It’s been a couple of weeks since my last video because I was changing my office set up and upgrading some of my gear. I also got sick, which was not as fun. We just reached 30k subs! I appreciate all of your support. I’ll be consistently cranking out higher quality smart home videos with my new set up.
Keep up the good work. You produce some of if not the best content on smart home on UA-cam. Don't be afraid to be geeky though. People that are into this want the nitty gritty. What I'm saying is just don't dumb it down.
@Arekkusu the humble thanks! I really appreciate that and the recommendation. I'll get you some technical stuff soon. It's always a tuff balance between including those just getting into the smart home scene vs the experienced who want more advanced topics.
Yes they can but I wouldn’t recommend doing it since it seems difficult to reset the bulb if you want to connect the hue bulb to another hub like the hue bridge down the road. I connected singled bulbs straight to the SmartThings hub and it’s been great.
I use Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi 3B+ at 2 homes and love it. I use it for monitoring and alerting, controlling outdoor lighting, garage door and smart lock control, thermostat control, etc. It's great if you're comfortable with YAML and configuring your home router network. Certainly not an option for the non-technical folks.
@@rajkaransinghshekhawat1107 good luck if your not a programmer. This is a BRUTAL HUB for an average person. I have a bit of programming skills and I have been WEEKS and still do not have one eff'ing thing working... literally hundreds of hours I sincerely wish you good luck
Just gotta say, love your videos. I've been getting more into automation and you have been an amazing resource for understanding whats useful! Keep up the great work!
Hi, i'm just starting out and ready to dive down the smart home rabbit hole :) I've watched a lot of youtube videos and keep coming back to yours. I like your videos, they are informative and simple. Love all the comparisons you do comparing pros and cons, it makes it easier to pick what would work for me. well done mate keep it up.
like the features, setup was difficult for some of my devices (August Door lock, ua-cam.com/users/postUgkxhB5YOMNj04GuoAosExygP4cH-dKeb4aB Bose speaker)... but all switches and outlets (5), thermostat, tankless water heater. Unfortunately all I can do is turn on/off Bose. It doesn't support volume or changing channels, but I believe that is due to the particular speaker I have.... Worth getting if you already have other devices to use it with... I don't sit around and ask Alexa questions much so that doesn't really matter to me....
I have been using Home Assistant for 1,5 year. I am no programmer and I didn't find it that hard to use. There are great documentation and the community is really helpful.
Thanks for sharing! Yes there's a great community to help you out. Some people just prefer a more straightforward setup while still being able to have advanced automations, which is why I recommend SmartThings for those type of people.
My Smartthings v3 hub arrived in the mail today, so your conclusion makes me happy. :-) Right now I only have multi-purpose sensors on the front and back door, but I'm looking forward to learning and doing a lot more with it in the future. I'll add a second to the 'don't be afraid to be geeky' request.
Another thing to consider mentioning is privacy and how these hubs compare. I'm all in on HomeKit for many reasons, but largely because I appreciate Apple's stance on privacy and their requirements for HomeKit authentication.
You were so considerate to not trigger peoples' Amazon devices with the word "Alexa." Of course, when you said "echo" my device told me she "...didn't know that one;" a typical response for her...LOL. Thanks so much for the info!
Really good video... but a few things I would add/change: 1. Home assistant doesn't require the $5/mo subscription to make alexa work. You can use local hue emulation to get alexa up and running pretty easily. 2. Amazon echo and google home are very much "hub" like these days, similar to homekit. Once a device is added to your alexa app you can use your echo or google device as a hub to control them when you are away from home. Other than that I agree with basically every conclusion you made. Glad you checked out Hubitat, I've been feeling like someone needed to give it a shot.
@The Hook Up thanks. I appreciate you bringing that up about the Alexa integration work around. I was going to add that as a caption when I was mentioning the $5 but I forgot to add it in there. I agree that Amazon Echos and Google Homes are becoming more like hubs every day.
Except that setting up some supported devices on a new HASS.io is very easy, Flash a card with hass.io set login creds add Lifx lights "skill" done Home assistant has come a long way in it's easy of install
Alexa and Google Assistant both be supported out-of-box for Home Assistant, no monthly fee needs. Drawback is you have to open up your 443 port, that is not an easy job. So if your don't know how to do that or fraid to that, or your ISP does not allow you to do that, you can choose pay $5/mo to get around that via Home Assistant Cloud. By the way, HA also support integrated with Smartthings, Wink, and Homekit. One ring to rule them all.
I was going to say if you are using the Google home or home hub. It is a hub and can automate basically all the smart devices in your home now. Besides that solid video. I'd say the Google home app with the Google home devices as hubs is far better than home kit
Probably time for you to do a new one of these as things have evolved a lot in the past year and half like Wink being effectively dead, Hubitat Elevation being out for a while, and even things like how Amazon's range of automations are starting to cross over into hub territory.
Really!! that just what I am looking for!! When I think in domotic for the new house that is under construction, I think in avoiding to deploy al old wired outdoor pir motion sensor , and I want to receive an alarm if someone get into the garden in the front or in the backyard before reach the house. Do you think that abode is the best? what else do you do with abode? do you user zwave or Zigbee with small bateries outdoor pir motion sensors?
Hubitat can be controlled remotely. It was released just over one year ago. Given this, it's progress is impressive. You can design web based apps. This is nice because you don't have to deal with a bunch of nested menus typical within an app. That said, I hear an app is coming somewhat soon.
I think you pretty much nailed it. I started with Homeseer and X10 a long time ago. At the time, definitely a tinkerer’s toy. More recently I got back into it with a Wink setup. Disappointing - the pace of development and support were poor so I moved to SmartThings. Better, but hardly flawless or dependable. In the last couple of weeks I’ve started experimenting with Home Assistant and OpenHAB but I don’t have the scripting/Linux skills necessary to make those anything more than a curiosity. Apple HomeKit... maybe someday, but I already have a house full of devices and most of them aren’t HomeKit compatible. I guess for me, SmartThings comes as close as anything I’ve tried to being a good fit. I should also mention ActionTiles - it’s a brilliant add-on to ST and extremely flexible.
Thanks for sharing and for mentioning ActionTiles. I’ve looked into ActionTiles but haven’t tried it out yet. I’ll have to try it out if it’s that good!
You REALLY should look at the Vera Controllers...I’ve purchased and worked with the Samsung SmartThings hub and the VeraEdge and VeraSecure. There is a HUGE difference in ease of use, and flexibility. I use the system for a vacation rental...with SmartThings you cannot change the entry codes on the door locks and as you pointed out, if the internet goes down, so does your automation. Vera runs locally, I can see ALL the codes on my locks, and creating scenes and modes with the Vera UI is superior in so many ways to SmartThings. You can dive down into details (programming) which I’ve not needed to do...but you can if you like. I’ve already returned my Samsung hub and am not looking back.
Outstanding review and comparison. And extra points for the companion table & discussion in the link. This was exceptionally useful. One question - do any of these work with Shelly 1 or Sonoff switches? These are very inexpensive ...with a few tradeoffs like no UL listing.
Actually you can control Hubitat devices remotely. You can setup dashboard(s) for your devices and the dashboard(s) can be accessed remotely via the Hubitat app (fairly new) or via web browser. What you can't do remotely is change the setup of the hub or add/remove/configure devices, but you can control them via the dashboard(s). I started with Smarttinigs, but go tired of the constant outages and slowdowns from Samsung; yes devices that can be controlled locally still work individually, but all routines run in the cloud so any automation routine or device that doesn't allow local control doesn't work without internet.
