As a new user that just received my hub I am trying to learn the capabilities of the device.
Searching this community for answers has several issues.
search never works great on these community sites, it really depends on your ability to word your search perfectly.
when you do find results you find 6 month old threads that may or may not still be accurate.
The hub may be able to do things I can't even thing to search for. How would I know.
For example I wanted to understand how I can replace my SmartThings App access when I make the switch. My initial understanding is there is no app, there may be one, it may be limited.... So I start researching by searching for iOS but that doesn't return anything useful. So I search for "mobile" and I find this thread.
Which starts out saying there is no app, they may be one, here are some possible examples and then spins off into discussion about alternatives, hacks etc. But I am left wondering, what is my best option.
Sorry if I am doing a bad job figuring things out on my own but I am finding it challenging enough to send me back to HASS well, that not entirely true just yet....
Yes, it is a challenge to find answers for exactly the reasons you found. There is no documentation Repository, per se. Searching this community has been my only means also...
There is no mobile app. There will be someday, but it will NOT be anything like you're imagining, I suspect. Hubitat is so attractive to me, and I presume others, because of their design philosophy as much as their programming. I have always objected to mobile apps that pile everything into one app. No one but ME needs the admin side. I do not want my kids bumbling into the Admin side and changing drivers, names, ID numbers!! OMG that would be a horrible day.
Hubitat's mobile app is described as being only the "User Side." Buttons to turn on and off devices. buttons to trigger automations, etc. Nothing on the Admin, "discover devices" side.
I don't really want a "mobile app" I want remote control on my Mobile Phone and my Apple Watch.
I think it could be accomplished for the most part with virtual buttons on a mobile device. So this may just be a fancy integration.
I completely agree. I love a web based admin that work only inside my network. I would prefer it had a password but perhaps some day. I can easily VPN into my network if I need admin access remotely.
But the real topic of this thread is why not start a formal WiKi for this hub?
Why not document it as we go.
There were two threads started months ago with a similar goal Compatible Devices and Incompatible Devices. They don't really stay "pure." As time marches on, pretty much anything that's found it's way into the incompatible list now exists on the Compatible list!! Cool but that means the Incompatible thread needs a weed whacker taken to it.
Eventually someone will join that has a particularly good "week whacker" and will volunteer. I eagerly await that day.
If we all kill one weed it will get done....I think this would be easier on a real Wiki though. The community sites always got out of control and messy.
I am also a new user of the Hubitat Elevation and I am finding quite difficult to understand all the possibilities of the Elevation as there is no instruction anywhere to help a new user - indeed, a separate WiKi with how-to, instructions and tutorials would be a great addition (improvement) for all Hubitat users .
What I have found over the past weeks is that many (most) users are migration from the Samsung SmartThing and are very skilled - unfortunately, I am having a hard time following most of the conversations...
I am coming from another hub, the Universal Devices ISY-994i (now with a Z-Wave radio) to control all my aging INSTEON/X10 devices (I have not seen so far any mention of the ISY-994i unit in this community - it probably does not rate as a real hub ).
Last December, I got involved for the first time in my life (not too soon at 71 ) with IoT - I purchased some Amazon Echo devices as well as a Philips Hue bridge and some Philips Hue bulbs.
I had purchased a VeraPlus Advanced Home Controller which I returned even before opening the box - I had read so much good information about the Hubitat Elevation hub that I decided to purchase the hub. Unfortunately, It was only when I had access to the community that I quickly realized that there was very little documentation and not tutorial for the Hubitat Elevation - nothing to help a newcomer and novice to the Hubitat world.
@patrick, if you're taking suggestions I wouldn't mind seeing some more videos or tutorials dedicated to more complex rule development and the creation of custom commands. As someone coming from Wink, and only using ST a short while before seeing the light, I have limited experience with using RM to its fullest potential.
