I’ve just spent the last hour or so browsing the forum trying to get a feel for V2 from early adopters. What I have not seen is much excitement about how much better it is than V1. Mostly I see some report along the lines of “migration was hard but I knew it would be. Now most everything is running again.”
My V2 is still sitting in the box at home (like a lot of others’ it seems). I’m willing to put in a day or two of frustrating effort to switch things over, but holy cow I’m gonna need a lot more motivation than “I got everything running like it was before.” If this isn’t going to make things a lot better, I’m not really sure what the point is. Most disturbingly, it seems like local processing hasn’t even really made a noticeable difference and isn’t enabled for most apps.
I guess maybe I didn’t know exactly what I expecting, but it definitely wasn’t this.
I don’t think your going to get it cause right now there is not a reason to do so and you will probally lose some functionality during the “migration” (rip out and replace). Only 1 smartapp uses local processing and only for a handful of devices and the bluetooth radio is currently off. If your happy on V1 then my 2 cents would be to stay there until there is a compelling reason to upgrade.
I got mine the other day as well and have been having a similar debate. I knew from the very beginning the uplift wouldn’t have huge benefits immediately. Those benefits were further reduced when it came out just before pre-ordering that only SmartLights and no custom devicetypes would support local processing at launch. Setting aside the anticipated hassle of migrating devices my pro/con list is a follows.
Pro:
Local Processing for SmartLights with standard device types - While a very short list when compared to everything out there that could run locally, this is a pretty nice benefit. One of the more common frustrations with SmartThings for me is the once a week or so where my light doesn’t turn on after motion until 3-4 seconds later…
Z-wave Plus and stronger mesh.
Cons:
Loss of single garage functionality
Loss of legacy dashboard items that most agree are superior to current (lack thereof?) options
More difficult Labs integration. *Think I can get support to move over any labs SmartApps but believe I’d have to ask
Issues adding additional users *I doubt this would affect my existing sub-users but not sure
I think I’ll probably wait a bit or longer as well and that’s probably just fine with SmartThings as I’m sure their support resources don’t mind one fewer person logging migration help requests right now.
I do not expect or want excitement in my home automation. I want it boring.
Mine’s in the box too - hoping I can wait until migration tool rolls out. Maybe I’ll take it out to roast marshmallows
Y’all confusing me by convolving hub v2.and app v2 and revised device types.
app v2 not happy.
Does the Garage Door revised function affect Linear GD00Z-1 ? But seems not directly related to hub v2 or app v2. I’ve got it sitting new in box until I’m ready to be irritated by it.
Maybe I’m the exception, but I’m excited. Everything is faster, my revamp made things work better (but that’s as much a function of simply redesigning with the experience I have now). I love Rooms, and I think under the hood the design is heading the right direction without throwing out what was good. Yes, they threw out a couple of things people miss with promises to add back, but they are small in my use cases, in fact I don’t really notice them missing (except dashboard).
I would definitely wait if you are not interested in testing/fixing and/or lack patience while SmartThings dig themselves out of having a whole bunch of new customers at once.
For me, it’s a hobby, so I enjoy every improvement. I design everything with no critical failure points. No sirens, no real security situations, no locks (yet, and even if I did there will be backups). Almost all my home automation features are convenience features with lights, thermostats, and notifications. By nature I am a backup oriented person.
I’ve been without any functioning hub for a week now.
We call it “pioneer home” - nothing automatic happens. We have to check to make sure the doors are locked at night. We have to remember to turn on/off the heat. Lights neither turn on, or off by themselves. We walk into dark rooms. We find rooms with lights on, empty. Alexia is useless.
Replacement V2 hub arrives today. We will call this day from now and forever more “the day of great rejoicing.”
So sure, there are issues with V2, stability, etc. No matter what, it’s better than the before times. I’m very excited to be returning to the 21st century.
So I have been reading the hate posts about people not getting in on the “Good Deal” for existing V1 owners. From what I hear, there weren’t enough in stock for everyone who wanted one (or something like that). Here’s a shout out to anyone who has a v2 deal but isn’t going to use it. Post on the forums that you want to sell your deal for the exact price you bought it and I am sure someone else will be willing to buy it. From day 1 smartThings was clear that migration wouldn’t be easy. The only thing I don’t think they were clear on was how limited local jobs would be. I am sorry if this post seems directed towards the OP, it’s not meant to be. I am just frustrated with all of the posts that people have these V2 hubs and they don’t want to use them.
