Will it work for me?

Why Hubitat Elevation
1

Hi all, just been told about Habitat by a friend.
We have a house full of smart stuff, the lights are all Innr colour or white which are zigbee i think, we have a Hive thermostat, Hue hub and motion detector plus Hue dimmer switches all over.

The TV, Nvidia Shield, Amp and sky box is controlled via a Logitech device and Alexa, we have two Alexa's, the bedroom is controlled by Alexa and another smart TV control that does the Sky box and TV

Porch lights are controlled via a SonOff switch and Alexa/Hue routines, living room cabinet lights are also SonOff controlled.

Having just had an internet outage which left us totally in the dark literally, it seems Hubitat can help - can it????

2

Some yes, some no. Best setup for lighting is to leave everything on the Hue Bridge and use the built-in Hue Integration of Hubitat Elevation. This is an all local integration. Your Innr bulbs are indeed Zigbee, and for that reason you don't want to mix them on the Hubitat Hub. The bulbs will continue to work well repeating the Zigbee signal for each other on the Hue Bridge, but they will cause problems if you mix them with Zigbee devices (those that are not lightbulbs) on the Hubitat Elevation hub.

Here's a list of officially compatible devices. You may find some community drivers for the other stuff. Anything that needs internet for function (i.e. Alexa) will not be accessible if an internet outage occurs. For things like Logitech Harmony and Sonoff, there are community integrations that will all you to control them without internet access.

3

Thanks, so i leave the lighting as it is but connect the Hue hub to Hubitat which ill give me local/intranet control of my lights ?

For things like the TV setup, would it still use the Logitec app or is that replaced?

But Alexa will not have control of anything if internet is down ?

I didn't see a link to a list of devices??

Dave

4

It won't because Alexa itself needs internet access. However, your automations will continue to run, as well as control via the Dashboard.

5

So it's pretty much everything BUT Alexa that can be done without the 'net.

Does that include simple Alexa stuff like "Turn the lights on" or do those commands go to the cloud too?

6

Yes. You can still control lights from the Hue app, but then also gain local control of them from HE (Hubitat Elevation). However, the Philips Hue API limits the refresh time between the app and anything connecting to the bridge via their API. So you will not see changes made outside of the app reflected in the app for 1 minute. Best thing to do is to control them with Hubitat Dashboard, That way things will be in sync immediately.

You can continue to use both. I control my Harmony Hub via this community driver and RM rules, and I still use the Harmony app and my Harmony Touch remote anytime I want.

Correct. As @aaiyar pointed out, Alexa/Echo is a purely internet connected device.

Sorry. Fixed in my previous post, and here it is again.

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7

You'll still need the app/remote for somethings. I use the integration for things like turning on/off my TV, but the integration isn't going to give you the ability to switch the channel to 37 or to open Netflix or things like that. There are ways to do all of that stuff, but trust me, the Harmony will be much easier.

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Agree 100%. I cannot get my head around asking Alexa to change channels for me or stuff like that. Stuff like turn the TV off, pause, mute, and even turn the TV down. Those are for sure useful and I use them via Alexa and the HE driver, rather than the Harmony/Alexa integration. Much more reliable.

I however don't see the value in doing anything else via anything but my Harmony Touch or the app (when I can't find the remote :crazy_face:).

You will take my remote from my cold dead hands!

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I sometimes ask Alexa to mute or something, but I have a Fire stick. To open Netflix, for example, requires using the arrows to select the right tile. No way am I saying "Alexa, left" "Alexa, down" "Alexa, left" "Alexa enter" not gonna happen :slight_smile:

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10

My Logitech remote died one night (someone might have left it off the charger for a few days). I spent 1/2 an hour arguing with Alexa while trying to watch TV. NEVER AGAIN!!!

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11

I'm happy to know that I'm not the only one who can't get Alexa + Harmony to change the channel, by number or by name, even though it has everything needed in 'scenes'.

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I do that multiple times a day. Install the Harmony Second Hub skill

"Alexa turn the TV on channel 602"

It's the navigation/volume that is a killer.

EDIT: I take that back the normal Harmony skill will change channels, but only if you say it just like I wrote it, other wise she gives you "you have no video skills enabled that will do that...." - heard that more than once

But the other Skill is good to have.

13

Yeah, I've done that, my wife hates it. I get the understandable, "I don't want to have to remember a specific phrase, it should understand me!" Like in many homes across the globe, Alexa is often called some unflattering things in our home...

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14

My other half calls Alexa the "B" word (the one that rhymes with Witch) all the time. And that is on a good day!

15

If I were in charge at Amazon I'd measure the success of Alexa based on how few times she's cursed at in a day.

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16

They would NEVER record or release, but it would be funny to hear a mix of the top 100 profanities and even worse things people have said to Alexa

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Me?,,,, Every damn day... when I'm certain she understands but is copping an attitude. Do it while she's listening and you get "(pause....) I'm not going to answer that." :rofl: Whoa!... you go, girl!

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