Hi all,
In the devices configuration i've noticed a switch called "Hub mesh enabled". Its off. I've never changed it but i'm curious what function it performs when on or off? Anyone know what it does?
Attached is a screenshot. I searched the forum but hub mesh as a search term gives a billion hits... 
It refers to this feature: Hub Mesh | Hubitat Documentation
Basically, a way to share devices among multiple hubs (if you have more than one) on the same LAN.
Short answer is leave it off if you are only using a single Hub, if you have more than one Hub and would like them to be meshed together to share devices, apps, etc. then you really need to read up on what @bertabcd1234 said just above.
Cool! i didn't know about this.
so this is making devices look local to a hub even though they are shared from another hub?
today i am using hub link to control devices on another hub via automation. Both hubitat hubs are on the same IP network, but they are far enough apart that to get automation to work across i used hub link. It seems like i could use hub mesh instead for this use case.
when should i pick hub mesh over hub link?
Yes.
Personally, I can't think of any reason why you would pick link over mesh. Mesh quite literally makes devices appear local to the hub they are shared to. The writing of automations using these devices as easy as writing automations on the hub the devices are actually on.
I think mesh is one of the best features introduced on Hubitat in a long time.
S.
Mesh is essentially the replacement to hub link, although hub link will keep working. I would expect that it gets removed from new installs at some point. Like the nest app did.
Alright, i'll migrate over tomorrow. thanks for the insight!
What if I have 2 hubs on the same network, but in different locations. I have one in the house and one out in my shop. I have the buildings on the same network, but completely separate.
Hub Mesh will work as long as both Hubitats are on the same network. It is also advised that they run the same platform version.
i can confirm that this works, this is how my network is designed. a flat network with two hubs in different physical locations (two different structures). one hub uses addresss 192.168.0.100 and the other is 192.168.0.101 (netmask 255.255.255.0). I'm considering adding a third hub.
Thanks for the quick response. One additional question... Another reason for the two hubs is that I use the HSM on each. One for the house and the other for the shop. Will that still work?
Should work fine. If you want to you can setup one of the hubs to follow mode changes from the other hub. You can centralize all automation on one hub, or you can split them and run automation and device mgmt completely separately.
I have one hub doing all automation. The other hub follows along and changes modes based on the first hubs mode settings.
Two questions about Hubitat mesh:
Or do I need to pair the zigbee devices to their closet hub manually and then use Hubitat mesh to control all devices from either hub.
The differences are important for my use case and I can’t figure this out from reading the documentation.
Thanks!
No.
No.
Hub Mesh does not share the device at the protocol or link level.
Hub mesh basically shares devices across multiple HE hubs. Nothing to do with Zwave, Zigbee, X mesh protocol. Devices paired to a hub will remain paired to that hub but will be available to other hubs if designated via hub mesh for automations. However it doesn’t extend the Zigbee, Zwave, whatever mesh.
It doesn't extend the actual zigbee or zwave network but... Logically its offers a functional equivalency.
Hub Mesh is ingenious in that if offers the behavior as if devices was local even though they are on a different hub and on completely different networks. They do this by transmitting device events and states across IP networks to remote hubs that presents these devices as virtual devices that are logically and functionally an equivalency of a local device.
Since IP can go many kilometers (and certainly hundreds of meters/thousands of feet) it offers really nice properties for automations of devices that may at least those distances apart.
I now have three hubs in my mesh. I really dig it, i find it highly reliable. My only regret is that i didn't plan for this up front. Its a pain in the you-know-what to exclude certain zwave devices, and even more so if they are at a bit of distance from the hub. Thank lord i have that zwave stick -it makes it a fair bit easier when devices are troublesome.
i have few unanswered questions about this , i understand that devices reports status every 2 mins by default, for me it could be even 1 hour.
What i do care about is when i control something from the main hub, the 2nd hub will react quickly.
Same if some automation is triggered in my main hub, i want the secondary hub to react right away.
Is this how it is working or every action takes minutes to be sent from one to another?
Im considering getting a second hub.
Control of meshed devices happens immediately. The report status interval is just to resend things in case something changed and wasn’t picked up, which is something I haven’t seen (failsafe measure). I have a coordinator hub where 3 report into it and most rules happen on the coordinator. Devices on the child hubs change immediately. Hub Mesh has been great.
great, then is exactly what i am looking for, looking to decrease the load since i have many devices and some are very chatty and cause lag sometimes.
I have multiple "reporting-only" devices none of which are time sensitive. For example my Home Energy Meter, Office UPS and multiple temperature/humidity gauges/towers. The towers are actually virtual devices that get updated from external sources. All of them combined can be quite chatty.
I was thinking of getting a 2nd hub and offloading all these reporting devices keeping only the switches/bulbs/sensors/etc on the main hub. Is this the right strategy for Hub Mesh?
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