When I bought the ST hub, I assumed it would easily interface with computer-based HA software. When I started looking around, I discovered this wasn’t the case. I’m on a Mac and would love to run software on the Mac that would allow me to control my ecosystem. Although I’m very techy, I’m not a coder and I’m new to all this, but thus far I haven’t found any Mac-based HA software that will easily interface with ST.
Indigo states that it interfaces easily with the Z-Stick, so I’m thinking of grabbing one of those. Will I be able to use it AND my ST hub? Or is it an either/or proposition?
Already did. HAM Bridge works in the other direction; it allows you to control your Mac via SmartApp, but it will not facilitate control of the ST ecosystem from Mac.
Okay, Nick’s suggestion is indeed helpful. For the first time, I can see my devices in a plain old browser window and click to effect them to take action. It’s a start, it’s great info to have, and I can see where one could customize this approach into almost anything.
But still, what if I want to use existing Mac-based Home Automation software instead? When I’ve envisioned HA, my vision has always been to have my master interface on a computer, not on a phone or tablet. The mobile device interface is of course useful, but in my mind it has always been secondary.
It would be a huge step forward IMHO to simply have the same ST control capability show up in a web browser or stand-alone computer app like we currently have on mobile devices. But I’d also prefer the ability to choose an existing HA software package.
I pretty much gave up on expanding my ST ecosystem, Noty. It’s still controlling a couple switches but I use Indigo software interfacing with the Z-Stick to do almost all my HA. Completely customizable in almost any way you can dream up.
It’s been a while since I came back to the forums, so I’m late replying, but FWIW I have ST working perfectly with my Z-Stick. I simply reset everything and used the Z-Stick and my PC (running InControl HA) as the primary controller, and added ST as a secondary. Everything just kicked in. I like the ST mobile/cloud options and the community support, but I love being able to control everything via PC, and IC provides a really great library to use in C# projects to interface with everything, so I’ve had a lot of fun writing custom control panels (LCARS/Star Trek FTW! lol)
How do the two controllers (zstick and ST) co-exist in one network of device nodes? Which actually controls the devices? I guess I assumed only one controller could control a group of devices…
The incontrolha site also refernces/sells the new nortek quickstick combo USB zwave AND zigbee controller.
Z-wave supports multiple controllers. A primary and one or more secondary controllers. Each controller can issue commands, so if I’m using IC with my Z-stick, it’s issuing them, if I’m using my phone and ST, it’s controlling them. This works exactly as expected with my setup (Z-stick as primary, ST as secondary.)… The only caveat is that secure devices (locks, etc) can only work with the primary controller. This is how I understand it, anyway, I am by no means an expert. Lol.
Once I had my network set up with the Z-stick, I simply joined that network from the hub utilities page on the ST website while the Z-stick was in inclusion mode. Once joined, the ST had all of the devices in the list and I could proceed to configure them in the app (placing them in rooms, setting up routines, etc…)
How did you set this up. I tried adding a V1 ST hub as a secondary controller to my Aeon z-wave stick and all I get is “Join/Leave failed” error from the V1 hub. Nothing appear to be happenong at the stick end.
My z-wave stick is connected to Raspberry PI (or Linux PC) running Home Assistant software but that isnt really relevant. The z-wave stick doesn’t have to be connected to anything. In fact, its impossible to add/delete anything from it when it is plugged in.
If you just use the stick on its own, you can include end devices.
I don’t remember for sure, but I thought that adding a secondary controller required using the controller utilities through the API interface. Maybe I’m mistaken.