Well, HomeAssistant is really getting there. Their goal is to release 1.0 version this year and the plan is that most things will work with UI, and yaml will only stay for advanced features. So what's already changed about it as of now: 1. Installing it and getting up and running on a Raspberry Pi is a piece of cake (pun intended). You just download HassOS image, flash it on an SD card (Any card reader + Win32DiskImager, 2 click) and you have a running HassOS\Hass.io device. 2. Lovelace UI is now main UI and it can be edited through the UI itself. No need to go into yaml. Yaml is only needed for advanced features. 3. Automations... This could be better, but you can still do pretty much everything through UI, you will still need to edit some JSON data though. However you can use NodeRed instead. Installing NodeRed is one click in Hass.io addons, and then you can have a powerful node-based automation editor which is more powerful than any other automation system out there. It may have a bit of a learning curve of course. 4. A lot of devices can be added and configured through UI now. Minority but quite a lot And the list of what you can do through UI is growing with each update.
Great video Reid ! Could you possibly make a video with a new light or something and show us how you set it up ? From unboxing to finish ? I've ordered my smart thing hub and I have some lights but idk how to set up. Keep up the great work !
Hello, love your videos and I’m happy you finally talked about the ‘master controler’ home assistant. Being open source and many people contributting to integrations it’s very hard for any other hub to get even close to it’s full potential. It’s a bit hard and time consuming to get the hang of it but oh boy... it’ worth the time and effort. Just one small correction to your video: to integrate with google and alexa you don’t nedd to pay the subscription. You just need to have an ssl connection to your home assistant device. I don’t own any alexa device so I can’t speak for it, never needed to configure it but I did the manual configuration to google and it works flawlessly and for free (more or less, I did get a domain for it). I used to be a main homekit user but ever since home assistant I just send my devices from homeassistant to homekit and google and only because of voice control.
Yes, you answered my answered question and started a massive automation addiction! Your videos are great and had me regretting my SmartThings path for a bit with your reviews. Ultimately, ST has been great and easy to work compared to what Home Assistant would have been [for me]. Still plenty of opportunities to tinker with ST, but I am never really in the deep end. Thank you for the video and all your help!
Great video. A few corrections about Hubitat. You can control your devices remotely using dashboards (similar to sharptools on SmartThings). There is an app in the works that will be released soon and have integrated push notifications but for now you can use IFTTT (SMS/Push/Email/Phone Call even presence) or Pushover for push notifications. Lots of other pro's/con's too but they are constantly making it better.
Just clarifying, Apple HomeKit does have a huge amount of compatible devices, including all the Xiaomi/Aqara devices (so, door, motion, light sensors, moisture, temperature, c02, etc..), LIFX, Phillips etc...
This is true, and important if a person has Apple products they wanted to be capable of controlling without 'needing' to purchase a second 'hub' (lol) for the devices. Ideally, you should have an Apple HomeKit if you have an iPhone, iPad and Apple TV or whatever else Apple may have. If you purchase other 'smart devices', the Home Kit allows for interaction between quite an extensive amount of each currently. This means you don't "need" to go purchase a 'hub', but you really didn't from the start. You could just utilize whatever provided 'compatible with' app that it says. Or, to put it a simple way, if it says "Compatible with Alexa and Google", you can download either of the two apps and just control them that way. (The purpose is to have 'one central app', but that's redundant since many advertise the needing of 'multiple' to have 'one central app', when that's a misconception. Generally, you can control nearly any device by one app already, and it's usually whatever the manufacture says 'compatible with'. The extreme automation features, however, are what change.)
I'm using a Vera Plus hub since from 2017 and I am very satisfied of that... It works locally, I can use external GSM connection (if router goes down). The con is about "limited" compatible Z-Wave and Zigbee devices.
I recently migrated my home from old X10 devices with the X10 commander hub running on an old Mac to all a HomeKit devices. Used an AppleTV 4K as the hub. You mentioned using an AppleTV as a hub but it has to be either the AppleTV HD or the AppleTV 4K if you want access outside of your home. My house is old so did not have the required neutral wire that all the native HomeKit dimmers needed so went with Lutron devices using their hub that has HomeKit support. This works perfectly but was more expensive than if I was able to go with native HomeKit dimmers. I also have a Raspberry Pi running HomeBridge for unsupported HomeKit devices. Rather then doing a manual install of HomeBridge I put the HomeBridge iOS app on my iPad which makes setting up and installing HomeBridge plugins super easy without using a command line on the Raspberry Pi. I also using the Raspberry Pi to turn on a 32 inch TV through CEC that displays my artwork. I have a HomeKit plug that turns the TV off at night but isn’t able to turn the TV back on so that is why I’m using the Raspberry Pi through hdmi cec to turn the TV back on that I setup a crontab to run the cec commsnd. So far all my homekit devices are native except for the Lutron ones that I’m using the Lutron hub with. The only thing so far that I’ve used HomeBridge for is to connect a microphones so that I can listen in to my home as the OOSSXX security cameras I have don’t do sound so that way hear anything going on in my home. I want to add some motion sensor to turn on my outdoor floodlights that are controlled with Lutron in the wall dimmers. So far I haven’t found any native HomeKit ones that can be used outdoors so my use HomeBridge to connect some non native motion sensors. With HomeBridge running on the Raspberry Pi I can add just about any hardware to HomeKit.
Home Assistant is ready for everyone! It's now so easy to install with hassio images and configure all automations graphically with Node Red. Plugins directly available from the integrated store... No command line or yaml required 😍
Ehh. Hass.IO and Nabucasa have made home assistant WAY easier than the old hassbian days. However I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who does not work with/on computers for fun. I would still recommend smart things for most users. I have had lots of family ask about how I am doing my automations so fast and how my UI looks so home assistant is still clearly the winner for tech savvy people.
Not a bad video at all, and I particularly like the emphasis on the speed (or lack of) for cloud devices. We don't all live with reliable and/or fast internet, so "Honey, I can't turn the lights on, because the internet is down" is not a good conversation to have. Other comments have called out a few gaps, and the world has moved on a lot, so how about a updated version of this topic?
My current pick... Home Assistant as User Interface and few things connected directly to it (like Sony TVs), but zigbee, zwave, light, radiator valves I use: Smartthings + Philips Hue + Bosch home
I got rid of all my smart home stuff awhile back. When we bought our first home several years ago I blew probably $1000 on smart home stuff and used V1 smart things and HATED it! My Phillips hue lights all died and I was able to return everything after 3 months and since then tinkered with openHAB a bit but that’s about it. I’m thinking about starting to look into it again as it seems the stuff has matured a bit since I tried it. I think I’ll try to continue working with openHAB or try V3 smart things again as most I’ve talked to say the issues I ran into are mostly fixed now.
I noticed when you were testing the responsiveness between SmartThings and Home Assistant that you didn't hardwire SmartThings with the ethernet port on the back. Was that simply for comparison over wifi? It would be great to see a comparison or simply a review on responsiveness when the hubs are hardwired and whether responsiveness might improve for someone using a whole home mesh network system (not including the Samsung SmartThings Mesh system).
I have been using home assistant and I think it is the best hub as it is easier to setup and create automation's with then OpenHAB in my opinion. Yes Home Assistant does have a learning curve but if you are willing to invest lots of time into learning how to use it, you will be able to do almost anything with it. It is also very easy to get working with homekit so you can control devices that you have in Home Assistant from HomeKit and Siri
Awesome summary of lots of hubs, congrats! I was wondering what's your opinion on Xiaomi as I recently purcharsed several accesories as well as their hub, the Mijia Gateway 3
I see in your video, your Schlage door lock has a key open, I just want to mention someone can use a bump key to open the lock. My home has been broken into with just that. I just bought a Yale z-wave, no key. I love it, so far. I want to thank you for not speaking Alexa it keeps quite.
