Multiple hubs at single location functional (V2)

Today I received a second hub to expand coverage on my property. I have multiple outbuildings that I wish to reach with Z-wave, and I am simply beyond the 4-hop limit. My furthest building is 1800’ feet from the main building. Zigbee could get me there I suppose, but it is not what I want.

I finally accepted that I would have to add more locations to add these buildings and ordered the next hub. I connected to the network, and selected ‘Add Location’ in the app. My geofenced location overlapped with my original location. I set up a new picture, description, etc. To my horror, the app deleted my first location. I sent a panicked email to support asking for them to please correct, but not to delete any of my 60+ devices activated so far.

Well, I went into IDE and saw that this new location listed two hubs, each using the same new name. I was concerned all was already lost. But all of my devices were showing up under this ‘new’ location. And guess what… they all worked. Whew.

Next I spent some time in the IDE trying to understand the ‘mess’ created. I think IDE is having trouble today, because after every submission it was making me re-enter my password. I also received a ton of server errors which I at first thought were due to my double trouble. I ignored the errors and retried and retried. Eventually I renamed both hubs to proper location descriptions. I saw that all of my original devices were happily connected to hub 1.

Time to try hub 2. New device paired right up. Rushed back to IDE and - wow - there it is! One new device attached to hub 2, and all my other devices attached to hub 1. I paired 4 more devices, sent a message to support saying to please cancel my ticket. If this is a mistake, I wish to KEEP this mistake. I need to purchase 5-6 total hubs to cover all of my buildings. I sure hope this is an upcoming feature! You can’t do this without IDE, but with it – wow! This opens up a whole new world to what I was trying to accomplish here. If I can do this with multiple hubs at one location I am going to be super happy!

Anyone else have this experience? Anyone want to try if not?

I’ll update on what CS says. It is only to their benefit to support this. I’ll happily spend $100 to bridge physical gaps (and this money goes to them) vs. degrading the network and trying to just-barely-make-it with 4 hops (and money spent on devices that does NOT go to ST).

I hope this is good news?

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FYI, I was operating under the assumptions of this FAQ from ST:

https://support.smartthings.com/hc/en-us/articles/203064530-Can-I-use-two-Hubs-in-one-Location-

Can I use two Hubs in one Location?

At this time, we do not support having multiple Hubs in one Location. Users are unable to control the same devices using multiple Hubs (devices can only be paired to one controller at a time).
You can control multiple Hubs from one account, provided each Hub has its own Location.

To add a new Location and Hub to your account:
Tap the menu
Tap My Locations
Tap the menu again
Tap Add Location
Select your region
Configure your Location’s name, photo, and physical location
Tap Next

Next, follow the in-app instructions to connect your Hub, which are reproduced here:
Connect the Hub using the included power and network cables
Tap Next
Enter the 6-character Welcome Code for your Hub
Tap Next
Wait while the Hub downloads any available firmware upgrades. Do not unplug the Hub during the setup process. The app will confirm when the Hub is ready (LED solid green) and it is OK to proceed
Tap Next

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George, I’m very interested in your mistake. I just received a second hub today with the hopes of putting it in my second garage and adding it to my existing location. I had read a previous post in another thread by someone who claimed they were able to do this in the IDE. Obviously ST claims not to support this. When you added your new/second location, did you happen to give it the same name as the original?

Dear George,
Very interesting poste, I have exactly the same issue.
Does your dual hub in the same location still work as expected today?
I’ll be glad to make the same “mistake”.

I have such troubles with all of smartthings that I have given up for at
least a year. Many things are broken and I just don’t have the time to
find the issues and repair. My intention is to unpair all controllers and
set them up separately. I hoped with passing time they would fix the
issues and it would be operational when I work on it again.

http://www.lasershows.net George Dodworth
Lightwave International
+1 (412) 965-2737

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You can set up multiple hubs but you need to start from scratch with a new location with no hubs created from the WEB interface. Then you need to log in from multiple IOS and/or Android devices and use each one to add a new hub at the same time. Make sure you start the process on all devices at the same time so each device adds a hub first.
Once added it all works seamlessly.

I saw the comment about not being able to control a device from multiple hubs but this is a non issue. The reason you want multiple hubs is because you cannot span the whole location with one mesh so one device, one hub is fine. Putting all devices n one location is all you need. You don’t care which hub it is you are only looking at the device.

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