Decided to take the plunge and ordered a Hubitat after Samsung SmartThings had a bad outage this past week (at time when it was really inconvenient for automations and other things to stop working). I was reading about users who had to pull batteries on alarms and whatnot just so they could go about their business until connectivity was restored. One Twitter user mentioned Hubitat and I looked into it.
We use Synology products for both our home network storage and our WiFi , so I shouldn't have been worried about some of the negative reviews of read about Hubitat. Synology is very similar in how it provides extensive options for configuration and administration, and even does it via an intranet website like Hubitat does. Sure the Hubitat UI could use some improvement, and I can see why there are some bad reviews, but I'm absolutely thrilled with the extensive customization abilities.
I got all my stuff transferred over relatively easily, even a couple of old Z-Wave minimotes that I thought would be an issue because (1) they're old and (2) I'm pretty sure I didn't disconnect them from SmartThings correctly.
The only frustration I had was a couple Sengled color bulbs that just wouldn't come over to Google Home. I switched the driver to the generic Zigbee, thanks to a search in this online community. The post I found didn't address this particular issue, but it was enough to make me try it and see if it worked for this problem, and sure enough it did.
I'm another former SmartThings user. I have been really happy with the Hubitat system and the community. It's getting better every month and I find it to be faster, more consistent, and more reliable that SmartThings.
Welcome to the community... Most of us are converts from somewhere... I started this journey with lowes iris v1, then wink, then smartthings and now I’m here with HE .. It feels like the smart platform for grown ups ... It re-invigorated my love of home automation after ST had almost killed it for me... And as such has made me go on a crazy buying spree looking for new devices...
Before Hubitat I had very little automation due to reliability. Nothing like not being able to silence the siren. More then once the battery backed siren had to be unplugged from the wall and stuffed under couch pillows before hubitat.
Now I am constantly adding new devices to automate things. The wife is happy as well. ( Thank you Team Hubitat.)
Just today the Dog bolted upstairs as my kids left the stair gate open and scarfed down the kittens food. I grabbed a contact sensor and added it to the gate, now the google home announces a reminder to shut the gate and says "Thank You" so we have confirmation the gate has been shut.
Welcome. Lots of ST users here. Then Iris. Then Wink. Some Vera. Me, I'm early version X10, then eventually went hardwired for timeclock circuits. Then Alexa. Then Ecobee. Then Tp-Link, Then RM Mini3s. I was into the wifi devices a couple of $100 deep when I decided that I hated all the apps and wanted local-only. Been running since last March or April with no problems - primarily zigbee.
Welcome to Hubitat. It's awesome that your transition over to the tat was so smooth. It does help to have the right expectations. Sounds like you nailed it. I look forward to reading about your future projects here.
@srwhite & @bcopeland how are you guys managing to have the siren silence when you want on Hubitat? Mine seem to run for a minute after they start and HSM is disarmed. Drives me nuts! I have 2 Dome Sirens. Any tips?
I have a dome siren also. I have one of my ~16 buttons on the 1st floor, as a secret "cancel alerts" button. I also have an Iris 4button keyfob programmed to disarm(single press) and cancel alerts(hold). Although I have observed that once the alarm goes off getting the sirens to stop can take some time. Not sure what I'm doing wrong
I also have a dome siren and I’ve noticed in my logs that the hub sends the OFF command and yet the siren continues for several seconds. I’ve taken that to mean that it’s the actual Siren that doesn’t stop, exactly when commanded to.
This also leads me to believe there’s not much that can be done about it.
You definitely made the right move by leaving SmartThings. I purchased Hubitat for pretty much the same reason as you...the frequent “outages”. It’s really nice to actually have local control rather than depending on a cloud.
... It re-invigorated my love of home automation after ST had almost killed it for me... And as such has made me go on a crazy buying spree looking for new devices...
I think I’ve been there