@Joan Snow thanks for mentioning that and sorry to hear that happened to your house. I agree that a lock with a key isn't ideal because of lock bumping. I wish it didn't have a key because I never have used the key once.
Very informative video. For years I was using the Wink, first version 1 then 2. My experience with installing new devices was at best, cumbersome. The Wink software was faulty and required tech support most of the time. The automated installation was a joke. For a long time support became nonexistent and the company appears to be in deep trouble. When they went to monthly subscriptions, I decided that it was time to move on. After some research I decided on Smartthings. It has a small learning curve but that was due to my lack of past exposure to the system. Due to happen chance, my smart home appears to have dual app support with the manufacturer's apps, Alexa skills and numerous hubs.
native language is Dutch . I like a lot your video’s on UA-cam. You explain things in a understandable way. Thanks for that! I hope smart devices will shortly work together. I am now using mainly HomeKit and SmartLife. I have some sensors and smart bulbs running on SmartLife. I assume it is normal that there is a lack of time between the sensor being triggered and the bulb to go on. I suppose the signal from the sensor is going over the internet to the Tuya-servers and then back to my light bulb. It takes 2 or 3 seconds to go on sometimes. Now my question is: would a hub make this proces going faster? So is a hub connecting sensors and lightbulb locally? If yes, which hub would you advice me? Many thanks for helping me out in this.
I'm on smartthings and fir the most part it runs great, we only have Note 9 phones in the house which makes it even better as Samsung integrated smartthings in the phone notification bar.
I know you said it's not a hub but the Google home mini is my go-to for voice commands. I have a mixture of Wi-Fi switches and plugs and it seems to be the one that always works the best. plus they're so cheap I can put them in multiple rooms that way don't always have to use my phone. To be honest I got rid of the Samsung SmartThings hub because it didn't play nice with WeMo and a few other brands I had. Of course your mileage varies. Great video! Keep them coming!
I have a very similar setup as you, what I use is Home Assistant, SmartThings Hub v3, and a lot of google devices.. from the google home mini, nest hub and my pixel 3. With a custom action handler that integrates home assistant.. so basically now I can control everything from all smartthings devices to all home assistant functionality. It works really well for me, but admittedly took a while to get working just right.
this was extremely helpful. I have had wink for quite some time now and I have been following the pending financial issues going on with the company and anticipating its demise. I seem to think the same as you, that smart things is probably the way to go if you want a cloud service..
nice video, I used Smartthings before the old and new editions they have the delay as you mentioned, but try to have FIBARO HCL or HC2, and test them definitely you will see the difference, it controlled locally and cloudly, it has Alexa and Google, very friendly interface and it's compatible with a variety of devices including IP cams and IR remotes
I use a Vera Hub for controlling exterior lights on GE Z-Wave switches. I like it but it is a little challenging to set the automation up. You have to pay attention to what you are doing during set up. I set up a neighbor with a Samsung Smart things hub using the same GE light switch and found it to be about the same in set-up procedure.
2:00 - That SmartThings delay is NOT typical. I’ve been using SmartThings V2 for last 5 years and it’s _instantaneous_ in it’s response. I also just converted my in-laws house with SmartThings v3 as well. Their hub also has instantaneous responses. Is it perfect for everything?? Of course not, but neither are the other smart hubs.
Yes if SmartThings has an API with the other vendor like Kasa. Not all WiFi bulbs will automatically work with SmartThings hub b/c the hub is actually uses only Zigbee and Z-Wave protocols natively.
Smart Things is the best, there is loads of free mods available to make all kinds of cheap sensors and what not work with it. and you can set up virtual smart things switches to trigger Alexa routines. Hands down the best.
Thanks for the great reviews! Love your channel. Is there a reason you left Vera out of the lineup? It's the only hub I've ever used, and seems to be on par with the rest.
No one talks about Vera hub. The Vera hub is very compatible and is easy to use. If you want to geek out and get deep in code Vera is compatible and ready for that level of configuring too. You mind doing a video on Vera hubs? Thanks
Hue Lights married to other zigbee components via Smartthings 2.0 is my current setup. Simple automation works well but I'm still working my way into complex automation. I do think that a combination of hubs might be magical at this point in the game. Would love for you to take this video and add to it with a discussion of the best symbiotic hub solutions.
I've been binging your videos as I start planning to make our home a smart home. Thank you for your channel! I have a question, and hopefully you have time to reply. Is my Google Nest Hub considered a Smart Hub? I noticed you didn't list it in this video. If it's not considered a Smart Hub, why? Thank you!!
Thanks for watching the videos! Nest Hub is great and I use mine daily. I wouldn't consider it a traditional hub though because it doesn't really set automations right now. You can use the Google Home app to set routines, which are similar, but they can't be triggered by smart home devices like sensors (for now). Hopefully they expand its capabilities with automations though!
hi :) i really enjoy your videos. could you please do a quick review of all the smart stuffs (lights, hubs, devices, sensors ,etc) that you use in your life? or have you done it before? i couldn't find one
Thanks for the review! I've been toying with home automation as a hobby for awhile and wanted to know why you skipped open hab? It cover ios and android and offers offline and online dunctions aswell as intergration with Google etc without needing to but / pay for other services?
Smartthings V2 hub. While not perfect for me its reliable 99% of the time and I like the fact that I can easily pair natively supported devices without all the tinkering involved with HomeAssistant but I still have the capability to add device handlers for non native devices and WebCore Rules engines for when I need a more advanced level of automation. Smartthings has finally ported nearly all of the features from the Classic app to the new app so there isn't much need for the classic app anymore. I also like the fact that somebody created a device handler which allows me to use my Sleep Number SleepIQ bed as a presence sensor. I can trigger a goodnight automation which arms my security system and turns off all the lights simply by getting into bed.
SmartThings' hub is now history and Wink has become completely obsolete just in 1 year. Hubitat has now a phone app and is probably the top choice although not for the faint of heart
OK I'm getting really tired with this.......... all you show is that thanks to the hub you can TURN ON/ OFF things but I'm interested with energy usage are those things show me how much watts is consumed by every device/smart plug and what's the energy cost? because this is what I'm looking for in Europe they have a system called FIBARO that have all those things I mentioned before do you have something like this in US?
The connect home can’t control the intensity of WiFi signal or the WiFi Channel at all, if the SmartThings hub chose wrong a WiFi channel OS is not much that can do about it since you don’t have any control about that
You can implement Google assistant and Alexa for free on HASS it's just alot to configure or you use the supscription cloud based service they provide ...
Well done review. We have a few of the hubs/non hubs you mention. Even have used Zipato's hub in the past which has excellent local control. Any of the hubs able to control WiFi connected switches and outlets, either native or via cloud? We like the wink hub but worry about its life expectancy, will it survive? As you know many other hubs have been EOLd. Lastly, which of the hubs work with WiFi to the router and which require a wired connection?
