Wink Hub 2 as zwave repeater/secondary controller

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1

I've checked the forums here and online and I want to leave some information here for people in my very specific situation.

I just moved from Wink to Hubitat. However, I quickly found that the Z-wave radio on the Hubitat is far inferior to that of the Wink Hub 2. One solution would be to simply get a micro-usb OTG cable and get a Z-wave stick and call it a day.

Instead, I thought, why not make use of the superior Z-wave radios on the hub that I already have? Luckily, there is a way to do just that.

  1. Navigate to the Zwave section of the Devices tab on the Hubitat site
  2. Open the Wink app, open the hub section, and select Z-Wave Controls.
  3. From the list, select Learning Mode and confirm sending the command
  4. Immediately afterward, start a Zwave pairing session on the Hubitat site

If you time it right, the Wink Hub should show up as available. Label it and put it to the side. You won't be able to do anything with it, but it is now part of the Z-wave network that your Hubitat administers. With this setup, I was able to pair my Z-wave locks as before and control them through Hubitat.

i'm sure there are other considerations and things that I'm missing, but this accomplished my goal of pairing my Z-wave locks and I hope that it will help one of you out.

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2

Not sure I grasp how you made this conclusion, as zwave is a "mesh network" meaning that every device doesn't connect "directly to the hub" but some devices route through the mesh (repeaters) to communicate to the hub.....so the "inferiority" of the internal radio is kinda irrelevant.

My personal use case proves this as I have a contact sensor over 300 feet away OUTDOORS from my house/hub on my mailbox going through 1 repeater to the hub, and that contact sensor communicates flawlessly everyday consistently sending the notifications even before the mailman drives away.

The "Zwave lock pairing" issue is a separate issue.

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I came to this conclusion via my own experience of using the Hubitat and the Wink in the same location. I only have two Z-wave locks in my house at opposite ends, which means that the mesh network aspect of zwave does not work as well for me.

The pairing is not the big problem for me, it was the fact that the Hubitat could not even detect the lock in the first place until I added the Wink Hub.

I suppose when next I post I could preface it with a YMMV as well. My experience simply differs from your own.

5

That's a device/driver compatibility with the hub problem, nothing to do with the radio itself......

6

Ah, here we must actively disagree. Both my locks are listed on the compatibility list for this release of hub software. It is not an issue with compatibility, simply of range. Once my range increased, my lock was found and paired.

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7

And like all products each individuals mileage may vary, as my smartthings hub would not connect to the above example of the mailbox contact sensor......but then again that was 2 platforms ago, and I have far more repeaters added since then currently.

9

Because it's factually not the case, this would conclude that devices the farthest out of your mesh have less functionality and reliability than devices that are closer do. Having a strong mesh network proves this false as the hub radio itself is really irrelevant for devices that never connect directly to it but through repeaters anyway. This isn't a wifi network to were the farther away from the router you are your signal dies off.....

11

Then I would assume you would understand that the radio itself (signal wise) has no idea whether its a lock or a contact sensor it's sending the signal to......If the Contact sensor works and the lock doesn't there's not a "signal" issue........

But I agree the dead horse has been beaten.

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12

You guys are going off the topic.

I am curious about if this setup is really repeating or positively affecting the zwave network. I am guessing there isn't any further integration that can be done outside of the possible repeating?

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Personally, I don't know. I'll be honest in that I'm at best a script kiddie when it comes to this stuff, which made switching to Hubitat seem pretty daunting. I was glad to find a way to pair my locks, but I'm afraid I'm no help into anything deeper than what I've posted.

14

Sorry for all the off topic posts. I deleted them as it serves no purpose to argue about it and derail the thread.

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15

I am also curious if it is any type of long term project. Because of the warning flags of going out of business for Wink, wonder if you would experience the same benefits (if any) if the Wink servers go down.

16

That is a concern of mine as well. My first instinct is that being a Z-Wave repeater should not be cloud-dependent. However, Wink could always choose to brick their hubs before finally closing their doors and that would definitely derail me. If that happens, then I will simply buy another zwave repeater of some type and call it a day. I was just happy to be able to re-use what I thought would be mostly useless tech after I migrated.

My reason for sharing this post is to help people in my exact situation with my same problem as a way of keeping them from having to buy something when they can use what they already have.

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17

I've got to chime in as I'm having some issues that I hoped a solution like this might help me with (using Wink as a repeater), which is how I found this topic.

I have a few Go Control Window/Door Sensors (Zwave) that were paired with Wink and working fine with their distances from the Wink hub.

In general, my entire experience migrating to Hubitat is going very well, with only small hiccups, all of which I've been able to overcome, so far, except for these motion sensors.

I excluded them from Wink and paired them with Hubitat. No issues there. My test WDS sitting near the Hubitat was working flawlessly, so I even wrote up some audible and text alerts for when it's left open. Those worked flawlessly, too.

I migrated my active WDS over and, without testing it, enabled the same alerts for it. I was flooded the next morning with false alarms as soon as that WDS was opened (it never reported closed, but I confirmed it was closed). The WDS was closing, but the message wasn't making it to Hubitat.

I swapped the two WDS sensors ... and the problem swapped with them, remaining with whichever one was furthest, physically, from Hubitat, while the one closest worked fine.

Live logging showed the closest one open/close messages every time, immediately, with the WDS LED flashing red, also immediately. The furthest one, the LED is delayed ... as is the open/close event in Hubitat's log ... and if too delayed, is lost completely.

It gives the impression the motion sensor wakes up, if asleep, connects to the hub, and blinks (either when the message is sent or when it is able to confirm the message was received, I'm not 100% sure).

Again, when I move the WDS closer to Hubitat it begins working fine.

This WDS is only 28 feet away, through one wall, when it performs intermittently.

Any ideas?

Related question: Are there are better motion, temperature, humidity, and WDS sensors I can use with Hubitat? I'm not fully invested in these yet, and they're fairly old, and need to buy more.

18

I have 12 of the Aeon MultiSensor 6. They've been great, for ZWave. (Which is slower than Zigbee.) I also have 3 Dome, also work well. Less sensors, but longer battery for me.

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I have loads of GoControl contact sensors. They generally seem to work fine with Hubitat, although occasionally, one of them is delayed. I just purchased a few Aeotec Range Extender 6 z-wave repeaters. Only received one so far, but adding that one has made my Schlage locks much more reliable with Hubitat. When I add the others, I'll update this thread to see if the occasional delay I see with the one contact sensor goes away.

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Delay is gone. I ended up adding 4 Aeotec z-wave range extenders. Don't think I needed all four.

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I too am interested to know more about the possibility of using a Wink Hub 2 as a repeater. I'm just finishing up migrating to the HE and have most of everything working quite well. After unpairing the last device last night, I started to lament the need to box-up and store the Wink which has always been so reliable, but-for the cloud end of things.

At the same time, the BE469 lock on our front door is still a little bit flaky, so I have been looking for definitive commentary on the best z-wave repeaters to use...

22

Have you considered using your Wink hub as a z-ave repeater?.

If that isn't satisfactory, a number of us use the Aeotec Range Extender 6 as a z-wave+ repeater. Works really well - I purchased 4, and have no issues with either of my z-wave locks (BE469, FE599).

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@ssj4gogeta2003 - Did you need to reset your WH2 before taking this on? Curious as to the state of the Wink before you got it to work.