Sorry, smart things question

Hardware
1

Hi Guys,

I’ve been doing a bunch of reading as a guest for the last while and decided to make an account today regarding using SmartThings as the controller. I’ve read lots about how people use HA to run all the automation and other commands, and how it can be a pain getting it to play nice with SmartThings. I have a couple questions:

  • People have said it is worth while still using smart things as the dumb bridge. Why? It still requires an internet connection which is one thing I hate. Plus there have been quite a few days of downtime recently which I don’t like.
  • I’ve wanted to do the Aeotec Z-Stick or something similar. Is that still the standard if you want to 100% go off S.T.?
  • Last, I am not quite ready to jump to a Raspberri Pi quiet yet but that is my long term plan, anything that I should keep in mind while I run HA on a windows PC for the short term (to keep it familiar) then go to a long term plan?

thanks

2
  • Convenience, it saves migrating everything immediately
  • It’s one of them, there are many choices
  • Keep in mind that Windows is not a primary platform, and that not everything works there. You would be far better off making the jump now.
3

Awesome thank you!

  • So really if I just ‘jump’ to HA now but keep ST I am not causing myself any future headaches, it is just so I don’t have to try and re-do it all essentially?
  • Awesome thanks, I assume there are tons of threads that go through the choices so I’ll check for those.
  • Interesting, I hadn’t realized that. A Pi seems to be the preferred method to run it?
4
  • You don’t have to do it all at once, though obviously to move away from being reliant upon the cloud, you’ll want to do it over time.
  • Well, any Z-Wave stick supported by OpenZWave will do. There’s many existing threads, but the default choice for many does seem to be either the Aeotec stick, or the Z-Wave.me stick (which is usually a fraction of the cost).
  • Well, it’s not so much that the Pi is the preferred method, it’s one of them, but it’s more that Linux is the primary platform in one shape or another, and that anything else is likely to be less well supported. That limitation comes from the (Python) packages that Home Assistant uses.
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5

Awesome, thanks for your quick answers!

6

You could consider running docker on Windows to save you the expense of a Pi for now.

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