Decided on SmartThings...help with devices!

Hey JD, do you happen to know what the new ones will have vs the current model? What about them makes them worth waiting for?

Zwave plus. :sunglasses:

That means a longer range and better pairing in place, both of which are useful for light switches.

ah okā€¦iā€™m assuming thatā€™s useful for the entire zwave network too if you are going to have devices all over the place. Are there any current models that use z-wave plus currently or is it a waiting game?

There are a few. The best reviewed so far have been the homeseer switches that have a double and triple tap. Quite a few community members using those. They do require a custom device type handler, though.

The GE zwave plus models are just starting to come on the market.

The zooz models have been out for a couple of months, but early reviews of those have not been good.

cool! Iā€™m putting a xmas list together for the wifeā€¦but i think iā€™ll wait on switches since i donā€™t have an immediate need for them. Iā€™d rather wait and get better ones. Iā€™ll start focusing on some other stuff (multi sensors / door&window sensors / ecobee3 / water sensors / water valve open/close) for the xmas list :slight_smile:

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Does anyone have any recommendations for garage door openers? I heard a lot about how good the chamberlain stuff is, but figured Iā€™d ask here. Is it best to just go with what they say is supported (Linear GoControl Garage Door Opener)?

After some research I canā€™t seem to find any z-wave plus in-wall outletsā€¦do these exist?

Coming in mid 2017, probably.

Thanks, again JD!

If you need something right away, you could use an in wall micro with the receptacle. Fibaro and Aeotec both both have Z wave plus micro models available now.

Interestingā€¦like this?

https://smile.amazon.com/Fibaro-Double-Switch-Z-Wave-Smart/dp/B01LZPD441/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1481301277&sr=8-3&keywords=fibaro+outlet

Yes, exactly. For an outlet, you would want one which is just an on/off, not a dimmer. The micro goes inside the wall and is wired to the existing receptacle to give you networked control of the outlet.

Also check the specifications, some of the micros can handle small appliance type loads, like for a blender, and some canā€™t. Quite a few people will use only the higher load ones for a receptacle and reserve the others for light switches.

Cool! Iā€™m not sure if iā€™m buying or building my new house yetā€¦so i guess iā€™ll wait before i do anything. Nice to know that this can be done though.

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Hey JD,

I have another random question. After reading through some of the homeseer switch threads it seems like there are certain devices that support local communication and certain devices that do not based on the device handler? Is the ā€œworks with smartthingsā€ page the official list of devices that are support + will run local? Is there a officially supported device handler page? When purchasing product Iā€™d prefer if there is as little ā€˜lagā€™ as possibleā€¦so I would like to try to purchase devices that will run locally if at all possible.

Not even all the devices on the official ā€œworks with SmartThingsā€ list are eligible to run locally.

What matters is the device type handler being used. Many devices can use more than one device type handler so if running local matters to you, you have to make sure that:

A) The device can use one of the device type handlers which can run locally

B) you have assigned that specific device type handler to that device

C) The action that you want the device to perform can be done solely with the official smartlighting feature (currently no other code is eligible to run locally, whether it is available from the marketplace section of the mobile app or not. Routines do not run locally, core does not run locally, ā€œnotify me whenā€ does not run locallyā€“only smartlighting is eligible to run locally and a few bits from smart home monitor.)

https://support.smartthings.com/hc/en-us/articles/205380404-Smart-Lights

D) The smart home lighting automation that you want to have run locally includes only device type handlers from A) above. As soon as you add even one device which is not eligible to buy locally, the entire automation is disqualified.

So the homeseer switches will not be able to run locally. They use central scene commands, and there are no device type handlers for central scene commands which are eligible to run locally at this time . :disappointed_relieved:

You can find out more about local processing in the following thread:

And having said all of thatā€¦ From time to time, some community members have reported that locally operating functions have run more slowly than the exact same function running in the cloud.

There can be two reasons for this. One is a bug in the local software ( this happened to me once). The other is that the hub just doesnā€™t have much processing power. If it gets busy, it can actually take longer to process an automation then the cloud server would.

I believe @SBDOBRESCU knows more about this.

No, it is not. And that makes it harder to know which devices can run locally. Typically the zwave switch, the zwave dimmer and all SmartSense handlers run locally. If you can make a device use one of these, without modifications, then most likely your device will run locally. If all you need is to change a few settings, then you can use a custom handler and then swith to a local oneā€¦

Interestingā€¦so no guarantees either way :slight_smile: Reading through the below thread was making me slightly nervous about the homeseer switches. Is 2-3 second delay a typical situation at this time in home automation? I could see ~1 second or so, but 2-3 seems like a lot. Do you have experiences like being talked about in the thread?

Most people seem to be satisfied with their homeseer switches. That doesnā€™t mean a couple of people didnā€™t have a bad experience, but that tends to be true with any electrical device.

As far as expected performance, Lutron aims for time from switch to light of 300 ms, but theyā€™re an engineering company entirely dedicated to network lighting, and most other companies donā€™t come that close.

In general 500 ms would be considered very good and anything up to about 2 Seconds would be considered OK. Above two seconds should probably start tuning the network one way or another.

With SmartThings, thereā€™s the additional factor of the cloud and one of the issues with that is that lag can be variable, so itā€™s really good on one day and then bad the next day and then good again.

If super fast responsiveness top of your priority list, youā€™re not likely to go with a cloud-based system like SmartThings.

So I would think for most SmartThings customers time to on of 1 to 1 1/2 seconds is probably pretty normal. Of course we would like to get it under one second, but itā€™s not always possible once the cloud is in the picture.

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