Very excited about this hub! We've been well overdue for a solution that is affordable for getting Z wave devices into Homekit. Add a thread border router, a Homebridge solution , and it could be the hub to rule them all
@@AutomateYourLife Will you be attending CES? We have a booth in the Venetian Expo. Stop by and say hello. We'd love to chat with your more about our hub and hear your ideas.
Hey team Hubitat, been thinking in changing my smart home's ecosystem for a while now. What makes you better than Home Assistant? With Matter local-control ecosystems, how are you going to compete?
I got a Hubitat Elevation hub right after watching this review, since I've been solely a HomeKit guy. I tried getting into Home Assistant and really just couldn't get it to work the way I wanted it to; it was so frustrating. The Hubitat Elevation hub has been amazing and has integrated beautifully with HomeKit. I'm moving a lot of my automations to Hubitat because its Rule Machine and even Basic Rules app is so much more powerful than HomeKit automations, but I still keep voice control through my HomePods. I've started incorporating Z-wave devices into my setup and I'm super happy with the results. The only downside is the UI. It's clunky and a little unintuitive, but it gets the job done. I'd love to see a revamped UI that looks more modern and less text-based. That's where Home Assistant shines brighter. I look forward to more of your videos. You're fun to listen to and I like your enthusiasm. You also kind of remind me a little bit of a Canadian Peter Griffin.
Great video, Brian! I am loving my Hubitat hub again thanks to its Homekit support. I have found a couple of things that work in Hubitat, but not directly in the Homekit Integration and are shown in Hubitat as incompatible (to Homekit) devices. Those are Rachio irrigation system/zones as well as my Govee Lyra lamps . Interestingly, both of these can be brought into Homekit using Homebridge or Hoobs. I haven't tried working them in with virtual devices although I'm pretty sure the Rachio zones would work that way. You looked to be enjoying working with Hubitat which reminds me of the Brian of old when working with SmartThings automation. Happy New Year...almost!
Yeahhhh, this IS a lot of fun! I have to admit that. :) I imagine you'll get more compatibility with some of those things coming into HK as Hubitat brings this out of Beta. So hopefully you get everything in your home working together quickly!
Great video. Ive been using hubitat for a few years now (switched from smartthings) and it works great and reliable which is what you want in home automation. Ive tried Home assistant a few times and got fed up with all the breaking changes every time there's an update. The only thing which lets hubitat down is a decent dashboard app. There's 3rd party ones which work well but if they'd just build a better native app rather than the clunky app they have now it would be soo much better. Ive not integrated my hubitat with HomeKit as of yet as i don't have an home pod. .....Did you say an apple tv can be used rather than an home pod?
I still won't be changing from Home Assistant to Hubitat, but this does bring things closer to the fully integrated home for Hubitat and Apple users. Definitely a step in the right direction. Have Hubitat officially added Matter support yet?
Great video. I have an Philips Hue hub and the Ikea Trådfri Hub, just ordered Ikeas new hub Dirigent. If I buy this Hubitat hub can I skip all my other hubs and just use Hubitat and still use my Ikea and Philips smart products?
I wouldn't skip the Hue Hub, but you can for the most part skip the Ikea one. There's still a benefit to having Dirigera with Matter coming though, so maybe hang on to it. There will be an aftermarket opportunity for that hub for the year as far as I can see. Also, check the compatibility list for Hubitat before going all in. :)
Thats great but home assistant has its own homekit integration and homekit controller (to access homekit devices directly, local control) for a long time now just wondering what the difference is between the two? And i'm not saying that hubitat is going to go under any time soon but what happens if they do? Now you can't buy there hub any more to replace one that may go bad. That's why i love home assistant no hub works with any old pc you might have laying around that can't run windows any more and no proprietary hub. But this is another way of connecting homekit devices so good job hubitat 😀
@@VideoNOLA A year ago when most of the automation's had to be setup in YAML to get the most out of HA i would have agreed with you. But with HA as it is now? Most anyone can have it set up and learn it's in's and out's in just a few days. And if you run into a problem there is a great HA community for help.But as you say there are those that may find HA a bit hard to learn, that's why i said, "But this is another way of connecting homekit devices so good job hubitat".
HA is not even close to being as easy as Hubitat. Sure, for a basic automation you could get most people to do it. But just installation and maintenance of HA is a complex thing. Most folks just can't keep up with it. When they get there, I'll be showing it though! Just not there from my point of view :)
@@AutomateYourLife I agree that it's not as easy to use as hubitat no argument there , but it is close at this point. A neighbor of mine decided to go with hubitat and he asked me for help several times with it. so i have been using the newest version of both and can say for sure that hubitat is without doubt easier to use then home assistant but from what i've seen it also is not as versatile as HA either . That being said i convinced my neighbor to try home assistant on a dell thin client computer. I let him do it himself and he had it up and running in no time (without my help) and he is no computer expert by any means. He's planning on selling his hubitat hub on ebay.
You can create only a single rule for your switch to motion action, instead of two rules. Set the trigger to switch changed instead of turn on/off, and add a condition to check the state of the switch to set motion to active or inactive.
@@AutomateYourLife my pleasure. I was going insane writing double rules to handle virtual switches (which I use to create arbitrarily complex scenes) until I figured that one out.
There's too many nuances to say one's better. Sorry. I prefer Hubitat because it's more of a true automation platform and I can do everything HomeKit can't with it. Homebridge is more about giving you access to control in HomeKit
I’ve been an apple guy for years and am thinking about switching over to a Samsung Fold 5. Would this allow me to continue controlling HomeKit devices?
HI, I recently switched most of the devices to my Hubitat hub. Most of the devices are Zigbee but I did have a few that are WiFi. For the WiFi I built a Home Assistant out of some spare PC parts that I had lying around. Everything works fine but now after tinkering with the Home Assistant build I am wondering if it would be beneficial to just put everything on the Home Assistant?