Hello. I’m building a new construction home. What should I prewire into my home? I really like Apple but I don’t want to loose functionality. I’m thinking to go with smart things. Some things I want are to automatically open my garage door when I get home, smart deadbolts, just a doorbell camera, smart blinds that open and close morning/evening time, automatically set mood lighting in evening, automatically set outdoor lighting.. what are some other good ideas? I’ve got two thermostats planned also. Under cabinet lights. I did kinda want a smart panel to control everything together or like a touchscreen mounted on my wall but not absolutely necessary as I see that I can control everything from my phone. Another idea is auto light fireplace, maybe a security system so I can see which doors and windows are unlocked, not necessarily arm it, don’t want paid services. Hmmmmm any other ideas? Also a really important thing for me is music. I want to prewire speakers in my great room and in the master bedroom. What’s the best way to connect them? Probably an amplifier and then to some kind of Apple airplay station or equivalent? I don’t like Bluetooth because that means it has to be on and connected but airplay works off WiFi and can automatically play music when I come home from work. Maybe Sonos is better or what can you recommend for hardwired speakers?
I like Homekit for manual control, but Google Home is better for voice control. I have Homebridge (Hoobs) “raspberry hub” to connect Hue, Lightify, Broadlink and some others in to Apple Homekit. It works fine! My Hue hub has not only Philips bulbs, but others zigbee stuff. Unfortunately Osrom US bulbs are not compatível to Hue, than I need this other hub. However, Lightify hub appers not so strong, because bulbs far from the hub can loose communication. Regards!
Any suggestions for people who have a nest setup, smart thing s might not be the best option and wink 2 has been on the market for some time! Great video shoutout for the speaking very easy to understand tech knowledge.
Google. And I don't mean "Google your answer", I mean Google. Just use the Google Assistant app. Don't waste your money on anything else that has the exact same functionality lol.
I dumped Wink when they started charging a monthly fee. Wink also didn't expand its list of compatible devices as quickly as I would like. I switched to a Samsung Smartthings hub. It also has some compatibility shortcomings. Notably, my Lutron Caseta devices would not work with Smartthings until I added a Lutron hub. Worse, my 10 Kidde talking WiFi Smoke Detectors don't work with Smartthings.
Hi, Home Assistant is way more user friendly nowadays you don't need to know linux or how to program. Home Assistant has become a lot more plug and play. Adding devices has never been eaiser with a click of a button you can add almost any device.
I'm here because I'm thinking of ditching my wink hub 2. I ave three wink hub 2's and I'm getting frustrated with lights going offline all the time. I know toggling the breaker gets them back online again but that's a big hassle as two of the hubs are at rental properties. I wanted to love wink but now I have to jump ship as they seem to be sinking. Maybe smart things.
I bought homey, three month ago. I think is the perfetc solution for who loves home automation, but it's not a developer and have no programming knowledge and much more important for me, it's compatible with knx system, that was the system which my house based on. Currently he controlls more than 100 devices and I'm very sutisfied.
Seems to me that an Apple hub is the easiest and maybe the cheapest too. I just plug in my iPad when I leave home, to have remote access, or If I take my ipad then I just plug in my old 5S, (it’s battery is shot anyways) and it is only running iOS 10 but seems to work fine as a hub, although maybe little bit slower. I guess an ipod touch should work also ?
Hey love your channel. Lots of good tips here. Thanks for sharing. I'm starting out on smart devices can you help to explain something here please?: 1. If I use a hub (rather than just hubless WiFi device), can I still access e.g. turns on light remotely when I'm not home? How would this work? 2. I have a Eufy E8210CW1 Video Doorbell Video Doorbell 2k (Battery) Plus Home Base 2, can I connect this to a 'Hub' then? because I realise by the time someone press the doorbell and a notification on my phone, it can take up to 10 seconds, perhaps due to WiFi device instead of a Hub connected device? Thanks in advance.
Why isn't Domoticz included? Runs on a lot of platforms, easy to script, easy to add all sorts of devices. Together with some USB sticks it is compatible with Z-Wave, ZigBee, 433Mhz
SmartThings is still better than Habitat. You are not able to do the following STILL! Hubitat is not able to turn on a Zigbee bulb in a dumb switch configuration when a Zooz Z-wave switch is clicked on. It is not able to capture the state of that switch and act correctly. I have tried this multiple times over many firmware updates. I worked with their support and I am SOL. SmartThings can do this with out blinking an eye. All I do is use their built in Smart Lighting app. SmartThings wins for that out of the gate.
You should revisit this now coming up tp Home Assistant 1.0 being released. Now the Android app for HA is arguably better than the iOS one. Especially now Wink is dead and SmartThings is unknown with Samsung pulling out of hardware
Awesome review, Reid. Thanks for sharing the info. Btw, the abrupt muting when saying Alexa to avoid triggering your viewers' echoes is a bit unsettling. Have you experimented with reversing the audio segment for that word like they do to curse words on certain songs? I'd suggest keeping the visual cue, though. Cheers!
Is there an APP that will let you draw or import an image/layout of your house. Then click on each room to turn the rooms lights on/off (no matter what manufacturer it's from) or sellect a more features button for that f Room to get a closer image with each light individually which from there would allow you to open each light in it's own personal manufacturers app? Perhaps a fancy home "launcher" with fancy made widget icons?
It’s been a couple of weeks since my last video because I was changing my office set up and upgrading some of my gear. I also got sick, which was not as fun.
We just reached 30k subs! I appreciate all of your support. I’ll be consistently cranking out higher quality smart home videos with my new set up.
Keep up the good work. You produce some of if not the best content on smart home on UA-cam. Don't be afraid to be geeky though. People that are into this want the nitty gritty. What I'm saying is just don't dumb it down.
@Arekkusu the humble thanks! I really appreciate that and the recommendation. I'll get you some technical stuff soon. It's always a tuff balance between including those just getting into the smart home scene vs the experienced who want more advanced topics.
was it slow when you tested this on the Samsung phone with the smartthings hub?
a question, can i remove philips hue hub and just use smart things hub instead or i still need the phlips hue hub? cheers m8
Yes they can but I wouldn’t recommend doing it since it seems difficult to reset the bulb if you want to connect the hue bulb to another hub like the hue bridge down the road. I connected singled bulbs straight to the SmartThings hub and it’s been great.
I use Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi 3B+ at 2 homes and love it. I use it for monitoring and alerting, controlling outdoor lighting, garage door and smart lock control, thermostat control, etc. It's great if you're comfortable with YAML and configuring your home router network. Certainly not an option for the non-technical folks.
Does it work with smartthings like its motion sensor and multipurpose sensor. I'm interested in going the home assistant route.
Hi can you please tell me how to do this? Please
@@rajkaransinghshekhawat1107 good luck if your not a programmer. This is a BRUTAL HUB for an average person. I have a bit of programming skills and I have been WEEKS and still do not have one eff'ing thing working... literally hundreds of hours
I sincerely wish you good luck
@@barryluft4451 well i have been trying to learn it from weeks still haven't figured out how to do this.
@@rajkaransinghshekhawat1107 I hear ya, brother... I was going to hang myself in the garage, but I didnt have an apple box to stand on. LOL
Just gotta say, love your videos. I've been getting more into automation and you have been an amazing resource for understanding whats useful! Keep up the great work!
Thanks I appreciate it!
Hi, i'm just starting out and ready to dive down the smart home rabbit hole :) I've watched a lot of youtube videos and keep coming back to yours. I like your videos, they are informative and simple. Love all the comparisons you do comparing pros and cons, it makes it easier to pick what would work for me. well done mate keep it up.
Thanks! It's a great rabbit hole to dive down into.
like the features, setup was difficult for some of my devices (August Door lock, ua-cam.com/users/postUgkxhB5YOMNj04GuoAosExygP4cH-dKeb4aB Bose speaker)... but all switches and outlets (5), thermostat, tankless water heater. Unfortunately all I can do is turn on/off Bose. It doesn't support volume or changing channels, but I believe that is due to the particular speaker I have.... Worth getting if you already have other devices to use it with... I don't sit around and ask Alexa questions much so that doesn't really matter to me....
