The heavy reliance on the cloud is the biggest issue for me. I’m looking elsewhere now for a hybrid setup including ST & HomeSeer (at this point, front runner). HomeSeer doesn’t support Zigbee, but lucky for me my only Zigbee devices are ones that don’t require real time changes (flood sensors, open/close sensors with 2+ min delay before notification, humidity sensors that turn on fans). HomeSeer is the only thing I’ve found that does local processing of hue (not even Vera Plus is local?!), so it’s my front runner. When i press a button on my minimote, i want my lights to change within 200ms.
Vera Plus hue control is local. What gave you the idea it wasn’t? It’s upnp based, local ip to hub. Will work without an internet connection.
3 Likes
The big “cloud to cloud” icon on the integration page 
http://getvera.com/portfolio-posts/philips-hue-bridge/ Is that not the case for plus?
That is a misnomer… the Hue Bridge API is local only (which is why things that access it need to be paired).
I’ve reviewed the actual luap code. It is completely local.
Ok, so I’m almost positive all of my devices I currently use will work on Vera plus. My hue bridge and bulbs will work as well, all local.
I don’t think my thermostats will, but that is ok. I can keep my ST hub just for those.
Alexa integration is coming… but I lose askAlexa.
The UI sucks, but once it is all set up everything can be pretty much left alone, right?
So, the only other hurdle is this… Are there any plug ins that will give me something even close to what I can do with either rule machine or CoRE?
Yeah, smartthings isn’t local for Hue, so who’s to say others wouldn’t do the same! I’ll check out vera plus more now if it does local for hue as well!
1 Like
Is there a way to know what is running local?
Actually, it is. SmartThings ‘Hue Connect’ pairs with the Hue bridge and sends commands to it via the LAN. This is the ONLY way the HUE API is accessible. But because almost all SmartThings device types and SmartApps live in the cloud, the commands originate from there. Vera does not have this shortcoming.
1 Like
I’ve been thinking about my climate control (thermostats and vents). If I keep ST, then I end up with potentially 3 zigbee networks, right (hue, vera, st) and 2 zwave (st and vera). I would still have my security network, but that’s on 433mghz and then Arlo hub, 2 Harmony hubs, Blink, Nestcam, microwave, a bunch of cell phones …I am really asking for interference, don’t I?
That… But most likely a brain tumor
I wouldn’t consider it local if it requires the cloud to work. Local means when my internet goes out, my lights still work. I know hue is LAN API based. Like you said the device for hue isn’t local. SmartLighting is local, but never runs local because nothing else is local.
Well… I was under the impression that the context you were concerned with was that of the Vera, in which case Hues will run local.
2 Likes
correct sir! excited to learn more about other options for hybrid setups
So what am I missing with this Hue??? I have an Aeon Labs USB Z-wave stick on to which I added 5 sensors. They will turn on either Hue LED, Wemo switch/socket and/or a z-wave outlet included on the ST hub. When one of these sensors is “tripped”, Hue/Wemo devices are turned on via Home Assistance software running on a Raspberry PI 3… Wemo reponds immediately. The Hue bulbs are always the last to come on. Even the z-wave outlet, which is turned on via Home Assistant->EventGhost->ST Smartapp almost always beats the hue. Is there something screwy with my Hue? I used to control them entirely via ST but because the response seemed so slow I control them locally via Home Assistance. The effort was not worth it.
1 Like
I have way more mesh zigbee networks… only problem I have is ST, but that has nothing to do with zigbee, but the cloud first / only infrastructure.
1 Like
Hopefully adding something useful …
If you can tolerate it, ST has a device interface to MQTT, I think Vera supports it also I no longer have Vera up). You still have the cloud issue but I think it takes care of getting the ST devices into anything else.