Hello
I am considering buying an HE for my home. When I look at list of supported devices from HE, it does not seem to cover my needs / interests
Here is what I need
wired roller shutters: Schneider wiser zigbee switches are great, but I could also use an in wall micromodule like the one from Moes)I could not fin any in list of compatible devices.
sensors (humidity, temperature, motion, contact): Aqara, Ikéa or Sonoff are suitable zigbee solutions, but one again do not seem supported by HE
on/off modules: Same brands than for sensors would be great, but are they supporters?
This is just to start with
In other words what can I really do with HE?
I am stuck with devices in official list? Do I need to buy and try every device?
I need to know before I decide to go the HE way
At first very few brands that have their own hubs seems supported
Community support, if you are in doubt on weather a device is supported by HE. Ask the community. Odds are it is supported by Generic or someone wrote (There are some really smart people out there) a Driver.
Some devices are supported by community drivers. I have several Aquara contact sensors myself and found that on their own hub with lots of repeaters, they generally work well, though they will occasionally drop off the mesh and need to be paired again. (This works very well.) They don’t work well with some other devices however. I had them on the same hub as my Sinopé thermostats for a while and they kept booting them off the mesh…
I have some Ikea and Sonoff devices as well on the hub. (I think the button will not work because of the unsupported way it tries to communicate with the hub though…)
I wouldn’t recommend Sonoff devices however. They work, but I find that some of them can be problematic. Others work fine though.
Local is indeed important for me. I was a Vera user and that turned out to be a usefull "feature"
For the community it seems great indeed, judging on the initial answers received.
I'm just hoping I will not need it too much
Thanks for your detailed answer.
some devices seems to work weel, some a little less.
This means that I will need to investigate every time I want to buy something which is not on the official list of supported devices, or I don't find on the forum a claim that it works.
I supposed it is the same for most other Hubs on the market, but I'm looking for something with as little DIY as possible, but still fairly open and flexible.
So i guess I need to research alternatives to see if they can offer better out of the box support for the brands I am interested in.
Initially i wanted to go through the Homekit route, but I discovered there is no real backup of a Homekit set up, and this is a show stopper for me
Thanks
I believe you can get third party apps that will backup your Homekit info, but I am not sure what it backs up exactly. I have an app called "Controller" that supposedly can do a backup if you pay for the app. Controller for HomeKit on the App Store
Hello
I have done a bit of research on the topic, and the bottom line seems simple: backup is only partial, due to Apple preventing access to certain data. This means that in case of failure some manuals steps (such as re-pairing some devices i believe) will be required.
If you have a large number of devices, this is clearly not a route I want to take.
There is a video on Youtube (seems I am not allwoed to include a link, just search on youtube: " Don’t wait until it’s too late! shane whatley!" covers the topic in detail.
If someone knows a real full back up with no manual step involved (besides doing the restore of course), I would be very interested
Thanks
The official list of compatible devices is only the devices that Habitat engineers have actually tested themselves. it's not the final word on compatibility. Actually, there is a really good chance you may be able to find the device you are looking for will either work with a generic drive, or someone has developed a driver for it. I would also search the community to see if you can find something, or worst case, you could always just ask if anyone has gotten it working and how.
Especially if your device is from a reputable company that follows the Z-Wave or Zigbee standards. The generic drivers are meant to work with devices that follow the standards. This is especially true for Zwave since it has a certification process. Zigbee some brands chose to do random things that makes supporting them more of a challenge.
In theory there's a certification process for zigbee 3.0 devices (as there was for zha 1.2). However, as you point out, the use of non-standard clusters is common even in "certified" zigbee 3.0 devices.
For instance I have tried to find out if Schneider wiser roller blind switches are supported. They are zigbee but come with their own hub. I contacted the manufacturer and they said they are not compatible with hubs (they want you to buy their hub)
I have not found it in Hubitats list nor in the forum
So I guess I need to buy and try, but this is very time consuming for each device
That usually means they purposely did not follow the ZigBee standards so it only works with their own hub. Or who knows it may just work? Sometimes I have seen people get that kind of stuff working with a custom driver as well. Sometimes devices wont even connect.
If you make a post specifically about that device with links to more info online so more experienced Zigbee people might weigh in on it.
"who knows it might just work"
I think you simmarize perfectly the home automation market today:
there are multiple protocols, applied in multiple ways by multiple vendors, and if you are in luck it could work.
No wonder why the market is still small today. It seems that matter will not improve things short term.
I will do as you suggest, open a separate topic to find out if I have luck
Thanks for your help
