Quarantine time is coming up

💬 Lounge
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Hi Everyone, I've been lightly integrating more of the mainstream devices into my current home which we just sold, and the location that I'm moving to will have us in quarantine for 14 days. When I say mainstream devices, I'm mainly talking about Google Home devices, Nest Cameras/Hello/Protects, Kasa Switches, and some Hue Bulbs... I've realized since researching/shopping that the world is so much bigger and better than just the big-consumer brands, so I've taken the jump into Hubitat for the new house.

Since I'm going to have LOTS of time on my hands, I've been stocking up on devices to install and play with in the new place. I've already got my HE, and have been toying with it a bit as some devices are delivered. So naturally, I have a few questions...

Nest Cameras - I'm taking a couple of Nest Cam IQ's with me, and also have a new Nest Hello doorbell. It looks like I will need to use TinyCam to have the stream appear on the dashboards... is there an easier integration, or is that it?

Kasa Switches - I was looking to get some Z-Wave switches, but when the Kasa's came on for about $15CDN/switch... I couldn't help but stock up and stay in their camp... There's about 55 switches in the house, so price did become a major deciding factor. Will I have much of an issue with the integration of that many Kasa IP devices with Hubitat?

Control4 Integration - The new house has a small Control4 system installed already... It's mainly for the home theatre (Projector, Screen, Blinds), but also has a 4 zone Matrix Audio System. I absolutely HATE the idea of paying a Control4 integrator to set it up for me, and then be limited in making changes. I am heavily considering replacing the Audio with some Sonos Amps, and leveraging HDMI ARC along with a power sensing plug to trigger the projector screen... I only use an nVidia Shield to stream content, so a Bluetooth Keyboard should be able to control everything and wake the system up via HDMI ARC. Does anyone have any thoughts on the time/expense of leveraging the C4 system vs replacing it?

Other Stuff I've accumulated...

  • I picked up some Fibaro buttons to put on our nightstands to silently trigger nighttime routines without waking my wife up to trigger a virtual switch via Google Assistant
  • There is a Google Home device for each room (either a Nest Mini or a Nest Hub). I am hoping to use the hubs as dashboards with the use of CATT.
  • I have some sensors to mount in the washrooms/kitchen and trigger only a dimmed light at night when motion is detected
  • I'll be keeping my Hue Garden lights, and some indoor accent lighting to illuminate behind sofas/tvs/etc
  • I have a Yale Assure SL with ZWave for each exterior door (3)
  • I have enough leak/flood sensors for any critical area and will be buying a shut-off valve for the water main (any recommendations?).
  • Since it's a rather large bungalow, and my switches are WiFi instead of z-wave, I purchased a few repeaters to ensure decent coverage
  • Washer/Dryer/Fridge/Stove/Dishwasher/Microwave all have some sort of WiFi/app interface, so I'll have to see what I can do there.
  • All of my TV's are Samsung Smart TV's and integrate with SmartThings

Is there anything that is obvious that I should add to the collection?
Are there any 'OMG, don't even try to integrate THAT' items in there?
Are there any sweet automations that anyone has thought up that I should consider?

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if your going to rip out control 4.. i imagine you could hook up the sensors diretly to konnected boards and monitor them in hubitat.. i assume like old school alarms they have hard wired door window and motion sensors. take a look at konnected

sorry i meant hubitat.. had a lot of wine for dinner.

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That's a damn good idea. I'll have to wait until we move in and see if it's all hard wired or wireless. I'd love to be able to reuse some of the equipment... especially the wall panels/etc that they have recessed into a couple of the walls.

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Yes you don't mention anything that is going to support you mesh device's and I can't see 55 IP switches being a good idea at all. Are they cloud based aswell (if so that's why they are cheep).

Everything z-wave or ZigBee needs powered devices as repeaters and if it's as big as what you say your going to have a issue without them.

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yes as said every 30-40 feet should be a powered device if possible.. each floor of our hosue is about 1500 feet. i have at least one powered switch and/or repeater in pretty much each room. Both zigbee and zwave.. i have kasa switchs about 9 of them.. they can be slow at times, even local integration i can see some lags but they do work.

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Awesome, Thanks!
The house is very open-concept, and I do have a few repeaters in my collection already... Once we move in, I'll have to see if they will carry the signal well enough or if I need to get a couple more repeating devices for coverage.