I think he's talking about the built-in Chromecast Integration (beta). Which is an included app from Hubitat. So, yes we all paid for it. While it does work (sometimes), it definitely needs a lot of work.
5 Likes
Also it's not entirely fair to Hubitat since Google changed up a bunch of stuff over time including their API access and auth processes which has killed a bunch of third party apps access. Ostensibly for "security" but also to exert greater control over their platform - rightly or wrongly.
1 Like
I don't know about that stuff but this is straight from HE...
1 Like
Yeah, I'm not sure how it works now - probably Hubitat, Inc will have to apply for using the app or maybe it's too costly time/resource-wise.
Right after that post google started announcing API lockdowns - this one was for gmail
My big sadness was the Nest stuff.. which again, right around the same time.
I really loved @tonesto7 's NST stuff (ported from ST by @nh.schottfam)
1 Like
What a load of BS...
"The reasons for this are security and simplicity, according to Soucie. WWN allowed many partners to access data about Nest products that today Google doesn’t feel they should have access to. These include Home/Away data, motion, and temperature set points from its thermostat, and the ability to turn on and off Nest Cameras based on external events."
If I'm the owner of the hardware, shouldn't I be allowed to decide who and what can use its data?
6 Likes
Have you tried the following, i have it working with o356 and iCloud calendars. I have automations to adjust my wake up time for PTO days and day i need to get up early to work out.
2 Likes
@dkilgore90's Nest integration works great bringing in a lot of Nest data and allowing me to control my Nest thermostat. BIG thing that is missing is the Nest Protects.
Just those D@#n speakers I'm having issues with! 
4 Likes
Thanks guy's for all your help, but I haven't got a Google workspace account, did try the manual way, did get everything working until I had the Auth Link, and it went down hill from there, it's so much easier on Node Red, I have a Cast node and a Google Assistant Bridge node, which was setup in second, was hope to keep everything on 1 device, and the iCal has very limited abilities unlike Node Red iCal Trigger, which i have setup to alert me on up come calendar events. I've had the C5 hub now for about 2 years, will give Hubitat another year, and if I cant get what I need out of it then, I don't think it's worth keeping Hubitat, and will try Home Assistant. Thanks anyway guy's.
Home Assistant is great.. you can do a lot of things with it but managing devices is much simpler and arguably more reliable in HE. You can also end up going down a rabbit hole of issues if not careful. I just had this happen when a Sonoff Zigbee 3 stick unexpectedly stopped communicating. with some test stuff. Keep in mind you can always bridge devices to and from HE using the available community apps so still leverage the advantages of the HE ecosystem.
For my home system I am currently testing HomeAssistant running with the Node-RED addon as my HE "companion server".
Home assistant is my "app manager" - allowing me to easily install and maintain things like Mosquitto MQTT Server, Ring, Node-RED etc via the UI. In addition HA can also provide access to other devices/services that are unavailable or not yet complete in HE. Everything talks to Node-RED where most of my "rules" live.
My HE hubs (2 C5's and a C7) do everything else including device management and certain apps like Alexa, Lutron, groups, scene control etc.
edit1: You might consider doing something like this.. it should give you the flexibility to change things around if you continue to experience issues and test drive HA in the process.
edit2 Also wanted to say if you've been using your hub for 2 years and are willing to go another year surely you must be getting some sort of value/use out of the hub right?
5 Likes
Hi, Yes I'm getting good results from HE, I just want everything in 1 place, Room Lighting apps is a big improvement on Rule Machine, but still need work, most of my automations were on Node Red, because Rule Machine was so long winded, but am in the middle of moving over to Room Lighting and actually find Rule Machine useful at time now, It's just so annoying, I have to stick with Node Red. I contacted Hubitat over a year ago about Calendar and the problems I had with Chromecast Integration, but nothing has changed, they can produce updates for drivers every 5 minutes, but nothing for real life actions, even if there created a Calendar app in Hubitat would be grate, but nothing.
NR is definitely not for everyone but can provide some useful things like the very intuitive visual flow style "programming" (ymmv), ability to control everything down to the hardware and the flexibility to integrate with a wide range of systems including HE. I use it as a "companion server" to HE for all most of my client deployments and for my personal setup.
Certainly there is a lot of great stuff that's been added over time to HE. Keeping everything local to the hub is probably the simplest/most reliable strategy and recommended for most people.
This is one of the great things about HE - the ability to choose different solutions based on your use-case.
2 Likes
It simply boils down to what makes sense for them. Drivers take a few hours to make whereas an app takes far longer to make and then debug. I mean even in the beta to now, @bravenel is debugging Room Lighting because @jtp10181 is too damned sharp eyed ( 
) One person asking for an app and one that would be low priority on their road map in the first place isn't going to move to the top of the list. In cases like this the community has already provided an app that works. They can even be more receptive to adding a feature to their app to improve it. As to the chromecast integration, it does do what it was designed to do (basic tts and turning on/off switches) but yeah could use improvement but that too is low priority at the moment. Have you looked at the community google app? Far more feature rich...
3 Likes
Hi, You are all right and wrong at the same time, Business need to adapt to demand, when there is interest there is demand, when demand drops off you change the narrative, producing drivers is to turn something on when a sensor triggers is good, and oh so very interesting to watch happen, but what when customers want more, Give people choice creates demand, create an app and sell it, if people want it they buy it, even better create an app store where other developers can get involved, why do you think Google have an app store, create interest create demand, not rocket science.
Ah, but here is where you are missing the business model, HE is a home automation hub, i.e. it's primary mission is to serve as an automation platform for devices, specifically zigbee and zwave. Everything else is evaluated based on the promotion of the primary mission.
5 Likes
Yes, but only you and a couple of other people have asked for a specific calendar app to be developed by hubitat. When asked for, those people were directed to other apps that they were satisfied with hence no real demand and no priority that the Dev's can see on their road map. Again, this is why they concentrate on the core and let the community develop esoteric stuff. Oh and they certainly won't develop something native if it's already available from the community.
2 Likes
They have addressed the question of a hubitat app store in other threads several times, it will never happen.
But I would also point out that no one here knows what's on the hubitat road map, if there is one.
3 Likes
I'm betting native fiber optic network card and drag and drop UI with failover capabilities to a new device in case of bad hub...
4 Likes
4 Likes
It's a business, It has business premises and staff it pays, no matter the model, if you cant keep money coming in, you go under, which in turn banks, owners, staff and customers lose out. There's loads of device paper weights out there, would you want Hubitat to end up like that, all I'm saying is create interest which helps everyone, how many times have you brought something to find out it's not as good as you thought, and had to send it back and buy again, and did you think of all the people that rely on selling that product,
Think this has run the full circle and it may be time to move on...
8 Likes
