SmartThings to Hubitat - Possible Conversion

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Hello!

I find myself in an opportunistic situation so this is going to be a bit lengthy, but I'm very interested in the experience of others and am hoping to decide on where I should direct my smart home with some future proofing.

A little bit of background info:

My mother has some cognitive and mobility issues and has moved in with us. This is what sparked my interest in smart home devices a few years back. We moved last year and I brought everything with me and had (for the most part) left everything as is and put everything back where they were in the previous home. I did very little reconfiguration and opted to just keep as much of it as I could working at the time.

My Equipment:

I use the following currently and you'll probably notice I'm deeply rooted in Samsung and Amazon ecosystems. While I definitely like both, I'm looking for guidance before diving even deeper down that rabbit hole.

Hardare

  • Samsung SmartThings Hub V2
  • Philips Hue Bridge (It was one I received with 4 Color bulb starter kit)
  • I have numerous Hue bulbs of all sorts (I believe I'm somewhere around 20 or so bulbs give or take)
  • Samsung Oven Wall/Microwave Combination Unit
  • nVidia Shield
  • Numerous Amazon Echo's (2nd or 3rd Generation, can't remember at the moment) around the house (nearly every room)
  • Amazon Echo Sub (coupled with 2 Echo's for Home Theater in living room)
  • ecobee 4 Thermostat
  • ecobee 3 Thermostat at rental property
  • Hubitat Elevation Hub (Purchased last year but still in box)
  • Netgear Arlo Pro 4-camera Kit
  • Amazon Fire-TV 4K Stick
  • Samsung Q70r Soundbar + Sub
  • Samsung 75" 4K TV (Can't remember model off top of my head)
  • Samsung 60" TV (Older smart TV)
  • Schlage Connect Deadbolt Locks (Zwave) x 2
  • Samsung Galaxy Phones x 3 (Note 8, S8+ and S9+)
  • iPad Pro (2017 if I remember correctly)
  • 3 x Amazon Fire tablets (2 x 8" and 1 x 10")
  • Raspberry Pi 3B+ (Currently not being used)

Software

  • SmarthThings (both version Classic and Current)
  • IFTTT
  • SharpTools (I haven't configured this yet, goal is to have a couple of tablets wall mounted for this)
  • Hass.io (I had initially set it up to play with but haven't done anything with it and really want to move towards utilizing this)
  • Stringify (Also haven't configured this at all but played with it a bit)
  • Various specific apps for devices such as Philips Hue, ecobee, Arlo etc.

Goals:

With the recent update to the SmartThings Alexa Skill, everything seems to be in limbo and either working, not working or completely unstable. I have an opportunity to start from scratch and I'm looking to not have to do this again for several years (wishful thinking, I know!).

Alexa is predominately used in our home but I'm not necessarily married to it and could slowly move towards Google Assistant. We are not Apple users so I have no desire to go that route. Voice control is definitely a necessity though as this helps my mother out immensely with her mobility issues.

I had been eyeing SmartThings V3 as I like the myriad of other devices in that family (sensors, buttons etc) but had stayed put for the time being because the lack of Classic app support in the SmartThings app. I don't have any sensors currently but it is something I have been interested in for some time and ST V3 seemed like the route to go. I do really like Samsung devices and I feel like they've done a reasonable job integrating but I also recognize some of their issues.

I currently don't own any smart switches as in my locale neutral wiring was not standard way back when but I also have thought about having some rewiring done to move away from the bulbs (but that's a bit more expensive than I'm looking to do currently). I'm also not married to Philips Hue, it was just easier to get my hands on back when I started buying bulbs and it didn't make sense to switch from that ecosystem. Now I'm also interested in some LED strip lights and am not a fan of the pricing for Hue.

Ultimately, I'm looking for some solid advice and experiences to help me decide whether I should start fresh with Hubitat, Hass and the bunch or continue down the road of Amazon/Samsung and just start a fresh configuration.

Any insight is very much appreciated! If you've made it this far, thanks so much!

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Stringify?!? That died well over a year ago now right?

It seems from the above that you have quite a lot of software options being considered but actually not that many devices or automation requirements (at least, not detailed above). My recommendation would be to be clear about what you want to achieve. If it's simple voice control over the few solutions you seem to have then maybe Alexa is sufficient. Certainly there is no reason to move to Google (including if you add Hubitat into the mix, since it supports both). Hue is also very well supported, as are many manufacturers of cheaper LED lights (I use Gledopto for example which are quite a bit cheaper than Hue but still Zigbee, so they also work nicely with Hubitat). Hass.io in my opinion is a whole other stack of complexity. If you are a really keen tinkerer then go ahead, and enjoy those regular breaking changes! I used it for a while and gave up when I moved to Hubitat. I also understand your commitment to Samsung products. Some of their devices are rather nice. But at the end of the day there are many other great home automation device mamufacturers too, and there's a great deal of press around right now that is not too positive about the future direction of SmartThings, where they really appear to be moving it more mainstream while unfortunately hobbling the more advanced userbase, which really isn't good news if you're a keen home automation buff and want more flexibility not less.

My vote is for Hubitat (of course, right? :grin:). For me it offers the right mix of very flexible, advanced capability but firmly balanced on a robust platform that is regularly updated and improved without breaking everything you've worked hard to create. It takes some effort, that's for sure. But this is also a great community willing and very able to assist. Suggest first read around the subject here on the forum a bit. Tell us specifically what automations you'd like to set up and you're sure to get many ideas and opinions.