I am always looking for ways to improve my rules to better truly automate my home. I currently use multiple conditions in my rules and have some rules that are triggered by other rules but I know RM is capable of so much more. In some cases I am using virtual switches as global variables in conjunction with RM, I am sure that RM is capable of doing this without the need for virtual devices (IE. Producing a single flash of a light to acknowledge a mode change when done from a pico). Custom commands, looping, and maybe even some examples of more complex rules. I am sure there are ideas for useful rules that I couldn't even imagine.
@Ron and @ray, you are both running into a familiar problem that plagued me when I started on the SmartThings platform. Many new users and also lots of information, but a search engine that just wasn't delivering results that were as relevant to my search term as I expected. It's clear that Hubitat and SmartThings are using the same base platform for the forum. I don't know what it is, but you can tell it's the same. Obviously that was intentional, since most of the early adopters, and the founders came from that community. It makes a lot of sense. Unfortunately, it brings that search limitation along with it.
You may not feel it at the moment, but you are fortunate that you're joining the Hubitat community at this point in time. We're still at the point where the most skilled users and developers are still fairly active on the forum, and have the time and inclination to reply fairly quickly, and with very good answers. Once the pool becomes more diluted with new users, and the staff have a massive base to respond to, it may become more difficult to get information. I mean no disrespect to anyone with that comment. It's just an observation from my experience with SmartThings when they grew so exponentially.
So, back to your question of where to find info. You are doing the first best thing you can do. Ask and suggest ways to improve. Building takes time and requires feedback. The forum, the documentation, operations, marketing, and the platform itself are all unfinished and in a state of constant development. That point was disclosed, so please do keep offering suggestions to improve. This is a great team and they DO listen to our suggestions, even if they ultimately make a different decision than what it suggested.
If you have not done so already, you can find out about compatible devices and even contribute to the wiki, get info about the dashboard, FAQs, App and driver porting, community apps and more from this link
@Ron and @ray, I have suggestions/info that may be useful to both of you, but I don't want move this thread off the topic, so I'll send you both PMs.
I didn't watch all of them but I did review what was there and watched the ones I found interesting.
Maintained list of built in DH ( for example I am told after asking that Linear GD00Z-4 works without need for custom DH ) This list is best maintained by Staff since you know what you are adding. But I can see that perhaps a Standard DH may work for a new device. It would be good to be able to document that as well.
If we document custom DH better perhaps we can avoid what happens on ST community were there are many versions of the same DH floating around. I have my DH open source and am more than willing to work with pull requests from others if the changes make sense. I think they may still diverge but if the different versions are documented that would be nice.
I haven't started coding or converting my DH yet but SmartThings has a LOT of developer documentation which includes what code works on their system, they document what versions of the ZWAVE methods they support etc. I don't know how that all works in your system yet so not sure what I will find. Perhaps all groovy code works and all zwave methods work (not sure where they are best documented outside of SmartThings site).
Thanks, I will do so. Do you prefer PM or open forum communication. I promise not to be a pest.
This all said I am a newbie on your platform so perhaps I will find this all a lot easier than I am initially thinking. I just know SmartThings started out a lot like HE now feels with documentation lacking etc and they reached a point where things were well documented but they didn't really focus on getting Custom developers efforts into the production system. I think this lead to some of their current problems. As they try to change the internals they break a LOT of custom code. I have about 80% of my ST system on custom DH and Apps so I can't ask them for support they always reply (we don't support custom handlers) I find this unfair because they encouraged custom and they resisted our efforts to get custom code into their official system. So they should either support it or do a better job making it native.
I have no idea how HE stands on this. Again I am new and just figuring it all out. I see this system as a strong potential to prevent the mistakes of ST and take over the field. I would like to help make this happen if I can.
I like this idea, at least a test summary would good also. Just a better way to know what I will learn. It can be time consuming to watch a video and learn very little from it.
I agree, I enjoyed Rule Machine when it was on ST and I managed to keep it running for the rules I created before it was removed. I stopped using it because I assumed it would be breaking some day due to ST lack of support. I just started writing my own custom apps for things but that was more time consuming.
