Leviton WiFi device support?

Yes, actually. Thereā€™s plenty of evidence that if hackers can easily get in, they will, even if only to mess with you.

Now the key thing to note is that you arenā€™t magically more secure just because your hub is local. If you can access your system remotely, you have an attack vector. This includes cloud systems but also local systems exposed remotely. Of course you may have attack vectors you are not even be aware of as in this thread where (among other potential vectors), some people had unintentionally accessible network shares.

It might not even be about control. Maybe it's just monitoring. Once "they" get your leaving and arriving patterns along with any key pad entries, then your house is theirs. To a burglar, money is indeed a motive. To a miscreant, well who knows.

I donā€™t actually think that smart home monitoring is a particularly meaningful vector for burglary, at least not at present. The people willing to break into your house to steal your TV are generally not the sort of people able to hack into your automation system, whether itā€™s in the cloud or not.

For the most part, the people who would hack into your home automation system are just going to screw around with it because they find it amusing. However, some might use it as a vector to extort money with ransomware if they can leap from your home automation system to your computers. Similarly they might blackmail with security footage if they capture anything compromising.

Physical break-ins are generally not going to involve automation compromises, though. Thatā€™s just not very realistic right now. Just as itā€™s not realistic that checking in on Twitter/Foursquare/whatever makes you more likely to get burglarized. Burglaries just arenā€™t targeted like that for normal people. If you have actual enemies, then sure, but thatā€™s not the case for typical people.

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Ooops! I apologize. For some reason, I was under the impression that within the Alexa App you could use the state of a switch device as a trigger for an Alexa Routine. This is not possible currently.

Sorry for any confusion!

You can do this within IFTTT. Use a Hubitat Virtual Switch as a trigger to change the state of your Leviton WiFi switch (assuming Leviton has support for IFTTT!)

Probably the best solution is to simply replace any WiFi switches you have with corresponding Z-Wave Plus or ZigBee switches. This way all communications will be local with no internet or cloud server dependencies.

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Not switches, but you can use contact sensors.

But, I agree, swap to z-wave or zigbee and you'll save yourself a lot of headache.

Unfortunately, not yet on Hubitat... :frowning:

https://community.hubitat.com/t/amazon-adding-contact-and-motion-capability-s-to-echo/3551/24?u=ogiewon

That makes me a sad panda. :cry:
giphy

These switches are in my shop. It is to far away from the z-wave network of the house.

Hi All,
Mr. Newbie here with my first question!
I have a Leviton WiFi switch that Iā€™m trying to control with IFTTT Intergration. I created a virtual switch in Hubitat and then made it available using the IFTTT Intergration app. Then I when into IFTTT and set up a Leviton action to turn on the light however when I try to link Hubitat, there is no device link for the virtual switch in the IFTTT pull down menu, even though it was previously authorized in Hubitat. Is there something Iā€™m missing about how a virtual switch works?

Hey All,

A little update on this topic, since I can see there was a lot of interest in this and I have one of these switches myself. Here's the skinny on the WIFI version of these Leviton Decora Smart Wifi Switches. This switch is not actually functioning on any sort of local communication basis. As it turns out, when you tell your switch to turn on, it communicates from the APP, to the internet, up to the Leviton cloud, back over the internet, and down to your light switch. (As shown in the diagram below.)

Leviton1

Someone has already gone through most of the trouble of reverse-engineering the process and protocol of this particular wifi switch here:

So, as we can learn from our research, any integration of this particular product would not be a truly local integration. It is, however, very doable.

I will take a look at this tomorrow for sure!

Andy
BCSH

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Has anyone made any progress on incorporating these switches into Hubitat? I have 15 of them so swapping them for ZWave models would be time and cost consuming. They currently work with Echo and ST, but I want to get rid of ST if possible.

Welcome to the Hubitat Community!

There is no integrated driver but you can use IFTTT or you can use Google assistant relay.

My choice would be Google assistant relay because then you can control other devices that are supported by Google Assistant that Hubitat doesnā€™t support. One of my favorite tools.

