Viewer Discretion Advised: watching this video may create a hole in your pocket (and make a new Hubitat Elevation Model C-8 hub appear at your door):
That kinda sucks I just bought the old version
is it BTLE?
No. Zigbee, z-wave plus, z-wave LR only at the moment with a built in wifi radio.
Kudos to team Hubitat, but are there any other hardware improvements, such as CPU and/or RAM? Are the external antennas only for Wi-Fi connectivity?
It looks nice, but I wonder how noticeable an improvement it would be over a C-7 with an ethernet connection using existing devices. Will the newer radios have more gain than the older ones? Will the user interface be quicker?
There is no reason to upgrade the CPU and memory. It would give no noticeable improvement. The radios however? Now that's something else.
Latest Z-Wave chip ... This includes z-wave LR. It is also a faster chip
Latest Zigbee 3.0 chip ...
Built-in Wi-Fi connectivity ...
External Antennas for improved range ... Most devices will now connect directly to the hub instead of hopping through other nodes improving speed and mesh strength
USB-C power adapter ...
Matter/Thread compatibility announced...
Free hub to hub migration for both Z-Wave and Zigbee radios ...
Compatible with all major voice assistants ...
Compatible with Apple Homekit ...
Available now worldwide ...
Thanks for the quick reply and for clearing up the external antennas used for Zigbee, and especially Z-Wave.
No. Although the Mighty Gecko chip used for zigbee does support BTLE. This thread started by @Rxich might be of interest to you, especially the posts from @mike.maxwell. Bottom-line, enabling BTLE would require the radio to be time-sliced, which is undesirable in an event-driven automation system.
Will Matter be implemented in C7 hubs? Is this a feature that is unique to the C8?
Since I don't need, nor want, WiFi on the hub, and since I don't have any Zigbee device nor Z-Wave 800 devices, it comes down to hub performance. If the hub isn't any faster, and doesn't have any more RAM, then the only reason I would have to update is if Matter is only an option on the new hub.
My understanding is that it will be. However, you will need another Matter-compatible Thread border router (like a Homepod mini) on your network to control thread devices paired to other hubs/bridges using a C-7.
I want...I want...I want everything I've ever seen in the movies!!
Wait, I already ordered one. Must I then order more? If so...
Thank you sir, may I have another?
I think I'm done here.
I don't care about Thread. I don't have any plans to implement Thread in my home -- at least not at this time. But I do want Matter, because I have Hue, Alexa, and HomeKit all inter-communicating via Matter, and it work amazingly well. As of a recent update, Alexa no longer required the Hue skill to talk the Hue hub via Matter, and that is Uber cool.
Ya I just got the C7 just a few months ago... bummer
My understanding is that the ER32 chip being used in the hub also does thread, at least according to the specs.
Apparently as usual I need more coffee, DOH!!!!!
Great Video.
Most likely future Zwave devices will be 800, so if you are invested in Zwave, unless you do not plan to add and devices, you will eventually. Others may be able to clarify, but I believe this chip will also improve the performance of Zwave 700 devices as well.
I think the most advanced feature of this new hub is the antenna. Z-wave works best on a direct no hop basis. All issues seem to result in the hopping function. I will be buying a many of these and I will replace all of my customers that have any form of Z-wave in their homes.
I just bought three of them. I will see how they are and report back.