Smartthings Hub Needed?

Hardware
1

Hello,

I’m just starting out with HA and only have a few Zwave door sensors working right now with a zwave stick.

I would like to start using the the smartthings water sensors at various locations around the house.

My question is do I need to use the smartthings hub in conjunction with Hass or can I just use Hass? I’m also interested in using some different xiaomi sensors as well. Would I need to get a xiaomi hub as well?

Thanks for all the help.

Chris

2

You will need a zwave controller of some sort whether it’s Smartthings or some other. Many people use the Aeotec Z Stick because it is a local implementation and doesn’t require an internet connection.

I don’t use any Xiaomi stuff but my understanding is that it also requires a hub. I’m not sure if the hub is all local or requires an internet connection to work.

3

I believe all the SmartThings-branded water sensors are actually ZigBee. So you’ll need to either get a zigbee stick or use the SmartThings hub and then communicate via Smartthings MQTT Bridge.

And I think Xiaomi is also zigbee.

Zigbee is still in its early stages for Home Assistant. You’ll probably want to search this community further to decide which device to use to communicate with all of your sensor.

I have a Conbee usb stick. It works great for Philips Hue lights and sensors, but I haven’t been able to get it working with my SmartThings water sensors yet.

4

Thanks for the input.

I’m not dead set on the smartthings sensors it’s just that they seem pretty cheap price wise and same with xiaomi. I’ll do some more searching in the forums to see what most people use.

Thanks

5

Actually, yeah, you’re right they are zigbee. I’m not sure why I thought they were z wave.

Does the controller also do Z-wave too or just Zigbee?

6

I’m not sure which “controller” you’re asking about.
The Conbee usb stick is zigbee.
The Nortek HUSBZB-1 has both zigbee and zwave.
The SmartThings hub has both zigbee and zwave built-in.
Xiaomi hub is just zigbee (I think).

So, you can make Home Assistant handle both zigbee and zwave, but you need to have the appropriate device attached.

7

Sorry about that. In my head I knew I was asking about smartthings. It just didn’t get transferred to the post.