Smart Things as z-wave controller?

Hardware
1

Hi there, I was looking for information about z-wave controllers and needed more than I can find in the documentation. I recently added a Heatit Z Temp2 thermostat and a Cleverio z-wave switch to my system. The heatit works well as a room thermostat controlling the electric heater with the switch. However I am using tellstick for z-wave, and cannot use the climate controls in HA to set the target temperature or use scenes as I would like so I was looking at z-wave controller options for HA. The HA tellstick integration does not support thermostats.

I already have experience with the Aeotec usb stick at another location, but I read in the docs that Smart Things is also compatible with z-wave, and it implies that it is compatible with the zwave integration. So I was curious and was interested in knowing more about this option

What is not clear to me is whether Smart Things is integrated so that it looks like an integrated z-wave controller to HA, or is it external? If I buy myself a Smart Things hub, can I use the generic_thermostat climate service? I see that there is a smart things climate service too but don’t know if that will work with the temp2 thermostat. I didn’t really understand the documentation for thermostats here as it says I need capabilities type (a) or (b) - how can I tell?:

2

I started down the path of home automation a number of years ago using SmartThings. When the SmartThings environment become too restrictive, I went to Home Assistant via a Nook running in Docker, migrating all supported devices to HA. I have a number of Z-Wave devices that I was not willing to replace (Light Switches, Smoke / CO detectors, and a Thermostat). I am using the SmartThings unit as a Z-Wave bridge via MQTT (SmartThings MQTT Bridge). The Thermostat (Radio-Thermostat CT101, cheap thermostat for office space) is using the HA generic thermostat climate service. You can use the “HA - MQTT HVAC” https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/climate.mqtt/ . My primary home thermostat is a Ecobee with direct HA integration.

When I set up my Z-wave thermostat I used (before there was HA - MQTT HVAC) the info in “Adding Thermostat controls from Smartthings via MQTT” Adding Thermostat controls from Smartthings via MQTT .

Using SmartThings as a Z-Wave bridge via MQTT has worked well. There has been a small issue over the last two weeks, the HVAC State indicator has not been updating on its own. When changing the setpoint temp from within HA or SmartThings the HVAC State changes [“Heating”, “Idle”] but when the thermostat turns the heat on or off it is not updating. This has worked for years but now it is not.

Hoping that at some point that there will be a cheap z-wave bridge available like the Sonoff Zigbee bridge.