Looking for a solution to Z-Wave>Homekit. I have been using Homebridge + plug-in w/SmartThings Hub3. Lately (3-4 days) this has been falling apart, devices not updating or rarely updating (after 6 months of success with this plug-in and years with an earlier one). So questions: Can I use my Schlage Connect locks w/hubitat and get HomeKit integration? Inovelli Blue (Zigbee)? On/off would be sufficient although it does have a full featured Edge driver for ST. Ecolink motion sensors (I think these are supported) Zooz Zen72 switch should be OK Rest of my devices are GE/Jasco/Ultrapro switches and dimmers
Hey Jeff, better I teach you to fish here. If you want to know if something works with Hubitat then you look at their compatibility list. I've put a link in the description or you can do a quick search. I think most of what you have will be fine, but specific models are available there. As for Door Locks, no. Use my trick method in this video with virtual devices to deal with anything that doesn't come across.
@@AutomateYourLife I did look at the list, but I did not see anything on the hubitat site that says what is exposed via homekit, and locks are very important.
I'll use Apple stuff when hell freezes over but a tip for people. I've got some stuff on Shartlife and some on Hubitat zigbee (mostly repurposed Shartlife). I'm using two outlets to control oil filled radiators via a hubitat temp sensor. I've made up a hybrid Hubitat/Shartlife Wi-Fi sensor by using the adhesive pad to attach the zigbee to the larger Wi-Fi sensor. It isn't all that pretty but it works. If you are more skilled than me it'd be possible to disassemble the zigbee and add it inside the Wi-Fi sensor casing (with the relevant power connections etc) but it works fine for me. The main advantage being that the measurements are being taken at exactly the same place. PS Smartlife is now charging for energy monitoring facilities in the app. There is also a new app on the Hubitat system, *Energy Calculator Plus* that runs natively on the Hubitat and gives you energy usage information (day/week/month/£). Very much worth a try if you use Hubitat. Not sure if it works with Homekit gear at the moment...
@@AutomateYourLife When you look on the energy use (3rd tab) part of the Shartlife app (originally just a autocorrect typo.. But what the hell) to get the detailed stuff they want paying now - something like £25 a year I seem to remember.. And for the last few months Shartlife has been flakier than a lepers crotch, problems with the app, problems with connection and automations not working (and I'm certainly not the only one, there are a lot of unhappy people out there) - which is why I'm transferring most to Hubitat so it'll work when I need it, fire and forget. I'm in the middle of chemo for breast cancer (+ fibro) so I need stuff to be working, I'm not able to muck around with it or do much that requires joined up thinking..
The downside to doing garage doors that was is they don’t show up in CarPlay. I was able to get a MyQ, but I think they are being discontinued, so it won’t be an option for long, I bought mine used. The only thing I haven’t figured out how to do yet is Thermostats. I have the original Ecobee SI, they work fine in Hubitat, and do what I need them to do, so I’m not willing to buy 2 new thermostats.
@@AutomateYourLife I think 2023 is the year my smarthome gets to where I’ve wanted it. I already switched to Apple TVs last month, and now I’m switching to HomePods. So far the biggest downside I’ve ran into with HomeKit is that I have a dog named Shuri, which triggers the HomePods sometimes, lol.
I am looking to move from HomeSeer to a less complicated system. One of the biggest issues I have had to code in is around basic room lighting specifically to make it wife friendly; 1. the use of multiple motion turning on the lights if one is triggered the room lights and turning off 10minutes after the last one is triggered. 2. Light sensors in the room averaging across the four sensors dependent upon which sensor is triggered. (They have all different periods or if one fails it doesn’t affect the average) 3. Persistence where I used to find that my hue bulbs would not always switch on on the first attempt so I constantly resend the expected status so if they missed the original turn on/off they react to a subsequent one. 4. Grouping lights into room areas and being able to automate three lights in the room together separate from the remaining lights So is this type of setup able to deal with these types of things or has an alternative approach either in HomeKit or habitat or do I need to maintain my current system Steve
Hey Steve, nothing you're saying here is very difficult with Hubitat! Very much in the wheelhouse of that system. I wouldn't rely on Home kit for that level of reliability, not could you use it for the depth of automation you're after.
@@faengelm Ohhhh that's towards the end of this video. It takes real automations instead of just mirrors. I can't remember exactly when it is, but it's one of the last things I show I think
@@AutomateYourLife Thanks... I see it at 22:00. But for some reason, my Basic Rules doesn't offer the Custom Action that yours does. How do I update it?
I am using a Sonoff ZigBee Pro. Can I bring all the current devices from Sonoff directly into Hubitat? I want to keep all Sonoff devices to remain in the Sonoff ZigBee pro but have the Habitat discover them.
I use Hubitat integration into home assistant to do exactly all of this with google home. Since google home plays will with home assistant and home assistant plays well with hubitat (with static IPs…)
Can you do a more general video possibly ... I am on Google Home and want to switch to HomeKit ... but I'll have to say, I'm so confused ... your videos are very thorough ... but lost as to this product's usage in general ... are you saying pretty much all devices can be connected without being a a device for Apple compatibility ...
I have 3 Apple TVs and was able to disable 2 of them to leave 1 as the main hub. Unless you mean if you only have one Apple TV then it’s a permanent hub and you can’t disable that?
Tempting. Very tempting. My number one priority is to get my last Z-Wave device to work in HomeKit. Unfortunately, I suspect this won’t apply since it’s a Yale Assure Z-Wave lock. Yale does offer a swappable HomeKit module but for that price I’d rather save up for a new lock than update this five year old model. It’s pretty much the last thing using Smart Things but I notice that SmartThings (or maybe it’s the lock) is having problems with the presence sensor. So this could either solve or reveal the culprit. As long as Hubitat can itself control my lock based on my phone/geofence then that’s all I need… HomeKit for the lock would be nicer but not necessary. Hubitat, however, also offers me the chance to drop Nabu Casa in Home Assistant, this saving a subscription while augmenting the smart home. Guess I’ll reach out to Hubitat and see what I can learn while they still have the hub for $89.99.
