Transition from Smartthings - two basic questions

Installation
1

Hi all,

I’m planning a transition from Smartthings this winter as I will be recently retired with time on my hands. I’m doing this, in part, because of ST’s recent decision to put their API behind a paywall.

I’m currently running Home Assistant on my Truenas server, which also hosts media, is my primary file server, runs my Omada controller, runs Immich, Grafana, etc. I had been going for the less-is-more concept and brought everything into a single server. It’s an HP Elitedesk i7-9700, 64 GB memory, 20x2 TB. All are running as installed applications.

Trying to research two things in the meantime:

(1) What is my best option for zwave and zigbee communication once I stop using the ST hub?

(2) Should I leave HA on this machine or install it on a dedicated machine? I have a 35W Elitedesk mini with an i5-8600T which is currently unused. I could also pick up one of these new mini PCs too, but I see prices are climbing since I bought one a couple of years back. What are the pros and cons to leaving it on this machine vs. having it dedicated? (If it’s not and insane idea, I’d like to leave it on this PC for ease of backup, storage, UPS protection, etc.)

Thanks!

2

I would recommend the Home Assistant Connect ZBT-2 for Zigbee or Thread (choose one protocol, if you need both, get a second one) and the Home Assistant Connect ZWA-2 for ZWave. Both devices work great and are rock solid.

As for leaving things on the NAS or not. That’s really up to you, the big question would be how easy is it to make sure the USB devices are passed through, though in a pinch it’s possible to setup a network proxy device for both of them and then connect to the network device for management of the meshes.

3

I’m not waiting dor API to be paid for, so I switched to alternative localthings, working fine so far !