Other hub integration?

[Anth 11]

Like a number of people - I am thinking of leaving the Fibaro platform given the lack of integration with so may devices like zigbee. While the UI for HC3 is somewhat simpler than that of something like HA - the practicality of HA is really hard to ignore.

I was wondering therefore whether anyone here has been able to successfully integrate a remote zigbee hub with the HC3 and whether there are any specific limitations?

I would also love to hear from Fibaro on when they expect to fully comply with Zigbee 3.0 rather than the haphazard beta release that has not really been improved upon since its introduction.

 

Thanks.

[jgab 2,647]

2 hours ago, Anth said:

Like a number of people - I am thinking of leaving the Fibaro platform given the lack of integration with so may devices like zigbee. While the UI for HC3 is somewhat simpler than that of something like HA - the practicality of HA is really hard to ignore.

I was wondering therefore whether anyone here has been able to successfully integrate a remote zigbee hub with the HC3 and whether there are any specific limitations?

I would also love to hear from Fibaro on when they expect to fully comply with Zigbee 3.0 rather than the haphazard beta release that has not really been improved upon since its introduction.

 

Thanks.

What zigbee hub? some of us have released QAs that integrate the Philips Hue Hub.

[Anth 11]

10 hours ago, jgab said:

What zigbee hub? some of us have released QAs that integrate the Philips Hue Hub.

Hi Jgab,

So is the philips Hue hub essentially a zigbee 3.0 hub? I assume you would add devices to the hue and them add them into HC3 with a QA per device?

Thanks! 

[MAC71 10]

The Philips Hue hub can only control Hue bulbs and Ikea Bulbs. There is a lot of faffing around to get Ikea bulbs into the Hue eco system. It's not like you can add Zigbee door sensors or water sensors that are say, Tuya or Aqara. HC3 doesn't recognise the two different Tuya hubs I have or my Aqara M2 hub. The Fibaro Zigbee instance is pretty locked down. I have had success with

 

* Motion sensors - both Aqara and tuya based

* Door Window sensors - both Aqara and Tuya based

* Presence sensor - Tuya based

* Leak / water sensor - Tuya based

 

Not all Tuya things have worked. The Zigbee connection from HC3 is very temperamental and drops random devices off the network at random times. So if you are going to go down the Zigbee path, make sure the device is easy to get at in order to re connect it 

 

[jgab 2,647]

Well, the hub themselves have proprietary APIs to integrate them. Hue has its, Aqara has its etc.
Hue has other devices then bulbs, motion sensor, contact sensor (

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) but it also comes down to features and prices...
Zigbee doesn't seems to be a great standard when it comes down to device types and unless a devices implements its features almost exactly as Hue does, it won't work. Hue used to have a "Friends with Hue" license program for 3rd parties but I'm unsure if that is still around.
Some hubs are starting to support Matter now (incl. Hue) but I have no experience of that (yet).
I don't know how the HC3 plays it. Either supporting the lowest common denominator, or have some library to try to be compatible with various brands?
In any case, my family likes to use the Hue app (and other apps that integrate with Hue) and I can't offer them anything close usability wise when integrating Zigbee devices directly to the HC3. So instead I have my QA that brings in the Hue devices as QA child devices that I can control with my automation on the HC3 - and my family can still control the Hue lights with their mobile apps...

6 hours ago, Anth said:

Hi Jgab,

So is the philips Hue hub essentially a zigbee 3.0 hub? I assume you would add devices to the hue and them add them into HC3 with a QA per device?

Thanks! 

Yes the new hub is 3.0 and they say that it will work with other 3.0 certified lights, but I don't have any experience of that.

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The Hue QAs we make creates QA devices or QA child devices for the Hue devices. Some Hue devices have multiple functionality, like motion and temperature, and they typically creates a motion QA and a temperature QA.

Edited April 5 by jgab