Hello everyone,
I’ve been reading several posts to help me chose my next ZWave controller and I am optimistic with what I read here… I'm seeking a solution to upgrade my current VeraSecure master controller to another ZWave controller that is more powerful.
At present, my "master" manages five "slaves" controllers, each handling between 40-50 devices. Additionally, I've developed numerous program-logic snippets (some quite intricate) on my master controller. However, my VeraSecure master controller is struggling and has become sluggish, indicating that I may have reached its operational capacity.
I'm curious if Hubitat can function as a "master" and seamlessly recognize my five existing "slaves" along with most, if not all, of my current Z-Wave devices. Ideally, I'd like to avoid the tedious process of excluding and re-including each device individually.
Furthermore, I'm interested in understanding the hub's programmability. Does it have a specific programming language, I read about “Reactor” (which would be great because I have a ton of those in my current “master”) or is there another method for programming? Additionally, how flexible, and powerful is the programming capability of this hub?
Thank you for your insights and assistance.
Claude
If each of your controllers is paired to 40-50 z-wave devices, you will need approximately the same number of Hubitat hubs. The hubs would share devices between them using a built-in app called HubMesh. HubMesh is more of a peer-to-peer interaction in contrast to the the relationship between primary and secondary z-wave controllers. Each hub would be the primary controller for the 40-50 devices paired to it. But devices can be shared between hubs for automations or other purposes.
No. You would need to replace all your Vera controllers with Hubitat hubs. And devices would have to be excluded and re-included.
There are a large number of built-in apps as well as community apps. But you can always write your own apps to run on the hub. The programming language used by the Hubitat platform is Groovy.
In addition, it is possible to integrate external automation systems including Multi-System Reactor.
With all that said, if you decide to switch to Hubitat, you will like the dramatic improvement over Vera!
Thank you for your comprehensive response. It's quite helpful in providing clarity about Hubitat and its potential integration with my current setup.
If I understand correctly, to implement Hubitat as my "master" controller, I would need to replace all of my existing Vera controllers with Hubitat hubs (probably very costly). Additionally, devices would need to be excluded and re-included, which, would be a bit tedious. You mention dramatic improvement but how can I be certain if I would run into the same sluggishness problem.
But once again, I appreciate your time and detailed explanation.
Claude
I think there are people with well over 100 z-wave devices on a single hub, so depending on your home layout and the types of devices you may be able to get away with just two Hubitat hubs. If you want to offload all of the automations to a separate hub from the z-wave control then you would want 3 hubs.
I personally have 54 z-wave devices and around 12 zigbee, all on a single hub with my automations and some other user IP integrations. All working fine.
