My SmartThings hub (ver 2) is pretty good but sometimes there is noticeable lag in command execution. Has anyone tried the Hubitat as an alternative?
It has native Z-Wave and Zigbee function and local operation but it is still somewhat new in the field. I wonder if it’s worth a try.
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Excellent question – I’m curious what people think as well. I’ve heard great things about it and from what I understand the founders are really passionate about home automation which is pretty cool.
Our CTO uses it exclusively now and swears by it.
From what I understand, it has a bit of a learning curve coming from ST, but they’re rapidly improving the UI and also have a pretty great community as well: https://community.hubitat.com/
I’ll get Eric M. (CTO) in here to respond shortly on his thoughts as well and answer any further questions you have.
Thanks for asking!
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Thanks for jumping in, Eric. I am very interested in Eric M.'s experience with the Hubitat.
I moved almost everything from ST to Hubitat about 6 months ago and have been much happier with Hubitat especially when ST has had so many short yet noticeable issues lately. The only devices still on my ST hub are my Neato vacuums because no one has written an app or ported one of the great apps from ST yet. Everything else is working great, the UI is ok for management however for everyday use I’m not as impressed with the dashboards so I setup a Homebridge server on a Rasberry PI so I use Apple Home on my iOS devices to do most of the manual user interaction, of course most of the system is automated and connected to Alexa as well. The automations are a little faster then they where on ST but Z-wave devices that aren’t Z-Wave Plus don’t seem to work as well on Hubitat as they did on ST (some of my GE light switches often won’t tell Hubitat when they are turned on or off)
I just ordered a Hubitat for testing. I, too, have experienced reliability issues with ST lately and at first blamed my various devices but now believe it’s the hub. I figure it’s time to try other options.
Hi…the devices you’ve listed will not work well for you regardless of whether you chose smartthings or Hubitat because of the specific protocols involved.
The fact that you have to know that means that both of these two systems require a fairly significant amount of technical knowledge and neither company is particularly good at explaining that upfront. Hubitat was intended for a professional installers and power users. Samsung just isn’t very good at this kind of pre-purchase counseling for any of their products.
@HattyCurll, what devices were listed? I just wrote that I have Z-Wave devices and noticed ST hub induces some lag. I thought Hubitat might speed things up a bit. If the hubs don’t work well with Z-Wave then I really do have a problem!
Hmmm? Not sure what that was either
I made (IMHO) the fortunate decision to go against my gut (that being, always go with a known name brand) and went with the Hubitat. I have not regretted it. From the get-go, Support and the community have been excellent. So far, everything I’ve installed, Zigbee, Z-wave and the few cloud-based devices I still have left… work. As far as a learning curve, yes there is one. IMHO it’s not crazy. Again, Support and the community are more than happy to help out. I am sure ST is a great product as well. I just preferred local control over the cloud.
Before buying, I would go and ask questions from support and lurk around the community.
@Ma2J, I lurked for quite a while before pulling the trigger. The group over on their board seem pretty helpful. Shoot, just figuring out each manufacturer’s pairing setup was more difficult (in hassle factor) than coding the automation rules! 
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So I switched to Hubitat because SmartThings failed to turn on lights per schedule. After several days and being asked by the other half why the lights were no longer turning on, I decided to switch. So far, I’m glad I made the switch. It’s different to SmartThings, but at least everything is locally vice Cloud based. It runs quicker and I don’t rely on Samsung IDE platform to add the drivers. The only thing I haven’t figured out is the notifications yet. Maybe @EricM_Inovelli could make a tutorial for us not so smart people?
Also, it would be great if there was a pinned posted on the page about the latest driver updates. I’ll just make a habit checking GITHub for Eric’s latest creations, but it would be great have a heads up on some changes.
I switched over from SmartThings in July, for the same reason LAG. There have been some ups and downs, but I have been loving it. I am still rocking both hubs. I have the SmartThings ADT hub which I am using for my home security. What’s really cool about Hubitat is there is a built in app called Hub Link. This allows you to connect your SmartThings hub to Hubitat and have all of your SmartThings devices in Hubitat so that you can use them for automations. This makes for an much easier migration, or in my case allows me to still use my ADT sensors in Hubitat.
The only thing I have not figured out yet is how to use scenes with my Inovelli switches, but I’ll have to sit down one day to figure that out. I just ordered one of the new Red Series On/Off switch, so will figure that out when it arrives! Super Excided.
@harjms & @goug76 Those are all great suggestions! I will work on the tutorial and driver stickies, but in the mean time, let me see if I can get you started. The key to both of your questions (scenes & notifications) is the customer driver of course. The switch child driver is also important for notifications so make sure that is installed as well. Once they are installed:
Scenes
These show up as “Button” events in Hubitat. Any App that works with Button events can be used to automate based on scenes. This means Rule Machine and Button Controller and probably some others. Basically you setup the automation to be triggered on a button event. Use this map to determine which button corresponds to which button combination.
- Tap UP 1x = Button 1 PUSHED
- Tap DOWN 1x = Button 1 HELD
- Tap UP 2x = Button 2 PUSHED
- Tap DOWN 2x = Button 2 HELD
- Tap UP 3x = Button 3 PUSHED
- Tap DOWN 3x = Button 3 HELD
- Tap UP 4x = Button 4 PUSHED
- Tap DOWN 4x = Button 4 HELD
- Tap UP 5x = Button 5 PUSHED
- Tap DOWN 5x = Button 5 HELD
- Hold UP 3 Seconds = Button 6 PUSHED
- Hold DOWN 3 Seconds = Button 6 HELD
- Tap the Config/Favorite Button 1x = Button 7 PUSHED taps
Notifications
In the device preferences for the Inovelli switch there is a section where you can configure Notifications. Notification 1-5 to be specific. Once you fill in all the details for each notification (Effect, LED intensity, Duration, & Color), a “child switch device” is created for the notification. This switch can be used in any automation to turn on or turn off the notification!
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Ahhh! I would have not guessed this approach. I would have guessed:
Tap up 1 = Button 1 Pushed
Tap down 1 = Button 2 Pushed
Tap up 2x = Button 3 Pushed
Tap down 2x = Button 4 Pushed … and so on, up to 13.
Glad I read this thread, Seeing the responses from the switch, I would have been scratching my head, asking “What did I do wrong ???”
That’s extremely helpful @EricM_Inovelli. I now see the child switch device in Hubitat. Now I need to make some if/then statements in the Rule builder to make it function correctly. Right now, I use Alexa Echo devices to trigger “Good Night” command to shut off the dog bed, exterior lights, living room lamp, kitchen light etc…, but I want it to flash if all devices repsond “True”. Currently, if just flashes Cyan, so that’s a start/win for me. I’ll play around with the rule builder and transition everything to Hubitat vice having Alexa perform the Routine.
Where do I find the Notification “devices”???
I have a hubitat
My firmware is current.
My red series device driver is the github Oct. 15 build
I’ve set the 4 levels on all 5 of my Notifications on one of my switches
I’ve saved my preferences
But I can’t find any child devices in my device list. Nothing is named “* Notification N”
That’s an affirmative. Added the driver, saved my preferences again and the devices now show. Thanks
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