I am guessing the Aeotec hub will be priced at ~$120 USD, and will not see heavy discounts. SmartThings sold the hardware as a means of getting user data…that was and still is their main product. Aeotec, on the other hand, does not get access to user data, and thus needs to make a profit on every piece of hardware that they sell. Thus, I believe they will keep the prices much closer to full retail, as they have always done with their own hardware.
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I ended up moving all my automations to Node Red based on the statement Smart Lighting was going away at some point and webcore having an uncertain future. I tested some devices by moving them locally to zigbee2mqtt and zwavejs2mqtt off of Smartthings using USB sticks I already had. After comparing the two ways myself (local connection vs cloud Smartthings connection) I was shocked at how much noticeably faster it was to use the USB sticks. I have to admit now you were right @ogiewon , it really doesn’t make sense to run automations locally with devices running through the Smartthings cloud versus a local zigbee/zstick. It might have in the past but with the nice UI interface for zwave control in zwavejs2mqtt, it doesn’t anymore. It was a pain to setup, but once I added the zwave devices to zwavejs they just worked. Parameters and associations were just instantly recognized automatically with no complex Groovy custom device handler necessary. If you’re going to go through the trouble to setup a local server you might as well just move everything over locally, which is what I ended up doing.
If Smartthings solution to ending Groovy smartapps is “host the code yourself”, I’m afraid that will leave them with a lot of people running to the alternatives. A hybrid option is both complicated to setup and not as fast. I do think Smartthings is still much easier to use and has a place, especially for someone starting out and not really needing custom code. But if you want to do a lot more, and have the time to invest, there are definitely better alternatives.
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Now that you have that setup, i’d be curious to see z-wave/zigbee NodeRed local vs Smart Things Automation local (once its out of beta).
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May sound like a daft question, but do you need to be enrolled in Beta firmwares to get local automations?
I believe the local stuff started appearing in 35.x, so my hub shows up at 36.x but any automation I create in the new app with all local devices i.e. local button and local outlet I don’t get the ‘L’ local indicator on the automation
yes you do, but it isn’t directly tied to the firmware. it’s apparently enabled by a setting in the SmartThings cloud
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