Hey Robert,
I am essentially migration completed with switching over to the Hubitat Elevation from Smartthings Hub. I was never really cursing the Smarthings Hub about anything particular, but where I live, I believe the country shuffle doesn't give me what I would call a "Raising-the-Bar-For-Customers" when it comes to the Network Connectivity Reliability metric into my owned Cable modem. Careful not to conflate that term with the separate and very different Wifi Router Radio signal. Which conveniently sets up the story of "How Pete Got a Dirty & Costly Lesson About The Many Ways a Local-Based Device Controlling Architecture Differs Very Significantly From It's Cloud-Based Cousin" (For the record, thank God I am not writing anything even remotely bookish with a title line that!).
You see, with the high number of cable Network Continuity drops during the day, most less than a minute, but some in perpetuity. Having recently been emboldened by some quick succes in the Smarthings Hub v3 setup, I looked forward to how satisfying it would be to neutralized Comcast's consistent pattern of suck.
And now, ladies & gentleman, I ask that you return to your seats and strap in, from this point on and despite not yet recognizing this, I blindly, albeit gleefully started to configure what would prove to be a rather lengthy cable modem reboot process. It was during the very beginning of that process, that the sign of trouble would teach ME the importance of understanding the differences in those Network Connectivity and WiFi signal drops.
Down we go!!! I finally accepted a fact that had been staring me in the face, this automation would need to be built in what is arguably the most powerful Android app available, Tasker. I wasn't resisting Tasker for any reason related to the app itself. It was one of those instances in life where I convince myself that a solution for my issue should be a feature of whatever, ergo, I will begin to look "harder" and follow my flawed assumptions because obviously I'm just not looking in the right place.
Alas, I learned that day, and if I'm mistaken lemme know, that despite all the capabilities of every hub, device, and forum searches to show me exactly how to trigger the sunrise of the 2.4Ghz or 5.0Ghz Wifi Radios were no longer available, only the Tasker App could detect a true Network Connectivity loss, but man it was NOT simple. Oh but again!! Here's the catch: Tasker, being an Android based App would need to actually be configured on a phone which was currently connected to the same network in order to detect and trigger any of this.
But that wasn't going to stop me seeing all tune gear up one my super rad Meross Smart Power Strip arrived from my Bezos Buddies at Amazon. So that was simply a matter of a few plug swaps, reboots by all the devices after being connected in this strip, and manually triggering the Tasker automation if I was unable to find that capabilty. I gleefully pressed the Cable Modem switch on my phone and was thriller to hear a rather sharp "CLICK", the automation was off and running, at least for probably 2½ minutes I did, and then the painful sting of truth hit me, and I was learned again!
Ya see, that there Smartthings hub was all cloud-based, and the millisecond that now depressing click told me it was smart, it suddenly was not. The signal which was being triggered by Tasker through a very indirect route couldn't make it the last hop back to the now dumb powerstrip.
So now I'm roughly 97% migrated over, have a Z-Wave based Zooz Smart Power Strip in place of the Meross, which I reallocated to a location that the limits of a wifi based cloud systems wouldn't be an issue. I still don't know a way to trigger the Network Connectivity loss, so lemme know.
Full disclosure though.... Man, I REALLY miss the Smarthings UI. Having the Hubitat function as a remote cloud based hub when I'm out of the house if without a doubt an afterthought, pretty clunky process. But it wasn't enough to deter me from switching.
I'd like to hear about your experiences and lessons learned if you have any.
Pete
several months later.)
