "issues" if they aren't noticed. If the C8P had migrated it as-is and run it as it was running on C5, only double the speed and with more memory, there would have continued to be no issues.
Dunno about that. I had no issues until a routine screening (imagine the z-wave stick being the screener) showed abnormalities in my blood... Doesn't mean that something wasn't wrong.