Thanks. Frankly, I think I'm going to have to give up on Hubitat. I'm moving from ST because dealing with connections through IFTTT and WebCore are just painful at times. We already use Amazon Echo for some functions and bringing Google in just makes things more complex for my family.
It appears that Home Automation while better is still the hobbyist world we had with the X-10.
Thank you

I don't think that is a fair characterization at all... There are SUPPORTED devices of every kind that can be purchased. But the fact is, there are 100s of manufacturers and no one system will support ALL of them - EVER.

That certainly does not mean it is only for hobbyists, though. It simply means that you need to check compatibility before buying devices. Or before switching hub/systems.

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You are not wrong about HA still being in the early stages. But youā€™re misunderstanding Google Assistant Relay. You donā€™t need a Google Home device. You just need a Google account and the patience to follow the directions to build it. One itā€™s done, you have a great tool that can control all sorts of devices, and even control the SmartThings cloud (also no hub or history of ever owning one required). Totally transparent to your family. They will not be interacting with Google Assistant, the hub does.

So using a RM rule, I could tell Alexa to turn on a virtual switch, the virtual switch would tell Google Assistant Relay to turn on the Leviton switch. When I tell Alexa to turn OFF the virtual switch, the same RM rule would turn off the Levitown switch by telling Google Assistant, to tell Leviton to turn OFF the switch.

It sounds more complicated and slower than it actually is. Itā€™s only seconds delay and very consistent. The reality is the industry is selling everybody these Wi-Fi switches because the general population understands Wi-Fi, and they donā€™t understand what Zigbee or Z-Wave is. So the market is flooded with these cloud connected Wi-Fi switches that top out at about 30 devices on most routers, because thatā€™s all most can handle before other serious issue on your WiFi network.

Wi-Fi is the wrong way to go about home automation in my opinion. It doesnā€™t scale well, doesn't repeat to other devices, so it's a star topology only, and forces cloud dependency unless app/drivers a written to handle it. Thatā€™s no small feat, and these are not popular switches among the user base that is currently supporting the growth of this platform and of SmartThings. Other protocols are going to emerge that will probably take over from Zigbee and Z-Wave, but thatā€™s very far off.

So for now this is how you get around this limitation of Wi-Fi plugs, switches and other devices.

Hereā€™s an example of how I use Google assistant relay to make Alexa speak whatever I want when something happens on Hubitat. I know it can be slow with some services to control devices via IFTTT, and that is the reason that I like and promote the use of Google Assistant Relay so much. The Google cloud is rock solid and very responsive. If thereā€™s a delay, itā€™s almost certainly going to be with Leviton or whoever's device your trying to control.

I will take a look at using Google. I am reluctant to build on anything made by Google because of their history of dropping useful/working products in the past. Right now, we're trying to shift our users away from Google Chat/Hangouts to another solution because of the upcoming deprecation.

I don't mind hacking things together. I have already attached Google Assistant to our Echo system and similar feats, but at the end of the day if my wife and kids can't use things and get very close to 100% effectiveness it's a goner. Every time I've tried a two or three step system with HA it has problems. WebCore, IFTTT, SmarthThings to Echo all work most of the time. But when they don't people get frustrated.

I understand Z-Wave and Zigbee and have been using devices with them for years, but didn't have a choice with the light switches as they were already installed. I will say that my experience with ZWave and Zigbee also hasn't been 100%. ZWave devices drop off from time to time. There are no consumer tools for getting status, signal strength, or working through connection problems...it's just basically "keep trying and hope it works." Somehow they made it even worse than diagnosing BT issues. We could discuss the mysterious "exclusion" process, but I'm sure you get my point.

Saying WiFI is limited to star topology isn't really fair either as mesh systems for WiFi are very common and also quite a bit easier to connect and monitor (Google WiFI for instance) than a ZWave mesh.

In some ways much to my chagrin the Leviton WiFi switches have worked far better than the ZWave switches I've had in the past. the registration process was easy and they are reliable to the point that my wife actually uses them through Echo without hesitation. I can't say the same is true for any ZWave (including our Schlage locks and Leviton outlets).

I fully agree about the cloud part. That's why I was going to try and move to Hubitat to get as much local as possible.

I hope someone figures this out and that the solution isn't - we're just doing it this way and everyone with hundreds of dollars of this equipment is out of luck. I also know how hard it is to get industry compliance as I was on one of the early committees that worked on email exchange and compatibility between services like AOL, CompuServe, etc. Not a lot o fun.