@@AutomateYourLife Indeed! I was so focused on trying to troubleshoot the idea in my head while you were talking about virtual switches that I didn’t put it together. I’m gonna have to pay attention better in class!
Not sure how many home automation DIY’S using SmartThings are going to scrap everything & jump on the walled garden of Apple & Hubitat. Ever nuance doesn’t mean people can just afford to change to a new platform. I think the best method is to see what shakes out in the New Year & then possibly adapt long term think of the best way to move forward with the best technology solutions available.
I love my Hubitat for rules and for managing devices. I am an Apple user, but I don’t have HomeKit (despite having iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro, Apple TV, …). I am not sure what I am missing by not having HomeKit ? I have dashboards in Hubitat, I don’t have wifi devices that don’t integrate with Hubitat (I do have Airthings BLE reporting to home assistant brought into Hubitat through HA Device Bridge though). What does HomeKit bring ? A more slick UI ? (Hubitat’s UI is it’s biggest flaw in my opinion, dashboards are limited and old looking, but they work). Voice command ? (I am not sure I’m a fan of voice commands, Siri misunderstands me most of the times). I don’t feel limited at all by Rule Machine, so what would HomeKit bring me ?
For me, it brings cameras in to your single system. You could get that with other systems obviously, but this is all local across HomeKit and hubitat with the hubs. So it's a way for voice control, cameras, a better UI (than most can create), and some access to Thread. Hopefully Hubitat can bring those other things in, and then it doesn't even need Siri :)
@@AutomateYourLife thanks for the answer. I don’t have cameras (yet anyway), not a fan of being filmed 😂 Rumors has it that Hubitat will get Thread at some point down the line and I don’t have thread devices yet either. Maybe I’ll see if my current Apple TV (a rather old one) can act as a HomeKit hub and experiment a bit with it…
Another solution to the reverse mirror can be solved by installing the community app called "switch bindings". This app gives you the option of mirroring your devices one way, or both ways. It's an excellent app to solve this issue.
I can't add any HK devices to Hubitat as do not show. Am I missing something? Does it only connect to Zwave/Zigbee devices? All of my lights and switches are Meross.
You can't add HK to hubitat, except with the workarounds I showed here. I did say that in the video but I get how some of those things get lost in the details :)
I'm on my second hubitat, the first one died after a couple of months. I say I'm on my second hubitat, it's more a paperweight, it may be great for US customers but there are fewer approved devices available in the UK and after checking the list and making sure my devices are approved what a pain in the arse it was to getting them to pair with the hub. In general it took me three or four attempts and in some cases even more than this. On a number of occasions when my device did pair it didn't work correctly even though I'd already got another of the same device paired and working. I could trawl the community pages but I really haven't got the time, it's no better than home assistant in this respect. I don't want a new hobby I just want my stuff to work
How odd Paul. Something is off there. Maybe you've had 2 not working right here because honestly...easiest hub I've ever paired Zigbee/Z-Wave stuff with. I wonder what the difference is, and when I get a chance...I'll chat with them.
I would keep the Hue bridge and Hue bulbs. Hubitat has a built-in integration for the Hue bridge. Also, there are two community developed/supported Hue bridge integrations with additional advanced features. Keeping the Hue bridge allows for native HomeKit integration, integrations with Logitech Harmony Hub, Hubitat, Home Assistant, SmartThings, etc... And, in the future, Philips has promised Matter support to be added to their Hue bridge.
Check the Hubitat device compatibility list but for alot of Ikea stuff you won't. It also opens up a lot of other options for different products you can use. Both IKEA and Aqara are currently limited to their own brand of products. Hubitat is more
Great Video, but too many issues on software side. Zigbee remotes and sensors not being recognized. Zwave scene controllers showing improper number of buttons. Batteries burning down again on battery devices. Zigbee bulbs and light strips not being recognized as what they are. I had my hubitat for a month after they announced homekit. But I find Home Assistant working more reliably as bridge to get Zigbee and Zwave into Apple Home.
I’ve been playing around with smart home tech for a couple of years. Google home, Alexa. But with my new home I am planning on going to HomeKit. Was willing to sacrifice on some features to gain some personally security. Super excited by this news, looks like I won’t be losing out on any features. Couple this with chatGPT to code my animation. 😊
It should just be an add device and to put it in pairing mode! It looks like Zooz devices are almost all compatible. Have you tried another z wave device though just to make sure nothing weird is going on?
I don't use homekit or Siri but I still wish I had jumped ship from dumb things when they dropped support for my hub and got this instead, all my WIZ stuff stopped working with dumb things last week and I just got some more Tuya smart life devices and I am not able to get any new device in smart life app to show up in dumb things , literally every single thing I have no longer works with dumb things anymore they broke everything and caused me hours and hours of aggravation manually migrating everything only for everything to still not work
@@AutomateYourLife Hope so Brian I think they said that everything need edge drivers now ,each device I mean They told me to check the community for end user created drivers, it sure how we go about installing custom stuff now that the IDE is gone (Maybe you can do a video on it) But for smart life I have 2 really generic Chinese devices ,one is an addressable wire light string and the other is a full color recess downlight One shows up in ST the other doesn't after deleting the cloud connection between the 2 and relinking several times. I assumed that just the app would bleed an edge driver for the service not for each individual device or maybe ST support doesn't know what they are talking about ,I am too busy to pay attention to what is going with the platform right now so I'm not sure how edge even works only that it's supposed to make local control standard. Funny enough my custom stuff that relies on groovy and custom device handlers in the IDE is still working.
