I hope this is the correct place to ask some questions. I tried at a competitors website and was told, well, I can boil the whole response to this: We know this site comes high on the list when smart home is searched, but this is a very busy website with very busy people and was intended for owners of xxxxxx hubs, not for people to try to mine info from experts. Which I thought to be just a little elitist. Anyway, it did help me to decide on Hubitat.
I plan on getting a hub in the near future, but right now I only have a few devices. I hope someone here might know of a Hubitat based USB (Z Wave) controller I can use in lieu of a hub to get these simple devices on a network. If I am at the wrong site, please, just a short note to tell me that, I really don't need anymore berating.
Thanks
There isn't a Hubitat based Z-stick, the only way to get Hubitat is via their Hub.
Why do you think you need to use this Z-stick? There really isn't a good reason to do this in almost every case. Maybe you can describe what you are trying to accomplish using the stick over just the hub.
Hubitat itself is a Zwave controller. You can not use an external usb based zwave dongle with a Hubitat C7. So if you were going to use Hubitat, you would need to wait until you get the hub to pair devices.
Ninja'ed.
I suppose, thinking in the abstract, that you could use a zwave USB stick as a controller to build a mesh with several devices, set direct associations, etc. As noted above, though, Hubitat itself is a zwave controller, so most (if not all) of that would be lost when you pair everything to Hubitat...
Like @neonturbo said, some details of your intended use case -- and perhaps some brief short- and long-term plans -- would help us to point you in the right direction
Thank you all for fast responses. I was concerned with supplying too much detail, due to not knowing what type of responses I would be getting, that last site made me quite gun shy. All I want for now is to have remote control of 6 light switches, no dimmers, two different brand names, all Z Wave. (I thought Z Wave would be automation than WiFi) I would like to add automation to the house in the near future.
Unless you have light fixtures that specifically don't dim, use dimmers everywhere. Even in places like bathrooms, the dimmers are SO much nicer than switches.
The hub can do this via dashboards.
I would speculate that this is how most of us use Hubitat. Add some contact sensors, motion sensors, and time based rules (sunrise/sunset?) and you can make your home nearly completely automated.
Remote control is OK, and in some cases nice to have as an occasional override for rules, but not having to get out the phone every time you want to turn on a light is significantly better experience. And guests and others don't have to try and figure out how to run the house if it "just works".
Since you already have Z-Wave switches, and you want remote control, you’re going to need a Z-Wave coordinator device. While this can be a USB Z-Wave device in theory, that is not how Hubitat works. Hubitat is a Z-Wave coordinator, which can then allow you to remotely control the switches using Amazon Alexa, Google Home, or the Hubitat mobile phone app.
I am not familiar with any sort of USB Z-Wave stick that provides that level of functionality, unless it is attached do a computer that acts as a home automation hub. For example, Home Assistant utilizes USB Zigbee and Z-Wave radio devices to allow whatever computer is running Home Assistant to communicate with those respective mesh networks.
neonturbo, I would not expect to dim our porch lites, flood lites, all are LED, or overhead garage lites, 48" LED tubes, although I would not be opposed to it either. When I first started with this project, the only experience I had was with X-10, and I think it was Home Seer software. That was (is) fairly unreliable. So I started with internet. Learned a little about Hubitat, Zigbee and some others. I didn't even realize when I started that there is a difference between remote control and home automation. Well, it looks to me like the Hubitat is what I'd like to go with because I read the other hub I was looking at is really not a finished product. There seems to be more info here, so, if I'm not botherin anybody, I'd like to keep posting other questions perhaps a little later.
ogiewon, I do have an older win7 air gapped PC that I thought I could use as a controller with Z Wave antennae or a z wave stick. I really haven't found any z wave sticks, or I may have and did not know what I was looking at.
I'm getting long winded, I apologize, and thank you all very much for your responses.
