Best smart hub

Hardware
1

I have the aeotech smart hub. I’m still in the window to return it. I saw their contact sensors are $49 for one sensor.
What do you guys recommend for the best smart hub to use with HA?

2

Why would you need a hub with HA?
I don’t really see any hub as a necessary. HA is THE hub.

I don’t know what those sensors are that you are talking about, but if they use some special protocol, then I would say don’t buy them.
Go for z-wave, ZigBee or wifi.
That way you can connect them to HA without any hubs.

Buying a hub to connect sensors to it just means you sit in their lap.
If they want to brick your hub then your sensors are dead also. (Cough Philips hue gen 1, cough Sonos gen 1.)

Although both the above is not entirely bricked it still shows what manufacturers are willing to do to get your money

3

Okay I’m really confused.
So HA is your smart hub. Then how does it get the contact sensors info? Like when it’s open or not. Does it see them on the network?
And what about the contact sensors that say they need this hub?

5

Well, they won’t tell you “You don’t need our overpriced Hub, you can pair the sensor to any Zigbee coordinator”, will they :wink:

You might want to do a bit of research on the various protocols and radios used in home automation (especially zigbee) before buying hardware.

6

Ya I am videos now. Thx

7

Smart move. Do some research, and some thinking. Deciding which protocol(s) to use is probably the most important decision you’ll make in setting up home automation. Yet it’s the one many of us made without really understanding.

We tend to go out and buy a few “smart” devices that strike our fancy, then try to integrate and automate them after we’ve started using them.

Personally, I wish I’d known about Zigbee before I bought any IP devices. With my background in networking, I figured WiFi was the perfect solution. What I found instead was most WiFi devices require the use of the vendor’s cloud, and a rock-solid wireless network in every remote corner of the house - expensive and time-consuming.

Obviously YMMV. The point is, pick the solution which works best for you, then go buy stuff.

8

Yep. Zigbee / ZWave is usually preferred, due to the “pure local” and standardized approach.
Wifi is usually cloud, and then you are dependent of a 3rd party that might

  • Not provide an API
  • Break their API
  • Decide to charge you for it
  • Decide they want you to buy new stuff, so stop supporting old ones
  • …
9

I have a zigbee setup but struggling to find GU10 Bulbs and strip lights I have Sensors that are! that are true Zigbee intregrated do you know of any as Im getting fed up they saying they are zigbee when they are Tuya! Any links on this be great thanks!

10

Those are really trivial to find. Ikea has a bunch and on Ali, just pay attention to the “sub-model”

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11

Thanks for this! I have just found these do you think they might do the trick? I just spent another 4 hours with bulbs working great with google and Alexa but only 4 out of the 5 bulbs detecteting in HA and also they need Tuya which is foreever going down! These bulbs seem to have the Z logo on them which helps! https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005819478372.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.13.7c101f8bnaub7a&algo_pvid=511d0364-8f52-4c97-a3da-cf0cd4cbfe1f&algo_exp_id=511d0364-8f52-4c97-a3da-cf0cd4cbfe1f-6&pdp_npi=4%40dis%21GBP%2132.78%2116.54%21%21%2140.42%21%21%402103868a17035377781914788e1831%2112000034485710368%21sea%21UK%210%21AB&curPageLogUid=ne5Ni3tmiavy

12

To reiterate, you have to pay attention to the “submodel” on Aliexpress

Wifi = Tuya = Nogood

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Zigbee = Good

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13

I’m new and am pretty confused by this response - Home Assistant needs to run on a device right? Your ZigBee dongle or whatever can then connect to that device.

14

I believe he is talking about the hub such as Mi Gateway or Tuya hub or Hue hub - the hubs that are outside of HA.

But yeah, you are on the right track. In a way, the metal box that HA runs on could also be a hub. And yes, that would be recommended setup. If you do zigbee or z-wave, those usb dongles could plug directly into the said metal box.

1 Like
15

As posted above.
HA is not a hub in my opinion.
It’s far more than that.

I try to limit myself to only use hubless protocols or open protocol’s.
Zigbee is just a dongle for me, could be any dongle.
My ESL ePaper tags use a hub, but that hub is ESP based and open.
Had it required some manufacturer software or hardware then I would probably not buy it.