@@AutomateYourLife OK Brian I figured it out after I noticed an Atomi device I have wasn't working either. all my wiz devices, my Tuya devices and Atomi device all had to be deleted and re added to their respective apps I have all but one device working again. this happened with my Kasa stuff couple times too. I think it has to do with the router and/or some information in the device that handles the connection to the router ,not sure what exactly but I didn't suspect this becase the device work with their respective apps for the most part but ,y Atomi plug didn't and my Kasa tuff didn't before one time too, when something stops working with the native app I know it has to be deleted and re added , this time was weird because everything stopped working with ST, but some still worked with Alexa directly and most stuff was working with the native apps , till I noticed Atomi wasn't then I just deleted and readded everything and tested it direct with Alexa then with ST and everything but one Tuya smartlife now works with ST, that one device doesn't work with ST works with Alexa though. I recently had to factory reset and restore my router after t got some Russian malware that probably had something to do with it.
Everything? no you cant. ive got plenty of devices in Hubitat that dont transfer over to homekit. if you want everything than you need to go with home assistant
@@AutomateYourLife have you managed to get harmony remotes to work. Without creating a bunch of virtual switches and automations in Hubitat to trigger the virtual switches
Nar no good still needs a lot of work before its up to HA LEVELS, No need for any virtural switches or polling, which could mess up the hubtiat hub. from experience of having two hubitat hubs die due to the polling issues. another thing HA has regarding homekit, is the ability to add homekit devices into HA. Currently i can pull any homekit camera, plug, switch directly into HA and than share it back into Homekit. i also use Hubitat but only as the controller for certain zigbee devices and than share them into HA and than HA into Homekit. If hubtiat gets to that level i might look at it again. but its beta so has a long way to go
Seriously you can recommend this when it is clear not support when I reviewed the manufacturer website? I was seriously interested only to be very disappointed. If I am wrong then you shouldn't have made this video yet!
Wow that is a lot. Have to save in case I get hubitat. Exploring how hubitat with google. To take over smarthings. Will be looking for virtual solutions there also.
Great video as allways. Althought it will not convert me to Apple, it does give me the taste to get a hubitat. Sorry Smarthings hub, you are way too slow and too unreliable lately.
![[DRIP] ‘Love, Maybe’ PREVIEW](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/U7hwHp95m1k/mqdefault.jpg)
Very excited about this hub! We've been well overdue for a solution that is affordable for getting Z wave devices into Homekit. Add a thread border router, a Homebridge solution , and it could be the hub to rule them all
Oh man, I hope they get Thread on that Zigbee radio.... It would be great then!
Awesome video, Brian! I think you're ready to make the switch to Hubitat. The only downside is you'll kick yourself for not doing it earlier.
We'll see! I want a new app guys! Keep rocking though :)
@@AutomateYourLife We've always got something under our sleeve. What features do you want in a new app?
@@Hubitat I want to build automations with your rules engine! I want a better HMI too please.
@@AutomateYourLife Will you be attending CES? We have a booth in the Venetian Expo. Stop by and say hello. We'd love to chat with your more about our hub and hear your ideas.
Hey team Hubitat, been thinking in changing my smart home's ecosystem for a while now. What makes you better than Home Assistant? With Matter local-control ecosystems, how are you going to compete?
I got a Hubitat Elevation hub right after watching this review, since I've been solely a HomeKit guy. I tried getting into Home Assistant and really just couldn't get it to work the way I wanted it to; it was so frustrating. The Hubitat Elevation hub has been amazing and has integrated beautifully with HomeKit. I'm moving a lot of my automations to Hubitat because its Rule Machine and even Basic Rules app is so much more powerful than HomeKit automations, but I still keep voice control through my HomePods. I've started incorporating Z-wave devices into my setup and I'm super happy with the results. The only downside is the UI. It's clunky and a little unintuitive, but it gets the job done. I'd love to see a revamped UI that looks more modern and less text-based. That's where Home Assistant shines brighter. I look forward to more of your videos. You're fun to listen to and I like your enthusiasm. You also kind of remind me a little bit of a Canadian Peter Griffin.
Ok I loved this comment right up until Peter Griffin! ahahhahahaa!
The UI is clunky, under statement, dreadful for this day and age
Yours TH-cam channel is nothing short of exceptional, and your dedication to creating valuable and entertaining content is truly remarkable.😆
You’re too kind! Thank you!
Are there any good outdoor wireless cameras? Or are wired better. Also what's the best hub for android and Google
Hubitat comes with native apps for Android and iOS.
oh oh!!!!
Aaaaannnndddd.....
Hubitat now has WebCore as a full App!
Phenomenal cosmic power in an itty bitty living space!
😃😃😃👍
Great video, Brian! I am loving my Hubitat hub again thanks to its Homekit support. I have found a couple of things that work in Hubitat, but not directly in the Homekit Integration and are shown in Hubitat as incompatible (to Homekit) devices. Those are Rachio irrigation system/zones as well as my Govee Lyra lamps . Interestingly, both of these can be brought into Homekit using Homebridge or Hoobs. I haven't tried working them in with virtual devices although I'm pretty sure the Rachio zones would work that way. You looked to be enjoying working with Hubitat which reminds me of the Brian of old when working with SmartThings automation. Happy New Year...almost!
Yeahhhh, this IS a lot of fun! I have to admit that. :)
I imagine you'll get more compatibility with some of those things coming into HK as Hubitat brings this out of Beta. So hopefully you get everything in your home working together quickly!
Not an Apple guy, but LOVE my Hubitat.
And so you've got lots of options to work with! That's good for you Curtis!
Great job, can tell you spent lots of time putting this together for us.
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks!
Great video. Ive been using hubitat for a few years now (switched from smartthings) and it works great and reliable which is what you want in home automation. Ive tried Home assistant a few times and got fed up with all the breaking changes every time there's an update.
The only thing which lets hubitat down is a decent dashboard app. There's 3rd party ones which work well but if they'd just build a better native app rather than the clunky app they have now it would be soo much better.
Ive not integrated my hubitat with HomeKit as of yet as i don't have an home pod. .....Did you say an apple tv can be used rather than an home pod?
