Smartthings Questions

There are a few devices and features that have me wanting to test out a Smartthings hub but I'm having trouble picturing the Ecosystem if I add Smartthings to the mix.
 
I have Homeseer and expect at some point to add a Z-net interface to it along with some Homeseer Z-wave switches. Would the Z-Wave functionality of a Smartthings hub create issues for the Z-Net controllers?
 
I have  a Hue hub linked to Homeseer. Will that mess with Smarthings zigbee controls?
 
I have Lifx bulbs working with a Homeseer plugin. Can Smartthings also interact with the Lifx stuff without getting Homeseer confused?
 
It's not really clear to me where the "complimentary functionality" / "conflicting functionality" line would end up if I added a Smartthings hub to my mix of technologies.

It's not clear to me either.  With z-wave, anyway.  Seems like it's one or the other, and most don't play well when another is 'in charge'.

I've totally given up on smartthings (and wink too), as the cloud reliability has pushed beyond my limits (and the WAF).  I've got a hubitat but haven't put any time into really testing it's boundaries.  It's been on my to-do list for way too long.
 
I've had an HS3 Pro setup cranking along for ages and it just stays working.  The event programming is "an acquired taste" but quite workable once you understand which hoops to jump through.  Trouble is it's hard to keep that fresh in your mind and I find myself getting annoyed any time I go back to try and change or add things.  But, hey, it still keeps working and doesn't annoy the wife.

Good input. I just added a Weatherflow weather station to my HS3 setup which is working beautifully and kind of reminds me why I am using HS for core automation... that Stargate can't do. Stargate is still the king of reliability and what it does do it does better than anything that has come along since.
 
I was just attracted to Smartthings because the hub is cheap and so are the sensors. Maybe not a good idea to mix it with existing stuff though.

there is a smartthings-mqtt bridge https://github.com/stjohnjohnson/smartthings-mqtt-bridge
 
i'm using it to bridge google assistant to smartthings to my homebrew software, which is the only thing controlling zwave. i expose certain zwave devices to smartthings by creating virtual switches in their app. my s/w gets updates through mqtt if controlled by smartthings and also pushes updates to smartthings (which updates google home) from my s/w.  i'm not actually using smartthings to control zwave. but i do have a bunch of zigbee sensors connected to smartthings and my s/w gets their updates through mqtt.

Would the Z-Wave functionality of a Smartthings hub create issues for the Z-Net controllers?
 
Here replicated the Homeseer ZWave network over to the Smartthings hub and Leviton ZWave VRCOP.
 
Works but status isn't shown going from one controller to another.

upstatemike said:

 I just added a Weatherflow weather station to my HS3 setup which is working beautifully 

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Not to derail this topic, but please keep us informed of how you are liking that Weatherflow station.  I'm especially interested in the lightning detection aspects and the overall integration with HomeSeer.

upstatemike said:

I was just attracted to Smartthings because the hub is cheap and so are the sensors. Maybe not a good idea to mix it with existing stuff though.

Click to expand...

Likewise, it really seemed to have potential.  But the attempts to use the cloud, hide the overly technical bits and put what seems like more emphasis to appeal to a casual user pretty much ended my attempts to make more use of it.

I could overlook the attempts to hide things from casual users, as the developer IDE lets you get as 'down and dirty' as you like.  But the cloud-based aspect of it, and the latency or outright downtime made it supremely aggravating to try and do things beyond the casual user market.  The Hubitat seems to 'get that', but I've not had time to get into it.

Still, with z-wave you're up against a pretty complicated interface 'under the covers'.  Reference any conversations from the Charmed Quark guy for insights there.  Thus having something that babysits the z-wave network and has good diagnostic tools to debug it is pretty useful.  HS seems to have a lot going for it in this regard.
 

BraveSirRobbin said:

Not to derail this topic, but please keep us informed of how you are liking that Weatherflow station.  I'm especially interested in the lightning detection aspects and the overall integration with HomeSeer.

