hi,
I'm considering migrating away from Brilliant.
I have approximately 65 hue lights around my house that are currently connected to two hue hubs and controlled via Brilliant. There are approximately 60 Brilliant Dimmers/Key Panels around the house.
I'm thinking about moving to Inovelli Blue switches and connecting them directly to the Hue Lights to reduce all the latency and increase the reliability. The Brilliant Panels would get replaced with the smart Button controller and the presence sensing switches to accomplish the same functionality. (will be approximately 60 of them)
Considering Hubitat to manage all of the smart home features as well as integrate other items in the house such as Big ■■■ Fans. Out door lights etc. etc.
Any recommendations on set-up and needed hardware to build out a system?
Anybody done anything similar? Any benefit to connect the Hue and Inovelli to Hubitat and run the control that way?
thanks!
One thing to think about is that the standard that older hue bulbs use doesn’t play well with other zigbee devices (bad repeaters). To directly bind the Blue switches to the hue bulbs they will need to be on the same hub. That could result is some issues. That said, I don’t have that particular setup, so someone else in the community might have an experience to share with something similar.
What I would (and have) done in my setup is to keep the Hue lights on hue and put the Blue switches on the Hubitat hub. Both are integrated and the response is very good for my needs.
As for the needed hardware, if you keep the Hue lights on the hue hub for now, you just need a Hubitat hub and the switches. Are you getting the Inovelli fan switches for the fans?
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I'd second @Sebastien 's suggestion to keep the Hue equipment on the Hue bridges. Aside from isolating them on their own mesh, it opens up other possibilities for transitioning between platforms like you are considering, as well as options for utilising different platforms at the same time. E.g. you can still use the Hue app and things like Node RED or Home Assistant while still running the majority of your automation through Hubitat, as they all can integrate with the Hue bridges.
That said, I'm also not 100% sure what the implications are for wanting to pair switches directly to the lights and whether that can be done while still on a mesh network... My preference would be to manage the switch-related logic through a system like Hubitat as it opens up so many more possibilities.
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Thanks,
the only thought for binding was to reduce the latency. With brilliant its been slow on the dimmer modules, every about 25 days i end up rebooting the WiFi in the house to get the panels to reconnect to everything.
To ensure I understand. In your set-up inovelli switches talk to the hubitat which talks to the hue bridge? that’s great if there isn’t a latency issue.
I was thinking of adding the fans to hubitat and. Then programming the smart button controller to turn the fan and light on/off.
Thanks,
The only thought was to reduce the latency but it sounds like that maybe only an issue with the existing platform.
I saw a 32 device limit for the hubitat, will i need more than one to manage all 60ish switches?
Correct, though in most cases I have automation turn on the switches based on motion or presence. So if there is latency, it is barely noticeable.
That sounds like a great idea! Can they be integrated directly to Hubitat?
The 32 device limit is a Zigbee limitation as far as I know. But those are direct connections. Your switches will be repeaters for other switches, and each can have 32 connected to them, so the number goes up exponentially!
I have 39 Zigbee devices on one of my hubs and 42 on another with no issues. (I have multiple hubs)
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What are you sing for motion/presence. I was looking at the Inovelli switches that had it built in.
When I searched it I found that somebody wrote a driver for it - i can’t post the link….
The Inovelli Blue motion switch (mmW presence) isn't available yet -- but hoping to see it by EOY.
Many brands & types of standalone PIR and/or mmW sensors are widely available though.
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I have the Inovelli mmWave presence sensors that @hydro311 mentioned on order.
I have been using a combination of approaches. I have some of Aquara’s FP1 and FP2 presence sensors, and also some Smart Things and Hue motion sensors.
All of these except for the FP2 are connected directly to my Hubitat hub. The FP2 go through HomeKit, where they switch on/off a virtual switch with motion from Hubitat. This brings back their status to the hub. I suspect that sounds complex, but it is simple enough to setup.
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