Yep! Apple TV works just fine! In fact my TV 4K has been my hub most of the time
@@AutomateYourLife Thanks I'll give it a try
I still won't be changing from Home Assistant to Hubitat, but this does bring things closer to the fully integrated home for Hubitat and Apple users. Definitely a step in the right direction.
Have Hubitat officially added Matter support yet?
They haven’t announced it yet, but it sounds like they will be soon.
Yeah, it sounds like they're working towards it but no announcement yet!
I did not hear you mention the model of Hubitat being reviewed. C-7 or C-8?
I had the C-7 at the time.
Great video.
I have an Philips Hue hub and the Ikea Trådfri Hub, just ordered Ikeas new hub Dirigent. If I buy this Hubitat hub can I skip all my other hubs and just use Hubitat and still use my Ikea and Philips smart products?
I wouldn't skip the Hue Hub, but you can for the most part skip the Ikea one. There's still a benefit to having Dirigera with Matter coming though, so maybe hang on to it. There will be an aftermarket opportunity for that hub for the year as far as I can see.
Also, check the compatibility list for Hubitat before going all in. :)
Thank you. Very interesting. Does the Hubitat have a virtual occupancy sensor?
They had an occupancy virtual device, yep!
Can you use the same logic with the virtual switches to bring in incompatible devices with Alexa & google home
You absolutely can. Test out the kind of virtual switches that allow you to run routines in those systems and you'll be good to go
Thats great but home assistant has its own homekit integration and homekit controller (to access homekit devices directly, local control) for a long time now just wondering what the difference is between the two? And i'm not saying that hubitat is going to go under any time soon but what happens if they do? Now you can't buy there hub any more to replace one that may go bad. That's why i love home assistant no hub works with any old pc you might have laying around that can't run windows any more and no proprietary hub. But this is another way of connecting homekit devices so good job hubitat 😀
HA is great, but certainly not for everyone in terms of learning curve and the always-on/DIY requirements, which may exceed Hubitat's target audience.
@@VideoNOLA A year ago when most of the automation's had to be setup in YAML to get the most out of HA i would have agreed with you. But with HA as it is now? Most anyone can have it set up and learn it's in's and out's in just a few days. And if you run into a problem there is a great HA community for help.But as you say there are those that may find HA a bit hard to learn, that's why i said, "But this is another way of connecting homekit devices so good job hubitat".
HA is not even close to being as easy as Hubitat. Sure, for a basic automation you could get most people to do it. But just installation and maintenance of HA is a complex thing. Most folks just can't keep up with it. When they get there, I'll be showing it though! Just not there from my point of view :)
@@AutomateYourLife I agree that it's not as easy to use as hubitat no argument there , but it is close at this point. A neighbor of mine decided to go with hubitat and he asked me for help several times with it. so i have been using the newest version of both and can say for sure that hubitat is without doubt easier to use then home assistant but from what i've seen it also is not as versatile as HA either . That being said i convinced my neighbor to try home assistant on a dell thin client computer. I let him do it himself and he had it up and running in no time (without my help) and he is no computer expert by any means. He's planning on selling his hubitat hub on ebay.
You can create only a single rule for your switch to motion action, instead of two rules. Set the trigger to switch changed instead of turn on/off, and add a condition to check the state of the switch to set motion to active or inactive.
Thanks Maxime! Good tip for folks here.
@@AutomateYourLife my pleasure. I was going insane writing double rules to handle virtual switches (which I use to create arbitrarily complex scenes) until I figured that one out.
Thank you sir. Happy New Year!
Happy New Year Ron!
Hubitat or homebridge? Dont know which one to get. I'd like to use my ring sensors in automations. But which one is better?
There's too many nuances to say one's better. Sorry.
I prefer Hubitat because it's more of a true automation platform and I can do everything HomeKit can't with it. Homebridge is more about giving you access to control in HomeKit
I’m a big fan of this combo!
It's a great one hey!
Can I bring blink cameras and the ring doorbell on my HomeKit dashboard with this?
Nope
I’ve been an apple guy for years and am thinking about switching over to a Samsung Fold 5. Would this allow me to continue controlling HomeKit devices?
Only the ones compatible with both SmartThings and HomeKit!
@@AutomateYourLife great thank you so much!
HI, I recently switched most of the devices to my Hubitat hub. Most of the devices are Zigbee but I did have a few that are WiFi. For the WiFi I built a Home Assistant out of some spare PC parts that I had lying around. Everything works fine but now after tinkering with the Home Assistant build I am wondering if it would be beneficial to just put everything on the Home Assistant?
If you can handle it technically and you're willing to spend a lot of time working through HA, most people find it worth it.
I’ve neglected my smart home setup for some time now, videos like this one re-ignites my curiosity for starting over. Great job as always my friend
We'll get you back buddy! ;)
Looking for a solution to Z-Wave>Homekit. I have been using Homebridge + plug-in w/SmartThings Hub3. Lately (3-4 days) this has been falling apart, devices not updating or rarely updating (after 6 months of success with this plug-in and years with an earlier one). So questions:
Can I use my Schlage Connect locks w/hubitat and get HomeKit integration?
Inovelli Blue (Zigbee)? On/off would be sufficient although it does have a full featured Edge driver for ST.
Ecolink motion sensors (I think these are supported)
Zooz Zen72 switch should be OK
Rest of my devices are GE/Jasco/Ultrapro switches and dimmers
Hey Jeff, better I teach you to fish here. If you want to know if something works with Hubitat then you look at their compatibility list. I've put a link in the description or you can do a quick search. I think most of what you have will be fine, but specific models are available there.
As for Door Locks, no. Use my trick method in this video with virtual devices to deal with anything that doesn't come across.
@@AutomateYourLife I did look at the list, but I did not see anything on the hubitat site that says what is exposed via homekit, and locks are very important.
