After 2 years of doubt, i finally bought the homey pro. I have to say it works very well but some minor hickups. Lets see how far I can get it!
I have 2 technical questions tho:
Im not sure wether I am adding devices to the homey or if Im still using cloud. E.g. I installed the tado app, had to login, it found my devices and added it to homey. Are they now connected to homey directly or are they still running through the tado app/cloud so I need to keep the hub in between?
I have added my philips hue through the hub, and I intent to leave it in between. However any other zigbee brand I would like to add directly to Homey so I can get rid of other hubs. Will this influence my zigbee network? I.e. will it make a new parralel zigbee network or will it add to philips hue?
Yes, every hub will create their own seperate zigbee network.
So you will have 2 networks: the hue (homey being part of it) and homey zigbee (homey as hub controller)
In general, when you have to login ("please login to blah.tado.com now") you create a cloud connection. The tado bridge is involved and canât be removed.
In my experience tado cloud reliability is top notch, Iâd like to recommend tadoZones community app over the âofficialâ tado app. You can install both side-by-side, to see what fits you best.
tado X gear also has the possibility to use as Matter devices (w/o the tado bridge).
This should be a local connection using Matter-over-Thread, Iâm unsure about Matter-over-wifi connections being fully local.
My view on removing additional hubs: it creates a single point of failure.
Especially with heating related devices, I would not rely solely on Homey.
I mean, my thermostat never rebooted, crashed, nor had connection problems, and it didnât get unannounced flaky firmware updates out of the blue.
So if I understand you correctly the Hub will only be seen as 1 device for the new zigbee network.
Iâm planning to add some alternatives like Tradfri, and move sensors/buttons, smart plugs from other brands. I would like to move away from Hue on this topic, as for buttons/plugs etc there are more cost efficient alternatives imho. So there will be 2 parralel networks. Would that cause interference, what would your advice be, add the lights directly to Homey or leave them in the Hue hub? I read different opinions online as the hue hub is quite stable and used for software updates.
Makes sense, I have used the official Tado app. So I probably need the community app for a direct connection.
I can install and also keep using them side by side? Then I understand your remark for a redundant setup, because right now itâs also relying on 1 tado hub. Would be good to have the setup on 2! But for everything else, I would try to stay lean on hubs. Saves energy and a lot of sockets.
Hue Zigbee
The Hue zigbee is not connected to homey via zigbee, it is via cloud.
So the Hue hub is not part of the homey zigbee network
I did not experience any interference.
In my case the WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) was important: my Wife was used to Hue and not interested in learning a new app. (I have a homey for over 7 years now, back in those days the homey app was not so userfriendly yet)
Hue hub is indeed very stable.
And the ability to update firmware on you hue devices is a pro
I have all my âscenesâ defined in Hue. and call these from homey.
another disadvantage of cloud is: If you WiFi fails, homey will not be able to control itâŚ
Yes, and you can have both connected to tado cloud if you like to.
But probably by âdirect connectionâ you mean Matter :
I really canât tell if it works, but I donât see why it wouldnât.
I suggest to ask around in the tado or tadoZones app topics.
Itâs never bad to take energy use into account, but remind yourself youâre living in your âsystemâ as well. Comfort (have all things just working, even if parts of the system break) and energy is a delicate balance imho. Donât cut cost on the wrong stuff
Usually hub/bridges use just a few Watts.
I love your WAF setting, Iâm gonna steal and use that, as I fully understand where youâre coming from. I was done doing her whatsapp requests, she can now press buttons lol.
As for Hue, that makes sense. No Wifi, no homey, but I can still use my zigbee remotes hooked to the Hue hub I think. Like you, I use the scenes of hue a lot, and have a gaming led strip which also works better on the hub I guess. But I will move to different brands for sensors, and not go for the expensive Hue stuff. I donât see any reason, so I guess that will be my 2nd zigbee network then. Thanks for your time!
Wasnât there yet tbh. I thought I was about to directly adding devices to homey PRO through one of itâs many many antennaâs (e.g zigbee). But thinking of this, I think Tado is using itâs own protocol so Matter would indeed be the only one working. And I think thatâs only installed on the bridge.
True! I donât mind sensors, or curtains failing. But lights and heating is something else, so I understand what youâre saying and Iâm going with that. Homey + Hue + Tado bridges. The rest can go. If itâs not for energy, then it would be to get some more privacy into not getting every little thing in the cloud but running it on premise.
