I wanted to see what ideas people had in terms of best architecture using the new Hub Mesh.
Doing some reading and thinking through some of my considerations, I think there are at least 3 main architectures that make the most sense for a 2 node mesh.
Split devices between the hubs based on physical proximity to hubs, split RM, apps, etc equally
--pros: Maintains at least half of house mostly working if one hub crashes.
--cons: Requires hubs placed at opposite sides of house (maybe running some Ethernet cable) 3rd party apps crashing both hubs. Both hubs potentially slowed by memory leak or performance type issues of apps/RM
Separate Z-wave and Zigbee hubs - split RM, apps, etc equally
--pros: Maintains some devices working in hub loss event. Minimizes interference between freq.
--cons: Both hubs need to be centrally located, yet somewhat separate. 3rd party apps crashing both hubs. Both hubs potentially slowed by memory leak or performance type issues of apps/RM
Keep all devices on one hub and apps, rules, most automations on separate hub
--pros: Simple migration from centrally located 1-hub topology. No need for separate cable run to new location for new hub. 'Device' hub will continue to be fast with simple automations even if cloud based apps/services slowing down 'Apps' hub.
--cons: If 'Device' hub goes down, nothing is working
As you can tell, I'm definitely leaning towards architecture 3. In my case my current hub is centrally located with no problems of loss of z-wave/zigbee connectivity due to distance. My main issues are slowdows causing simple automations (motion lighting) to be less functional. Currently I restart my hub about twice a day to refresh. I also would prefer keeping the second hub close to my switch/closet.
In my case I have gone with something close to your option 3
My new C7 replaced my hub with both zigbee and zwave enabled that is centralized in my house with my wifi. This hub runs all the rules that I want the fastest response time - button controllers, motion sensors etc.
My C5 hub with radios off located in my basement has my wifi/lan/cloud interfaces and controls modes, lighting per modes, and any rules that are large and don’t need a fast response time.
A lot depends on your house and interference patterns through your house. Do you have a single story with very few obstacles? Each way has their own merits and complications. How many devices do you have?
If it's a small two story 3 would probably be fine. For a large two story I'd probably split devices to cut down on hops. One on first floor say near the south side of the house and upstairs on the north side of the house.
For split hub you might need to beef up your mesh for both hubs given the device count but you could tell by zwave details of that's necessary or not by looking at the routes.
I’ve gone with a combo of 1 and 3.
Hubs 1 and 2 are on either end of the house with their own zigbee/z-wave meshes
Hub 3 has most of the complex, whole house rules.
Hub 4 is for 3rd party code and internet connected apps.
although I’ve moved most of my complex automations to node-red at this point, and could probably get away with just 3 hubs.
I would think you could get away with 2 hubs, spaced fairly equally apart. My single hub in the middle of my 3000 sq ft house had ample coverage for zwave/zigbee.
Issue for me was hub was slowing down with so many 3rd party apps, not an issue connecting to devices at all..