Door locks don't come into HK per Apple's rules
I'll use Apple stuff when hell freezes over but a tip for people. I've got some stuff on Shartlife and some on Hubitat zigbee (mostly repurposed Shartlife). I'm using two outlets to control oil filled radiators via a hubitat temp sensor. I've made up a hybrid Hubitat/Shartlife Wi-Fi sensor by using the adhesive pad to attach the zigbee to the larger Wi-Fi sensor.
It isn't all that pretty but it works. If you are more skilled than me it'd be possible to disassemble the zigbee and add it inside the Wi-Fi sensor casing (with the relevant power connections etc) but it works fine for me. The main advantage being that the measurements are being taken at exactly the same place.
PS Smartlife is now charging for energy monitoring facilities in the app.
There is also a new app on the Hubitat system, *Energy Calculator Plus* that runs natively on the Hubitat and gives you energy usage information (day/week/month/£). Very much worth a try if you use Hubitat. Not sure if it works with Homekit gear at the moment...
Ok, two things funny about this! The hatred for Apple and "Shartlife". 🤣🤣🤣
Also, are they charging!? I gotta see this...
@@AutomateYourLife When you look on the energy use (3rd tab) part of the Shartlife app (originally just a autocorrect typo.. But what the hell) to get the detailed stuff they want paying now - something like £25 a year I seem to remember..
And for the last few months Shartlife has been flakier than a lepers crotch, problems with the app, problems with connection and automations not working (and I'm certainly not the only one, there are a lot of unhappy people out there) - which is why I'm transferring most to Hubitat so it'll work when I need it, fire and forget. I'm in the middle of chemo for breast cancer (+ fibro) so I need stuff to be working, I'm not able to muck around with it or do much that requires joined up thinking..
The downside to doing garage doors that was is they don’t show up in CarPlay. I was able to get a MyQ, but I think they are being discontinued, so it won’t be an option for long, I bought mine used.
The only thing I haven’t figured out how to do yet is Thermostats. I have the original Ecobee SI, they work fine in Hubitat, and do what I need them to do, so I’m not willing to buy 2 new thermostats.
You're ahead of the game!
@@AutomateYourLife I think 2023 is the year my smarthome gets to where I’ve wanted it. I already switched to Apple TVs last month, and now I’m switching to HomePods.
So far the biggest downside I’ve ran into with HomeKit is that I have a dog named Shuri, which triggers the HomePods sometimes, lol.
I am looking to move from HomeSeer to a less complicated system. One of the biggest issues I have had to code in is around basic room lighting specifically to make it wife friendly;
1. the use of multiple motion turning on the lights if one is triggered the room lights and turning off 10minutes after the last one is triggered.
2. Light sensors in the room averaging across the four sensors dependent upon which sensor is triggered. (They have all different periods or if one fails it doesn’t affect the average)
3. Persistence where I used to find that my hue bulbs would not always switch on on the first attempt so I constantly resend the expected status so if they missed the original turn on/off they react to a subsequent one.
4. Grouping lights into room areas and being able to automate three lights in the room together separate from the remaining lights
So is this type of setup able to deal with these types of things or has an alternative approach either in HomeKit or habitat or do I need to maintain my current system
Steve
Hey Steve, nothing you're saying here is very difficult with Hubitat! Very much in the wheelhouse of that system.
I wouldn't rely on Home kit for that level of reliability, not could you use it for the depth of automation you're after.
Hi Brian. Did you find a virtual combo switch/contact sensor like the one available in SmartThings?
Oh yeah, this works for those purposes.
@@AutomateYourLife I tried to use Mirror to let a switch control a contact sensor, but I don't see that option.
How do you do it?
@@faengelm Ohhhh that's towards the end of this video. It takes real automations instead of just mirrors. I can't remember exactly when it is, but it's one of the last things I show I think
@@AutomateYourLife Thanks... I see it at 22:00. But for some reason, my Basic Rules doesn't offer the Custom Action that yours does. How do I update it?
OK- I found it. I needed to add the Rule- 5.1 machine
I can't seem to find the link to the list of HomeKit compatible device types. Can you help me out?
I'm not sure that there is one. :(
so do i need a apple homepod or apple tv to set up this system? homekit is the name of the apple home ecosystem not the smart hub itself im consfused
I feel like things have changed a bit and you could just have an iPhone or iPad and the Hubitat hub
I am using a Sonoff ZigBee Pro. Can I bring all the current devices from Sonoff directly into Hubitat? I want to keep all Sonoff devices to remain in the Sonoff ZigBee pro but have the Habitat discover them.
I don't think so. Check the Hubitat forums though and see if you can find a hub integration method
Thank you for a very detailed process with solutions to issues
Thanks Frank!
I use Hubitat integration into home assistant to do exactly all of this with google home. Since google home plays will with home assistant and home assistant plays well with hubitat (with static IPs…)
That's quite the path there!
Can you do a more general video possibly ... I am on Google Home and want to switch to HomeKit ... but I'll have to say, I'm so confused ... your videos are very thorough ... but lost as to this product's usage in general ... are you saying pretty much all devices can be connected without being a a device for Apple compatibility ...
This video is about a very popular hub getting compatibility with Apple Homekit. So it's not anything more than an intro and a how to use it.
But I can look at a Homekit basics type video, absolutely
Hi, sorry for the silly question but is this much better than starling hub?
It's very different. Starling is just for Nest gear. This is a full smart home hub which means it'll bring lots into Homekit.
Just not Nest
@@AutomateYourLife amazing! Thanks for the quick reply
@@AutomateYourLife is there a way to bridge eufy to homekit?
I have 3 Apple TVs and was able to disable 2 of them to leave 1 as the main hub. Unless you mean if you only have one Apple TV then it’s a permanent hub and you can’t disable that?
No, I just meant that the option to turn off the hub in Apple TVs is going away soon.
Can you add an Aqara zigbee contact sensor to hubitat?
Not as far as I've seen. Sorry
Tempting. Very tempting. My number one priority is to get my last Z-Wave device to work in HomeKit. Unfortunately, I suspect this won’t apply since it’s a Yale Assure Z-Wave lock.