I have been using Home Assistant for 1,5 year. I am no programmer and I didn't find it that hard to use. There are great documentation and the community is really helpful.
Thanks for sharing! Yes there's a great community to help you out. Some people just prefer a more straightforward setup while still being able to have advanced automations, which is why I recommend SmartThings for those type of people.
My Smartthings v3 hub arrived in the mail today, so your conclusion makes me happy. :-) Right now I only have multi-purpose sensors on the front and back door, but I'm looking forward to learning and doing a lot more with it in the future. I'll add a second to the 'don't be afraid to be geeky' request.
Another thing to consider mentioning is privacy and how these hubs compare. I'm all in on HomeKit for many reasons, but largely because I appreciate Apple's stance on privacy and their requirements for HomeKit authentication.
@Shane Whatley thanks for bringing that up. HomeKit and Apple do a pretty good job with privacy. Home Assistant and Hubitat are also big on privacy.
You were so considerate to not trigger peoples' Amazon devices with the word "Alexa." Of course, when you said "echo" my device told me she "...didn't know that one;" a typical response for her...LOL. Thanks so much for the info!
Haha oh dang sorry about the other trigger word!
Really good video... but a few things I would add/change:
1. Home assistant doesn't require the $5/mo subscription to make alexa work. You can use local hue emulation to get alexa up and running pretty easily.
2. Amazon echo and google home are very much "hub" like these days, similar to homekit. Once a device is added to your alexa app you can use your echo or google device as a hub to control them when you are away from home.
Other than that I agree with basically every conclusion you made. Glad you checked out Hubitat, I've been feeling like someone needed to give it a shot.
@The Hook Up thanks. I appreciate you bringing that up about the Alexa integration work around. I was going to add that as a caption when I was mentioning the $5 but I forgot to add it in there. I agree that Amazon Echos and Google Homes are becoming more like hubs every day.
Also home assistant does have an android app now called Aeriela. Great video by the way.
Except that setting up some supported devices on a new HASS.io is very easy,
Flash a card with hass.io
set login creds
add Lifx lights "skill"
done
Home assistant has come a long way in it's easy of install
Alexa and Google Assistant both be supported out-of-box for Home Assistant, no monthly fee needs. Drawback is you have to open up your 443 port, that is not an easy job. So if your don't know how to do that or fraid to that, or your ISP does not allow you to do that, you can choose pay $5/mo to get around that via Home Assistant Cloud.
By the way, HA also support integrated with Smartthings, Wink, and Homekit. One ring to rule them all.
I was going to say if you are using the Google home or home hub. It is a hub and can automate basically all the smart devices in your home now. Besides that solid video. I'd say the Google home app with the Google home devices as hubs is far better than home kit
wink 2 now has some local control for when thier services shut down, i am very happy with them and hope they expand more
Probably time for you to do a new one of these as things have evolved a lot in the past year and half like Wink being effectively dead, Hubitat Elevation being out for a while, and even things like how Amazon's range of automations are starting to cross over into hub territory.
I needed an alarm system and decided on Abode, security and smart hub in one, So far very impressed. 😊👍🏽
Really!! that just what I am looking for!! When I think in domotic for the new house that is under construction, I think in avoiding to deploy al old wired outdoor pir motion sensor , and I want to receive an alarm if someone get into the garden in the front or in the backyard before reach the house. Do you think that abode is the best? what else do you do with abode? do you user zwave or Zigbee with small bateries outdoor pir motion sensors?
Eduardo Cruz I would check their website they work with a lot of things. It has zigbee, zwave and WiFi. 👍🏽
Hubitat can be controlled remotely. It was released just over one year ago. Given this, it's progress is impressive. You can design web based apps. This is nice because you don't have to deal with a bunch of nested menus typical within an app. That said, I hear an app is coming somewhat soon.
Aaand app is here! :)
I think you pretty much nailed it. I started with Homeseer and X10 a long time ago. At the time, definitely a tinkerer’s toy. More recently I got back into it with a Wink setup. Disappointing - the pace of development and support were poor so I moved to SmartThings. Better, but hardly flawless or dependable. In the last couple of weeks I’ve started experimenting with Home Assistant and OpenHAB but I don’t have the scripting/Linux skills necessary to make those anything more than a curiosity. Apple HomeKit... maybe someday, but I already have a house full of devices and most of them aren’t HomeKit compatible. I guess for me, SmartThings comes as close as anything I’ve tried to being a good fit. I should also mention ActionTiles - it’s a brilliant add-on to ST and extremely flexible.
Thanks for sharing and for mentioning ActionTiles. I’ve looked into ActionTiles but haven’t tried it out yet. I’ll have to try it out if it’s that good!
You REALLY should look at the Vera Controllers...I’ve purchased and worked with the Samsung SmartThings hub and the VeraEdge and VeraSecure. There is a HUGE difference in ease of use, and flexibility. I use the system for a vacation rental...with SmartThings you cannot change the entry codes on the door locks and as you pointed out, if the internet goes down, so does your automation. Vera runs locally, I can see ALL the codes on my locks, and creating scenes and modes with the Vera UI is superior in so many ways to SmartThings. You can dive down into details (programming) which I’ve not needed to do...but you can if you like. I’ve already returned my Samsung hub and am not looking back.
Outstanding review and comparison. And extra points for the companion table & discussion in the link. This was exceptionally useful. One question - do any of these work with Shelly 1 or Sonoff switches? These are very inexpensive ...with a few tradeoffs like no UL listing.
Actually you can control Hubitat devices remotely. You can setup dashboard(s) for your devices and the dashboard(s) can be accessed remotely via the Hubitat app (fairly new) or via web browser. What you can't do remotely is change the setup of the hub or add/remove/configure devices, but you can control them via the dashboard(s). I started with Smarttinigs, but go tired of the constant outages and slowdowns from Samsung; yes devices that can be controlled locally still work individually, but all routines run in the cloud so any automation routine or device that doesn't allow local control doesn't work without internet.
Well, HomeAssistant is really getting there. Their goal is to release 1.0 version this year and the plan is that most things will work with UI, and yaml will only stay for advanced features. So what's already changed about it as of now:
1. Installing it and getting up and running on a Raspberry Pi is a piece of cake (pun intended). You just download HassOS image, flash it on an SD card (Any card reader + Win32DiskImager, 2 click) and you have a running HassOS\Hass.io device.
2. Lovelace UI is now main UI and it can be edited through the UI itself. No need to go into yaml. Yaml is only needed for advanced features.
3. Automations... This could be better, but you can still do pretty much everything through UI, you will still need to edit some JSON data though. However you can use NodeRed instead. Installing NodeRed is one click in Hass.io addons, and then you can have a powerful node-based automation editor which is more powerful than any other automation system out there. It may have a bit of a learning curve of course.
4. A lot of devices can be added and configured through UI now. Minority but quite a lot
And the list of what you can do through UI is growing with each update.
Great video Reid ! Could you possibly make a video with a new light or something and show us how you set it up ? From unboxing to finish ? I've ordered my smart thing hub and I have some lights but idk how to set up. Keep up the great work !
@Dat Baller23 thanks! Yeah I could see that being helpful. Especially with the new SmartThings app and everything. Thanks for the suggestion!
