Migration from Smartthings and Hue to Hubitat

You can connect the Hue bridge directly to the HE via the Hue Bridge Integration app. You can also use a 3rd party developed app called HubConnect to share devices between HE and ST. That's also nice because if you find certain things not working as expected in HE you can still use ST until such time as you are ready to port things over.

When I converted - I tried to start slowly and use HE's HubLink app but ended up converting everything. I would probably leave the Hue devices connected to the Hue and use the integration app.

The smart things devices will just work (you have to remove them from ST and maybe reset) and you can port them over as you want.

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Welcome @mikeb147 :hugs:

I would recommend excluding the devices from ST and then moving them over to HE. If they will not connect factory reset the device and then connect to HE. I would not recommend the ST hub connect long term. If you did that you would still be plagued with same ST issues, so whats the point? (unless devices don't work, but your list should be fine.)

For the Hue devices I would use the Hue Bridge as mentioned. I do not have one, but they may have some better integrated lighting features than HE does (to be expected since that is what they do)

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I wouldn't toss out the ST hub either - some devices' firmware can be updated with it. Also there may be some problematic devices that might run "better" on ST..

I absolutely agree it's not a long term solution!!

Maybe the easiest thing to do is connect up the Hue Hub first. play around with the rules a bit. There will be a learning curve and this community is great for helping to figure things out.

Also Welcome!!!!!

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You might have an issue with those Lifx bulbs but theres an app for that..

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I'll second the advice above more explicitly: keep the Hue Bridge. :slight_smile: At the end of Hubitat's Zigbee mesh tips documentation (or a search of this forum and some others), you can see that many bulbs behave poorly when mixed with other types of Zigbee devices (which you have: your ST motion and multipurpose sensors). Keeping them on their own network, like a Hue Bridge, keeps all your devices happier. It works more or less the same as ST, where you must currently also be using their Hue Bridge integration (Hubitat has one; I wrote one myself, too, with a few extra features).

LIFX doesn't have an official integration, but there is a community integration that works well for many people. Everything else looks like it should be pretty easy to move. If that's an exhaustive list of all of your devices, I might suggest adding at least one repeater. All of those sensors are Zigbee and might benefit from at least a Zigbee smart plug or other repeater (the Ikea Tradfri outlet is cheap, the Ikea USB repeater is not much more but a lot smaller in size and arguably prettier, and there are a ton of other options like the SmartThings 2018 Zigbee outlet). For more than 32 Zigbee devices, you'll need a repeater (same as ST v1 and v2 hubs), but it's a good idea regardless, especially since some people report that Hubitat's radios don't seem to have quite the range as ST's.

You don't have a ton of devices, so if t were me, I'd probably just remove everything from ST and pair it to Hubitat. You could jsut reset the devices and pair them to Hubitat without "politely" removing from ST if you want to reference ST for automations (in case you forget how you used the devices). But I understand it may take some time to set up your automations and everything in Hubitat the way you like it, to say nothing of whatever adjustments you may need to make to get used to the new platform. Hub Link and HubConnect are two options you can use to "share" devices between platforms and ease the transition, but if I only had 15 sensors, I probably wouldn't bother. You could transition slowly from one to the other (in many cases, destroying one mesh as you build the other can be an issue, but again you didn't specify having any repeaters, so this doesn't matter as much--though I'd be careful not to put ST and Hubitat on the same channel while you're moving).

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Thanks everyone for the advice, looks like Hubitat has an awesome active community which is great! :grin:

I do have some additional devices to add to the list:

1x Harmony Hub
1x Samsung N950 Sound Bar (Connected to ST)
1x LG C7 TV
1x Apple TV
1x PlayStation 4
2x motorized blinds (connected to Automate Pulse v2 hub)
1x TP Link smart plug (think its wifi)
1x Sensibo AC IR blaster
1x Eve Room
1x Eve Energy
1x Lucci Connect Smart ceiling fan with light
1x Ring Door View Cam
4x Amazon Echo's

OK I think thats it, lol...

Any ideas on these ones?

I don’t see any Zigbee Repeater capable devices in your list. I’d suggest you add a few Zigbee mains-powered devices to strengthen your Zigbee mesh for the Hubitat hub. Samsung outlets, IKEA Tradfri outlets, Iris v2 3210-L outlets, etc... all make decent Zigbee repeaters.

Here Is a great deal on 5 Iris v2 outlets.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-5-Z-Wave-Plus-Smart-Plug-Model-3210-L-White-Zigbee/153454971494?hash=item23baa10a66:g:8F0AAOSwuG9ctxty

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Looks like you are going to have some fun!! :wink: You may have to search the forums for the more "esoteric" devices to see if there are drivers/apps etc.

If you haven't made a decision yet I would strongly suggest you come up with a list of must haves and see if HE (or the community) supports those.

Also consider how much you are willing to tweak things / how much time you want to spend on stuff like setting up your own server (like a Raspberry PI) if necessary. Resolving network issues when incorporating different/unsupported devices etc. All the stuff that may crop up the further down the rabbit hole you go.

It can be highly rewarding if you are into this stuff or it can be a nightmare if not. Set your expectations accordingly. This system is closer to bare metal and less mature than ST so some of the comforts of a somewhat oversimplified overly abstracted system just aren't there. What you gain though is speed, flexibility and local control.

I don't mean to suggest that you can't just stick with existing supported devices - indeed you can and thats probably the safest / easiest thing to do starting out. The UI is a tad quirky but logical and again there is a learning curve.. And remember it's more about automation than remote control.

The community is here to help as much as possible.

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Totally into this kinna stuff! I work in tech, so defs looking forward to getting my hands dirty :slight_smile:

Agree, I don't have much setup on ST yet, so i'm good to just go for it! Gonna start this evening and will let you know how it goes!

