I'm need assistance to migrate SmartThings to C8 Pro. The video's have not helped and anything in these chat rooms seem to be 2-3 years plus old. The Video's like the C8 Pro is neither intuitive nor nor easy to add devices or migrate to and from.
I am so close to sending everything back at this point.
Do I really have to factory reset every thing I have, disconnect the old hub and take a step by step approach that is anything but easy to use? Can someone please provide some much needed assistance. I'm so frustrated at this point.
Hi Jack, (can't say that on a plane) Welcome to the community. Unfortunately there isn't any cross platform migration utility with Hubitat, nor any other smart home system. The pairings would have to be redone on Hubitat,
However you don't have to do everything all at once. What I did many years ago when I switched, was to move devices in groups by room, and run both hubs at the same time, even taking advantage of ST<->HE and HE<->ST community apps to share devices between platforms. I know it's a huge lift but it will open up a tremendous amounts of customization and control, which are almost impossible on other platforms.
If you let the community know what devices you have(Zigbee, Z-wave,Shelly, Tuya, Aqara Matter, WiFi) and models, I'm sure others will chime in with advice. There are so many incredibly intelligent and kind people here, always willing to help, so unlike many other online communities.
For myself, when I get frustrated I try to refocus my attention on other things, that would boost my motivation to get the huge task done. Again try to come at this in pieces, with over 250 devices I'd need to re-pair if I'd move platforms, I know I'd be overwhelmed too.
Your SmartThings hub is a primary z-wave controller and a zigbee coordinator. Z-wave and zigbee devices can be paired to a single primary z-wave controller and zigbee coordinator.
The Hubitat C-8 Pro (and previous models) also functions as a primary z-wave controller and zigbee coordinator. For your devices to be paired directly to the C-8 Pro, you will have to turn off the SmartThings hub and factory reset each device, before pairing it to the C-8 Pro (pretty much summarizing what @Rxich wrote above).
While migrating from SmartThings to Hubitat is onerous, that labor has to be expended just once. Hubitat provides a way to migrate from one model of Hubitat to another without resetting and re-pairing devices.
Sadly, yes. Most of us have done it more than once (I did the migration from Wink to SmartThings when we bought a house with Wink, then migrated two weeks later to a Hubitat C-5). Migrations since then to a C-7, then C-8, then C-8 Pro were fairly painless.
A caution, though. The C-8 Pro has newer Zigbee and Z-Wave chips than the older models, and there are some ancient devices that might work on a SmartThings hub that won't be able to pair with a C-8 Pro.
With any HA controller migration, New<->Legacy controller device sharing capabilities is key because you will be running both platforms for some period of time. I also endorse the room by room approach to migration having recently completed a ~1 year migration from Home Control Assistant to HE. Essentially, I had to distill out the "business logic" for every macro running on HCA and then translate to Rule Machine. I had the additional challange of changing protocols too (UPB -> Zigbee, Global Cache ->Broadlink IR).
However it can be a fun exercise if you treat it as such. Upgrading a home automation system while maintaining an acceptable WAF is challenging for sure, but the process also gave me the opportunity to revise/modernize some of my whole-house control strategies for handling HVAC control, nighttime, asleep, and away states. In your case, you will be running the same protocols so be sure to follow the best practices for using multiple controllers on the toplogies you run.
Now if only I can find something to do with the huge pile of old UPB devices that I have laying around....
That is how I did my move from SmartThings as well. I ran both hubs, and moved things over in a period of about a week. No reason to lose a whole day doing a migration all at once.
I moved when SmartThings still ran Webcore, and I was able to migrate all my automation logic by just restoring the pistons from the SmartThings instance to Hubitat. I did still have to go into each piston and update the devices used in them, which was a pain in itself. Really I moved the piston first, then I moved any devices that were used by that piston, to keep my automations running through the migration.
As others have said, just move things over time with both hubs up. I wouldn't bother with the SmartThings integration to share devices during migration, that will complicate things in the end.
However, the HE<->ST integration can be handy after migration if you have some cloud connected devices on SmartThings that use a linked service. The integration can be used to leave those connected via SmartThings cloud, and bring them into Hubitat as Hubitat devices. You may eventually find community drivers for those on Hubitat to move them off SmartThings.
The HE<->ST integration, called HubiThings, is a cloud connection only, so you can still use your cloud based linked service devices in Hubitat without the old SmartThings hub being needed at all.
Hey guys & gals~!! I'm responding to all in this thread BTW. After a couple of bourbons last night ... you know for medicinal purposes ... lol. I want to thank you all for your guidance & support on this "LTP" Long Term Project and I will keep all informed how things progress and most likely ask for more guidance.
I've had my house for 8 yrs now and slowly been automating different things as time passed. Last night during my bourbon philosophizing I reflected on the fact that I have 100Meg/10Meg DSL internet service. I have maxed out my currently available bandwidth. But it just so happened that I just received notification from my local electrical COOP that in about 3 months they will lay fiber optic cable to give me the opporunity for 1 Gig of light speed. lol I will plan for the future of migrating things over & most likely will replace those older devices coming to the end of their service life before they smoke check themselves or the support from their respective manufactures has vaporized.
Thank you all reminding me that "slow is smooth and smooth is fast" even when it comes to Home Automation. I'm sure we'll be chatting again soon. Until then ... enjoy the simple things ... like a good bourbon~!!
It’s definitely best to take it slow. That way if you run into a device or create a rule that doesn’t behave, you will be better able to figure out which device or rule is the problem, and fix it before it becomes a big problem that makes you crazy. There aren’t a lot of guardrails here (compared to SmartThings), and Rule Machine will give you enough rope to hang yourself, but the community here is always incredibly helpful.
I'm sure you realize but Hubitat is totally local(not including cloud integrated devices like Ecobee), and very fast, even without internet. But you definitely need a speed upgrade and probably another drink to smooth things out.
Say what? I missed that. I know I used the cloud integration and it was resource intensive & not reliable. I'll have to check that out, thanks
And Perfect I already have HADB and HA running on a Pi3, 4? I dunno as I haven't had to touch the thing, it's run like a clock. Maybe it's time for an upgrade
You can run it locally, NATIVELY on HE using the home kit integration. HA is not necessary for that.
I had mine on HA locally and into HE through the HADB already. So, I have not migrated it over, yet. I just need a down weekend so I can recreate the HA rules that I ran off of Helpers in HE
Also, if moving and re+pairing zwave devices make sure to check the settings/zwave page after each for any "ghost" devices which seems to be a uniquely hubitat issue. it is much easier to remove them at that point vs later on when u realize you have them and it impacts the hub performance
I have HA running on a Pi4, I use it for HA->Hubitat with HADB for device integrations only. I set it up almost two years ago plugged into a UPS, and I have never had to to touch mine since either. Looks like HA updates (I've only done them a few times) reboots it though. My current uptime is 92 days, which sounds about like the last time I updated HA.