Hello, love your videos and I’m happy you finally talked about the ‘master controler’ home assistant. Being open source and many people contributting to integrations it’s very hard for any other hub to get even close to it’s full potential. It’s a bit hard and time consuming to get the hang of it but oh boy... it’ worth the time and effort. Just one small correction to your video: to integrate with google and alexa you don’t nedd to pay the subscription. You just need to have an ssl connection to your home assistant device. I don’t own any alexa device so I can’t speak for it, never needed to configure it but I did the manual configuration to google and it works flawlessly and for free (more or less, I did get a domain for it). I used to be a main homekit user but ever since home assistant I just send my devices from homeassistant to homekit and google and only because of voice control.
Yes, you answered my answered question and started a massive automation addiction! Your videos are great and had me regretting my SmartThings path for a bit with your reviews. Ultimately, ST has been great and easy to work compared to what Home Assistant would have been [for me]. Still plenty of opportunities to tinker with ST, but I am never really in the deep end. Thank you for the video and all your help!
@Jason Holder thanks! Yeah SmartThings is great for that and there are plenty of more complex things to do with it like using WebCore.
Great video. A few corrections about Hubitat. You can control your devices remotely using dashboards (similar to sharptools on SmartThings). There is an app in the works that will be released soon and have integrated push notifications but for now you can use IFTTT (SMS/Push/Email/Phone Call even presence) or Pushover for push notifications. Lots of other pro's/con's too but they are constantly making it better.
@Gavin Campbell thanks! That’s really good to know and now I might have to give Hubitat a shot. I appreciate the comment!
Just clarifying, Apple HomeKit does have a huge amount of compatible devices, including all the Xiaomi/Aqara devices (so, door, motion, light sensors, moisture, temperature, c02, etc..), LIFX, Phillips etc...
This is true, and important if a person has Apple products they wanted to be capable of controlling without 'needing' to purchase a second 'hub' (lol) for the devices. Ideally, you should have an Apple HomeKit if you have an iPhone, iPad and Apple TV or whatever else Apple may have. If you purchase other 'smart devices', the Home Kit allows for interaction between quite an extensive amount of each currently. This means you don't "need" to go purchase a 'hub', but you really didn't from the start. You could just utilize whatever provided 'compatible with' app that it says. Or, to put it a simple way, if it says "Compatible with Alexa and Google", you can download either of the two apps and just control them that way. (The purpose is to have 'one central app', but that's redundant since many advertise the needing of 'multiple' to have 'one central app', when that's a misconception. Generally, you can control nearly any device by one app already, and it's usually whatever the manufacture says 'compatible with'. The extreme automation features, however, are what change.)
I’d really like to see you test and review the Homey hub.
What do you think about Mi Smart Home Kit by Xiaomi?
How about a Homey Hub?
I'm using a Vera Plus hub since from 2017 and I am very satisfied of that... It works locally, I can use external GSM connection (if router goes down).
The con is about "limited" compatible Z-Wave and Zigbee devices.
I recently migrated my home from old X10 devices with the X10 commander hub running on an old Mac to all a HomeKit devices.
Used an AppleTV 4K as the hub. You mentioned using an AppleTV as a hub but it has to be either the AppleTV HD or the AppleTV 4K if you want access outside of your home.
My house is old so did not have the required neutral wire that all the native HomeKit dimmers needed so went with Lutron devices using their hub that has HomeKit support. This works perfectly but was more expensive than if I was able to go with native HomeKit dimmers.
I also have a Raspberry Pi running HomeBridge for unsupported HomeKit devices. Rather then doing a manual install of HomeBridge I put the HomeBridge iOS app on my iPad which makes setting up and installing HomeBridge plugins super easy without using a command line on the Raspberry Pi. I also using the Raspberry Pi to turn on a 32 inch TV through CEC that displays my artwork. I have a HomeKit plug that turns the TV off at night but isn’t able to turn the TV back on so that is why I’m using the Raspberry Pi through hdmi cec to turn the TV back on that I setup a crontab to run the cec commsnd.
So far all my homekit devices are native except for the Lutron ones that I’m using the Lutron hub with. The only thing so far that I’ve used HomeBridge for is to connect a microphones so that I can listen in to my home as the OOSSXX security cameras I have don’t do sound so that way hear anything going on in my home.
I want to add some motion sensor to turn on my outdoor floodlights that are controlled with Lutron in the wall dimmers. So far I haven’t found any native HomeKit ones that can be used outdoors so my use HomeBridge to connect some non native motion sensors.
With HomeBridge running on the Raspberry Pi I can add just about any hardware to HomeKit.
I love how you "beep" the word "Alexa" so it won't trigger my Alexa at home while watching this video!
I’ll just stick with the clapper to turn my lights on and off. Much cheaper.
Ok boomer
But if you have sex.....
so annoying in a movie room
Juan Ramos
Fireworks
@@jramos0709 LOLLL. This comment is so underrated. 👏👏
Home Assistant is ready for everyone! It's now so easy to install with hassio images and configure all automations graphically with Node Red. Plugins directly available from the integrated store... No command line or yaml required 😍
Ehh. Hass.IO and Nabucasa have made home assistant WAY easier than the old hassbian days.
However I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who does not work with/on computers for fun. I would still recommend smart things for most users.
I have had lots of family ask about how I am doing my automations so fast and how my UI looks so home assistant is still clearly the winner for tech savvy people.
Not a bad video at all, and I particularly like the emphasis on the speed (or lack of) for cloud devices. We don't all live with reliable and/or fast internet, so "Honey, I can't turn the lights on, because the internet is down" is not a good conversation to have. Other comments have called out a few gaps, and the world has moved on a lot, so how about a updated version of this topic?
My current pick... Home Assistant as User Interface and few things connected directly to it (like Sony TVs), but zigbee, zwave, light, radiator valves I use: Smartthings + Philips Hue + Bosch home
I got rid of all my smart home stuff awhile back. When we bought our first home several years ago I blew probably $1000 on smart home stuff and used V1 smart things and HATED it! My Phillips hue lights all died and I was able to return everything after 3 months and since then tinkered with openHAB a bit but that’s about it. I’m thinking about starting to look into it again as it seems the stuff has matured a bit since I tried it. I think I’ll try to continue working with openHAB or try V3 smart things again as most I’ve talked to say the issues I ran into are mostly fixed now.
I noticed when you were testing the responsiveness between SmartThings and Home Assistant that you didn't hardwire SmartThings with the ethernet port on the back. Was that simply for comparison over wifi? It would be great to see a comparison or simply a review on responsiveness when the hubs are hardwired and whether responsiveness might improve for someone using a whole home mesh network system (not including the Samsung SmartThings Mesh system).
V3 Hub is WiFi only. That is why I am on V2 still. He did not have the option to hardwire or I am sure he would have done that.
I have been using home assistant and I think it is the best hub as it is easier to setup and create automation's with then OpenHAB in my opinion. Yes Home Assistant does have a learning curve but if you are willing to invest lots of time into learning how to use it, you will be able to do almost anything with it. It is also very easy to get working with homekit so you can control devices that you have in Home Assistant from HomeKit and Siri
You should have put Homeseer in there, That is probably the most solid hub out there.
Awesome summary of lots of hubs, congrats! I was wondering what's your opinion on Xiaomi as I recently purcharsed several accesories as well as their hub, the Mijia Gateway 3
I see in your video, your Schlage door lock has a key open, I just want to mention someone can use a bump key to open the lock. My home has been broken into with just that. I just bought a Yale z-wave, no key. I love it, so far. I want to thank you for not speaking Alexa it keeps quite.
