Here is my setup, sans Hubitat

I have been making my home smart ever since 2016 slowly and it is now inundated with smart products, fortunately I haven't really strayed too far from just a few manufacturers and my computer and technological skills are fairly high.

My home has an Alexa device pretty much in every single room from the first and Second gen Alexa's to Taps to Dots to Cubes (the Cubes were a waste of money and disappointing) I use a lot of TP-Link Kasa light switches and plugs for various things, I also have only about 4-5 Hue bulbs as I really don't like putting Hue bulbs in fixtures and outside. I prefer my fixtures to be controlled by smart switches instead of relying on keeping the switch turned on all the time and the bulbs controlled by a hub. I have a Nexx Garage door controller and two first gen Ring doorbells. I also have four wifi access points scattered through my home each one placed on it's own channel so as to prevent too much interference. I run both 2.4 and 5 GHz. I tie most things together using IFTTT. Two harmony hubs that control my living room and another in my master bedroom. I have CAT6 ran to every single room and around all of the eves of the house and a few old POE Foscam cameras that I would love to replace eventually.

So as you can see, my technical experience, I think, more than meets the needs of my buying a Hubitat.

Here are key points about the smart devices I have.

(1) Over ten TP-Link Kasa light switches mostly HS200 single pole with a few HS210's (3-way) thrown in. They control various room lights and ceiling fans.
(2) Several TP-Link Kasa smart plugs of various styles from the mini to the very first version. These are pretty reliable.

The most important TP-Link Kasa smart plug controls my water heater. I have it setup to a contactor that shuts my water heater on and off according to the schedule I've laid out in the Kasa app. (it's a pretty cool and cheap hack to get wifi water heater control and scheduling).

Needless to say, I've had no issues with any of the Kasa stuff and it all works pretty flawlessly for me. Other Kasa Smart Plugs work various fans, lights, heaters, Christmas lights during the Holidays, and similar appliances.

(2) Two Harmony hubs, one controlling my living room and another controlling my bedroom. The one in my bedroom is probably the one that does the most work as I use a IFTTT trigger to start my bedtime. I tell Alexa to trigger my bedtime and my TV, all my fans (yes, I sleep with three), my Window A/C unit, and my bedroom lights (Hue lights) all power on how I want to be and with another simple IFTTT trigger, they all shut off.
(3) My Nexx Garage is mostly used through mine and my wife's iPhones and iPads to open and close the garage and also to open and close it through Alexa.
(4) I have a few Eufy smart plugs that merely supplement the Kasa plugs.
(5) I have a couple of Wyze cams in the house and those are great. I really wished they'd make an outdoor POE model. I also don't mind using it's native app.

So, as you can see, I've gotten a lot done in 3 years. Now I want to fine tune a few things.

I wanted to place a few motion sensors around my garage and in a couple rooms to turn on lights conrolled by my TP-Link switches. I am also really wanting to start putting in some smart locks. I started leaning toward the SmartThings hub to integrate motion sensors, water leak sensors, and smart locks to my doors. But I just discovered this Hubitat and, based on my abilities in electronics, computers, and the like, I have no qualms diving into it. But I want to make sure it can do what I want it to.

First, I'd like to place a few motion sensors outside to trigger my Kasa switches to turn on lights, same goes for my office. I'd like a motion sensor to turn on my light during certain parts of the day, the office light is controlled by a Kasa HS200 as well as the driveway and all exterior and eve lights.

I also want to place a few water leak detectors around my sinks and, of course, get smart locks. All of this I know will require Z-Wave and the like. Plus, as my devices age, I could eventually replace them with Hubitat compatible devices and do away with all of my wifi controlled devices thereby easing the strain on my wifi network, which probably isn't too strained, but the less the better.

I also want to eventually replace every single POE camera outside with better more modern POE cams. That Ring Wired POE option is looking nice to me. But that is beside the point.

I don't necessarily want to move everything over to Hubitat, I'm just fine using the Kasa app and the Eufy app as needed and the IFTTT stuff really ties it all together perfectly so that pretty much anything I want to d with Alexa can be done after setting up some IFTTT triggers. But I want to make sure it would integrate just fine and do what I want it to do.

That's the jist of it and if I think of anything else I'll add to this post.

Thanks in advance!

