Despite the fact that I can’t understand why SmartThings is wanting people to have to dig for information on the new v2 hub, I have in fact spent a lot more time than I wanted searching the forums, blogs, site and Google to try to answer my question. In reading the scant bit of information on the v2 Hub purchase page, I only read zigbee, z-wave, and WiFi support - no bluetooth. Several earlier posts and announcements that I read said v2 would support bluetooth directly with a built-in radio. Is this the case or was it left out? Or is it BT capable but won’t be activated till later on? Any info would be greatly appreciated! Thanks so much.
According to staff comments in the forum, there will be a Bluetooth radio in the V2 hub, but it will not be turned on at the time of launch, and there is no specific timeline for when it will be turned on.
@april please combine this with the existing active V2 hub topic, that’s where the specification discussions are taking place.
Bluetooth will definitely open many interesting new features via new devices. This will most likely incorporate beacon technology which would eliminate the need for motion sensors. I have a couple of ideas that will be interesting to see come to light and I know I’m not alone.
I sure hope ST will enable BLE sooner rather than later and publish the API. There’re tons of DIY integrations I can think of that are easier to do with BLE than with Zigbee or HTTP.
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tgauchat
(ActionTiles.com co-founder Terry @ActionTiles; GitHub: @cosmicpuppy)
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What makes you think they want you to “dig for more information”?
SmartThings strategy could certainly be: the less customers know, the better. To the non-hacker /developer consumer system is supposed to be “magic”, and publishing long lists of technical features can make the product seem overly technical and complicated. It can also set expectations inaccurately (e.g., it is not simple to explain why the Bluetooth Smart / BLE is not enabled… Rather, SmartThings will just slowly reveal new devices that are compatible and many of those will just happen to be Bluetooth Smart devices. – but not Bluetooth headsets and speakers probably, or perhaps eventually; you see how things get complicated really quickly?).
We sometimes forget that the Developer Community site has an entirely different perspective than the vast majority of SmartThings consumers. We’re perhaps 1% or 2% of Customers.
A number of community members, including me, already use ibeacons at home. But they’re not a substitute for motion sensors. They can work well with motion sensors, and they can solve some use cases that motion sensors don’t.
But then motion sensors can solve some use cases that iBeacons don’t. For example, we have a guestroom that doesn’t get used very much. But we do store some stuff in there. I have a motion sensor set up so that if that door is opened while the mode is night, the light comes on, then goes off again after 15 minutes of inactivity. This works very well for the situation where someone is just going in there to get a roll of paper towels or an extra blanket or one of the other things we store in there. It also means I don’t have to remind people to turn the light off again. On the other hand, if we actually have a guest staying in that room they use a different set of light controls.
The biggest advantage of this relative to ibeacons is that it doesn’t matter who opens the door, the light will come on. They don’t have to been preapproved, they don’t have to be carrying a smart phone. It’s like a refrigerator light. No matter who opens the door the light will come on. For this particular use case that makes the most sense.
If you’d like to read more about how people are using ibeacons now with the V1 hub, See:
This post, #16 by Ben, Founder and VP Community at SmartThings who answered the perfectly reasonable question with this answer and a link to a 5 month old blog post. That’s what made me think he wanted people to “dig”. Seems pretty clear in his communication. Others clearly thought so too and some people were somewhat less than impressed, as noted by a few comments later on. I have no idea what he was thinking other than he wanted people looking in multiple threads in the forums.
What I was thinking is that we are not allowed to discuss details yet due to partner agreements, PR firms, and the like. We’ve been telling people to stay tuned this week for more details.
Thank you! Finally a completely straight answer that makes total sense. I appreciate your candor and now I can understand what was going on in that whole thread. I thought it was strange that you’d want people to have to work for more info or some strange community building exercise. I did put in my time doing a lot of searching. Honestly, your answer here made a huge difference for me. I’m not as well as I’ve been and I’ve been needing reliable (and not incredibly challenging) home automation for cameras, accessibility, etc and I just didn’t have any more energy. I’ve been looking forward to this launch since it was just a rumor. So happy it’s finally here. I’ll be on the lookout for that info this week. Thanks again, @Ben…I really mean that.
It has been said over and over again on the forum, to the extent that you wouldn’t even have to dig to see that. It is glaringly obvious to everyone else that official details haven’t been and won’t be released yet and that they’ll most likely be released/officially announced at IFA Berlin.
The pre-sales were just that, it wasn’t an official release of the product with all the information.
I am not talking about the x’s in XAF. Would love to get their perspective.