I am currently in the process of evaluating potential alternatives to my current home automation setup with Vera, and I find myself hesitating between Hubitat (C8pro) and HomeyPro. Before making a final decision, I wanted to reach out to the knowledgeable members of the Homey community for their insights and advice. I know this question has been asked before, but since every setup is unique, I feel that I need to ask for my ‘complex’ setup.
Allow me to provide a bit of background about my current setup with Vera. Over the years, I’ve accumulated a vast array of devices. My important devices include various sensors, switches, lights, and more, totaling over 200 devices (very close to the Z-Wave limit of most hubs) spread across different areas of my home. 99% of my devices are Z-Wave, with a few exceptions such as RF-controlled roller blinds, which are controlled using the RFXTRX 433. I also use Envisalink to facilitate communication between my Vera hub and my DSC house alarm system. Other than this, I have a Goovee light bulb and a few Bluetooth devices, but they are not currently used by my Vera setup and are of minor concern. Given the substantial square footage of my triplex, I currently utilize 1 Vera hub as the master and 5 Vera hubs as slaves to manage all my devices effectively.
One of my concerns is responsiveness. With Vera, I’ve encountered instances where it would lose contact with a device (though it’s uncertain whether the issue lies with the device itself, as a few of my Z-wave devices still operative, were bought over 15 years ago when I originally started my automation adventure). Over the years, I’ve implemented over 100 small reactor-logic ‘rules’ and at least a few dozen ‘scenes.’ These rules and scenes have contributed to occasional sluggishness in my controllers.
Before making a final decision, I wanted to reach out to the knowledgeable members of the Homey community for their insights and advice. I know this question has been asked before, but are there any Homey users who have made a similar transition, especially in managing a large number of devices and complex automation setups?
Any guidance, recommendations, or personal experiences you can share would be very helpful in my decision-making
Search the app store to see if all your devices are actually supported by Homey (don’t assume that because Athom markets Homey as supporting 50,000+ devices, your devices will be supported).
Thank you for the heads up! I always assumed Z-Wave was pretty standard across the board, but your insight has prompted me to start investigating further. I’ll make sure to thoroughly check the supported device list and app store for Homey to ensure compatibility with my specific devices. It’s better to be safe than sorry when it comes to integrating such a large number of devices into a new system. Thanks again for the advice!
I have used Vera elsewhere and transitioned quite a similar large setup from Indigo a few years ago. My advice would be to migrate one ‘piece’ at a time, keeping both systems running in parallel at least to start with.
Also, the advanced flows in Homey are extremely flexible (for me this is the killer feature of Homey vs any other system). So rather than recreating every piece of logic implemented in the exact same way as you have elsewhere, you should be able to condense down to a much smaller number of flows overall. Bear in mind you can have multiple separate flows each with their own trigger cards all within one advanced flow so that you can keep all the logic related to one sub system in your automation together.
Regarding the transition to Homey, yes, I suspect I’ll need to run both systems simultaneously for a period to ensure a smooth shift. Thank you for sharing your insights on flow organization within Homey. While I’m not fully acquainted with ‘flows’, I understand the importance of organizing them effectively.
In my current setup, I manage various aspects of my home through distinct ‘flows’. For instance, I have dedicated ‘flows’ for heating control in different areas of the house, like the lounge and basement; these are all neatly organized under a ‘heating’ group (folder). Similarly, I have several separate ‘folders’ for managing outdoor lights, adjusting dimmer levels based on the time of day, and controlling blinds.
I’m uncertain if this approach would translate well to Homey or another system. However, your method of organizing flows based on their action types appears logical and efficient. I’ll definitely keep your approach in mind as I navigate the transition.
But one of my questions/concerns still remains… how many ‘Homey’ hubs I will need. I assume one hub and one bridge due to the 200+ Z-Wave devices and the 8000 sqft size that I need to cover.
I know you’d like to hear user experiences, but here’s what should be possible according to the KB:
This article claims 231 to be the max number of z-wave devices @ one Homey:
Given the extensive list of devices, I’m curious about the compatibility of these devices with Homey. I’m wondering if anyone here has experience with integrating similar devices into their Homey setup. Specifically, I’d like to know:
Where can I find reliable information about the compatibility of these devices with Homey?
Based on your experience, how much trouble should I expect in integrating these devices into Homey?
Any insights or advice you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance for your help!
(No clue why the list is not sorted alphabetically )
Note there’s a very basic generic zwave driver, which can operate devices with a simple On Off functionality, without the need for an app.
Using apps is recommended.
Afaik there’s no system to which you can feed your list, to get a or per device.
It seems like the concept differs significantly from what I’m accustomed to in Homey. In Vera, a device represents a physical object, such as a Z-Wave sensor, with attributes, capabilities, and states, often displayed on the GUI. On the other hand, an app in Vera is essentially a program, which may display information on a panel or tile but is typically a virtual entity, not directly linked to a device. Understanding this distinction helps me grasp the differences in terminology and functionality between the two platforms
From what you say, I think a device is very similar @ Homey.
A Homey app is like the interface / driver for a (set of) specific device(s), and it also provides for the flow cards. A ‘flow’ is a sort way of GUI programming.
The platform provides for standard flowcards, and the app developer can add specific flow cards to his/her/their app.
This allows me to trigger actions or scenes remotely. Do I understand correctly that webhooks in Homey would be able to receive these requests as commands or triggers, and execute certain actions or rules? If so, does anyone have experience or insights into this type of integration with Homey?
I appreciate the suggestion to create my own app for Homey if my device isn’t supported. However, after watching a YouTube video on creating apps for Homey, I’ve come to the realization that I’m nowhere familiar enough with JavaScript, let alone Java for Homey.
While I know there are online resources available for learning JavaScript, my extra concern would be understanding Homey’s communication rules and protocol. I suspect there’s a learning curve involved in that too, and I may not be ready to tackle it just yet… but thank you for your suggestion
)
or 
per device.
