I consider myself very tech savvy. I have been using Smartthings devices and Hubs over the past 6-7 years now.
Recently the reliability and speed of my devices have gone from 100% to maybe 50% ---- changing on an hourly basis.
I have upgraded my Smartthings Hubs to Aeotec v3 Hubs — hoping to improve reliabilty…this has not changed anything.
I have been working with Aeotec’s Tech Support over the past couple of months trying to resolve my issue.
During this time I have converted an older Dell computer to a HA Controller and have migrated most of my devices to this HA Controller.
I migrated to HA in hopes of trying to improve reliability. I was under the impression that HA controlled everything without the need of ST or Aeotec Hub.
2 days ago I disovered from Aeotec Support that Smartthings recently pushed out a BAD firmware update — causing this issues I am seeing (devices randomly go offline.)
I am trying to get away from Cloud Controlled Devices…especially when you don’t have a choice when bad updates are pushed out…and no way to go back.
Is there a solution to get away from Dedicated Hubs and using my HA Controller to handle all 57 devices I have setup?
If so then you will still need your zwave controller to interface with HA to allow HA to control your zwave devices. So switching to HA by itself won’t help you there.
there are some “HA devices” sold by Nabu Casa (the commercial arm of HA) that have built-in zigbee and zwave controllers (or hubs as you call them) that be a benefit if your Aeotec controller isn’t working for you. But you’ll need to unpair all your devices from your existing controller and re-pair them to the HA built-in controller.
But honestly I’ve had the same Aeotec zwave controller for almost 8 years now and it’s pretty solid. So I don’t know what could be causing your issues.
If it’s not zwave (or zigbee) then you can ignore all of that above.
Think of HA as the brain of the setup you have then the co-ordinators the hands of the system to allow it to interact with the devices you want to connect to it and control through it.
You will only need dedicated third party hubs if it is the ONLY way to allow HA to control those devices.
In vast majority of cases this is more of the case when it comes to devices that are Tuya Wifi based and don’t have a zigbee, zwave, matter over wifi / matter over thread or bluetooth local only version as an option
I have a few of Aeotec’s motion sensors and they are zigbee based so they work directly with HA without the need for a hub since I have them connected through my ZBT-1 co-ordinator using ZHA.
If the device is Z-Wave or Zigbee then all you need is the appropriate USB dongle. You NEVER have to buy the manufacturer’s overpriced hub or controller. With the dongle installed, Home Assistant is the controller.
