To me it feels like there is some assumed knowledge or experience that many of us have that some Noob's don't have and don't know the importance of the knowledge they are missing.
What are your must-haves?
For me it is:
Knowledge of basic network maintenance, e.g. setting a reserved DHCP IP address, and all that goes with making that happen (i.e. a reasonable grasp of your network setup and the devices and software included...
An understanding of the networks being introduced by the smart home, e.g. Zigbee, Zwave, etc.... Including interaction between Zigbee's 2.4GHz network and the likely Wi-Fi network impacts
A basic understanding of the HE driver and app setup
A willingness to read documentation.. I'm working on this one personally.,..
A willingness to learn and be curious when posting on the Community...
EDIT...
I would add posting here on the Community and doing so early on in your journey... Too often we see people pleading for help well after they have reached a point of frustration and disappointment, when a simple question early on could have saved them hours of time unsuccessfully attempting to troubleshoot their issue. There is no competition here, there are experienced automation experts here happy to help.
Start small and grow with it. You don't need to understand everything day 1.
Don't overwhelm yourself with 150 devices on your initial setup. Do a few and then work with the system, perform a backup, do a software update, load up an app or two that interests you, create a few test rules....
Perhaps controversial, but I would stick to ZWave and/or Zigbee devices to start with. Seems there is still some teething pains with Matter.
As your confidence grows add more devices, more complex rules, more apps.
Its a journey of constant learning. The support community is excellent so if you stumble there is plenty of help around,
I am going on my 4th year with Hubitat. I remember asking my friend which smarthome I should go with.. and he suggested Apple, Alexa and Hubitat. I had never heard of Hubitat before so I researched and found a lot of documentation and a great, engaged community.
Today, I am running about 30 lights, 5 door locks, multiple fans/outlets, two Sonos music integrations, a 6 camera video system, multiple door and window sensors, temperature and humidity sensors, my home thermostat, my garage door.. and a few other automations I have created. Everything works flawlessly and my most recent uptime is going on 43 days (only because I manually rebooted when I last updated).
Here are some personal takeaways from my experience:
Start slowly. Connect the Hubitat to your network and learn your way around the interface before adding any devices. Understand the different pages and settings of the admin UI.
When ready, add a single device. Visit the device settings page; and familiarize yourself with this page (which can be different for many different devices).
I have found Zigbee to be the most reliable protocal for me when choosing devices. Wifi devices can and will fall off the network easier than other devices. Z-Wave is also very reliable in my experience.. but I prefer Zigbee. I do not have any experience yet with Matter devices.
Familiarize yourself with the "Logs" admin page; and how to navigate around the different devices and alert levels that are available on that page. Keeping an eye on this page can alert you to potential problems with your devices. If you see errors; grab a screenshot when posting to the community for assistance.
LEAN ON THE COMMUNITY!! Seriously, there are so many home enthusiasts here willing/eager/ready to help with user issues/questions/comments. These guys (and gals) are the front-line soldiers who have vast knowledge on the ins and outs of Hubitat.
Pick one thing you want, and implement it. When it works, brag, and start thinking about the next thing.
For me, Thing 1 was outside lighting - I wanted the porch lights on at dusk, off at dawn, and was tired of badly-functioning photocell fixtures (and being limited to photocell fixtures). Since all the outside lights were Lutron, Hubitat won for being able to seamlessly interface with RadioRA 2.
Thing 2 then became "welcome home" - when I arrived home, I wanted the front porch and carport lights to go to 100% for 5 minutes, and then return to their normal time-of-day state. Yeah, right into the "presence detection" weeds , but making it work taught me a lot.
All that was almost 7 years ago. Second house now, 3 C8Pros, 437 (!) devices. Loving it!
Ignore WAF/HAF/PAF friction at your peril. Ask them if there is anything they want automated and start with low-complexity automations that are reliable/dependable. Any automation failures, even if rare and largely inconsequential, stand out.
If partners prefer more convenient control to automation, start w/strategically/placed easy accessed buttons to control devices.
As an aside, my first share-your-addiction moment came when a friend saw that "welcome home" light display, and demanded that her husband demand to know from me how that was accomplished.
One thing I think we keep leaving out is logic. Understanding "If comma then action else......." and realizing that writing rules is like Simon says. A rule does exactly what you say, when you say, and nothing else. It won't stop a loop on its own and it will not reset on its own.
Some people have it inherently. Others struggle to learn (but it can be learned well enough to write rules). It's a shame there isn't a rule builders game or simulator app to help. I remember learning some basic electronics on one of my uncle's games on his Commodore 64.
Totally my case. Somehow, my household doesn't like the idea of automated lights, but they also absolutely cannot turn off lights when they leave a room. I feel like half of my automations are just cleaning up after people for stuff they don't do. I get a lot of freedom to automate how I like, but it always seems like they are just "putting up with it," and it had just better work if I'm going to inflict this on them.
I know, it is literally like a production environment. As soon as something fails, the users start screaming about it. I've learned to set up tests before "releasing" updates to my automations. They really don't like me "testing in production."
My SO/fiancé makes clear what lights she finds frustrating as being automated, but not to the point that they must not be automated. I do everything possible to accommodate whatever is frustrating about the automation for her. Usually it is something like her being able to disable an automation that is getting in the way of something she is doing, by her doubeTapping a light switch, or giving an Echo a command.
She likes "reading mode," though. It sets the lights just how she wants them to read, either in the living room or the bedroom, with the Echo command, "I want to read," and it disables scene automations for those lights. She also likes "Nap Time", that closes the curtains, turns off the lights, turns on the fan, and disables all bedroom automations for two hours.
Sometimes people don't think they like automations, until they do exactly what they want them to do.
Not just for beginners, either! There is always a "next" thing, I really hate falling into "maintenance mode", most of the fun in home automaton for me is finding new things to automate and making it a project.
, but making it work taught me a lot.
Loving it!
