Majority according to what source?
3 Likes
Pick any number of independents reviews of Home Automation Hubs.
The Number 1 thing that they look at is the App.
Just go through this thread - surely you see that the most requested item is a better app/dashboard.
I might use a redesigned dashboard, but I think you’re saying that the loudest voices must represent the majority, which isn’t true.
6 Likes
I have this perspective. True automation should require little to no human action. When I turn on my TV, I want the lights to dim automatically. When the HVAC blower comes on, I want the speaker volume to raise automatically, and then go back to its original setting when the blower goes off ....
6 Likes
Precisely - I don't think that I would personally even use a better dashboard on a regular basis.
I think that part of the "Hubitat philosophy" lends itself to downgrading the importance of a Dashboard, and instead emphasizing the significance of sophisticated automation capabilities. Of course, we all know, that Hubitat excels at sophisticated automation capabilities - that's it's key strength.
Nonetheless, in the greater, bigger world, I hear "to the best Dashboard & App go the recommendations." Perhaps I'm exaggerating somewhat, but my "hearing" hasn't given up yet. I do think in the super competitive world we live in, a good, easy to use Dashboard/app is critical.
4 Likes
On the Homey forum one of the biggest gripes/requests is for a better dashboard. More flexibility on what is displayed for devices and how, so you can’t really ever win it seems.
The other aspects of the UI like the flows and advanced flows have got fairly universal praise though from all users, novice to developer.
I’m of the opinion that whilst a nice dashboard is an enticing buy option, in reality as you implement your automation you’ll find dashboard usage decreases over time and becomes quite minimal as you tweak automations; as the people above have said.
(Yes I have a Homey Pro too)
2 Likes
I disagree that a dashboard and overall good mobile UI design isn't important. We don't use motion lighting. We don't have many rules based on anything other than time of day. Our control is mostly thru voice assistant and the app on mobile.
We use both ST and Hubitat. When I first integrated HE and showed my wife the HE UI and native dashboards, I got a "wtf is this mess?" response. On mobile it's still awful. I can't say I blame her.
2 Likes
This is exactly my approach. Dashboards are used mostly for quick status check.
Remotes are scattered around but basically idling. If hub fails everything still could
be manually controlled. The result is - my wife doesn't remember what is each switch for.
3 Likes
My general approach too.
But we also have to appreciate not everyone wants full automation. Maybe because they don't want to buy that many sensors, maybe because their home usage is very random thus making it difficult, etc.
For those people that want more manual interaction, for various reasons, the interface is of crucial importance.
10 Likes
Of course! Who said "no"?
1 Like
I gotta have dashboards. Like to periodically monitor stuff; weather, temperatures, door/lock status, notifications, battery levels, automated things(switches, lights), outdoor cameras, traffic, timers, etc..
3 Likes
In order for the hub to detect the power loss, and perform an orderly shutdown of itself to prevent database corruption.
2 Likes
For this specific reason hub must be up and running. Super Capacitor will not do this job
because it does not have enough power. The main application for using Super Cap is to retain
data in the SRAM (i.e SRAM becomes NVRAM) if SRAM is used. I am not 100% sure but it looks
like snapshots of all current states already stored in the flash (which is NVRAM storage).
That's not the only reason. Pi, dashcam etc.. are using super cap for safe shutdown. Maybe one day HE will go this route.
2 Likes
Since most of my wishes have been conveyed in this thread by others, I have one small request: The C9 hub should have a flux capacitor with the ability to do time travel. Thanks 
.
6 Likes
In no particular order:
a. Improved UI : I don't know how to explain this as i am not a UI guy, but i know it can be better.
b. 8 core cpu instead of 4: They don't need to be faster perse, just more of them. It seems this could be useful when you think we have one item trigger many others. that means multiple scripts running at the same time
c. Double the ram atleast: Honestly this has potentially limited benefit depending on what you do, but as things get more complex more ram is needed.
d: Matter and bluetooth support:
e: Faster Storage: I say this not having a clue what is in the hub, but i know EMMC memory isn't very fast at all. Maybe gen 1 UFS storage would be a big improvement.
f: User accessible Memory Management tools
g: Work load management: I could be wrong but it seems we are all contending for the same resources. If the hub could be split a little bit to Hubitat only functions and then User functions we may see improved reliability of certain aspects of the hub. Even something like simply running 2 JVM's that can interact with each other could provide this to some extent. Or maybe even containerize the hub to separate out stuff and provide resource limits. Also if the hub allowed containers, then you could install add on apps like Node-red, influxdb, grafana, ect.
A wishlist would be to provide me an option to download a image of a hub install and a license key and run a vm of Hubitat on provided wintel hardware. I know this won't happen, but it would be so awesome
2 Likes
THIS! I didn't even bother showing my wife a hubitat dashboard knowing that it would be outright rejected. I just have everything in Google Home, which is what we were using before I bought a Hubitat. While most things are automated via Hubitat, Google provides the dashboard for the family in a way that they are already familiar with.
Now as for feature(s) I would like to see. A few have already brought up Matter and I do hope that Hubitat becomes a controller. However, if I was to push Hubitat a little bit further, I would love for them to develop Hubitat to be a Matter Bridge as well even if it required a second hub. As a Bridge, we could develop a Matter connection to Google Home, Alexa, Apple Home, SmartThings; and heck, even Home Assistant. As a Bridge, this would simplify connections and not require separate apps (built in and community) since Hubitat could just use Matter to connect to third party systems.
I'm not even sure if the above is possible, but it would be absolutely fantastic if it was.
1 Like
If you have a very rigid routine and daily life where you can predict what lighting youre going to want in 3 days I totally understand that you wouldn't need a dashboard.
We have an 8 year old and constant company coming over. Things are impossible to predict. Some times the kids want to take over the living room with crazy color schemes and movies. When they want this my son knows he can just go to the tablet and flip on/off/color whatever he wants, I get to be left unbothered with tedious ■■■■.
Sometimes my wife wants to hang with us but wants to read a book. I need the corner lamp on that side of the couch to be brighter than it normally is. How to I predict this?
With a dashboard I can have the level/temperature changed and back to what I was doing in 4 seconds.
3 Likes
First of all I did not say the Dashboards are not useful. Of course they are a must have.
And sure, I do use Dashboard but mainly for quick status check.
For the prediction, I have a lot of MS placed in all strategic places. Together with
light sensors and time frames all my lights and shades are 100% automated.
However this doesn't mean you cannot control them manually.
.. battery backup and graceful shutdown after x minutes of no power.
2 Likes