Managed to add all my ST sensors to HE with no issues, although I did find that the ST motion sensors were added as a Generic Zigbee Motion Sensor.. Is this because there isn't a driver available yet for the new ST motion sensors?

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Actually, that is the correct driver for your ST Motion Sensor. Most devices use one of Hubitat’s “Generic” drivers. If your sensor was discovered as just a “Device”, that would indicate that Hubitat does not yet have that device’s fingerprint handled by one of their drivers.

And from there you can manually change from "Device" to whatever generic driver your device is. This just happened to me with my new EcoNet water shutoff valve. Had to change it to "Generic Z-Wave Valve" to get it working. IF that doesn't work then there may be a community written driver OR you could try your hand at converting a SmartThings DTH over to an HE Driver.

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Thanks for this, unfortunately I'm in Australia, so those plugs won't work here, but found these on Ikea Australia website: TRÅDFRI Signal repeater - IKEA, will these work? It doesnt say whether they are zigbee or z-wave?

Yes, those will make very good Zigbee repeater devices, strengthening your Zigbee mesh network. Many users have reported very good success using those IKEA repeaters.

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Great!

I have bought 4 of them and placed them evenly around the house.

How do I know if my sensors and other Zigbee devices are connecting to them? Is there a way to force devices to connect to the strongest Zigbee signal?

here's my zigbee routing table:

Parent child parameters
EzspGetParentChildParametersResponse [childCount=18, parentEui64=0000000000000000, parentNodeId=65535]

Child Data
child:[Test Sensor, 3F0B, type:EMBER_SLEEPY_END_DEVICE]
child:[Study Door Sensor, 9807, type:EMBER_SLEEPY_END_DEVICE]
child:[Bedroom Window Sensor, 3CC8, type:EMBER_SLEEPY_END_DEVICE]
child:[Study Window Sensor, 1386, type:EMBER_SLEEPY_END_DEVICE]
child:[Bedroom Door Sensor, C888, type:EMBER_SLEEPY_END_DEVICE]
child:[Living Room Window Right Sensor, AF1F, type:EMBER_SLEEPY_END_DEVICE]
child:[Living Room Window Left Sensor, 3EF8, type:EMBER_SLEEPY_END_DEVICE]
child:[Bathroom Door Sensor, D702, type:EMBER_SLEEPY_END_DEVICE]
child:[Bathroom Window Sensor, ACFD, type:EMBER_SLEEPY_END_DEVICE]
child:[Kitchen Window Sensor, C55B, type:EMBER_SLEEPY_END_DEVICE]
child:[Front Door Sensor, FF46, type:EMBER_SLEEPY_END_DEVICE]
child:[Study Motion Sensor, 5954, type:EMBER_SLEEPY_END_DEVICE]
child:[Bedroom Motion Sensor, FEF0, type:EMBER_SLEEPY_END_DEVICE]
child:[Living Room Motion Sensor, E9E8, type:EMBER_SLEEPY_END_DEVICE]
child:[Passage Motion Sensor, EE8B, type:EMBER_SLEEPY_END_DEVICE]
child:[Bathroom Motion Sensor, 318A, type:EMBER_SLEEPY_END_DEVICE]
child:[Kitchen Motion Sensor, 793E, type:EMBER_SLEEPY_END_DEVICE]
child:[Bedroom Switch, C790, type:EMBER_SLEEPY_END_DEVICE]

Neighbor Table Entry
[Living Room Repeater 1, 1E6D], LQI:254, age:3, inCost:1, outCost:1
[Kitchen Repeater, 2054], LQI:254, age:4, inCost:1, outCost:1
[Bedroom Repeater, 3DD9], LQI:255, age:3, inCost:1, outCost:1
[Living Room Repeater 2, 953D], LQI:254, age:3, inCost:1, outCost:1

Route Table Entry
status:Active, age:64, routeRecordState:0, concentratorType:None, [Kitchen Repeater, 2054] via [Living Room Repeater 1, 1E6D]
status:Active, age:64, routeRecordState:0, concentratorType:None, [Bedroom Repeater, 3DD9] via [Bedroom Repeater, 3DD9]
status:In Discovery, age:0, routeRecordState:2, concentratorType:High Ram, [null, 0000] via [null, 0000]
status:Unused
status:Unused
status:Unused
status:Unused
status:Unused
status:Unused
status:Unused
status:Unused
status:Unused
status:Unused
status:Unused
status:Unused
status:Unused

The route table entry is the section that will show you if devices are routing through repeaters.

Looks like at the moment only your Kitchen Repeater is going through the Living Room Repeater.

Zigbee networks are self healing (I think that's the correct term) and will be regularly trying to find the best routes. So if you leave it they should start using the repeaters if that is the best route to HE.

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If you’d like to speed up the process of optimizing your Zigbee Mesh network, the simplest way is to simply shutdown your hub for -15 minutes. Be sure to use the SETTINGS menu to do so in a safe, controlled manner. After the hub is powered back up, the Zigbee devices will be in a 'panic mode' trying to find a route back to the Zigbee Controller (the HE hub). During this process, they will utilize the best routes to get back to the hub. Some may still direct connect, while others will use the Zigbee Repeaters that you've added.

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I’m likely about to start my migration from ST. Question, if a device is connected to HE via HubConnect, when it is later added to HE’s native ZW or Zigbee networks, can the same device ID be maintained? The idea being is I would like setup all my HE automations first, then slowly transition my devices over to minimize downtime.

No, you'll have to swap it out in any app you're using it in (there are some unofficial tricks here if it's Z-Wave–to–Z-Wave and I think Zigbee to Zigbee, but not between different protocols and not if child devices of a specific app are invoked as they are here).