It would be great to have a road map to getting multiple hub, multiple location support.
The app needs geo-location for the currently selected hub.
Dashboards need a way to include devices from another hub (which may not be local) - HubConnect is a workaround.
Alexa Skill needs to be able to get devices from multiple hubs, which may be in multiple locations (using the same account). No workaround that I know of when everything is on the same account.
I'm sure other feature that I dont use are in the same boat - IFTTT, Google, etc.
I wasn't aware that this isn't possible. Regardless, Alexa multi location support is non-existent so you'll see all of your devices from both locations in the Alexa app. And what's the likelihood you have rooms named the same same; kitchen, living room, dining room, master bedroom, etc.? Saying "Alexa, kitchen lights on" is pretty likely to turn on the lights at both locations.
The fact that Amazon still hasn’t fixed this is frustrating as hell. To get around this I'm using Echo devices at one location and Google Home devices at the other. The problem? I HATE the GH devices with a passion.
Yes. I've had ST hubs in both locations (1 in Ireland and 1 is USA). Single ST account and single Amazon account. I could mix and match devices from both locations on panels with ActionTiles. I prefix device names and groups with their location. So Troutbeck Kitchen and Arrowhead Kitchen. When giving Alexa commands you can just say Turn on the lights and she will turn on the lights for the group she is a member of. Has worked very well apart from the usual ST issues. I now have Ireland totally onto Hubitat and I'm happy and started down that road in USA and immediately ran into these issues.
So the Alexa multi-location support is not a problem - it can work out well is case such as getting voice alerts in one location for the other.
I don't think I understand the question here....If you set up hub connect between the two hubs and add all the linked devices to the alexa skill on hub #1 then you can use Alexa for all the devices. If you create dashboards for Hub #1 it will be all devices.
Any presence device set up on hub #2 will use Hub #2's location as "here".
Agree this is a real mess right now. Each location/hub should properly be supported by the mobile app. When connected to a location's WiFi, the appropriate hub with its own geolocation should be defaulted as the active hub. Right now there is only 1 geolocation supported. I think the Hubitat app should allow for a location for each hub, plus other locations also to be set up (such as work etc). For now I continue to use Life360.
Google Home is also a mess for multiple locations. Maybe stupidly I have the same SSID for both property wifi and this seems to confuse the heck out of Google. I get devices at one property showing up in the other property's device list and even after reassigning them to the other property they won't move. I think the only solution will be to set up two different GH accounts if I want to keep the same SSID's. And for IFTTT I noticed that the interface with Hubitat allows you to select which hub but I don't find a way to aggregate all devices into a single account. So it seems to me necessary to set up multiple IFTTT accounts, one per location to achieve the required control.
Such a mess and not clear at all what the best practice is. I'm setting up separate Gmail email accounts for each location now with a view to completely separating the 2 locations in GH and IFTTT and hope that Hubitat will provide proper support for multiple locations in the mobile app ASAP.
HubConnect is a partial workaround, as I said in my first pos and one that I'm going to see if I can implement next week. It will be interesting to see the response times of my hub in Ireland to HubConnect in the US to Amazon and back....
HubConnect will do nothing for GeoLocation in the app.
Are the networks between the two sites connected to each other through the use of Nat'd ip addresses or a VPN tunnel? Otherwise, I don't know if hub connect will work.
I have one account two locations with Alexa and WINK. You use the custom area naming. Cabin Kitchen and Home Kitchen and that is the way differentiate between the two locations.
I have purchased my new Hubitat and will be delivered on Monday. I can't wait. Moving away from WINK. Lack of improvements, Downtime, and now a new monthly fee has put me over the top.
While this does work, it breaks horribly when someone does "Alexa; all lights on" and lights at both locations turn on--not ideal if you're at one location and unbeknownst to you all of the lights in the other location also turn on. In my case I'm at our vacation location every couple of months so even the remote possibility of all of the lights being on while I'm away makes this a non-starter.
Each location has a living room, kitchen, master bedroom, etc. And having to prefix the location breaks the "Alexa; turn on the living room (or kitchen, master bedroom, etc.) lights" functionality horribly.
I find it so frigging frustrating that a company like Amazon with its' infinite tech and financial resources refuses acknowledge/fix this issue.
Have you tried setting up a separate Amazon account for the far location? I seem to recall that you can set up shared devices one by one. (never tried it)
Just wanted to share my experience of how Google Home seems to manage this. Not sure if Alexa can be set up in a similar way...
In GH, you can assign each GH speaker and connected device to a specific home/location and room. This means that if you say *lights on" or "AC on", as examples, while next to a GH speaker in a specific room, the relevant device(s) in that room where the GH speaker is will be activated. However, if Google Assistant, on my phone, activates instead or as well, then that will activate devices on my account, not just at the home where I am. I think this kinda makes sense in that I can use GA in the car and it is able to activate devices at either property. I must specifically address a device's name (with home identifier included) in order for it to just activate it at a specific property.
I think ideally GA should know which home it is in through geolocation and then work like GH, or at least that should be a preference, and when not at a specific location it could revert to its general approach. Maybe that will come in the future!
My stop-gap would have been to set up completely separate Google accounts for each property but thankfully, with the above, it's not been necessary so far.
Anyway, hope you find a way in Alexa to achieve what you want.
The downside to two accounts is that I'm an Amazon Prime user and use Prime Music. Adding a second account would mean losing that capability unless I wanted to open a second Prime account. Amazon already gets waaaay too much of my money so it not really an option.
Google home has had the multiple homes/location capability for a while now which is what makes the lack of a similar feature with Alexa products that much more irritating.
I'm currently using several GH Minis (or are they Nest Minis now ) at our main house. My first foray into digital "assistants" was the Google Home. I bought a 2 pack at Costco and the UX was bad enough that they didn't last a month before going back. Anyone remember saying "Hey Google; turn off the lights" and having EVERY light in the house go off? The "Home" devices have gotten better but I still hate the Mini and would much prefer Alexa devices at both locations.
I hope Amazon does something about this but I'm not holding my breath.
I agree. I want to keep my one account, with one set of charges and the same capability in whatever location I'm in.
I've had the "turn the bedroom lights on" scenario - me in Ireland issuing the command to Alexa and "she who must be obeyed" in the US scared to death as the US bedroom lights come on in the middle of the night.... I had no clue what was going on, until she told me the next day. So now I'm very used to putting the location name as part of device name.
Although when you group stuff in Alexa now she does know of things within that group - so a bedroom group that includes an Echo device will respond to "Alexa turn the lights on" by only turning on lights within that group.
True, but you're still left with the issue of multiple "living room", "kitchen", "master bedroom", "foyer", etc., groups that you have to manage with silly names. And this doesn't solve the "I'm in a different room problem". Frankly, the need to resort to "Alexa; turn on the [Virginia/Massachusetts] master bedroom fan" if I'm in another room seems entirely contrary to why these devices exist in the first place.
Companies have these stubborn streaks (hey Apple, can I get a second mouse button please?) that I'll just never understand.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that yeah, this should never happen and probably represents a potential liability issue for Amazon. "Well judge, I was practicing my circus knife throwing act when the lights unexpectedly were turned off resulting in my injuring my assistant"
) at our main house. My first foray into digital "assistants" was the Google Home. I bought a 2 pack at Costco and the UX was bad enough that they didn't last a month before going back. Anyone remember saying "Hey Google; turn off the lights" and having EVERY light in the house go off? The "Home" devices have gotten better but I still hate the Mini and would much prefer Alexa devices at both locations.
