Question

Hello All - looking for some direction and knowledge. I have a whole bunch on Wemo plugs and switches turning lights and such on and off. Have nest, ring, echos in almost every room. I just built a home assistant raspberry pi4. Of course I have the ST hub also but haven’t opened it yet. Question is, do I need the smart things hub also? I like that there is a nice app with it. Also what sensors are people recommending, the ST ones or aeotec, something else? I am looking for motion, temp, humidity etc. thanks for all your help!  

Answer 1

With Home Assistant, you don't need the ST hub. However, you're obviously more than welcome to keep using it! There is nothing wrong with that! Home Assistant is a fully functioning hub all on it's own, especially on that Raspberry. The only thing is that in time, as the amount of devices you have grows, you may find that you want to upgrade from the Pi to a laptop or desktop, or server, and run docker on there. Just a bit more oompf. That equates to more stability is all. The question about sensors is going to get you a ton of confusing replies. Everyone has their own preferences and you'll hear all about them here. When I'm trying to narrow down what I like and what I want to use, instead of asking what device type is best, I present the device I'm curious about, like the SmartThings Multi-Sensor and tell the group that I'm really liking these, but am curious if anyone has had any issues with them that's made them go a different direction. The information you get from that will be far less confusing and all over the place. As for the two you mentioned, the ST and the Aeotec, I have no personal experience with them (hint: big red flag) but I hear that they're both really good!  

Answer 2

I don't own a Wemo device. I mostly have Inovelli & a couple Leviton z-wave switches for lights & ceiling fans, a few GE/Jasco z-wave plug in units, Nest Thermostat & the Google Home/assistant ecosystem. Also a handful of ecolink z-wave motion, door/window, and flood/freeze sensors. These are all handled very well with Home Assistant on a Rpi4 with a GoControl HUSBZB-1 z-wave/zigbee USB "hub". I do have 1 ceiling fan/light smart/WiFi RF controller. It's a no name brand but uses the Bond app/API. This I do integrate into Home Assistant with a Smart Things account/cloud but I don't use the ST hub.  

Answer 3

If you built a PI then you will really enjoy tinkering with WebCoRE on SmartThings

Answer 4

So here's a bit of a curve-ball. I'm now really getting into Arduino D1 which has built in WiFi. I have my own server which is connected to Amazon voice services so I can send commands from Alexa which are then picked up by the D1 which then carries stuff out. It has a lot more sensors than most other devices, personally think it beat Pi by having a 1 second bootup time and more reliable too but I still like Pi. The whole mix means that I can get Alexa to fully control far more things such as 'ANY' pc software, moving the mouse, firing stuff off etc. The Arduino also sends notifications to Alexa devices which opens other doors . lots of fun.