I am also curious about CoRE and webCoRE. I avoided them on ST and I hated that almost ever post I made on ST about how to solve a problem would result in people telling me to us webCoRE. I see that here already also but my understanding is the developer of webCoRE has stated that although it works on HE he is NOT supporting HE so if things break on HE but not on ST he will not be addressing.
I know from this thread that a patched version exists. But I would like to know the "offical" position on webCoRE. Will it be maintained as a part of HE or is it best to use Rule Machine and ask for improvements when it doesn't fit the need?
My plan is to use Rule Machine and ask when I think it needs improvement because so far I have not needed webCoRE anyway on ST. But it is possible I am making my life more difficult for no reason
This is a very common community system. I have several other products using the same code. I too don't know the name of the base system. I think I did at one time but I don't remember.
I agree, I joined SmartThings when the developer were still holding weekly video conference calls for devs. It was fun but eventually they stopped listening to us. I used to get good answers from ST the only answers I get now are "We don't support custom code"
by the wiki do you mean the community topic "wiki" or is there a real wiki page?
Just thought of one other thing not in video tutorials and threads have me somewhat confused.
Mobile app or better perhaps "Remote access".
I think a good page on best practices here might be helpful. Folks coming from ST most other devices are going to be used to having control of their devices from their phone. I have not figured out yet how I will replace my use cases where I want remote access and/or notifications.
OK cool, I thought dashboard was just for home/browser use. I will research what I can find. Is that in any of the tutorial videos ? It doesn't look like it from the topic names unless it is in Advanced Options etc. A summary of each video would be helpful as Patrick mentioned earlier.
I don't think we've done a video yet. The funny thing is that Patrick wrote it and didn't mention it to you before. It's fairly self-explanatory when you install the app.
Pick your devices, pick a layout. Grab either of the urls, most likely the cloud one. You will need to paste that onto your mobile device and then save the page as to your home screen as a web app. You can configure it to your liking using your PC and one of the url links -- it will automatically catch up the one you put on your phone. You can choose devices, templates, their position, various colors, etc.
Also, you can "Save to Home" via iOS or Android and use it as an "App" in full screen on mobile devices.
Upcoming feature will allow you to enabled or disable cloud and/or lan access and add pin support for each dashboard to add an additional layer of security.
I have no idea what this means yet Either URL? I didn't realize there was more than http://{hub_ip}
I am not expecting you to hand hold me and explain just letting you know in case you assumed I would just understand it.
I will read the community pages on Dashboards once I get things started. I still have a lot to learn before I start switching my devices over.
On the topic of URLs....
BTW, how difficult is if for you to support bonjour or avahi so http://hubitat.local (or better yet http://{configured_name.local} works as a url?
Why am I just not understanding what this means? I am guessing my issue is not understanding the "two urls" comment from bravenel so no worries. I will read more. If you mean from the browser on iOS copy a url then won't that only work at home unless I port forward my device which is dangerous due to lack of password (sort of dangerous even with password but less so). Again I need to read up more but this is why I am suggesting a video or page explaining it.
I started reading the page on remote access but found most of the posts said ....coming soon and I wasn't sure if it was ready for prime time yet. So I stopped until I received my device and could start playing. But I find it difficult to read threads to determine if something works when it start of with pages of explanation on why it may be done some day but low priority, then there are pages of tangent hacks to work around and occasional posts of proto types...then perhaps a post that it works. You get my point
I like this, I did something similar for my VPN. I made my OpenVPN server safer by putting it on a Zwave smart switch plug. When I wanted to VPN home I would first turn on the power for my Pi3 and wait for it to boot, then openVPN and I am in. Paranoid but what the heck
well, that not entirely true just yet....
).
) with IoT - I purchased some Amazon Echo devices as well as a Philips Hue bridge and some Philips Hue bulbs.
