I and contemplating moving my smart home components over to Hubitat.
I had been building a modest smart home over the last couple years using mainly Lutron, Wink and Google.
The wiring in our previous house warranted the Lutron switchese due to lack of neutral wire. And since I like the look of them have stuck with them in the next house. And the fact that they worked natively with Wink without the need of an additional hub was a huge plus.
One of the reasons I started with Wink as a Hub is because its compatibility list seemed to be more in line with the components I wanted to add. With the decline in support and apparent demise of Wink, I am looking to the next option.
Been following Hubitat (HE) news for a bit, but am concerned about how my existing devices may or may not play well. I am assuming that my Lutron switches will not work with HE without the Lutron Hub? So I would be out the cost of the HE and the Lutron Hub to get started?
Similarly with my Harmony Hub, does HE have support for that or would that be best to be kept linked to my Google Assistant?
With the next hub I chose I am trying to eliminate the scenarios of.... "This device connects directly to Google assistant, but this one is linked to my hub and by association connected to Google assistant". I would like ONE workflow when I am complete, if you guys know what I mean....
Other Brands I am interested in adding to the mix and would be curious to know of the level of support the HE offers for these....
Philips Hue
Merkury Innovations (potential for this brand be used in kids rooms, a decent budget device)
Smart Garage door opener (not decided on brand yet)
I came from Wink as well, and have many Lutron switches, plugs and picos. You will need to get the Lutron Hub Pro 2 unit to work with HE. The upside is that you can now use Picos to directly control other non-Lutron devices and run Routines. I don't have a Harmony, but I'm sure others will chime in there.
Google assistant is supported. But if you have a lot of Wi-Fi devices in general they are not. There are a few and there are some community integration’s for a couple as well. Most of the support is zigbee and Z-wave connected directly to the hub. Other integrations require some kind of bridge.
Here’s a list of devices that have been tested compatible. This list grows almost weekly.
I’ve seen a lot of ex-Wink users expecting Hubitat to be the kind of playschool, plug it together interface that wink had. It is not and so you should go into this with your eyes wide open. You don’t need to know how to program but you do need to use a more detailed interface. It’s a big departure from what you’re used to with Wink. But it is thousands of times more powerful and flexible. Wink robots look like stupid little jokes compared to what Hubitat Rule Machine can do. And although they can use cloud services like IFTTT and Google assistant and Alexa, they are not dependent on cloud like wink is. So you will never be left high and dry like wink is very likely about to leave you.
I searched amazon for the Hub Pro, and got mixed results.
Is there any way to tell if the hub in the amazon bundles is the PRO version? Sorry can't posts links here as of yet....
I am currently sitting at 4 Lutron switches with an extra laying around. depending on cost of this PRO Hub, it may be worth looking at options to replace the Lutron switches rather than relying on the two hubs to play well together? What are others thoughts on this?
The hub should have this model number. This site is usually the cheapest for them. IMO you will be very satisfied going with Lutron combined with Hubitat, for many of the reasons others just posted as well as the reliability.
Is it true that Hue lightstrips are working without the bridge?
And on that same topic, is that what everyone here typically uses for strip lighting or has there been a better more cost effective options hit the market lately?
One option is to use the Sengled LED Strip which can be directly paired to the HE hub (and will not, in fact, work with the Hue bridge.) Reports are that the Hue LED strips have better color and whites versus the Sengled, but at a higher price point. It really depends on your needs.
Personally, I only direct-pair Sengled bulbs/strips to my HE hub, as these are all non-repeater devices. Most other bulbs are not so reliable in the Zigbee HA1.2 repeating department.
If you already have a Hue bridge and bulbs, I would probably leave all of those devices paired to the Hue bridge, and simply use the Hubitat to Hue integration.
Maybe you're not too familiar with the Zigbee protocol and mesh networks. This is what @ogiewon is describing. By using Sengled devices, it illuminates a problem that can occur when Zigbee lights don't pass the signal to the next device correctly.
If you are going to use any bulb or LED strip other than Sengled (which don't repeat signal at all), then you're best to keep the lights on the Hue Bridge, or put all lights on a separate hub. The ways to do this vary. There are several. The Hue bridge can be directly controlled via the Hue Integration app. So even though the bulbs and strips would be on the Hue Bridge for example, they will react as fast as if they were connected to the Hubitat Elevation hub directly. The advantage though, is they are on their own separate Zigbee network on the Hue Bridge, and therefor cannot interfere with any Zigbee device on the HE hub.
I use these as well and the work well directly connected to HE. I use the Sengled bulbs too which connect directly.
I do have the Harmony hub and it does work with HE.
We have 1 of our Lutron Hybrid switches set to "Good morning" which turns on a few Lutron dimmers and turns the TV on FOX news ( wifes choice), at low volume.
My only gripe with HE is locks, if you have Schlage (even Yale) locks they may be an issue. @jwetzel1492 is updating his Reliable Locks app, which I am hopeful will make this a problem of the past. As of now they are the only devices not working 100% in HE since my transition from SmartThings. (they work just not reliably...yet).
Thank you for the reply! I dont have the Hue gear yet. I have been hesitant to pull the trigger on it, because I REALLY only want the light strip from HUE to create bias lighting for the TV in the living room.
Sengled looks like a worthy substitute. Can the 2 meter lengths be connected or can they only be extended by the 1 meter extension? I will need to trim a 65" tv and 3 meters, and potentially on route, 4 meters may be too short too.
This is the coolest feature and I highly recommend it - totally worth it. You can stick a PICO absolutely anywhere and have it control just about everything. I have a PICO in my kitchen that controls my Sonos and as I'm cooking I can pause the music (if it's loud) to have Alexa/Google Home set a kitchen timer. I have another one in a hidden location that disables my Alarm - endless possibilities!
Agreed.
Next to our bed my wife can turn on "sleep mode" which turns on some alarms stuff, dims/turns off lights by setting our sleep scene, and she can also use it to turn a light back on/off/dim. It's magical.
Picos are very cool but for simplicity I like the smartthings single buttons.
For our master bedroom we have 2 wall sconces over the bed with smart bulbs. There are no light switches within reach so I've incorporated 2 buttons - one on each side table. One press toggles the designated sconce light, 2 presses toggles both. Very high on the WAF/SOAF.
Not saying I don't like the picos (I have a bunch) but once you get above 2 or so functions it can be a little unnerving to the uninitiated..
Very cool discussion, everyone! We to have ONE Pico currently, but it is used as a 2nd switch for our dining room (in what used to be a three-way situation) before we moved in. And they are currently just paired with Wink....
I too came from Wink with a heavy Lutron Caseta integration. The move to Hubitat has been wonderful.., Get a Lutron Pro hub and the Lutron devices run much better than they did with Wink. The devices available to Wink were very limited and the Hubitat world of devices is HUGE compared to Wink. The Local operation of the Hubitat hub is great too, no more cloud dependence. I only had a couple of devices that I could not bring over (Kidde Smoke detectors) but everything else ported well. The Schlage Locks don't behave as well as they did on Wink but otherwise.... Now I have 3 Hubitat hubs with hundreds of devices and for the most part, they all play well.
We do this, for our two bedside lamps: single push toggles your own lamp, doubletap toggles your partner's lamp, long hold does both (both off if either was on, both on if both were off).
100% WAF. And so far, 100% GuestAF for those using our guest bedroom, with the same setup.
wifes choice), at low volume.
And so far, 100% GuestAF for those using our guest bedroom, with the same setup.