Hubitat allows for easy device management and is extremely expandable thanks to the ability to have community apps and drivers. It's great and I definitely recommend it to most everyone. A lot of us have multiple hubs..
Another possibility since you already have a Z-wave stick and a spare computer is to give Home Assistant a shot. It can get complicated quickly though so it's not for everyone.
Thanks to the flexibility of the Hubitat (and Home Assistant) there are even apps that can bridge devices between the two...
Again it all depends on your technical prowess and how willing you are to mess around with things. I have a home assistant server running on an RPi for testing and exploration only. Hubitat is my "production" hub...
Here's an older Paul H video about Home Assitant... around 9:28 gives his summary including recommending the Hubitat if you don't have the time/inclination.
Also should be noted that Hubitat USED to have a usb stick for the US (Nortek - Z-Wave/Zigbee combo) and ?2 sticks? for outside the US. With the C-5 & C-7 models the radios were moved to the main board for everyone.
thanx erktrek, I really don't have a stick yet, just the switches. I used to program PLC's and HMI's and I was hoping it wouldn't be extremely different, but looking at some of the code, I don't think they're very close at all. the point is, I guess, I'm not opposed to doing some tinkering and maybe try my hand at a little coding. the ITTT programming isn't too far from the programming I'm used to and I will be looking into that.
thanx again
So a usb stick like the UZB-7 can be useful with the Hubitat as a (temporary) secondary controller running SiLabs PC Controller Sw.. you can do things like remove ghost devices, update firmware and pair devices without S0 security.. In addition you could use it with Home Assistant.
edit: I should mention you can do most of this on the Hubitat without a secondary controller. The PCS makes it a little easier.
Hi again folks, I am really on the precipice here now for ordering the Hubitat Hub. Now, I hafta ask, is it ok to mention brand names and supply houses here on the site?
As far as I know.. but check the terms of service just in case. I usually post links to products the community might be interested in including good deals etc..
https://www.amazon.com/Hubitat-Elevation-Home-Automation-Hub/dp/B07D19VVTX/
edit: I do usually like to buy from Hubitat directly though to support them..
Thanx, the Smartest House is one I wanted to ask about, I also found the one on amazon. it's 10 bucks more, but what the heck. I found a supplier named ZWaveProducts. I just looked and book marked the first site you mentioned (Colllections). I know you probably haven't dealt with all these companies, but perhaps others here have dealt with some of them. Can anyone vouch for these companies? Maybe that's a dumb question, but an internet co. once stiffed me for $800 and I certainly don't want to go thru that again.
I was also going to ask if $119.95 is a good price but I see all the sites I've checked, are all the same price except amaz
Is the hubitat.com site a US based company? And does that matter? I see the others are, or at least have warehouses here in the states. I do try to look for that. It seems there's more interest in Europe in smart homes than in the US. I can find lots of stuff on British and Australian web sites but I don't think they are compatible with our radio frequencies.
thanx again erktrek for the PS, that is the kind of advice i'm lookin for
Yes it's US based.. and the hubs do go on sale from time to time. $120 seems to be the typical non-sale price.
Yes I have purchased and returned things through thesmartesthouse.com - they are great. Their Zooz line of switches are reasonably priced and work well with the Hubitat.
There are several vendors (Inovelli, Zooz and others) that frequently respond to community questions etc.
Yes it is. Blatant advertising for a product, service or website isn’t allowed. But if you have questions about certain websites or cost of devices you’re thinking of purchasing, that’s fine.
Re: Hubitat’s price, they just had a president’s day sale, so you might not see a sale price again for a couple months.
Yeah didn't want to mention that they just missed the sale ...
I wonder if they could’ve just answered your question in the time it took to tell you to off .
Actually, unless I’m missing something over on the ST forum, that’s not a very accurate summary of the responses you got from a very helpful member of the community there.
yup, that's usually what happens. actually, several weeks ago I started searching for info. I came across a website that I believe had them for $99, at the time I didn't know if that was a good price or not. now I know