What is the best way to know what Hubitat can and can't do

Ron, hopefully our requests for some documentation NOW (other than the lost replies in message threads) will be heard by the staff at Hubitat ... it is still not too late for creating such reference location... :roll_eyes:

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I wouldn't, it was a joke.

I understand, I have already made the same decision. I don't have time for something so raw.

I don't think anyone is making his claim.

I would not expect that, developers typically tend to hate documenting.

BTW: you can quote folks into one post, you don't need to make on post for every quote.

Ron, the Hubitat Elevation hub platform "could be ready" for prime time if the Hubitat staff could/would understand that having an appropriate reference location (such as a Wiki) where up-to-date documentation, FAQs, lists of compatible and incompatible devices, tutorials, how-to (and possibly videos, although I do not care very much about videos as I find them all annoying and usually poorly done), would be available, a reference location that is not part of the message base, a reference location that contains no comment, no reply, a reference location that contains just the facts on the operation of the Hubitat Elevation hub.

Ron, as someone else recently suggested to me, could/would you keep your Hubitat Elevation hub a little longer and stay with the Community, please - I am hopeful (maybe a little bit optimistic) that some decisions will be made in regard to the creation of a Wiki or a reference location...

Ron, I know the suggestion was not yours, I was replying to ' csteele'...

I might have all the time (being a retiree) but I do not have the patience anymore to deal with something that is so esoteric (ie: intended for or to be understood by only a small number of people with a specialized knowledge).

Well then, if that is the case for all developers, then that might be one of the reasons why so many projects seem to 'crash' within their first year of release...

Unfortunately, I do not know how to do that - I try finding some documentation about this Community software but did not find anything really informative as this software is commercial and documentation seems reserved for the software renters/owners... :frowning_face:

The forum software is called Discourse. I have been using SmartThings' Discourse Forum platform for 4+ years now, so the move to Hubitat's Discourse Forum was a simple one. It takes a little getting used to, but once you master it, it really does seem to work well. I use the search feature all of the time, with very good success. Like anything, it takes time to know what key words to search for, and this knowledge only comes with time, and a lot of reading to learn the platform.

I completely understand the frustration both @ray and @Ron are expressing within this discussion. I think what needs to be restated is that Hubitat Elevation is still in the early stages of the product life cycle. This was clearly stated in the Hubitat Terms of Service...

c. Customer acknowledges that the Hubitat Platform is under continuous development, is not complete or otherwise at the final stage of development and that Hubitat makes no representation that the Hubitat Platform is error or bug free. Customer acknowledges and agrees that the Hubitat Platform may experience unscheduled downtime and agrees that Hubitat shall not be liable for any harm resulting from unscheduled downtime.

Does this excuse Hubitat from providing detailed, well-maintained documentation? Maybe at this early stage of the product's life cycle. Most of this community's users want the developers to stay busy adding support for more devices, more integrations, etc... Hopefully formal documentation is on the road map, but until then, this Community offers an amazing resource of both Hubitat engineers and end users who are usually willing to bend over backwards to help one another. I have never received the level of support and honest, open feedback from any other company that I have dealt with in the home automation field. If you want a direct line of communications to the Hubitat team, this community is the best portal. Reach out to them as they are an awesome team that is very responsive to user questions and feedback.

@bravenel - Rule Machine, Lutron Integrations, HSM, Simple Lighting, etc...
@mike.maxwell - Device Drivers, ...
@patrick - Dashboard, Alexa, ...
@bobbyD - HE Tech Support, Forum Support
@chuck.schwer - inner workings of the platform, API's, ...
(sorry if I have forgotten anyone... busy at work this morning!)

I would encourage you both to give it some time, as I believe you will be very impressed in the long run. The platform, in its current state, definitely favors former ST users/developers. Coming in cold from another platform, will definitely pose additional challenges and a steeper learning curve. However, it is still significantly simpler (IMHO) than trying to use a full DIY open source platform like Home Assistant or Open HAB.

In whatever decision you make, I wish you well. One thing to remember, the Hubitat Elevation hub is really inexpensive in the grand scheme of things. Users with 50 to 250+ devices have spent a small fortune on their home automation passion/addiction. The HE hub is less than the cost of a smart thermostat. It has no ongoing fees and no cloud dependencies (like ST, Wink, and Iris). To me, Hubitat Elevation is an absolute bargain with an amazing and very responsive team behind it. Again, I wish you well in whatever decision you make.

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I was gonna try to say what @ogiewon said, but he beat me to it and frankly, said it better than I wouldā€™ve :slight_smile:.

@Ron Iā€™d encourage you to keep giving Hubitat a try, I donā€™t know if this helps, but Iā€™d try to keep in mind they arenā€™t claiming itā€™s ready for primetime yet, and theyā€™re very responsive on here to questions, bug reports and feature requests.

@ray I agree with Ogiewon that the discourse software is not that incomprehensible and terrible (including the search feature). Even if itā€™s not ideal. But thatā€™s just my opinion, and I understand why you might be frustrated with the way things are documented (or not).