Click to expand...

 
Might be April or May before I get to test it for lightning (unless we get some thundersnow storms this winter). So far I am using it to trigger HS events based on wind or the start of rain and am pleased with the way it works. Next will attempt an alarm for rapidly falling barometer.

I installed the MQTT-Samsung Plugin last night (well this morning).  That and I locked myself out of the Samsung IDE account and it took a while to get back in.
 
 
 
For me it is not worth running this as I am getting all I need from the old HAI Logger / new OmniBridgeLink stuff.
 
Relating to using ZWave here ...mostly tinker with it and primarily utilize UPB (at 100%) for the light switches.  Same with Zigbee.  I do prefer now utilizing WiFi based MQTT with upgraded firmware devices and I am not much of a WiFi automation person here.
 
Relating to Homeseer ZWave here have my ZNet POE like device mounted in the attic and it is working at 100% with no issues now over the last 2-3 years.

I don't plan to get too deep into Z-Wave because of all the nightmare stories once you start to scale it out. Mainly interested in using some Homeseer dimmers because of the lightbar display and maybe the odd Z-Wave sensor that has no equivalent in other protocols. I will do Homeseer ZNet for the controller since I am currently rooted in the HS platform. HS also lets me play with Lutron, Legrand, UPB, etc.as I continue to scale back on my existing Insteon stuff.
 
Smartthings looked like it might be yet another new technology option to test out but if it is going to interfere with my existing and already planned systems then no point creating problems for myself.

Yeah primarily here for ZWave never did mix much the wireless and wired stuff as the OmniPro 2 panel was totally wired to all of the sensors. 
 
Relating to Zigbee only started to test it because I was testing the Almond + before it was being sold and was asked to help them such that they sent me prototype Almond+ and Zigbee devices way long time ago.  The did get a patent on the touchscreen built in interface on the Almond plus.  It was tiny and the base OS on the Almond plus was a locked version of OpenWRT with two separate intefaces.  One OpenWrt and one propietary easy gui for the Almond Plus.  ZWave and Zigbee worked great with it.
 
The above was for play automation and I never touched the working Omni Pro 2 and Homeseer automation (well have two HS3 boxes) sort of as I do tinker with one HS3 box and leave the second one alone.
 
Yesterday's tinkering was using an Oracle W2003 mini Virtual box that is running now 5 instances of SAPI voices and installing HS3 Pro for windows on it to run one Windows only networking monitoring and control utility which I use to manage the 15 windows embedded tabletop touchscreens.  Works well.  I bridged the network interface from the VB to the Ubuntu box and the network scan works great. 
 
Mix in Alexa here and been testing a Kinect plugin using SAPI that manages the Alexa stuff.  I can control Alexa with Cortana and vice versa.

Here is the main Ubuntu set up stuff:

HS3 Pro Edition 3.0.0.449 (Linux)

Here is the VB stuff on the same box linked to the main HS3 software.

HS3 Pro Edition 3.0.0.435 (Windows)

Then there is another Linux box running HS3 except that it is not Intel based rather it is the Arm based Pine 64 2 Gb computer running Ubuntu Linux 64 bit mode.

upstatemike said:

I don't plan to get too deep into Z-Wave because of all the nightmare stories once you start to scale it out. Mainly interested in using some Homeseer dimmers because of the lightbar display and maybe the odd Z-Wave sensor that has no equivalent in other protocols. I will do Homeseer ZNet for the controller since I am currently rooted in the HS platform. HS also lets me play with Lutron, Legrand, UPB, etc.as I continue to scale back on my existing Insteon stuff.
 
Smartthings looked like it might be yet another new technology option to test out but if it is going to interfere with my existing and already planned systems then no point creating problems for myself.

Click to expand...

I am curious as to how well relatively large zwave networks behave and why. I suspect the main issue there might be excessive polling of lighting devices due to the fact that until relatively recently the majority of lighting devices did not  provide status feedback thanks to the infamous Lutron patent.
 
