200 Device Limitation? Really? Any alternatives?

Just curious, but what are the protocols of the devices, both the ones you have and the ones you are trying to add? (Zwave, Zigbee, cloud to cloud, virtual)

Also, which hub model do you have?

And what country are you in?

And specifically is your hub on the V Home service (EU or UK offering)?

Just trying to think of things where the platform might respond differently for different users. :thinking:

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I think the first thing most technical users look at is Hubitat, as it is the most similar to SmartThings except everything runs local. They don’t have the same device limit, in part because you would only be overloading your own hub, they don’T have to protect a cloud the way ST does. Their app is not as nice as SmartThings , but you can use the third-party SharpTools dashboard with either for a very polished interface.

Homeseer only offers native support for zwave, so you’re going to run into the same hard 232 device limit I mentioned in my post above. However, they do allow you to add additional virtual devices. And they can add additional controllers into what they call “z net“, so if you had 1000 Z wave devices you would need five controllers. That adds to the expense and complexity of the set up, so just something to be aware of. So I’m not saying you can’t go over 200 with Homeseer, I’m just saying it may be more complex than it looks at first glance.

You might find the following section of the forum interesting as well:

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I have also been slowly finding and purchasing Z-Wave devices that provide multiple functions using a single Z-Wave address, (such as Leviton VRCS4 and Aeotec button controllers, Zooz double outlets, and Zooz ZEN16 with 3 multi-relays plus 3 digital inputs). However, I strongly echo what thepublic424 seems to point out that the number of input and output ports on present-day Z-Wave devices are woefully inadequate for today’s applications.

In the 1980s I sold and installed a fabulous antique home automation controller called the Hypertek HomeBrain that not only speaks 2-way X10 protocol to control and monitor 256 devices, but also has a full array of optional boards for 16 digital inputs, 16 analog inputs (light sensors and thermistors), and relays (outputs). As the HomeBrain provided this functionality using a 6502 microprocessor 30+ years ago, Z-Wave boards with similar capabilities could easily be developed for today’s market. Comments from others in this post appear to indicate that a market exists (beyond me) for new Z-wave devices that can accommodate a much larger number of inputs and/ or outputs (say 16, for example) with a single Z-Wave address, and would be a great way to overcome the Z-Wave address limitation.

My application for a multi-input device is to accept parallel inputs from a 16-channel Moose Z1100e alarm system with 229 output expansion board, and I don’t want to use six separate input boards or occupy six Z-Wave addresses that present-day hardware would require.

This is already on track to happen with the newest version of the Z wave chip, Series 700. Also called “Z wave plus V2.“

It will be part of the “Z wave LR“ enhancement. There are currently three or four manufacturers who have devices in alpha testing for this, but nothing yet on the market.

Z-Wave LR also increases scalability on a single smart home network to over 2000 nodes – a 10x increase from Z-Wave.

Z-Wave Alliance Announces New Z-Wave Long Range Specification - Z-Wave Alliance

So it’s coming as part of the official Z wave specification, it’s just not available in devices you can buy yet.

Something definitely changed with the last Android app update. I get the same message when trying to add a new device on Android, but I don’t get it on iOS. So for now the work around is to use iOS :grimacing:

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There’s seems to be several UI-side limits put in place in the new app. Adding automations past a certain number is one and now it looks like adding more than 200 devices is another.

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Hi @Automated_House, I’m on Android too but don’t get that error. I’m on v1.7.54.21

I think it started with 1.7.55 and above

Oh great… time to make sure auto update for the ST app is off in the play store.

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one of my Twitter followers pointed out that you can still add devices from the Devices menu option. That gets around the 200 limit error on Android 1.7.55 and above. Hopefully they remove it totally since it’s purely a UI stop.

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GRRR Last night I noticed the “Can’t add more than 200 devices” error pop up when trying to add a couple devices I had. I am only able to add devices if I go to the Devices page and add it from there. I did get an error when trying to add a device from there too but it only happened a few times then it worked. Today it worked when I removed and added back a door sensor.

ST says I have 276 devices all inclusive (virtual, C2C, hub connected, etc).

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Must admit I wasn’t expecting that to be literally what it said. I know it says all it needs to say but it doesn’t seem terribly polished.

What on Earth would lead you to expect something polished? :rofl:

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This limit is absurd given the tendency to add remote control and monitoring to everything around us. The trend should be that the number of “things” the app supports increases over time. I’ve been over the 200 limit for a long time so it seems that ST has declared open season on us fat ducks (home automation gluttons like myself)…

My ideal smart home would have virtually everything controllable by voice/app/automation and there would be a standard set of sensors for every single room/area (temp, humidity, motion, door/window contact sensors being the most important). Each room would have a basic set of parameters linked to sensor outputs and actionable devices so that I can ask the system what the temp is in the living room, or the humidity in the bathroom, etc without having to say sensor names (and no I am not giving room names to devices as that is not scalable/logical for large systems). The room itself is more than just a group… I know there is at least one smartapp that did some or all of this but ST should support it natively… Now if this were possible, then I think I’d have double the devices :smiley: Either way, I will get there some day but possibly not on ST if the limit is to stay.

Edit: Let’s not forget the #&*@# 20 room (group) limit either… why??? To unclutter rooms, I often move sensors and other devices to groups (rooms) such as “Access Control” or “Remotes”. I currently have 23 rooms/groups just because I can’t add any more… but why impose such silly limits? I don’t think a GUI design excuse is reasonable especially when they believe it is ok to have me flick the main ST app screen dozens and dozens of times to get to a device somewhere on the bottom of the list… the old app was ugly but way faster to get to the desired device.

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The more I think about this, the more it bugs me. I haven’t seen any official announcement on it, and the fact that it affects people who already had more than 200 devices is concerning.

It’s one thing to decide that “200 is probably enough for most people“ and it’s quite something else to take away an ability that a customer already had.

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100% agree…

However, sadly, I am not surprised at all… :frowning:

Nor I ogie… Unfortunately…

@blake.arnold@JDRoberts is right, this is very concerning. Imposing limits after the fact without discussing with affected users is… Disturbing. This will probably be the one to push me off SmartThings if its not corrected… Quickly.

Ive already had to use the workaround a dozen times in the last day or so whole doing some ZWave maintenance. Its a massive pain.

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It’s also concerning that there isn’t any documentation on the support site saying there is any kind of device limit.

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We’re aware of this and working on correcting it. I’ll be back with more info shortly.

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oh shit! I currently have 287 and had over 300 in the past before the last hub hard reset. I just got the 200 device limit when trying to add/test a new device. if this is the way its going to go, then its time to add another hub and branch off some non-alarm things (i.e. ~25 buttons/plugs controlling AI speakers). I figured and anticipated this was coming. i smell a paid premium coming. in a way it should make things slightly easier hard resetting a hub with less devices.

/goes and digs in duffel bag of backup hubs/

okay… i cant even add a new hub under add device as the 200 device limit pops up. so, is this an account limit.