Yale does offer a swappable HomeKit module but for that price I’d rather save up for a new lock than update this five year old model. It’s pretty much the last thing using Smart Things but I notice that SmartThings (or maybe it’s the lock) is having problems with the presence sensor. So this could either solve or reveal the culprit. As long as Hubitat can itself control my lock based on my phone/geofence then that’s all I need… HomeKit for the lock would be nicer but not necessary.
Hubitat, however, also offers me the chance to drop Nabu Casa in Home Assistant, this saving a subscription while augmenting the smart home.
Guess I’ll reach out to Hubitat and see what I can learn while they still have the hub for $89.99.
There's a workaround here for that issue right? That's part of this video!
Virtual switch to map to the lock is what you want
@@AutomateYourLife Indeed! I was so focused on trying to troubleshoot the idea in my head while you were talking about virtual switches that I didn’t put it together.
I’m gonna have to pay attention better in class!
You can use virtual switches to lock/unlock your yale assure on homekit
Not sure how many home automation DIY’S using SmartThings are going to scrap everything & jump on the walled garden of Apple & Hubitat. Ever nuance doesn’t mean people can just afford to change to a new platform. I think the best method is to see what shakes out in the New Year & then possibly adapt long term think of the best way to move forward with the best technology solutions available.
There's a few reasons folks are looking at another solution vs SmartThings. We do gotta wait things out but there's a lot to love here!
I love my Hubitat for rules and for managing devices. I am an Apple user, but I don’t have HomeKit (despite having iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro, Apple TV, …).
I am not sure what I am missing by not having HomeKit ? I have dashboards in Hubitat, I don’t have wifi devices that don’t integrate with Hubitat (I do have Airthings BLE reporting to home assistant brought into Hubitat through HA Device Bridge though).
What does HomeKit bring ? A more slick UI ? (Hubitat’s UI is it’s biggest flaw in my opinion, dashboards are limited and old looking, but they work). Voice command ? (I am not sure I’m a fan of voice commands, Siri misunderstands me most of the times). I don’t feel limited at all by Rule Machine, so what would HomeKit bring me ?
For me, it brings cameras in to your single system. You could get that with other systems obviously, but this is all local across HomeKit and hubitat with the hubs. So it's a way for voice control, cameras, a better UI (than most can create), and some access to Thread.
Hopefully Hubitat can bring those other things in, and then it doesn't even need Siri :)
@@AutomateYourLife thanks for the answer. I don’t have cameras (yet anyway), not a fan of being filmed 😂 Rumors has it that Hubitat will get Thread at some point down the line and I don’t have thread devices yet either. Maybe I’ll see if my current Apple TV (a rather old one) can act as a HomeKit hub and experiment a bit with it…
Another solution to the reverse mirror can be solved by installing the community app called "switch bindings". This app gives you the option of mirroring your devices one way, or both ways. It's an excellent app to solve this issue.
Switch Bindings works better also
Something to try! Thanks guys!
Regarding hubitat, what about Matter and Thread support?
There's nothing I can report now :)
I can't add any HK devices to Hubitat as do not show. Am I missing something? Does it only connect to Zwave/Zigbee devices? All of my lights and switches are Meross.
You can't add HK to hubitat, except with the workarounds I showed here. I did say that in the video but I get how some of those things get lost in the details :)
I'm on my second hubitat, the first one died after a couple of months. I say I'm on my second hubitat, it's more a paperweight, it may be great for US customers but there are fewer approved devices available in the UK and after checking the list and making sure my devices are approved what a pain in the arse it was to getting them to pair with the hub. In general it took me three or four attempts and in some cases even more than this. On a number of occasions when my device did pair it didn't work correctly even though I'd already got another of the same device paired and working. I could trawl the community pages but I really haven't got the time, it's no better than home assistant in this respect. I don't want a new hobby I just want my stuff to work
How odd Paul. Something is off there. Maybe you've had 2 not working right here because honestly...easiest hub I've ever paired Zigbee/Z-Wave stuff with. I wonder what the difference is, and when I get a chance...I'll chat with them.
Should I ditch Hue Bulbs (and Hub) in favor of inexpensive Zigbee lights, to use with Hubitat??
In my experience, the Hue didn’t work well and I swapped to zigbee bulbs and had better success.
I would keep the Hue bridge and Hue bulbs. Hubitat has a built-in integration for the Hue bridge. Also, there are two community developed/supported Hue bridge integrations with additional advanced features. Keeping the Hue bridge allows for native HomeKit integration, integrations with Logitech Harmony Hub, Hubitat, Home Assistant, SmartThings, etc... And, in the future, Philips has promised Matter support to be added to their Hue bridge.
I'd agree with what Dan said. You can do direct Zigbee lighting sure, but you'll trap yourself a bit more into hubitat.
Do you or do you know of anyone that could remotely help me setup my Hubitat with HomeKit? I understand that there would be a charge. Thanks
At the moment, I don't. I shouldn't take it on either. The cost would be highly prohibitive.
Is this better then Aquara M3 hub??
Very different hubs. For Homekit, Aqara does a bit better since Hubitat hasn't finalized all this yet
@@AutomateYourLife if you have a mishmosh of devices in your home, what is the best option?
@@techmap4191 this one for sure
12:00 Changing the device driver on Hubitat? Don't forget to click CONFIGURE afterwards!
Yes! Thank you!
Awesome videos sorry I’m so late
All good! There is no late on YT ;)
With hubitat you dont need ikea or aqara hub?
Check the Hubitat device compatibility list but for alot of Ikea stuff you won't. It also opens up a lot of other options for different products you can use.
Both IKEA and Aqara are currently limited to their own brand of products. Hubitat is more
Can you make Alexa things now to HomeKit with this
What would be your goal Tony?
