I’ve been out of the loop here for some time, satisfied with my setup and pretty satisfied with ST for the past couple of years. At home I have a hub V2, Fibaro dimmer II throughout the house, Ring, a mix of ST and Fibaro motion sensors, Sensative contact strips, Evohome, Yale Connexis, Hue, Fibaro RGBW LED, and some other things.
Now, I have a holiday home which is being renovated as I type. I want to do the same there as it’s some distance away but I’m aware things have moved on. I’m sold on the following and they will be at the new place:
Evohome (although I’m not sure on the caveats of running two of these)
Yale Connexis
Ring Pro
Fibaro Dimmer II (backboxes are being deepened)
Sensative strips
I’m considering going ST for motion sensors, as they seem a bit more reliable than Fibaro and can go local if needed.
I’m tempted to just get another V2 hub, as there are some great starter kit deals out there. What does the V3 have that I might use in addition?
The only real upsell of the v3 is WiFi capability. There’s no battery backup, Bluetooth still isn’t enabled, and it has a smaller cpu and less ram. Unless you need WiFi, stick with the v2. That’s just my opinion, of course. A great discussion thread about the differences can be found here
Remember that the SmartThings motion sensors are zigbee and you don’t have any zigbee repeaters on your list as yet. Your Fibaro micros should be good repeaters for your zwave sensors.
(Zwave repeats only for zwave, zigbee repeats only for zigbee.)
So if you go for zigbee sensors, you’re likely to need additional zigbee repeaters, increasing the overall cost.
The Ikea Tradfri plug in pocketsockets are probably the least expensive reliable zigbee repeaters you can add, around £10 each when purchased directly from Ikea, but it’s still a cost.
A good point, although the property isn’t massive and the hub will be fairly central. I’ll be using S2 on the Dimmer 2s for turning some smart bulbs in lamps on/off.
Hue are Zigbee I believe…? Although I know Ikea also do their own range of bulbs. Would these be good for repeaters?
There’s also the pocket socket I’ll be getting with the ST starter pack to consider! (I’ll be getting that)
I’ll also be using the new app exclusively for this setup.
Hue bulbs connected to a hue bridge form their own mini network and don’t repeat for your other devices. Hue bulbs connected directly to a ST hub are unreliable repeaters And can make things worse, which is why both companies say always use the bridge.
Ikea bulbs, though, are excellent zigbee repeaters. .
Thanks @JDRoberts, an excellent and reliable source of information as always!
Such a shame that the wireless controllers don’t work with ST. I know there are ways, and some excellent off brand z-wave paddle switches to consider (I have one of these at home), but I think the Hue switches are among the best and most intuitive for local control (i.e. bedside), and as much as a part of me hates hue stuff for being so pricey and needing its own hub among other things, I think I may well end up getting hue. I have hue for the kids’ lights on their bunks. It ticks a lot of boxes… intuitive, dims down to a very low level, and can be controlled by ST when it needs to be. The bulbs are also cool to the touch, ideal for that purpose. Just add a cheap clip-on bulb holder.
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