The End of Groovy Has Arrived

If you are using someone’s custom Edge driver and they become disgruntled and decide to delete their channel/driver what what happens to everyone’s hub that is registered to that channel?

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This thought had not occured to me, however it is a very good question.

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As long as you don’t remove the driver from your hub it will continue to work.
The problem would be if I, as the owner of the channel, published an update that made the driver unusable. That would be a problem due to automatic updates.
The user should be able to disable automatic driver updates.

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I was afraid to ask this question, maybe because I already knew thew answer. I honestly assumed that the worst case would be a paid subscription for access, which would be fair in my opinion.

This would offer peace of mind.

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Average End User here.

I have zero idea what’s going on here; and even less understanding if this is even my problem to begin with. This post alludes that I should be angry Homebridge is going to quit working?

What do I do; I legit don’t understand. How is this going to be communicated to mass of dummies like me?

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From what I gather, the full library of production Edge drivers, migrations and apps aren’t available to the general everyday user until the old environment is also disabled on Sept 30? Why the same day? Why can’t the new drivers and tools be completed first (to a reasonable extent) while the normal users are given the opportunity to test their migrations. It’s like asking a programmer to write code without a set of tools to test against. For a person who depends on their home automation, it’s distressing and infuriating.

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They changed the dates. October 15th is when they start shutting down certain parts of the old architecture. The first post in this thread has more details.

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Thats just weird… for no real reason i wanted to re read the original post and noticed the same thing …

I also want to know how migration works and why ST have not provided a tool for users to move devices to edge themselves, currently if a user wants to migrate devices they loose automations

Alexa on the other hand does not loose the automation if a device becomes disconnected, it simply disables the automation and indicates a trigger device needs connecting… very elegant

That’s good news, but it also means that as a user, unless the code itself has been shared, you have no way of having it tweaked or improved (say if a bug is discovered down the line). It also means that if you have to reset the hub ever for any reason (not that this has ever happened to me in the last 18 months or so), you would essentially have lost those drivers. Or at least this is my understanding.

I know - this sounds daunting and overwhelming, to say the least, and ST seems to have done a poor job of communicating it, especially to users who do not have a presence in the community here (a few million?).

I suggest you read through this thread, log as it may be, skipping those posts that are of absolutely no interest, follow the posted links (at least the official ones) and try to form an understanding, then ask any specifics you do not understand here and hopefully you will find some assistance.

This subject has been weighing on me…

Hub updates could potentially break custom Edge drivers, and anyone relying on them would be screwed, if the custom developer or their channel became inactive etc.

Also, I’m wondering, If a user were to unsubscribe from a channel, does that delete the drivers from the hub associated to that channel. If not, then that would effectively prevent driver updates, I suppose.

I’m imagining a best scenario where an Edge developer, if not freely, would allow users to purchase drivers to host on their own channel, even though if I my understanding is correct, the Lua driver code can still be encrypted. That is good thing for the developer, at least.

Paying for custom driver libraries, individual drivers, updates, or the further customization of them, seems like a good place to land on this.

Open source versions would go a long way for peace of mind, though.

Anyway, just some thoughts…

If it had been September 30th, I would have felt better. Just so happens I will be away from home for an extended period come October 15,

So, one, I need a cloud based WiFi switch to reboot ST hub if necessary. Also, a redundant cloud option for my automated cat door.

Good to know, though.

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Existing z-wave associations won’t be impacted by the changes correct?

I used the Inovelli association tool app (below), which will go away. So I was wondering if that would impact the associations.

I like Meross smart plugs for use cases like this. They have excellent safety certifications, are very inexpensive, work well with SmartThings (cloud to cloud at present), HomeKit (local), IFTTT, and the voice assistants. Their own app is basic, but ok. So you can do a reboot from anywhere with their own app or HomeKit, but also if desired add it to ST (in this use case, probably just for monitoring).

They run a lot of sales for an extra 5 or 10% off, so check the page for coupons/vouchers.

US

https://www.amazon.com/Reliable-Support-HomeKit-Assistant-SmartThings/dp/B087CR6S12/

UK:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Compatible-HomeKit-Meross-Wireless-Control/dp/B087RCBN56/

Also note that since this is a cloud to cloud integration, it’s already using the new architecture and no Edge Driver is required.

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Another important consideration is how the plug behaves after a power outage. You want your ST hub to power back on when power is restored, so that means either defaulting to on or last state. I’m about to swap out my cheap Amazon plug (defaults to off) for one of these Meross plugs as @Paul_Oliver tested and confirmed that Meross restores its last state.

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I’m kind of waiting to see what’s gonna happen with @RBoy apps and DTH’s. I rely on the lock user management app at my house.

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Ditto, same here. Its my very last smartapp and dth for my keypad.

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I’m also doing this as well, but some wifi power outlets I own are not reliable since they occasionally just turned themselves Off for no reason at all. Like my TP-Link power strip that does this and it’s connected to a conditioned UPS so it’s not because of any power fluctuations.

So since I have two SmartThings Hubs, I use a SmartThings smart power outlet on each Hub that’s connected to the other SmartThings Hub. That way the smart power outlet and Automations to control the other Hub’s power runs local.

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Yeah, I have to do some testing on my present WiFi plug/switches (Broadlink, i think)… I’ve used one before, configured to a backup cellular router to reset another router, which needed occasional rebooting, As mentioned above, the power state restore is an important consideration. I don’t think I tested that.

UPS options, are something I’ve been contemplating too.

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