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FWIW, my memory and focus isn't what it used to be so I've found the bookmark feature to be very helpful in keeping track of things I might want to revisit. You can return to a thread at a specific point instead of searching through the whole thing. Code or links to code I might want to try at a future date get bookmarked.

To bookmark, click on the three dots under any post and select bookmark. To retrieve, click your user icon and click the bookmark icon.

This seems simple but it has really helped me deal with the amount of great info in this community.

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The problem is you agree to this after you made the purchase on Amazon of a product you thought worked at least a little. So far everything I have tried has not worked. That's not an experience I can continue having without much frustration. The Amazon listing should state this clearly as should the Hubitat purchase site. If this was an indiegogo or kickstarter purchase I would understand. But buying a product from a polished looking site and/or Amazon sets different expectations.

Ron, We'd be happy to help you with whatever you're having difficulty with. Have you contacted support@hubitat.com? Did you take @patrick up on his offer to provide assistance?

I'm truly sorry that your expectations have been disappointed. We've scrambled to get out a solid product, and clearly there are areas, including documentation, that need to be improved. We figured that people transitioning from ST would 'get it', and realize that with very minor exceptions, Hubitat Elevation offers essentially the same abstraction model as ST, with apps and drivers largely the same for each. Most of our customers have welcomed our choice to focus on the platform first, to put our resources there as a priority. I'm sorry that this choice doesn't work for you.

Again, we'd be more than happy to help you get over your initial hurdles, but if returning the product is your remedy, we will do that for you also.

Regards,
Bruce

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Thanks @bravenel I wish I could work with you. But I don't really have time since I work full time. Also Living in Hawaii my time difference makes it hard for me to work with you guys. I really wanted to jump on board, I am excited about the idea, I purchased as soon as I heard about the product. But the first device I added is one of my most important "Fibaro Motion Sensor" and it is not working at all. I tried to get support from the community. I didn't reach out to support because I figured it's the same folks on the community. You, Mike and Patrick have been replying to my comments so I figured you were following.

Regardless, this device is much less than I expected. I didn't expect a harware device rebranded as hubitat (really a crippled X86). I knew it used a zwave stick but I thought that was an interesting design choice to allow for easy upgrade. Now I see it was because you are just using other products to build this sysytem. That's fine but not what I thought I was buying.

I didn't care too much about this but when I accessed the system I had a lot of issues off the bat. My attempts to get the fibaro working have been frustrating and it is listed as a supported device so I figure most of my devices will be this way.

I also tried porting my own fibaro dh and realized that the errors being produced were not clear to me and I had no idea how to convert the DH without better instructions.

I bought the device because I say it didn't support the zxt-120 DH yet and since I wrote it on ST I figured I could help you guys out and do the conversion for you and perhaps get on board with a new system. But now I see I will not have the resources I need to do that.

I wish you guys luck. I hope the product works. I suggest you make it more clear on Amazon and your sites purchase portal that this is a Beta Device.

Sorry I can't be more positive but I spent $350 on Animus Heart Indiegogo campaign in an effort to move away from ST and was burned by that loss. I would like to keep my Hubitat and follow along but if it tanks I don't want to have wasted the $115 again.

What does DH stand for? I plan to document my journey with this product. Can I set routines that use the IR from my cell phone to trigger items, I want to send feedback, from devices, such as angle or weight to stop or start actuators. I have a few particle pcs that I have made and want to use them with this ecosystem. I am watching the videos as I go, I can see the potential.

It stands for Device Handler, that is what people call Drivers on another home automation system. Here we call them "Drivers" and they are the code that interacts with devices connected to our system.

Great. I am trying to read all the faqs before I ask stupid questions but I am amped to get all these cloud devices and my home brewed ones up and running. Thank you.

Is there a way to accomplish this scenario:
If motion is detected turn on Light1 between sunset and sunrise; Delay 10 minutes and turn off Light1 [Working]
If motion detected and previous rule runs more than 3 times in an hour disable the previous rule for 1 hour

This would be tricky, and messy. You'd have a bunch of rules, and a virtual dimmer to use as a counter.

But, there are some new features coming soon that will make this much more straight-forward. Not going to elaborate now, but keep your eyes open for the next release.

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@bravenel Thank you! That's all I need to hear. Happy to make due for something that works for this.

I'm going to have to cancel my holiday then. I'm sure my wife won't mind. :sunglasses:

I am also coming from ISY--is IFTTT the only way to program Hubitat? I want to write routines that are If-then-wait-then, etc. Does Hubitat support this?

Yes. If you can pair your device to Hubitat (Zigbee, Zwave, and even some LAN devices like Lutron or even some Wifi devices) then you have a couple choices of how to automate things. Rule Machine being one, but there is Simple Automations, Motion Lighting, and other simpler apps depending upon what you are trying to do.

You also have the choice to use IFTTT if your devices cannot be directly paired to the hub. There is an integration for IFTTT on Hubitat. Maybe you want to use something like email, or electrical rates, certain Wifi devices, and other similar things.

https://docs.hubitat.com/index.php?title=IFTTT_Integration

https://docs.hubitat.com/index.php?title=Rule-4.0

https://docs.hubitat.com/index.php?title=Hubitat_Elevation_Documentation#App_Documentation