And most importantly, make sure you have a paperclip for pressing on the little itty-bitty switches some devices have for resetting and joining.
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Thanks for all the great suggestions! I'll look into the NTP software and report back.
Youâll want one or two spares of each batteries, to be safe!
The Hub doesnât come with a Wifi radio, but an adaptor can be purchased and connected to the hub.
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My plan is to plug the HE directly into my laptop's Ethernet port and to connect the laptop to wifi, would this work?
Thatâs a good question! Unfortunately not one I have an answer to⌠Iâm sure others in the forum will have an answer though!
You can use a "bridge" to convert WiFi to wired...not sure if a laptop can do this.
Or better yet, get a USB WiFi dongle for the Hubitat...
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All,
Thank you for the great suggestions and tips. I'm getting my list together and will let you know what I order. I will also be sure to document my trials and tribulations for those that wish to track my project.
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Yes, I think you should be able to using Windows 10's internet sharing. However, if you're using a mobile hotspot (mifi) that allows more than one device connected to it (as opposed to a USB stick on your laptop), it would probably be better to just get a wifi dongle for HE as @dylan.c suggests. I think it will be less of a hassle in the end and it will make for an easier transition when you take your HE ashore. You just want to make sure your Mifi allows connected machines to talk to each other, so you can also access your HE via your laptop or cell phone. Not sure if they all offer this capability.
Following the instructions in this link > How to Configure a Local NTP Server | HPE Edgeline Docs I turned my laptop into a localNTP server (I hope).
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Nice! Now youâll need to configure the Hubitat hub to use your computer as the NTP server. There are some threads regarding this that Iâm sure youâll find with a simple search. Also, it will be important that your laptopâs IP address not change, otherwise the hub wonât be able to find it.
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That may be hard on a communal network.
Yep, itâll depend on how his WiFi hotspot works. It might be worth adding a small router if the HotSpot doesnât allow for reserving IP addresses in its DHCP LAN server.
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Ok, I got my Hubitat this past Friday and spent the weekend fusing around. The unit turns on but I'm only getting the blue light. I've confirmed that the ethernet cables are good and that my switch is getting internet access (as a reminder I had to bridge my laptop's wifi to the ethernet port). Any ideas what might be wrong or somethings I might need to check for?
If youâre only getting a blue LED the UI isnât loading, probably should contact support - @bobbyD
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Can you get to your.hub.ip:8081 ? Thatâs the Diag tools.
I'm not able to fine the hub on my network and cannot find the ip address.
I've got a bit of a daisy chain setup. I have a wifi hotspot connected to my laptop via wifi and am bridge the wifi signal over to the ethernet port... that is then hooked up to a switch that the hub is connected to (if that helps). I've confirmed that the switch is connected to the internet by pluging another laptop into in. When I can my network for connected devices the fing app only shows my laptop.
What device is providing DHCP?
That's a great question. When I go into 'Networks and Internet' on my laptop (windows 10 user here) it shows "Automatic DHCP" under both wifi and ethernet. I haven't done anything to set up DHCP.
Then you need something to provide it. What you are trying to do is fairly complex, if even possible. It looks like it would possible require double-NATing - not a pretty thing to deal with if you are not used to it.
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@Trentin - If possible, it would be best to connect the Hubitat Hub to a 'normal' internet router, to allow it to come online, update its firmware, etc... This way you can then make sure that your laptop (on the same 'normal' internet router) can access the hub's web admin pages and make sure the hub is acting normally.
Afterwards, you'll at least know the hub is okay, and any further difficulties that you're experiencing are being caused by the non-traditional network setup you're attempting to use.
Sounds like you're attempting the following:
WiFi Hot Spot <--WiFi--> Laptop <--Ethernet--> Hubitat Hub
For this to have any chance of working, the Hubitat hub needs to be able to receive a DHCP assigned TCP/IP address from your laptop. The one way I know to achieve this is to go into your laptop's list of Network Adapters, then right click on the WiFi adapter and click properties. Then, you should see a tab labeled Sharing. From within this tab, you should be able to enable Internet Connection Sharing, will will start up a DHCP server on your laptop, thereby allowing the Hubitat hub to receive an IP address.
There may be other options as well, but hopefully this will get things up and running for you in the unique situation you've presented.
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