@Joan Snow thanks for mentioning that and sorry to hear that happened to your house. I agree that a lock with a key isn't ideal because of lock bumping. I wish it didn't have a key because I never have used the key once.
+1 for bleeping out the word “Alexa” in the videos. We call her “the other woman”. 😏
Would love to see you do a review on the homey hub!
It's supposed to be coming to the US this year, and then I'll definitely review it. I checked them out at CES this year.
Very informative video. For years I was using the Wink, first version 1 then 2. My experience with installing new devices was at best, cumbersome. The Wink software was faulty and required tech support most of the time. The automated installation was a joke. For a long time support became nonexistent and the company appears to be in deep trouble. When they went to monthly subscriptions, I decided that it was time to move on.
After some research I decided on Smartthings. It has a small learning curve but that was due to my lack of past exposure to the system. Due to happen chance, my smart home appears to have dual app support with the manufacturer's apps, Alexa skills and numerous hubs.
native language is Dutch .
I like a lot your video’s on UA-cam. You explain things in a understandable way. Thanks for that!
I hope smart devices will shortly work together. I am now using mainly HomeKit and SmartLife. I have some sensors and smart bulbs running on SmartLife. I assume it is normal that there is a lack of time between the sensor being triggered and the bulb to go on. I suppose the signal from the sensor is going over the internet to the Tuya-servers and then back to my light bulb. It takes 2 or 3 seconds to go on sometimes.
Now my question is: would a hub make this proces going faster? So is a hub connecting sensors and lightbulb locally? If yes, which hub would you advice me?
Many thanks for helping me out in this.
Could you try and review the Athom Homey?
Thanks for the great reviews. Just starting out with smart home tech and your videos have been very helpful
That’s great to hear! Thanks Tim
I'm on smartthings and fir the most part it runs great, we only have Note 9 phones in the house which makes it even better as Samsung integrated smartthings in the phone notification bar.
I know you said it's not a hub but the Google home mini is my go-to for voice commands. I have a mixture of Wi-Fi switches and plugs and it seems to be the one that always works the best. plus they're so cheap I can put them in multiple rooms that way don't always have to use my phone.
To be honest I got rid of the Samsung SmartThings hub because it didn't play nice with WeMo and a few other brands I had. Of course your mileage varies.
Great video! Keep them coming!
@Ryan Witkowski thanks! Hey what ever works good for you is the way to go.
I have a very similar setup as you, what I use is Home Assistant, SmartThings Hub v3, and a lot of google devices.. from the google home mini, nest hub and my pixel 3. With a custom action handler that integrates home assistant.. so basically now I can control everything from all smartthings devices to all home assistant functionality. It works really well for me, but admittedly took a while to get working just right.
this was extremely helpful. I have had wink for quite some time now and I have been following the pending financial issues going on with the company and anticipating its demise. I seem to think the same as you, that smart things is probably the way to go if you want a cloud service..
nice video, I used Smartthings before the old and new editions they have the delay as you mentioned, but try to have FIBARO HCL or HC2, and test them definitely you will see the difference, it controlled locally and cloudly, it has Alexa and Google, very friendly interface and it's compatible with a variety of devices including IP cams and IR remotes
Great video, just wondering how relevant this is today with the google nest hub max. Is this not considered a hub? Thanks
Nice design, works well and very easy to set up.
I use a Vera Hub for controlling exterior lights on GE Z-Wave switches. I like it but it is a little challenging to set the automation up. You have to pay attention to what you are doing during set up. I set up a neighbor with a Samsung Smart things hub using the same GE light switch and found it to be about the same in set-up procedure.
2:00 - That SmartThings delay is NOT typical. I’ve been using SmartThings V2 for last 5 years and it’s _instantaneous_ in it’s response. I also just converted my in-laws house with SmartThings v3 as well. Their hub also has instantaneous responses. Is it perfect for everything?? Of course not, but neither are the other smart hubs.
Hello, can you connect Wi-Fi only bulbs like Kasa to Smart things?
Yes if SmartThings has an API with the other vendor like Kasa. Not all WiFi bulbs will automatically work with SmartThings hub b/c the hub is actually uses only Zigbee and Z-Wave protocols natively.
Smart Things is the best, there is loads of free mods available to make all kinds of cheap sensors and what not work with it. and you can set up virtual smart things switches to trigger Alexa routines. Hands down the best.
I like Vera. Works locally and has remote access with no ongoing fees. Great iOS interface with Homewave and on Android with Imperihome.
Thanks for the great reviews! Love your channel. Is there a reason you left Vera out of the lineup? It's the only hub I've ever used, and seems to be on par with the rest.
I haven't heard much about Vera. I'll have to check it out. Thanks for the suggestion and the support!
No one talks about Vera hub. The Vera hub is very compatible and is easy to use. If you want to geek out and get deep in code Vera is compatible and ready for that level of configuring too. You mind doing a video on Vera hubs? Thanks
Hue Lights married to other zigbee components via Smartthings 2.0 is my current setup. Simple automation works well but I'm still working my way into complex automation. I do think that a combination of hubs might be magical at this point in the game. Would love for you to take this video and add to it with a discussion of the best symbiotic hub solutions.
I've been binging your videos as I start planning to make our home a smart home. Thank you for your channel! I have a question, and hopefully you have time to reply. Is my Google Nest Hub considered a Smart Hub? I noticed you didn't list it in this video. If it's not considered a Smart Hub, why? Thank you!!
Thanks for watching the videos! Nest Hub is great and I use mine daily. I wouldn't consider it a traditional hub though because it doesn't really set automations right now.
You can use the Google Home app to set routines, which are similar, but they can't be triggered by smart home devices like sensors (for now). Hopefully they expand its capabilities with automations though!
What about Vera ? Control Locally as well I think
hi :) i really enjoy your videos. could you please do a quick review of all the smart stuffs (lights, hubs, devices, sensors ,etc) that you use in your life? or have you done it before? i couldn't find one
Thanks for the review! I've been toying with home automation as a hobby for awhile and wanted to know why you skipped open hab? It cover ios and android and offers offline and online dunctions aswell as intergration with Google etc without needing to but / pay for other services?
I agree totally. While nothing is perfect ST is the best fit for us as of now. Great video.
Thank you for bleeping Alexa hahaha
KNX based hubs!
Schneider electric or Hager
Great video Reed. Hands down, homekit is best!! It's big bucks but it's totally worth it.
Smartthings V2 hub. While not perfect for me its reliable 99% of the time and I like the fact that I can easily pair natively supported devices without all the tinkering involved with HomeAssistant but I still have the capability to add device handlers for non native devices and WebCore Rules engines for when I need a more advanced level of automation. Smartthings has finally ported nearly all of the features from the Classic app to the new app so there isn't much need for the classic app anymore. I also like the fact that somebody created a device handler which allows me to use my Sleep Number SleepIQ bed as a presence sensor. I can trigger a goodnight automation which arms my security system and turns off all the lights simply by getting into bed.
Deciding what hub to go with. Would be great to do another review with the recent updates to the hubs.
It's in the works! Hopefully tackling it after the holidays.
Need to check out Hubitat again. It's getting so much better.
If I buy a bridge it'll be the Hubitat Elevation.
I am using Fibaro and im more than satisfied with it
2020: Home Assistant can be used with Alexa without the $5 fee. However, it is more tinkering and messing with code (AWS Lambda).
So, it's been a year and I'm curious if your recommendation still stands.
