Wait for 2.0 or jump in?

[pmusselman (Patrick Musselman)]

@JDRoberts, thank you sir! Neat stuff.

[JDRoberts]

@pstuart

You can have more then one hub for devices. No reason all your devices can’t stay on hub v1 and just move over the critical ones to hub v2 when you buy it.

It is not going to be a requirement (I assume) to move all your devices from one hub to another on day one.

I’m sure you know all this, but for others reading we should also note that SmartThings presently will only allow you to have one SmartThings hub per network. This makes things pretty complicated if you want to run two, since you have to have totally separate rules and schedules. Not impossible, but about the same as running one SmartThings hub and one Staples Connect hub in the same house.

The two hubs can also potentially cause interference for each other.

ST has been talking about ways to eventually meld two hubs into one network, but we’re not there yet and likely won’t be at launch.

(Also, I know you meant this, but just for clarity for others: each device can only have one primary controller. So a sensor owned by hub one becomes invisible to hub two. You can have both hubs in one house, but each owns a separate set of devices. You’d have to remove the sensor from hub one’s control before you join it to hub two.)

[JDRoberts]

@JoshFink

You pair the devices to the hub and then the minimote to the hub and when setting up the minimote it asks you what you want the buttons to do.

That’s The method for using the button controller smartapp to assign functions to the buttons on the outside of the Minimote.

Include is for brand new zwave devices not already known to the ST hub and uses the factory-defined buttons Inside the sliding cover section of the Minimote. See the link above for details.

[pstuart (Patrick Stuart [@pstuart])]

@JDRoberts

I’m sure you know all this, but for others reading we should also note that SmartThings presently will only allow you to have one SmartThings hub per network

Is this true? I’m pretty sure you can have more then one hub on a network. Are you referring to network as TCP/IP or network as in Zigbee / Zwave?

I think we are in the weeds. Yes, a device can only be paired to one hub at a time. Yes, hub to hub communications could be better.

But when it comes to smartapps and locations, the smartapps will be able to subscribe to any device, regardless of which hub it is paired with, if it is in the same location.

I need another v1 hub to test this with, but I’m pretty certain this is how it is designed to work.

[JDRoberts]

That’s how Vera works, but it’s only using one protocol. SmartThings cloud service can’t handle two ST hubs on one ST zwave or zigbee network. This has previously been discussed in the forums, And is confirmed on the official support pages:

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

More discussion here. It boils down to an ST cloud infrastructure restriction currently limiting you to one ST hub per ST “location.” You can define your house as having two different locations, but they won’t be able to share anything (devices or rules).

Multiple (two) hubs on one network?

I’ve seen some threads about multiple hubs on one account, but I’m looking to put two hubs on the same network. One in main house, one in secondary - they share the network together. Is there any issue with this? One hub won’t reach between the houses.

[pstuart (Patrick Stuart [@pstuart])]

Right location is just the “group” in the system.

They can technically be on the same TCP/IP network, just not assigned to the same ST location.

One location equals one zigbee and/or z-wave network equals one hub.

Locations control smartApp installs, so to do the same smartApp across multiple locations requires the smartApp to be installed in both locations.

To control devices across locations requires OAUTH endpoints for each and use those for control, not the standard device discovery.

So it can be done. I’ll have to play around with that if/when I can get my hands on another hub in my home setup.

[Christopher (Chris L)]

The multiple Hub issue was the reason I decided to wait for 2.0 over jumping in now. Knowing that our internet can randomly go out without notice makes the local processing super important to my personal setup.

[JDRoberts]

Yeah, you could likely do some kind of cloud to cloud passing of information. But it’s not two hubs on one network as you can do with some other systems.

They have been discussing possible changes to that, though, but it’s not something planned for day one of the V2 hub. It could really simplify migration if they do make that infrastructure change, though.