This is going to sound odd, however I seem to not be grasping when a manufacturer hub is required when adding items to Hubitat.
How does one know if for example YoLink, Philips Hue Hub & switchbot hubs are required to work or enhance the devices through Hubitat?
My thoughts are the products will still integrate into HE without a hub. However, they will be Cloud based which will cause delays and potential time outs vs the Hub providing LAN support to mitigate timeouts or other issues?
If my logic is correct, then should I always purchase a manufacturer hub? I know LAN integration can be setup for some products on HE as I was guided through the Govee LAN setup which works excellent. Would the same logic apply to any products added to HE, Simply by locking in a DHCP via Address Reservation on my Mesh Network?
I have met many awesome people here who have grown my knowledge base significantly to the point I likely should already know this.
It depends. A lot of devices can bypass the manufacturer hubs such as phillips stuff. The problem there lies in older zll 1.2 bulbs because they make bad repeaters and messengers they should be paired on their on mesh either using another Hubitat or a Hue bridge. Then you have lutron which uses integration with the lutron pro 2 hub and talks via telnet. Mainly it boils down to protocol (zigbee/zwave). As long as they follow standards, they should pair. Some zigbee is made to be proprietary and should be avoided at all costs. Wifi devices unless a local API is made available will be cloud based. The community will write integrations for those but they will still be cloud based. Then there are devices that are in the 300-450mhz range and use a bond hub which can be integrated into hubitat directly. So your best bet is to start with the Hubitat compatibility list, then search the forums for the product your looking at (plenty of devices not on the compatibility list work just fine with Hubitat using the generic drivers). Then determine if that requires a manufacturers hub to work and if that hub will integrate. For me I have 3 hubs. Hubitat, Lutron pro 2, and a Hue bridge.
For me homekit is good for getting certain devices back in to hubitat (even by virtual switches) By comparison homekit rules are primitive compared to what you can do with Hubitat. Some like the dash interface (I prefer automations to a dash) but honestly Either @gslender's Hubivue or @jpage4500 ;s Android HD+ are far superior.
Also seeing as Switchbot devices are bluetooth only you will need their hub to connect to them. I see there is a community driver for the Switchbot API.
I think this was only in the context of having older bulbs. I yanked out my Hue hub and paired directly, and the experience is fantastic. Hubitat even provides Zigbee firmware updates for Hue devices. The motion sensors are, by far, the best I’ve used. Note that I do only have bulbs and motion sensors, so perhaps some of the more-complex devices will work better with the Hue hub.
Thanks Brad, really appreciate the feedback on your experience with Hue. This sounds really promising and awesome to hear from someone using this daily.
I am not someone who is against hubs but I for sure want to limit them. With the cost of building a smart home, I wanted to ensure I maximize the Hubitat’s abilities and eliminate hubs where possible.
The fact that you have a seamless experience with Philips hue bulbs and motion sensors demonstrate the power of Hubitat. When you think about it, for the price of 2-3 basic hubs you break even on your Hubitat.
A couple of other reasons to use the hue bridge are to remove zigbee bulbs from your main mesh - zigbee bulbs aren't particularly good repeaters (more so if you turn them off accidentally ). Also I've found Ikea bulbs to work better with them. And I'm not sure about whether this also works natively with HE, but hue bulbs can retain their state after a power loss using the bridge. And the hue bridges are virtually bullet proof.
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). Also I've found Ikea bulbs to work better with them. And I'm not sure about whether this also works natively with HE, but hue bulbs can retain their state after a power loss using the bridge. And the hue bridges are virtually bullet proof.
