Moving from ST to HE with Alexa Integration

🎬 Get Started Migrating to Hubitat
1

Long time ST and Rule machine user. I have over 50 devices to move over and I have many of them voice controlled using Alexa. I actually started some migration this past weekend which means about 12 devices that were in my basement and garage are on HE. The questions I have are as follows:

  1. Can I have the ST and HE skills on my Alexa device at the same time as I go through this migration so I can control devices on both hubs?

  2. If I find out I have devices that won't run on HE, is there a way to keep these on a ST hub for now and control them through HE?

  3. Is the range of the HE as good as the ST hub? I'm trying to decide where to permanently locate it. Can I sit the two side by side or will they interfere?

I know there are a few things that HE won't do right now, but none that is stopping me from moving forward.

Any help here would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Brad

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Yes

Yes. OtherHub 2 or HubConnect Both are community apps. Not supported by the Hubitat team.

Hotly debated. I'm not going to step into that one, but will say that your most stable network should have an adequate number of repeating devices.

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3

I had the two hubs (ST and HE) within two feet of each other while I did the migration. The ST hub stayed on for at least a week after transition. I didn't see anything that appeared to be interference. As always, your mileage may vary.

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4

I think his question was more about strength of the signal in comparison to ST, not interference.

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5

Actually he asked both.

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6

:blush: I sit corrected

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https://docs.hubitat.com/index.php?title=Send_Hub_Events
This is a one-way integration. Events that happen on SmartThings are sent to Hubitat Elevation™

If there are 'sensors' on ST that you want to include in RuleMachine, SendHub + Hub Link is the way to go. 'sensors': meaning devices that tell you something vs get told to do something.

'actuators' are things that get told to do something. A Garage Door Opener, for example. It might go up and down from the hard wired button on the wall, and it will be a 'sensor' in that case, telling you it's up or down. But if you want Hubitat to control it, you need either OtherHub 2 or HubConnect

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8

Thanks for all the input. I'm moving forward and it's going well so far. Starting to convert my wife's Bearded Dragon Terrarium control (heat and light control with sensors) to the HE tonight. Hopefully all goes well with that for my sake;-)

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Not to mention the critter . . .

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All is well. The vivarium control is complete and everything seems to be working fine. I used the Zooz power strip to control the various lights and heaters and a Aeon Labs Multisensor to keep track of temperature/humidity and when she's running around.

I wanted this converted the most because there was a couple of times that my Internet connection went down and the heating elements stuck on until it came back. I shouldn't have to worry about that anymore.

On to the rest of the house over time.

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11

After moving nearly everything over I will step into issue #3 just a little.

When I tried to move my lamp post over (Cree ZigBee bulb), I had difficulty registering the bulb. I had to bring it int he house to reset and re-register the device. When I put it back on the lamp post it looked like a could control it with no issue. For the most part that proved to be true. I have since figured out that although commands can be sent to the device and generally they seem to take, I don't think the HE is getting the replies. I believe this because I have the intensity of the bulb vary depending on a few conditions. I always refresh and capture the bulb state and then set it back when the condition is over. I noticed it wasn't setting back. I believe that's because the system never sees the reply from the bulb on the capture.

The HE is located right when the SmartThings hub is located. So based purely on that I'm questioning if the reception on the HE has the same range as the ST hub. I haven't seen the same thing on any Z-Wave devices that are on the fringe as of yet.

Not a show stopper for me, but I'm keeping a close eye on it. I'm going to test this theory by not doing a capture and just do static sets and see if it ever doesn't change when it should.

Brad