Migrating Home Assistant drivers to Hubitat

[mboisson]

Hi,
Is there any developer guide to migrate Home Assistant drivers to Hubitat ?
There is this integration for Hilo (Hydro Québec) into Home Assistant: GitHub - dvd-dev/hilo: Home Assistant Hilo Integration via HACS
but I am using Home Assistant, and I would want it to work on Hubitat.

Thanks,

Maxime Boissonneault

[aaiyar]

@mboisson

Is there any developer guide to migrate Home Assistant drivers to Hubitat ?

You would have to re-write everything in Groovy. With some complications - Hubitat runs in a JVM sandbox, with only a subset of Java libraries whitelisted for use by userspace drivers and apps.

A simpler approach would be to integrate it with Home Assistant. And then use Home Assistant Device Bridge to integrate the HA device with Hubitat.

[RELEASE] Home Assistant Device Bridge (HADB)

All new version 2 now available! Features This version subscribes only to events you select from the list of entities within the Home Assistant Device Bridge app. The version 2.x driver no longer listens to all events, thus significantly reducing the CPU load on your Hubitat Elevation hub. After upgrading, you must open the app and press the Done button. IMPORTANT: The Home Assistant Device Bridge version 2.0 app is now mandatory. The version 2.0 driver will no longer operate as sta…

[mboisson]

That's too bad. I went with Hubitat specifically because I did not want to be running Home Assistant on some computer that I need to maintain, but looks like I might as well have gone to Home Assistant all the way if I'm gonna have to run it anyway.

[aaiyar]

@mboisson

That's too bad.

There are many of us who use the best available tool for any given purpose. My home automation setup includes Hubitat hubs, a Home Assistant Yellow, a Lutron Caséta Pro bridge, a Hue bridge, ecowitt & Tempest weather stations, and Logitech Harmony hubs.

In my opinion, there is no perfect hub. Luckily, Hubitat has tools that let me integrate all of the above - so in the end, all my automations are performed on Hubitat devices, both real and virtual.

[csteele]

Don't you also have a Node-Red "hub" too?

My Total System is 4 Hubitat hubs, a Lutron Caséta Pro bridge, a Node-Red instance.

Added to that are Apple Home, Google Home and Alexa. I also have a HomeAssistant running on one of my always-on Macs, but none of these are used by the family. Voice gets used to "wake me at 7am" kind of thing. Everything else has been automated and works the way we want. I doubt an actual wall switch has been touched in a couple of years. I have Pico's stuck to the middle of the headboards to automate any of the customizations each person wants.

[aaiyar]

@csteele

also have a Node-Red "hub" too?

I do. That is now running in Home Assistant Yellow.

[mboisson]

So, what is Hubitat best for, and what is Home Assistant best for, in your opinion ?

[aaiyar]

These answers are specific to my use case:

@mboisson

what is Hubitat best for

1. Ease of designing complex automations (there's an incredible wealth of built-in and community tools for automation)
2. Z-Wave device integration
3. Zigbee device integration (many, but not all)
4. Alexa integration
5. ecobee thermostat integration (although I no longer use this thermostat)
   Weather-based triggers for automation

@mboisson

what is Home Assistant best for

1. Zigbee device integration (using zigbee2mqtt for the coordinator)
2. Integrating Homekit devices (using HomeKit controller)
3. Integrating cloud-dependent devices
4. Integrating Lutron Caséta devices - doesn't require the Pro bridge for Pico support. And supports motion sensors.
5. Integrating LAN devices using Tasmota or ESPHome.

I don't use dashboards, but I think that the built-in Dashboards in Home Assistant are more refined than the built-in dashboard in Hubitat

[ymerj]

Hilo is a mishmash of Stelpro thermostat, Sylvania bulb, Enbrighten switch, Netatmo weather station and Onelink smoke detector. All hooked up to a rebranded Alia (Stelpro) zigbee hub. All these could be integrated directly into hubitat except maybe the hub.

[mboisson]

Technically, yes, but what hilo brings is handling automatically the challenges and setting the thermostats accordingly. Also, the pricing for the devices is unbeatable, but it comes with a 3 year contract to do the challenges, for which they must be linked to their hub.

[mboisson]

Also, their hub reads the house meter, which I don’t think is accessible without it

[ymerj]

You are right about the pricing. It cost me 1000$ to change my thermostats for smart one a couple a years ago. Now they offer the same thing for 339$ plus 6 extra devices.

If you still want to use Hubitat, your best bet is taking @aaiyar advice and go with HADB