My lighting network is primarily Lutron's RA2, but I have a bunch of zwave devices (about a dozen) that Lutron simply does not provide for one reason or another. When I started with zwave about 10? years ago, I was frustrated by lack of diagnostic tools that would let one to figure out quickly what might be wrong with the network.  I had two annoying issues with my small zwave network: elk m1 sometimes missed setting the thermostats properly, one of the locks did not provide status notification back to elk.
 
When I got together some diagnostic tools, I was able to fix the lock issue rather easily, and to my surprise the thermostat issues turned out to be elk's not sending a command rather than zwave losing it.  Recently, I had two occasions when elk failed to send a lighting command as well.
 
In brief, zwave has been as solid in my limited network as Lutron radio ra2 lighting.  I have some sockets about 60' away from the controller and they never lose a command (using a retransmission of course to span the distance).
 
However, I still think that in general zwave has been poorly designed and implemented for various reasons I mentioned in other topics.  They had a chance to be no worse that Lutron is and failed.

BraveSirRobbin said:

Not to derail this topic, but please keep us informed of how you are liking that Weatherflow station.  I'm especially interested in the lightning detection aspects and the overall integration with HomeSeer.

Click to expand...

 
Finally got back to the time of year when we have thunderstorms so I can provide feedback on the lightning detector. I have voice announcements to warn me when there is a strike withing 20 miles (with filtering to prevent constant announcements in a heavy storm) and so far it is working perfectly. The rain sensor also works well to alert me if it starts to rain and I have events to warn for high winds and a falling barometer (bad weather coming). Overall I'm pleased enough to start thinking about retiring my RainWise system.

upstatemike said:

There are a few devices and features that have me wanting to test out a Smartthings hub but I'm having trouble picturing the Ecosystem if I add Smartthings to the mix.
 
I have Homeseer and expect at some point to add a Z-net interface to it along with some Homeseer Z-wave switches. Would the Z-Wave functionality of a Smartthings hub create issues for the Z-Net controllers?
 
I have  a Hue hub linked to Homeseer. Will that mess with Smarthings zigbee controls?
 
I have Lifx bulbs working with a Homeseer plugin. Can Smartthings also interact with the Lifx stuff without getting Homeseer confused?
 
It's not really clear to me where the "complimentary functionality" / "conflicting functionality" line would end up if I added a Smartthings hub to my mix of technologies.

Click to expand...

 
Adding SmartThings really won't give you any benefit.  The interfacing to ST is rudimentary via a MQTT SmartApp which works but is cumbersome or via the cloud interface which is slow and prone to outages.
 
With that said I have multiple systems online all of the time and just having them on won't cause radio interference or issues if you want to play/test with them.  From a device stand point the only thing ST brings to the table that you don't have in HS is ZigBee.  There are several plugins now available to bring ZigBee functionality to HS which are better options than ST.  JowiHue + deCONZ is a good setup especially for lamps.  (Self promoting) the Hubitat plugin is also coming along nicely to integrate the Hubitat Hub which supports all of the ST devices and as a hub is constantly improving.
 
The question lies with what is the end goal or just experimentation?

Since my original post I did pick up a Hubitat to experiment with (though I don't know when I will get around to doing anything with it). My main goals are:
 
1 Just experimenting.
 
2 Possibly using Hubitat as a Zigbee interface to Homeseer so I can use Smartthings buttons and a few other things.
 
3 To see if it could act as a scaled down alternative to Homeseer for me to recommend to people who want to get into automation but are not interested in investing time in the Homeseer learning curve. I'm not claiming the learning curve for Hubitat would be less. That's just one of the things I'm looking to determine.
 
For now I am staying far away from Smartthings, Nest, and any other web based system that can unexpectedly screw me by suddenly changing their policies. Only exception is Amazon because there is no viable local alternative to Alexa at this time.