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We agree on a lot of points and I have to disagree with you on some of these points too. This would be the reason there isn't a rock solid one standard fits all wireless protocol. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

I agree, Google does not have a good track record at keeping services going. It does make me uneasy at times because I love me Google Assistant Relay capability with HE so much. It's literally the bridge that has delivered so much capability that I never had access to outside of IFTTT or Stringify (when I was still a ST user) before now. But it works today, the investment is time building the node server. I did it in an hour, but it might take longer depending on your experience level. I run mine on an old MacBook laptop that I run other node.js applications on, but a raspberry pi will work just as well, so not a big investment there.

I did the add Google Assistant to Echo thing too, but it was much harder, more confusing to setup, unreliable, and cost me money when it quickly exceeded my free limit on Amazon. Contrast that to just buying a $35 mini and setting it next to my Echo. For dual voice assistants, that was the smarter choice. I also recently got a second one for free too.

Zigbee is more likely to succeed and evolve into some other communications technology. Even Amazon has realized that WiFi alone wasn't doing it for everyone, so they introduced the Echo Plus with Zigbee. But I don't think they're convinced it's the be all, end all. Z-Wave is complicated to setup and maintain, different frequencies in most countries (unlike Zigbee), and doesn't self heal. Your woes have been related to a lack of Zigbee and Z-Wave repeaters, and possibly not a clear understanding of how the technologies work. That's not a criticism of you, it is a criticism of how that has developed. Even IKEA now offers dedicated repeaters to their customers trying to get into home automation with the TrƄdfri devices. But how do you explain to someone that has no idea about this stuff, that they need this repeater and why. And how do you do it will a drawing of a guy that looks like he just asked Mr. Owl how many licks it takes to get to the Tootsie roll center of a Tootsie Pop? :grimacing:

WiFi devices are a star topology, no matter if you have WiFi mesh or not. I don't agree that WiFi mesh is common. It's still maturing, the technology is just barely ratified to a spec that no one currently follows and 9 out of 10 people I've talked to have never heard of it. I've argued that it can make WiFi range less of a problem, but it certainly doesn't change the device limits or the noise that these devices chatting away on the network causes.

You and I both live in free, capitalist societies, where standards are build by committees and the bottom line. In places like China where decision can be made from the top down, things might evolve differently and that's likely to be an influencer, solely because of the volumes and supply chains. Hubitat is just over a year old. They have to keep the lights on and you do that by appeasing the enthusiasts like me and then they help the new users, and the company/product evolve as it makes sense. If they were to just develop another cloud only hub, I'm pretty sure they'd be closing their doors already. I applaud their thoughtful approach. There are no easy answers to this, but they have given me stability and flexibility and relative ease of use, I wasn't finding with any other solution. Yes you have to build stuff yourself, but that's the price that comes with the flexibility. Take away the flexibility and try to sell to the masses that don't understand home automation and you have Wink or Lowe's IRIS. Look where they are at today. You just can't throw this stuff at your grandma and get her to master it like an iPad.

SHP, I agree about HE. I wouldn't expect them to build another version of SmartThings. I like what they've done. I could argue that not covering a product by Leviton isn't a great idea, but I'm sure they'll get around to it if there's demand with their limited resources. I don't have anything bad to say about the HE...I just can't use it.

You may want to check out the newer version of the GA over Echo. It is now totally free (or at least has been for me), it's also rock solid on response. I also have a Google Mini. I just find having one device rather than two easier. We have Echos all over our house for intercom and announcements.

I also don't totally disagree on Zigbee. It seems to work, but both Zigbee and ZWave suffer from no one knows what they are. People that buy a device see WiFi and they know it should work. They also have a rudimentary knowledge of how to make it connect, etc.

Every major WiFi router manufacturer is pushing mesh solutions now. Some don't call it mesh, but that's what they're really doing. I looked for a ZWave repeater on Amazon about a month ago...there was one by Aeotec I believe and it was being discontinued. Yes, I know that the AC powered ZWave devices (switches and outlets) also are usually repeaters...but that's almost a secret. Worse though is that there is no way to know that your ZWave or Zigbee network needs a repeater as there are no consumer tools for checking signal strength like you can do with WiFi. I have a door lock that would work, then drop off for a day or so, and then come back. I just guessed that it was signal problem. I've been in the field of communications technology since before x.25 got popular...and I'm guessing. My wife would have just returned it as would most consumers.

