Local Processing in Hub V2

You quoted me, but I’m not the one who said the things that are in your post. They are from the official support article on local processing. I was quoting that in my post. :sunglasses:

But, yes, you are correct that none of the button controller apps run locally.

You can use the minimote with the official smart lighting feature, but that’s it.

Thanks @JDRoberts,
Well poo, I’m all about keeping it local… that’s a pretty big downside of the Homeseer switches then.

So I’m a little confused still about the minimote option… I have to get that to have local smart lighting work? Or Smart Lighting itself works (as long as I meet the criteria from that Support article, no sunset time usage, etc).

Just don’t understand why that switch wouldn’t register as a local device as it’s just another Z Wave (plus) switch. Or does it get disqualified simply for the central scene double/triple tap commands? If so, will the single tap which can be configured with the Smart Lighting smartapp run locally at least or does the whole thing get disqualified because it doesn’t show up in the Local Devices list?

  1. an individual Smart lighting automation works locally if all of the device type handlers that are referenced in that automation are also eligible to run locally.

One of those devices could be a minimote using the stock handler. But you don’t have to have a minimote. If you had a SmartLights automation where one of the qualified motion sensors triggers a GE light switch, that would run locally.

  1. with the homeseer switches, you have multiple issues there. But the main thing is that the only device type handlers which can run locally are official ones, and the homeseer switches are still using custom code.

And no way is that “just another Z wave switch.” :wink: A basic generic Z wave switch has on/off/dim. That’s it. The homeseer switches are using central scene commands which are a whole different device class.

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Ahhh k, gotcha thanks. Yeah I hadn’t thought about the fact I am using @Darwin’s custom device handler. Still… I’ll stomp my feet and cross my arms that it should be local. :wink:

I do plan to get a minimote but want to have a justified reason for the expense… I’m sure I’ll find one soon lol.

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I know that this is supposed to be the case - but I have never seen this work. I deliberately made all automations that I could, that fit this criteria use the Smart Lighting app - yet, whenever the internet goes down - it never works.

As far as I can tell I have seen no evidence that local processing occurs at all on the hub.

As stated, it will only work with device handlers that are processed locally as well and I can say with all certainty that it works!

Using smart lighting to program my minimotes to turn cree bulbs with SmartPower Dimming Outlet device handlers which are processed locally, I can unplug my smartthings hub’s ethernet cable and still turn my lights on and off. Automations with my locally processed z wave motion sensors to turn on cree bulbs with SmartPower Dimming Outlet device handlers works with ethernet unplugged as well.

Here is a list of locally process device handlers.

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Then you are very lucky!! I have whole automations that are through z-wave devices only that do not function when the internet goes down

Check the list I posted above. Depending on your device, some of them can use substitute device handlers from the list above which is processed locally.

Yep - but end result… just not good enough is it?

The hub was advertised as having local processing - but in actual fact it’s limited to certain devices, using one app that doesn’t do everything you may need, and doesn’t work for some people anyway.

For heavens sake why can it just not work for anything that is local, smartapp or device handler… and call it a day

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What I suggested in another thread is this…have a general firmware that controls all the hardware on the hub and have the user install a USB jump drive which will download and store an encrypted file which contains all the device handlers and smart apps associated with the users account or with that particular hub on the user’s account. This is kept in sync with the cloud. At boot or if there are any changes, this file is reloaded into the hubs ram allowing for full local processing with a cloud backup.

It sounds simple enough, but I guess in reality it’s not as easily implemented though to my inexperienced brain it should be simpler than the current situation of processing EVERY users EVERY command in the cloud. It’s crazy we don’t have 10 second latency issues!

The Devices have to be local processes as well as any smartApp that controls it.

Right now I believe only 2 smartApp have local processing. Smart Home Monitor and smart Lighting.

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Back in December 2015, they explained that the only way for stuff to run locally was for it to have been pushed out in a firmware update to every single SmartThings customer. And the hub couldn’t handle having the entire library on board. Although my own guess is it also had a lot to do with trying to keep the hub in sync with the cloud when the cloud was not off-line.

So they ended up limiting it to only a few things.

It’s the hybrid architecture that they found so challenging (part in the cloud and part local), mostly, I think, because they started from having an entirely cloud-based system for any custom code.

Yep but it’s not an insurmountable problem.

It is definitely possible for people to get their hub to sync the devices that they would like to run locally only. They just haven’t prioritised this… but they really should!

It’s got to the point form me that my entire house is so reliant on smartthings now that I love it - but it is always in the back of my mind that given an internet / power outage… the whole place goes down. The only reasons I didn’t jump ship to vera plus is that the UI is not as good, the effort of moving 120 devices over and setting up over 100 automations, and learning lua (now that I’ve learnt groovy). However at some point in the near future someone (maybe smartthings) will create a device that ticks all the boxes and will be worth the effort to move to. Smartthings has a good a chance as any of being that provider… but they really need to deliver! - and they can start by delivering on their promise of true local processing, then UDP, then bluetooth.

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The Hub Has USB ports which can be used for storage. Also does this mean they plan to use hardware in v3 which can take the entire library?

The USB ports on the hub have always been inactive. There’s no telling what they will ever be used for. But the original intent for them was probably to add a cellular communication module since they were trying to make this thing into something they could market as a security system.

Yh, but it’s their hardware, they can enable them and allow mass storage if they choose to. I still think downloading all DTH’s and smart apps to a local source which is updated at boot or if any changes are made is a good solution to allow local processing. The smart apps use very little storage so does the DTH’s so I don’t understand why this isn’t doable…

Hardware

What exactly does Hub v2 have under the hood? You’re looking at: 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9, 512MB DDR3 RAM, and 4GB FLASH

That’s the hardware of the hub and it should be able to do what I’m suggesting even without using USB storage. For example, CoRE which is one of the larger smart apps is only 454.82kb when downloaded (core.groovy) so if I even had 100 smart apps on my account that’s less than 5mb. Why isn’t this doable?!

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This is quite likely the case, as @JDRoberts points out. Of course, one could do the same thing with one of the Ethernet hubs/routers that has the “fall-back” capability to use a cellular modem stick.

When you consider the recent lack of attention to SHM, it is understandably lower priority. Consider, too, the lack of progress with the announced ADT support: this simply isn’t the current emphasis of the finite ST engineering staff!

Perhaps we’ll see more in this area once the current re-write (or whatever you wish to call it) is complete and the platform has stabilized…

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My question is somewhat related but probably has nothing to do with local processing as described here.

Can I access the raw ZigBee network directly to send raw commands and whatever I want? Suppose I have access to the LAN that ST is sitting on and I don’t want to go through the cloud. ST does have the proper radio so it could expose a local API for this, strictly meant for developers of course. Or should I use a separate device, like a ZigBee USB stick?

###No.
Not without the SmartThings Cloud involved (at this time).

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They are good for a power source lol