Just a note how long did it take you to build up your devices on ST I would be very surprised if you bought everything in one week and installed it all in a few hours. This is what most people forget when moving platforms, that they may have added a few devices at a time so the mesh was grown correctly, then left to settle down for weeks if not months before adding another device (not that you realize that your doing that at the time).
I don't know how big you system is but im guessing its not small, building a stable and strong mesh is of massive importance to any system. It is also almost always the issue with issues like you reported.
Some people have reported that they don't believe that HE radio is as strong as other platforms. Personally i have never had a issue because almost all my devices are powered (a few temp buttons) as i hate the idea of changing batteries. But if this is to be believed and it has nothing to do with the mesh settling down; there are alot of people on this community that say that adding a few repeaters here and there will make your system not only work but be more stable than on any other of their platforms.
I'm also a installer and although I havent sold HE yet, I would never sell ST to my customers. Not after the constant cloud issues I had, where as they are all interested in my story of HE and where its going.
I'm am sure that one day very soon I would be happy to push every man and his dog down the HE route it's just not quite there yet in easy to use UI for the type of people that want to pay someone to set it up.
I think it's a common gripe of those switching from ST.
'I've had it all and switched it all over to HE and it's not working.'
Guys, do it one by one. As you did when you grew your smart home. You didn't buy all that at once and you didn't try to connect it all at once not to mention all automation were not made the same night.
@Jmaddox The steps you took and your reactions would be the reasons why I wouldn't want you as my installer and why I wouldn't ever recommend someone like you. You blamed the tools.
As an installer, you went ahead without testing and you didn't verify that the devices you were adding were in fact supported. There are devices that are known to cause issues on Hubitat and wouldn't have been recommended by the HE team or the HE Community. A good installer knows what devices work well and which ones don't because they did the research. You failed your customer big time. Your wife and family deserved better from its installer.
There are devices that may work with Smartthings, but they have the resources to fudge support for a poorly designed device. Hubitat is a small team and works hard at making a stable platform for well-behaved devices. Quality, not quantity.
I'd like to point out that Hubitat is sold directly to consumers and the user agreement specifically states that you're not allowed to "re-sell" it or software for it.
the Customer acknowledges that the Customer may not assign, sublease, distribute, share or otherwise make the Customer Software available to third parties for commercial purposes;
So, I don't see why they should make it easier for people to make a living off of their product. This isn't Control 4. It's an end-user product. If your customers need you to make changes, then you are setting a permanent relationship. One that will not be able to continue since no one else does that. Why would they make it easier for you to do that?
@Jmaddox:
I would like to make a significant point that my colleagues here haven't made.
Although it appears on the outside that Hubitat is a direct one for one replacement for SmartThings, I believe that isn't really the case. A number of individuals here have made the point that you have to design your mesh with a certain foresight, and only add a certain number of devices at a time, etc.
I know that I didn't really design a well thought out mesh (first) in SmartThings. However, it's important to do that in Hubitat. I think that's related to the point someone made that the radios in Hubitat aren't as powerful - of course, that is compensated by the fact that your mesh does the work, instead of the hub.
In conclusion, as many have said it's critical when building a HE setup, to make a strong mesh first. It sounds like you really didn't do that.
Furthermore, my comments should not be construed as a criticism of the Hubitat design. These guys really know their business, and they made a different design choice that the ST people did. Since that design is different, you can't just move a ST setup over - you have to rethink it, and perhaps make other design choices.
P.S. A number of points in this message are my interpertation of the HE design, which could be totally incorrect.
The top line is my imaginary ST radio bandwidth consumption. Z's mean Z-something packets. The bottom line is my imaginary HE radio. The quad processor is able to keep the radio's more active. That potentially puts strain on repeaters. Maybe it's the deployment of newer repeaters that makes the difference? Upgrading to 2018+ vintage devices may have more impact than we've detected.
I'm not saying ANY of this is True, just that the antenna in the C-4 is a single and C-5 are separated. The same "underpowered radio" accusation has been made for both.
Off topic, so if this needs discussion, let's make a new topic? Since it's entirely imaginary on my part, I doubt any discussion is needed.
As my PS tried to make clear, I do not know for certain that is the case. It's just my assumption. Furthermore, my point is that with a strong mesh (zigbee or Zwave), a stronger radio is just not that critical. However, it does mean that an installer has to plan differently for a Hubitat installation.
This is all completely misleading. The guts of the documents we post about designing mesh networks did not originate with Hubitat, but actually originated with a well known Z-Wave, Zigbee and ST expert. All hubs that have Z-Wave or Zigbee use the same underlying technology and even the same chips, all from the same manufacturer. All Zigbee and Z-Wave mesh networks benefit from thoughtful design. There is no fundamental difference between Hubitat and ST in this regard.
This topic falls into the category of misinformation and trolling. Therefore it will be closed.
