I’m not sure if this is the right place for this. I am a student at the University Of Michigan. I am currently working on a project to control a device that we are building using an android app and we are thinking about trying to utilize the smart things existing hub. We will build our own android app that will communicate with our own cloud server. We would like to use the hub to receive packets over wifi and transmit packets to our own hardware using some other wireless protocol.
We are wondering if the hub system can do this or if it can only be used with the existing SmartThings app and hardware.
I’m not a programmer, but you should be able to do this using the published API documents.
You wouldn’t necessarily need to use Smartthings Official hardware, but you could use zwave/zigbee relays, or an ST Thingshield to interface with ST app / hub
Edit: The hub doesn’t have wifi, it would be able to send receive info over wifi on the same lan.
Also re-reading
I don’t know if it will interface the way you would like. You would send commands to ST cloud, It would send commands to hardware attached to the hub and you would be able to get information back from the st cloud.
Again i’m no programmer check out the Developer Docs for more info.
I don’t think SmartThings is going to work for you. It connects via ethernet, not Wi-Fi. So its cloud to cloud integrations are all through the Internet. It has limited, it has limited, and to some extent broken, support for LAN communications like TCP or UDP.
The SmartThings hub is a single plastic box that contains a Z wave controller, zigbee coordinator using the home automation profile, and the ethernet connector. There’s a Bluetooth radio, but it’s not turned on yet.
You could use the SmartThings “ThingShield” which is a hardware plug-in for an Arduino to allow Zigbee to Arduino Communication, but again no Wi-Fi and if you’re already using an Arduino you likely don’t need SmartThings for the project you’ve described.
I would look instead at the WeMo Maker device if you want something where everything is prebuilt, or as @jdetmold suggested, particle.io for something more advanced than the WeMo. Or just look at a standard robotics kit with a Wi-Fi module. Or start from a raspberry pi with a Wi-Fi module.
What SmartThings provides is a way to communicate with off-the-shelf zigbee or zwave home automation devices. You can then use the thingshield to extend it for one or two specific applications, and people have done some cool stuff with that, but The real value is in the integration to the off-the-shelf home automation pieces.
Thats not a lot of information as to what your goal is but it may be easier to use one of the http://particle.io products for this. they can communicate with the particle cloud over wifi or cellular, they have a great api for interfacing with the cloud. also they can communicate with your hardware by serial or they have many Digital and analog inputs and outputs.