Good luck with your choices!
Cheers.

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Hi Angus, thanks for the reply!

I hadn't even opened Stringify in such a long time, I had no clue it was no longer around! Thanks!

I'm unclear on what you mean when you say "quite a lot of software and not that many devices". I thought I was pretty clear with what I have and what is actually being used etc. I also thought I was clear with my intent and future projects I was looking to tackle, perhaps not.

Sometimes too many words is just too many words Lol. That being said, I'm looking to get into automation (something I do realize I failed to mention). This situation with having to reconfigure everything from the beginning has offered the opportunity to shift gears either towards newer SmartThings ecosystem or away from it.

I'm very good with researching what I want to do when I want/need to do it. I know there's a plethora of information waiting for me when I want to execute a lot of this stuff. I guess I'm looking for others who are/were in a similar situation and where they're at with the decision to either move towards Hubitat or away from it and if they're happy with the results I guess.

Hass is definitely something I'd like to dive deeper into. I think the customization and bridging of the nearly endless smart devices into a single dashboard is extremely appealing. I took the time to enter in the details for everything I use, have used or plan to use in the hopes there's someone out there like me who's had the experience.

Thank you very much for the Gledopto suggestion! I've spent so much time in the mainstream devices I rarely go outside of that box and this looks great!

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Go with HE. I just switched from ST this past weekend, and the learning curve is not nearly a steep as many would lead you to believe. RM 4.0 makes getting started with rules undaunting. The Simple lighting app is very straight forward as well. Keep your Echo's if you are used to them, then there is no reason to move to a different voice assistant. Do you know if your Schlage locks are z-wave+ models or the older z-wave? The Schlage z-wave and z-wave+ locks are not offically supported by Hubitat. Hubitat does have a built in Schlage driver and I had no problem pairing my z-wave+ lock with my C-7 that is 35' away. The Hubitat mobile app is nice, but but not as polished as the ST classic app.
I do not have neutrals in about half of the switch boxes in my house, there are few companies that now make dimmers with no neutrals required. I have a bunch of Inovelli black and red series dimmers installed, and they are fansastic. The red series act as scene controllers so you can activated other items not connected to the switch. Since I installed these dimmers I am down to only 1 smart bulb, and no longer have to worry about someone turning off the light switch.
Good Luck

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I am currently working a a Samsung UPNP audio that may work with the Q70 (there are SO MANY SAMSUNG MODELS and SO MANY API). It is NOT the same as my existing Samsung Wifi Audio integration. UPNP does not support full control of inputs (wifi, hdmi, etc), equalzers, etc. It will support:

  • play, pause, stop
  • volume, mute
  • URL stream playing
  • URL presets (8) to allow quick selection of URLs.
  • Audio Notification (may require a free voices.rss account)
  • Audio Notification message queue.

During the development, I may also create a tool to see if your device is supported by UPNP rendering control (my older soundbar and TV both have rendering control).

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The Samsung TVs have undergone significant API changes and some of the control APIs require command by command encoding. These drivers will be hard to find in Hubitat. I have tried several times and have run into roadblocks each time on the newer (post 2015) sets. I may be able to use the Samsung UPNP Audio driver for some basic controls (volume, play/pause, even audio notification) - this is TBD.

Several people have written drivers for basic remote emulation. Again, very mixed results and none are on Hubitat (to my limited knowledge).

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More info:

  • Samsung SmartThings Hub V2. There is a hub connect app that works to share devices with SmartThings.
  • Numerous Amazon Echos'. EchoSpeaks integration provides a lot of control.
  • Schlage Connect Deadbolt Locks (Zwave) x 2. I have and they work.
  • Samsung Galaxy Phones x 3 (Note 8, S8+ and S9+). Work as presence devices (my S7 and S20 anyway).
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Thanks so much for the great responses!

Awesome! I've not come across these and it looks like they're exactly what I need. A little on the expensive side, but definitely cheaper than rewiring!

I believe my Schlage locks are just Z-Wave as they're at least a couple of years old. I'll have to see if there's a way for me to check. Because they're paired with my SmartThings hub, the silly Schlage app doesn't work. Does Hubitat offer the ability to create/remove codes for the lock? I can do this through the ST Classic app but I don't think the newer ST app can do it.

@djgutheinz

Thank you so much for your in-depth responses. Very much appreciated.

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Both ST and HE have lock manager apps for setting codes. If you do go with the Inovelli's, just know only the dimmers will work for non-neutral setups. On/off switches still need a neutral.

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Go to Z-Wave details for the locks, see if 0x5E is the first entry for in clusters. If so, the lock is Z-Wave Plus; if not, they are non-Plus.

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Besides the Inovelli Red series, I'm also using the Zooz switches/dimmers in my house. Lower price point in some cases where a switch may have 5-6 bulbs, and especially when watching the sales, and both companies have great customer service and are on this board quite a bit. Also, keep in mind Prime day is coming up, which offers many deals.

EDIT: I'm also an ST to HE convert, moving stuff over to HE the past few months. I've had a few hiccups with the apps, but nothing more than what i had with outages with ST. Community support here (as you've seen) has been great.

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Feel free to tag me or reach out via PM if there's anything I can help with on the SharpTools.io side of things. :smiley:

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