Great Video, but too many issues on software side. Zigbee remotes and sensors not being recognized. Zwave scene controllers showing improper number of buttons. Batteries burning down again on battery devices. Zigbee bulbs and light strips not being recognized as what they are. I had my hubitat for a month after they announced homekit. But I find Home Assistant working more reliably as bridge to get Zigbee and Zwave into Apple Home.
I don't hear that from many Hubitat users, although sometimes compatibility is lower with Hubitat :)
I’ve been playing around with smart home tech for a couple of years. Google home, Alexa. But with my new home I am planning on going to HomeKit. Was willing to sacrifice on some features to gain some personally security.
Super excited by this news, looks like I won’t be losing out on any features. Couple this with chatGPT to code my animation.
😊
You won't lose out on a thing!
Have Hubitat and honestly have no idea where or how to start...
Little to no instructions
Sounds like I need to do that video
@Automate Your Life YES...YES...YES...PLEASE!!
I am stuck also
Hubitats next upgrade will include WebCore. according to an Hubitat email I received yesterday.
Yeah I saw that too! Local WebCore too. :)
Now we're talking!
Waiting a while eh Murray?
Im waiting on how smartthings hub gets update…but i keep an eye on hubitat because all on my home is apple except smart speakers…i prefer Alexa
Just another good option to consider then!
I use Homebridge with a zigbee stick and there is no more hubs anymore.
Well, that home bridge is kinda a hub 😜
@@AutomateYourLife True 😂 And the HomePod aswell. So I still got two.
Cant figure out how to get my zooz zwave things in !
It should just be an add device and to put it in pairing mode! It looks like Zooz devices are almost all compatible. Have you tried another z wave device though just to make sure nothing weird is going on?
@@AutomateYourLife Its the pairing mode that is tough. Apparently I have to zwave exclude from ST but this is not working.
@@AutomateYourLife So far I find hubitat not easy at all. Too many steps. Looks a lot like Home Ass !
How do I put switchbot bot on Hubitat hub
Sadly, you can't at the moment. :(
Oh ok thanks
It’s garbage cost way more than a HomePod
A Mini yes. A HomePod? No.
I don't use homekit or Siri but I still wish I had jumped ship from dumb things when they dropped support for my hub and got this instead, all my WIZ stuff stopped working with dumb things last week and I just got some more Tuya smart life devices and I am not able to get any new device in smart life app to show up in dumb things , literally every single thing I have no longer works with dumb things anymore they broke everything and caused me hours and hours of aggravation manually migrating everything only for everything to still not work
lol dumb things...you'll get Wiz back. They have a big partnership there.
@@AutomateYourLife Hope so Brian
I think they said that everything need edge drivers now ,each device I mean
They told me to check the community for end user created drivers, it sure how we go about installing custom stuff now that the IDE is gone
(Maybe you can do a video on it)
But for smart life I have 2 really generic Chinese devices ,one is an addressable wire light string and the other is a full color recess downlight
One shows up in ST the other doesn't after deleting the cloud connection between the 2 and relinking several times.
I assumed that just the app would bleed an edge driver for the service not for each individual device or maybe ST support doesn't know what they are talking about ,I am too busy to pay attention to what is going with the platform right now so I'm not sure how edge even works only that it's supposed to make local control standard.
Funny enough my custom stuff that relies on groovy and custom device handlers in the IDE is still working.
@@AutomateYourLife OK Brian I figured it out after I noticed an Atomi device I have wasn't working either.
all my wiz devices, my Tuya devices and Atomi device all had to be deleted and re added to their respective apps
I have all but one device working again. this happened with my Kasa stuff couple times too. I think it has to do with the router and/or some information in the device that handles the connection to the router ,not sure what exactly but I didn't suspect this becase the device work with their respective apps for the most part but ,y Atomi plug didn't and my Kasa tuff didn't before one time too, when something stops working with the native app I know it has to be deleted and re added , this time was weird because everything stopped working with ST, but some still worked with Alexa directly
and most stuff was working with the native apps , till I noticed Atomi wasn't then I just deleted and readded everything and tested it direct with Alexa then with ST and everything but one Tuya smartlife now works with ST, that one device doesn't work with ST works with Alexa though.
I recently had to factory reset and restore my router after t got some Russian malware that probably had something to do with it.
Everything? no you cant. ive got plenty of devices in Hubitat that dont transfer over to homekit. if you want everything than you need to go with home assistant
Except if you use this video, you can do everything. :)
@@AutomateYourLife have you managed to get harmony remotes to work. Without creating a bunch of virtual switches and automations in Hubitat to trigger the virtual switches
Nar no good still needs a lot of work before its up to HA LEVELS, No need for any virtural switches or polling, which could mess up the hubtiat hub. from experience of having two hubitat hubs die due to the polling issues. another thing HA has regarding homekit, is the ability to add homekit devices into HA. Currently i can pull any homekit camera, plug, switch directly into HA and than share it back into Homekit. i also use Hubitat but only as the controller for certain zigbee devices and than share them into HA and than HA into Homekit. If hubtiat gets to that level i might look at it again. but its beta so has a long way to go
Seriously you can recommend this when it is clear not support when I reviewed the manufacturer website? I was seriously interested only to be very disappointed. If I am wrong then you shouldn't have made this video yet!
It's a freely joinable beta that behaves like a mature integration
A Match Made in Heaven but is it too late?
Nawwwwww, I think it's just in time. :)
I have emseen some of these but I’m. It u
Apple products suck!
Lol yow
Wow that is a lot. Have to save in case I get hubitat. Exploring how hubitat with google. To take over smarthings. Will be looking for virtual solutions there also.
Hubitat has built in integration with Hubitat and Amazon Echo
Hey Brian!
Heyyyyyyyyyyyy!
Great video as allways. Althought it will not convert me to Apple, it does give me the taste to get a hubitat. Sorry Smarthings hub, you are way too slow and too unreliable lately.
It's a great automation option!
@@AutomateYourLife I am pretty sure it is. I will get one when I come back from France. Happy New Year Mate.