When I talk about standards. I don't mean everything has to work exactly the same, but having 2000 different devices all that have a different method of connecting on different networks with different batteries and most not giving any real feedback on success, failure or strength is just a mess.

Actually, X-10 was better. They pretty much made all of the devices and they all kind of worked with their system.

The major hub vendors don't support some of the devices of the major device vendors (usually the device vendor's fault). Nest on ST for instance. So, there are hacks to make that happen. That's a hobbyist world (Rule Machine, WebCore, IFTTT, etc. is a hobbyist world).
Now, please don't get me wrong. This is not a Hubitat made problem I believe they're doing well. I'm disappointed they don't support a major player like Leviton's WiFi switches, but I understand they have limited resources.

However, a regular consumer at a Home Depot is not going to have a clue what their "smart" Alexa Ready switch is Wifi and not ZWave (which they probably never heard of before). Worse, it means that people like builders and electricians are not going to start putting these types of items in as standard...unless they expect their customers to end up with 14 different apps to control them all (that's what I currently have).

  1. Lifx - Light bulbs
  2. Nest - Smokes
  3. Smartthings - Hub
  4. Ecobee - Thermostats
  5. Flair - Mini Split Thermostat/Control
  6. Sensibo - Mini Split Thermostat (2nd home)
  7. Leviton - Switches and outlets
  8. SmartOil - Oil tank level
  9. Kuna - Light/Camera/Security
  10. Google Home - Hub
  11. Amazon Echo - Hub
  12. Steamer (my steam shower)
  13. Schuluter Systems (floor heat)
  14. Arlo - Cameras/Motion

Only two I've never heard of. Everything you have is cloud based, so I'm guessing those two are as well? I don't say this much, but you might as well stay with SmartThings. Assuming 12 and 13 are cloud based, you've go 14 chances to be offline every day. The only thing you gain with HE is your hub can still operate without the cloud or an internet connection, but being that nothing else can, you wouldn't be able to use the hub to control anything if you lost internet access or any one of those cloud services dropped. There are community drivers for Lifx, Ecobee, and Nest but nothing else on that list. I believe the Nest cannot operate if their cloud service is down, but I don't know for sure. I have the official HE integration which does require cloud.

Through no direct intention, just an evolution, I am planning to try a shift in my use. Have a Google Home Hub waiting for me, but the family does like Alexa. I wouldn't bother with putting Google Assistant on Alexa again. It's just not worth my time when I'll have three Google Home devices in my house soon, in addition to our two Echos.

I agree they're pushing, but people are not buying that as the default yet. The default is what the ISP puts in. I work with consumers as a consultant too. If you ask the general public, they won't have a clue what you're talking about. It's something that we all understand in our echo chamber, but the average person doesn't. Stop people on the street and ask them what they know about WiFi and they'll very likely tell you it's how they get internet. Ask them what the difference is between WiFi and Internet and you're going to get a whole lot of blank stares and misinformed answers.

Builders don't want these headaches. Leviton makes a fine paddle switch, but Lutron is what the designers like and it's a good choice to a system the just works. But guess what? You need a bridge. That's just the reality of translating the reliable protocols to IP. You mention X10. Half my house (small house) is the descendants of that, Insteon. Rock solid system (once connected to HE), good hardware and great hardware features, plus a dual mesh network technology. But, I need their hub to translate from IP to Insteon, and since HE doesn't directly drive Insteon, I need a second node.js server to bridge between those two hubs. However, a simple node server running on a RPi or in my case a MacBook, and I have rock solid local control. The Insteon hub can lose connection to the Insteon cloud and it doesn't matter. Everything works local and very fast.

Hubs and bridges are a fact of how this stuff works today. Changing all this to a single communication protocol is likely never going to happen while I'm on this side of the ground. So personally, I choose to go along with the hubs and bridges to link it all together. The only things I have that are cloud based are that way because there is no other way, they were free, or I made a mistake.