SmartThings' hub is now history and Wink has become completely obsolete just in 1 year. Hubitat has now a phone app and is probably the top choice although not for the faint of heart
OK I'm getting really tired with this.......... all you show is that thanks to the hub you can TURN ON/ OFF things but I'm interested with energy usage are those things show me how much watts is consumed by every device/smart plug and what's the energy cost? because this is what I'm looking for in Europe they have a system called FIBARO that have all those things I mentioned before do you have something like this in US?
@@benhaze1010 is there any smart home app you can use with a galaxy watch other than smart things?
The connect home can’t control the intensity of WiFi signal or the WiFi Channel at all, if the SmartThings hub chose wrong a WiFi channel OS is not much that can do about it since you don’t have any control about that
You can implement Google assistant and Alexa for free on HASS it's just alot to configure or you use the supscription cloud based service they provide ...
Well done review. We have a few of the hubs/non hubs you mention. Even have used Zipato's hub in the past which has excellent local control. Any of the hubs able to control WiFi connected switches and outlets, either native or via cloud? We like the wink hub but worry about its life expectancy, will it survive? As you know many other hubs have been EOLd. Lastly, which of the hubs work with WiFi to the router and which require a wired connection?
Noticed u said HomeKit isn’t remote accessible , maybe I misunderstood but just for correction it is , I can control my home devices out of home .
Hello. I’m building a new construction home. What should I prewire into my home? I really like Apple but I don’t want to loose functionality. I’m thinking to go with smart things. Some things I want are to automatically open my garage door when I get home, smart deadbolts, just a doorbell camera, smart blinds that open and close morning/evening time, automatically set mood lighting in evening, automatically set outdoor lighting.. what are some other good ideas? I’ve got two thermostats planned also. Under cabinet lights. I did kinda want a smart panel to control everything together or like a touchscreen mounted on my wall but not absolutely necessary as I see that I can control everything from my phone. Another idea is auto light fireplace, maybe a security system so I can see which doors and windows are unlocked, not necessarily arm it, don’t want paid services. Hmmmmm any other ideas? Also a really important thing for me is music. I want to prewire speakers in my great room and in the master bedroom. What’s the best way to connect them? Probably an amplifier and then to some kind of Apple airplay station or equivalent? I don’t like Bluetooth because that means it has to be on and connected but airplay works off WiFi and can automatically play music when I come home from work. Maybe Sonos is better or what can you recommend for hardwired speakers?
Currently have the 1st gen Smarthings and have been thinking of switching to hass.io looks like I need to look into it more
Hass.io if FOSS
I like Homekit for manual control, but Google Home is better for voice control.
I have Homebridge (Hoobs) “raspberry hub” to connect Hue, Lightify, Broadlink and some others in to Apple Homekit. It works fine!
My Hue hub has not only Philips bulbs, but others zigbee stuff. Unfortunately Osrom US bulbs are not compatível to Hue, than I need this other hub. However, Lightify hub appers not so strong, because bulbs far from the hub can loose communication. Regards!
Any suggestions for people who have a nest setup, smart thing s might not be the best option and wink 2 has been on the market for some time! Great video shoutout for the speaking very easy to understand tech knowledge.
Google. And I don't mean "Google your answer", I mean Google. Just use the Google Assistant app. Don't waste your money on anything else that has the exact same functionality lol.
Nice video and ideas. Have you ever tried homekit with homebridge or hoobs?
What I have been looking for is an interface that can communicate with smart devices that I can control with Modbus/TCP or RTU protocol.
I dumped Wink when they started charging a monthly fee. Wink also didn't expand its list of compatible devices as quickly as I would like. I switched to a Samsung Smartthings hub. It also has some compatibility shortcomings. Notably, my Lutron Caseta devices would not work with Smartthings until I added a Lutron hub. Worse, my 10 Kidde talking WiFi Smoke Detectors don't work with Smartthings.
So I almost went with Smartthings, but I watched your video and came across Hubiatat. I purchased it and couldn't be happier. It's a great platform!
Thanks for your comment. That's great to hear that you've liked Hubitat!
Hi
What do you think about xiaomi gateway as a hub, and what do you think about xiaomi smart home products
Thanks for this video. I am thinking between Home Assistant & Hubitat.
Hi, Home Assistant is way more user friendly nowadays you don't need to know linux or how to program. Home Assistant has become a lot more plug and play. Adding devices has never been eaiser with a click of a button you can add almost any device.
I'm here because I'm thinking of ditching my wink hub 2. I ave three wink hub 2's and I'm getting frustrated with lights going offline all the time.
I know toggling the breaker gets them back online again but that's a big hassle as two of the hubs are at rental properties. I wanted to love wink but now I have to jump ship as they seem to be sinking. Maybe smart things.
I bought homey, three month ago. I think is the perfetc solution for who loves home automation, but it's not a developer and have no programming knowledge and much more important for me, it's compatible with knx system, that was the system which my house based on. Currently he controlls more than 100 devices and I'm very sutisfied.
Seems to me that an Apple hub is the easiest and maybe the cheapest too. I just plug in my iPad when I leave home, to have remote access, or If I take my ipad then I just plug in my old 5S, (it’s battery is shot anyways) and it is only running iOS 10 but seems to work fine as a hub, although maybe little bit slower. I guess an ipod touch should work also ?
Hey love your channel. Lots of good tips here. Thanks for sharing. I'm starting out on smart devices can you help to explain something here please?:
1. If I use a hub (rather than just hubless WiFi device), can I still access e.g. turns on light remotely when I'm not home? How would this work?
2. I have a Eufy E8210CW1 Video Doorbell Video Doorbell 2k (Battery) Plus Home Base 2, can I connect this to a 'Hub' then? because I realise by the time someone press the doorbell and a notification on my phone, it can take up to 10 seconds, perhaps due to WiFi device instead of a Hub connected device?
Thanks in advance.
Why isn't Domoticz included? Runs on a lot of platforms, easy to script, easy to add all sorts of devices. Together with some USB sticks it is compatible with Z-Wave, ZigBee, 433Mhz
Cool cool. Thanks for the video. Question, is the google home hub an actual hub?
Isn't Wink basically dead now? The company I mean and their products? I saw their site had all of their products unavailable for several months.
Hubitat is cloud friendly if you use its dashboard properly. And they do have an app too
Home assistant can run Alexa or Google assistant, without a subscription... but... get ready for a bumpy setup.
SmartThings is still better than Habitat. You are not able to do the following STILL! Hubitat is not able to turn on a Zigbee bulb in a dumb switch configuration when a Zooz Z-wave switch is clicked on. It is not able to capture the state of that switch and act correctly. I have tried this multiple times over many firmware updates. I worked with their support and I am SOL. SmartThings can do this with out blinking an eye. All I do is use their built in Smart Lighting app. SmartThings wins for that out of the gate.
You should revisit this now coming up tp Home Assistant 1.0 being released. Now the Android app for HA is arguably better than the iOS one.
Especially now Wink is dead and SmartThings is unknown with Samsung pulling out of hardware
Awesome review, Reid. Thanks for sharing the info.
Btw, the abrupt muting when saying Alexa to avoid triggering your viewers' echoes is a bit unsettling. Have you experimented with reversing the audio segment for that word like they do to curse words on certain songs? I'd suggest keeping the visual cue, though.
Cheers!
@Breno Luna thanks! I'll look at that and see what I can do. Thanks for the suggestion!
Is there an APP that will let you draw or import an image/layout of your house. Then click on each room to turn the rooms lights on/off (no matter what manufacturer it's from) or sellect a more features button for that f
Room to get a closer image with each light individually which from there would allow you to open each light in it's own personal manufacturers app?
Perhaps a fancy home "launcher" with fancy made widget icons?