I was considering a Samsung SmartThings hub, but then stumbled upon Hubitat, which seems pretty good. However, though the supported devices page lists manufacturers, it doesn't list models/types. Anyone able to comment on the following devices/use cases?
I was using Home Assistant until about 3 months ago. Installing and maintaining my Hubitat Elevation is simpler than keeping Home Assistant up to date.
On the flip side, I think Home Assistant supports more devices and integrations. The tradeoff is that installing and using the additional features can be complex. I'm a programmer, so it was something I could do, but I found that I was spending more time than I wanted to on my Home Assistant setup.
I have about 25 z-wave devices, and two TP-Link Kasa Outlets (no energy monitoring).
The z-wave devices are well supported, and have been reliable with Hubitat.
The TP-Link devices do not have native support, but there is a community supplied driver that works through the TP-Link cloud. This has been mostly reliable, though last night one of my Kasa outlets didn't turn on the first time the hub requested it. I ran the action again, and the outlet switched on. So, it works, but it's not local, and it isn't 100% (no blame assigned to the developer here).
There is a local only version of the TP-Link driver, but I haven't used it, and I believe you need another local computer to support it. I didn't want this complexity even though I had my Linux host that used to support Home Assistant available.
On the z-wave side I have switches, dimmers and outlets from Inovelli, and they work well (just make sure you have recent firmware on them). I also have Monoprice motion and garage door sensors, which work great with the generic drivers provided. I have a Fibaro flood sensor for which a native driver was recently added.
My sense is that Hubitat is evolving, with more native device support in each release. I'm happy having made the switch from Home Assistant.
Hubitat is still pretty new.
Their generic service divers cover quite a few of my unlisted devices.
I've seen people ask for driver assistance with an unsupported device and if it's relatively simple I've seen them modify a close driver to work with Hubitat.
Finally if you can find a driver on the SmartThings forum or even an official driver porting it over to Hubitat is easy usually.
The above answers are great! I was using Home Assistant and SmartThings before Hubitat (I don't have any automations on Home Assistant anymore and it's a pain to keep up-to-date, especially if they introduce breaking changes, and I'm really only using ST cloud features), and I find Hubitat much easier to use and maintain. To answer some of your questions more specifically:
The answer to all of these is technically "yes," but I wouldn't recommend it. First, the Hue bridge and bulbs work great and are rock-solid on their own network, not that Hubitat isn't. But a lot of smart bulbs have a bad reputation as "repeaters" in a ZigBee network. As you may know, most powered devices in a ZigBee network act as repeaters/routers, passing along messages from other devices to the controller, forming a mesh network, so not every device needs to be able to communicate directly with the hub. Some smart bulbs are notorious for dropping these, which will cause you headaches.
Second, Hue bulbs by default try to join a ZLL (ZigBee Light Link) network, which is the type/profile of ZigBee the Hue network uses. Hubitat uses ZHA (ZigBee Home Automation) 1.2, which Hue and other ZLL products will "fall back" to and should successfully join if they can't find a ZLL network. This isn't a problem, but if you ever decide to use Hue bulbs with Hue rather than Hubitat again, you're likely have a heck of a time trying to "reset" them for use on a ZLL network, at least if they paired on a non-ZLL channel (the ones ZLL allows are a subset of total Zigbee channels). Some ZLL bulbs can be "reset" by, say, flipping a light switch a certain number of times; Hue cannot, but a Hue Dimmer (EDIT: or now Eria Remote--and, as always, the rare and expensive Lutron Connected Bulb Remote) can be used, but might not work on non-ZLL channels.
Third, this is personal preference, but I happen to like Hue scenes and Hue accessories as the Hue app allows me to use them, plus Hue has better Alexa integration than Hubitat (e.g., it can set colors [EDIT: now possible], shades of white, and knows Hue rooms). The Hue Dimmer can be paired with Hubitat and used as a button device, so most of this isn't something you can't theoretically do with Hubitat, but I think it's easier to set up in Hue (it's a also a tad more reliable: ZHA networks like Hubitat need a controller, i.e., the Hub; ZLL networks don't, which is why the Hue bridge is technically a "bridge" and not a "hub," and the Hue accessories will work directly over ZLL even if your LAN or the bridge itself is down). The Tap, by the way, is only compatible with Hue and Hubitat, due to technical differences with the way it communicates. The motion sensor should be compatible with Hubitat, but if you search the forums, people have had problems with them in the past (not sure if this has been solved, as I do not use them, and there are similarly priced ZHA sensors available).
All generations of the ST mulitsensors are supported, except I don't think the (generic) driver on Hubitat for the new/2018 one supports vibration. Samsung isn't clear on whether the device itself supports this functionality, though I think it does. The previous gen was working great for me for this exact purpose.
