I have been looking at SmartThings as a solution for some home projects but I have a question I couldn’t seem to answer to my liking by reading the information on the site.
Can I buy a SmartThings hub and run everything through my own computer. I’d like to build an interface and control program in Python to have more control over what I want to do and to integrate with some other things I have flowing to my computer. I’d also like to not go through the cloud and have everything done locally. Is this possible with SmartThings or do I have to use the cloud and the Groovy stuff and have no options for an interface?
The hub is the brains, SmartThings is a hub based solution specifically. You’ll be able to make all sorts of integrations and can even talk to external web services but will need to go to the cloud to do so. The only local functionality is specifically for stock z-wave and zigbee devices using the SmartThings approved DTH using the Smart Lighting smartapp (all devices used in the smartapp need to be local devices in order for the smartapp to run locally).
Don’t go with SmartThings if you want things to run locally.
All device handlers and SmartApps that you create will run in the cloud and Smart Home Monitor and Smart Lighting are the only 2 SmartApps I’m aware of that can run locally.
Oh, that is interesting - I’m about to start doing something along those lines. It’s tempting to see if homeassistant would do the job but my needs are simple enough for a DIY approach.
I can see how smartapps could be used to act as a bridge between ST managed devices and homeassistant though, as that’s pretty much what I want to achieve with my project.
The fine detail is I’m planning to use a Python based ESB as the manager for my automations. It’s probably not the quickest or easiest way to do it, but it’s technology I want to play with anyway. I’m also blogging about it, but I won’t promote it here, it’s linked on my profile