As far as my experiences with the V2 hub goes, I am very happy. I have posted in other topics that my hue bulbs are WAY more reliable, my timed events (Such as lights turn off after x minutes) are WAY more reliable, and my presence events have been Nearly Flawless. I don’t know if it’s V2 hub or changes they made to the back end, but my love for smartThings has been renewed. I had minor frustration as I migrated because I had to learn a new application also, but that was more user error than anything. When I had a problem, support usually got back to me with 24 - 48 hours. Considering this was a major release, that was an acceptable turn around time for me.
Exactly. Anyone feel free to DM me if you want to sell your V1 deal. I’ll buy it IMMEDIATELY. I have a hankering for the sensors. I do call the customer loyalty offer a big mistake on SmartThings part, but only because I was a victim of it. I find it hard to complain about missing an offer, even if mishandled. I wasn’t there to score one, case closed. I got the second deal.
I’m excited! I thought migration was easy (71 things) and everything has been working well, other than one weird issue with the app v2 (not hub v2) Smart Home Monitor switching to away mode when it shouldn’t.
I’m sure you’ll see more people complaining than praising it, because that’s just what people do. If everything is fine and I don’t have any problems, I’m less likely to talk about it. If something goes wrong or is difficult, I’m going to complain or ask for help.
It’s the same reason that a lot of times you need to bug people to give reviews (Amazon, Yelp, App Store), except for the bad reviews, they’ll come on their own.
No sorry if I gave the impression I was using it, that pro was just from positive feedback I’ve been reading from others. I haven’t setup v2 yet and haven’t even setup SmartLights in my v1 as I saw no need to bother until I made the jump to v2.
Thanks for the positive reviews to those of you who took a minute to post. That’s what I’ve been looking for. My main annoyance with V1 is the random delays I’ll get on my lights coming on. Sometimes I’ll walk into a room with a motion sensor, and there’s like a 3-5 second delay until the light turns on. Same issue with one of my lights that’s triggered on a contact sensor. Overall just not very reliable. If my main use case is lights and sensors, it sounds like maybe that will be improved with V2. Just need to schedule a day to do it.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think many people got the original sweet V1 customer deal. I missed out on that one but did get the modified deal which included a free smart outlet, so it’s definitely better than nothing.
Sorry to spoil the V2 haters parade, but I got my V2 hub and it worked right away.
The exclusion kind off sucks for my Mostly Z-wave house, but I got all of my 30+ devices done and have not looked back on V1.
Will give that one as a gift to my Dad who is handicapped and can use the monitoring.
As for the garage relay issue. Oh Well! Will not cry over spilled milk. I contacted ST support and the told me to create a new room named: “Garage”. -> add you relay to it and the SmartThings Multi which is on the Garage door to this room. -> And to set the ST Multi as the primary device in the room to see the door status. Problem solved for me.
And as for the Motion Stop lights off issue. I Turned Off the Lights off on motion stop and have a Minimote setup at desired locations for light control.
The only problem left for me is to wait for the SmartTile.click to get the upgrade and be able to have multiple dashboards installed in my house.
Do not get me wrong V2 is a great platform BUT the lack of allow multiple users on it is crippling it. This needs the proper focus and from where I am sitting i don’t see it.
As I just said, there is a solution from the community. And it is called the SmartTile.Click
Check it out. As soon as the new version will come out, you will be able to create dashboards for each person in your family to have on their phone or tablet. Giving them access only to the devices you want them to control.
Not the dashboard so much as the presence indication. i really need to know who and when people are present in the houose in order for the automation to actually function.
There are 2 possible solutions from ST currently out:
ST Presence sensor.
ST can add their cellphones as Presence sensors.
Using one of these options, you can create rules and routines for your home automation. The biggest problem with cellphones, is their GPS spacial drifting. To fix that, keep an eye on the map to see the furthest point to which it drifts from your house and increase the Geo-location fencing to compensate. As for the ST Presence sensors…You may need to look on the forums. I just walked through a thread where the hot wired the power to use a dc/ac power adapter so it always stays on.