You can pair Trådfri bulbs to Hue (with a bit of work), but they also can pair to Hubitat. Similar caveats apply as above, but mostly the first one (about repeating--though someone recently reported they worked well on Hubitat for problematic, nonstandard Xiaomi devices, so I'd assume they'd also work well for standard ZHA devices on a ZHA network). These bulbs are easy to reset if needed. If you are only talking about the blinds, I don't know.
This does work with a community-developed Hubitat app. If you haven't already used this, keep in mind you also need an app running on another computer (the hubitat-mqtt-bridge node.js app, or the smartthings-mqtt-bridge app if you are like me and just ported the SmartApp from ST and kept using this node.js app on your server), plus an MQTT broker (I couldn't get the one Home Assistant is supposed to have built-in to work, so I installed Mosquitto on the same computer I had Home Assistant and the mqtt-bridge app running on).
For the washer couldn't you use a smart switch with power monitoring? Trigger events based on current power usage instead of vibration? Also could use a leak sensor + Dome water main shutoff valve in the event of water hose failure (or diy solenoid valve + smartswitch).
I've had decent success with Hue bridge integration and simple lighting - just Hue bulbs though. I don't think Hue is necessary - I bought it a while ago for testing and used it with SmartThings. Just more complexity but if you have it - it works with HE.
Prefer to use z-wave switches (Zooz) or micro-switches like Aeon/Aeotecs stuff directly connected to HE. Also like the Aeotec Multisensor 6 for powered motion detection so I don't have to replace batteries.
I like switches (Zooz or GE) or "behind the switch" - micro switches (Like Aeotec)..
In my experience powered switches:
can act as repeaters.
remember their status during a power failure.
cannot be blocked by manually turning the light switch off.
are possibly more reliable and longer lasting (maybe).
harder to install - setup can be frustrating/confusing.
Having said that I also think bulbs:
are very versatile, can put them anywhere.
many different designs to choose from.
much easier to install.
allow for color changes etc.
I have both, use bulbs to augment what I have. In one instance under ST I had a behind a switch switch (Aeotec Micro) connected to my front porch light and the light bulbs were cheap color changing panasonic bulbs. Had routines to toggle the porch light on but then change colors based on holidays etc (using day of year calculation).
I also have a Hue hub which I think is overkill if you are going with HE and the bulbs expensive BUT they are really nice quality and very reliable on their network. ST and HE both bridge to them nicely.
I guess the cheap bulbs are an inexpensive way to play around with lighting automation but I prefer the inline switches.
They are compatible. I have one and it works faultlessly.
It uses Hubitats stock Device Handler. No custom one needed.
My Hue light strips are working using the Hue hub and HE integration and I have no issues with those either.
So I have to mention with the Aeotec Multisensor 6 - I only recommend it if you plan on using usb power NOT battery. I think the response on battery is too slow - at least for my purposes. When "powered" and using the custom driver you can set the timing to be relatively fast. Works great for my basement. My old ST Zigbee sensors are faster but I am currently trying to limit the use of batteries wherever possible - probably due to old age and laziness (me not the batteries!).
I'm going to say this offer expired... It was a port of a SmartThings driver.
I couldn't find it anywhere nor on the SmartThings forum.
It did have color tuning...
My Hubitat hub is offline, I'll turn it on when I get home and see if it's in there...
I see, I undersand. But why is it offline, did you give up on it? With your experience, what do you think of hubitat? I just got it and I have to say that even it's to early to say this, I'm a bit disapointed. It's slower than ikea gateway, way worse app, and so many things work halfway.. So I really dont know what to do?! I try to resarch more to see if I can make it work.. If not I was thinkig of Fibaro or Homey ...
Thank you for your time and kindness!
I would give it some time. Ijust set mine up maybe 2 months ago. and I have a few frustrating minutes with it. But to be fair its fast, reliable, and all local.
Thank you for your honesty! I really appreciate that!
I also noticed, thow is kinda taboo here to admit that, that when lights that are connected to Hubitat it takes a bit longer than it takes thru the ikea Gateway.
Their mobile app is unfortunately a toy, not something serious.
Maybe it Will become better in time, but so is the competition
Here here! Couldn't agree more. If you want to control things manually then use regular switches. Dashboards should be for special circumstances or "odd" situations or backup when perfecting your automations.
Yeah, well, they been doing this longer than IKEA
But I agree with you, we don't need a remote control..
Today second day in a row, Hubitat geo fences, turns on things while I'm not home.. So yes, I had to turnd them off from Alexa and check the cam ..
I think the problem is that they don't put up a list of devices that REALLY work so you know what to do. And a rode map of what's to come..
A smart platform is one that it's intuitive, Hubitat, it's fare from it.
They should advertise it for people who like to spend their time working on their smart home...
I haven't "worked" on my smart home in months, and I'm one of the least tech savy users they have. I rarely ever have any need to modify anything unless I come across something I have yet to automate and then decide to make a rule to do so.