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Forgot to add that my HVAC is controlled by a Nest first generation, works great, no problems there either.

I've got some bad news for you... The TP-Link/Kasa integration is provided by the community, I believe it is a SmartThings port.
I had two TP-Link switches connected through the integration and it significantly slowed my hub down.
This was a few months ago, but I would not recommend trying to integrate WiFi devices with Hubitat unless it is through an official integration.

Unless there is a new integration I'm not aware of I'd avoid it.
Sorry to burst the bubble...

Does the integration talk to the Kasa cloud service, or directly to the devices?

Through the cloud service.
I think Home Assistant does local comms.
It'd be interesting if a local driver could be made.

Looks like local control shouldn't be terribly hard:

https://www.softscheck.com/en/reverse-engineering-tp-link-hs110/

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I was under the assumption @djgutheinz drivers using UDP was local. Been using it for HS100s for months.
https://community.hubitat.com/t/release-tp-link-plug-switch-and-bulb-integration/1675

Last I checked there was both a local and cloud solution by Dave for tplink. I have used the new version of his local driver without issue since released. It has worked great for me.

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So will I be able to use motion detectors to trigger my HS200's?

I will have to try that. I've got two I'd like to use without IFTTT.

I've also been using the local version - It's so quick! Cheers @djgutheinz

Mark

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You are correct. The latest version uses UDP for communications. No external hub is required, no cloud account link is required.

The cloud version can be called from archive, if desired. I would not recommend it for new installations.

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I use the local integration with my kasa smart plug and it's FAST with zero hub slowdowns or issues. And yes, you can trigger it with any trigger available in hubitat. I use mine to power a lamp and have it turn on for 5 minutes when the front door is opened between dusk and dawn. It works so fast most times my wife ends up asking if we left the lamp on!

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Awesome! Also, just to confirm, I don't have to remove them from the Kasa app either right? I don't really want to remove them from the Kasa service, just add to the functionality using the Hubitat and motion sensors.

No you don't. The setup process on hubitat took some figuring out though as it wasn't thoroughly explained but it wasn't too bad. Plus you only do it once then you're good :slight_smile:

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Thanks guys! Got one ordered for a mere $95 shipped from Hubitat direct, can't wait to start tinkering with it. I also need to get some motion sensors and water sensors, any good cheap recommends on that? I'm also not certain what the best option will be for the door locks. So I'll take any recommends and advice I can get on all of that.

I'm interested in why you think the Amazon Fire Cubes are a waste of money. We have three in our house and they are our most utilized Amazon devices. It could have to do with how we watch television. We primarily use DirecTV Now, Hulu, Netflix, or Plex.

I do not have any water sensors, yet, so I will be interested to see what others recommend on that front. On motion sensors, I really like the Samsung SmartThings Motion Sensor (2015 & 2016 models). It reports motion, as well as temperature. This device isn't so clearly a motion sensor that it introduces the creep factor. It is a Zigbee device.

Samsung_SmartThings_Motion_Sensor_en-us

The other motion sensor that I use is the GE Z Wave Plus Motion Sensor. This one is clearly a motion sensor when it is hanging on the wall. Anyone will see the light flash when it sees motion.

I'm adding more of the latest Smartthings motion sensors. They are relatively low priced and have nice mounting pedestal. They also behave well in the Zigbee mesh.

For locations where I'm looking for additional sensing for humidity and light levels I'm adding more of the Zooz 4-in-1. They are zwave and can be a bit more trouble to pair but once paired they seem to remain connected. Both of these are proving to be good on battery life.

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The new 2018 SmartThings motion and contact sensors are excellent on battery life. I have one sensor (my hallway sensor) that gets TONS of traffic (over 220 pages in the events list). I replaced my older one (a V4 SmartThings sensor) with the new 2018 one about 7 months ago and it's battery is still at 87%. I seriously can't complain about that at all.

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I would take advantage of this deal and do not be afraid to make an offer at a lower price.I just purchased some of these and also the motion sensors the same seller had up. The motions I received were basically brand new they still had all the batteries with the pull tabs still present.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-5-IRIS-Indoor-Flood-Sensor-Protect-Your-Home-From-Water-Leaks-and-Floods/153441415340?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

I have some of the leak sensors I purchased about 3-4 months ago and no issues. They also display temperature and battery life seems good.