Looking for advice again:) I currently own and am using the latest Smartthings hub for home automation. And its working pretty good. I want to upgrade to the Smartthings Wifi Mesh, here are some questions that i couldn’t quite find an answer for.
Do I need to completely remove my old hub to use the Smartthings Wifi Mesh? Different post and recommendations from Samsung are not completely clear on this.
If i do have to do that, is there a way to transfer my devices? It would seem obvious to me that Samsung would want people to spend money on upgrades and make it simple to do so.
If i can use my existing hub, and then add my Smartthings Wifi Mesh do they both become “sub hubs” of sorts? I have read somewhere that multiple hubs should not be used, so i am confused as to which hub becomes the “main” and which are essentially just zwave and zigbee repeaters.
I have been using the V2 hub (STH-ETH200), for SmartThings, along side the 3 piece V3 WiFi mesh system (ETH-WV520), for WIFI only, for several years now without any problem. When I got the V3, I quickly discovered there was no easy way to move all my devices over from the old hub so I skipped it. What I really needed was the WiFi mesh system for my house and the ST hub was just a bonus anyway. The Mesh system works great by the way, and I have no regrets on the purchase. I still use the Classic App, so maybe when that gets phased out I’ll just start over and load everything into the V3 hub via the new app.
Thanks Mike, well thats good to know that both of these can coexist. In your setup, did you add the hubs to the current system or did you just ignore that part all together and just used the wifi portion of the new hub. Do they show up as extra hubs in the IDE? Or are they literally just repeaters?
I have the V2 hub and the Home Connect mesh wifi. I have both on my app but most of the devices are still on the old hub. There is no easy way to migrate zwave or ZigBee devices.
It’s been a long time, but I think I just set up the WiFi portion. I was rather new to all this at the time and I wasn’t sure how it would affect everything so I left the ST Hub portion alone. They do not show up in IDE and at the top of the IDE page it specifically states “Currently you only have one hub connected. To claim additional hubs use the SmartThings mobile app.” I do not see the V3 hubs in the Classic App, however, if I go to the NEW SmartThings app, on the main menu page, I can select “Home” which shows all my devices on my V2 hub, or I can select “Home Samsung” which shows the V3 WiFi units and detailed info about them. I believe I had to use the NEW app to set up the WiFi to start with. While writing this response, I also noticed on the details page of the WiFi, there is a switch setting to “Allow this hub to instantly connect to SmartThings compatible devices” , but I’m still afraid to turn it on LOL I am only using mine as WiFi repeaters. Although they each have Zwave and Zigbee radios, I believe they operate as repeaters, as do most line powered devices, but not as part of the WiFi mesh system. That is, if they are in range of the WiFi signal, but not a a ZWave or Zigbee signal, they will not extend those signals. Only the main hub will transmit the ZWave or Zigbee signal if set up as your Home Hub. I’ve read that may change sometime in the future, but who knows???
Understood Mike. Thanks for that bit of good information. Almost sounds like in the new app they have something there to allow the devices to be transferred. I hear ya, being afraid to select the switch,if you have a bunch of devices and automations i would be afraid as well. Its a lot of work to transfer manually each device and then set up all the automations again. Sounds like if you flicked that switch they would be added to the IDE as well, tho what benefit I have no idea though.
Given that you have the most recent SmartThings hub, I’m curious why you’d want to add the Samsung Wi-Fi mesh? You might want to consider just adding someone else’s Wi-Fi mesh devices.
There’s no integration between multiple SmartThings hubs, and there’s no migration tools to move all your devices and automations to a new hub.
With the Wi-Fi mesh devices, only one device will function as the SmartThings hub. The others will work as Zigbee and Z-wave repeaters.
I, personally, feel like combining the SmartThings hub with your Wi-Fi is creating a single point of failure for no benefit. Search around this community for issues folks have had with SmartThings hub firmware updates.
Thanks HaID, thats an interesting comment actually. I usually try and strive for same brand for comparability and the additional “repeaters” would benefit me as my home is around 3500 sqft one level. I am in the market for a new wifi system to cover this and it would kill two birds with one stone so to speak with the “repeaters”. I do see your point though.
Yep. I’ve got 3000 sq ft one level, kind of long and skinny house, and have had to add repeaters for the Z-wave mesh, I got the Aoetec repeaters but might swap a couple of them out for Z-wave outlets. Not many Zigbee devices yet but had to add one pocket socket. Anyway. Wandering off topic…
FWIW, I installed the eero pro Wi-Fi mesh. Expensive but one of the few options when I did them. Standard high-end router plus additional AP wasn’t cutting it. I ended up with four eero devices scattered thru the house. Only one located where it can use ethernet back haul. Works a treat!