SAMSUNG SmartThings Smart Home Hub 2nd Generation

I delayed buying a V1 hub once I learned about the V2 hub coming out. I have not purchased any other smart hubs so I'm coming at this as a person fresh into the smart home arena. My initial impression is very positive overall. As of now I only have a handful of sensors set up so maybe things will change over time, but for now I am happy with my purchase. Here's my experience.I get my V2 hub and start the setup through the app. The first time I input my Welcome Code it doesn't accept it so I get a little worried, but on the second try it works. I have already replaced one of my light switches with a GE ZWave switch so I go to add the device to my hub. The switch is about 10 feet away from the hub. The hub is searching for ZWave devices, but cannot see anything even as I push the button on my GE switch which supposedly puts it in pairing mode. I trying moving the hub closer and still no luck. I reset the hub a couple of times and start the pairing process again, but still no luck. I do a little research on the forums, but don't really get any helpful info. I go try to pair one more time and suddenly it works. I don't think I did anything differently than before, but I was happy to finally get it added. Once it was added I felt the setup for the device was pretty straight forward. I then install a second GE switch and am able to get it paired with my hub on the first try. I then install a GE in-wall electrical outlet, but I cannot get it to pair. I move the hub within 10 feet of the outlet, do multiple resets on the hub and it still cannot see the outlet. After about 20 mins I do a little research on the Internet and learn you can do an "exclude" function on the outlet which I think is about like a reset. I do this and am instantly able to pair the outlet with my hub. I install another light switch and it works right away. I then am able to pair a garage door opener on the first try. Finally, I install one last GE light switch identical to the others I have installed. I am able to pair this one immediately, however during the configuration process I keep getting an message saying "an unexpected error has occurred" and am not able to finish the configuration on the switch. I am able to control the switch, but it will not allow me to rename it or add it to a room group. I do a little research in the SmartThings forums and learn there is a website you can go to and configure your hub and associated devices (ide.smartthings.com). I go to the website and am able to rename the device and add it to a room group. Initially, though, the light switch does show the correct name in the app, but it still says it is "Not Configured". Since the device is fully functional I don't worry about it too much, but I guess my OCD just doesn't like having that "not configured" device showing up in my Marketplace. A few hours later, though, I decided to try and run the configuration again and it works. So I'm not sure what the problem was, but it did work itself out.I have set up a few scheduled events to turn a lamp on and off at certain times and to turn my porch light on and off at sunset and sunrise respectively. Those have worked flawlessly so far. I felt the Smart Lighting was pretty intuitive and easy to work with. Also, you can set up scenes where basically with one push of a button it will do multiple events. So for instance when I push "Good Night" it turns off all of my interior lights, but leaves the porch light on. I could also have it do things like lock the doors, but I don't have any smart locks yet.I will say there is a little bit of a learning curve in the app and it does still need some refinement. For example, why do I go to the "Marketplace" to add new devices? That sounds like where I should just buy devices (though you can do that as well). I also wish the app would be a little more useful for troubleshooting connection issues. Saying "an unexpected error occurred" doesn't really help much. Is any error really expected? How about telling me something more specific like is the issue with the app or the hub or the device?Obviously, at this point things are still pretty basic for me. I am going to add some more light switches, a couple of motion sensors, and a smoke detector. I will see if I can get lights to react properly with the motion sensors and smoke detector.Overall, I'm happy with my purchase. Despite the small amount of frustration with a couple of the devices I think this thing has great potential.**Update 9/28/2015** - I am now up to 20 devices and everything is still working well. Most of them are light switches, but I also have a smoke detector and a Foscam that I am using as a motion detector (with a third party smart app). The response time of all my devices has been good, usually no more than a second with the exception of the Foscam. Since I am using a third party smart app for that it processes through the cloud. Any function/scene that uses only approved smart apps and approved devices will process locally and will process a lot quicker, which most of my devices and smart apps are.The only real problem I have is when the smoke detector goes off SmartThings hub should send me a text message on my phone and turn on all the lights in my house. The hub does send a text message, but it does not turn on the lights. Other than that, though, I have been able to set up all the other functions I want. I have a couple of motion detectors coming later this week and a garage door opener coming next week so we will see how those integrate.**Update 9/29/2015** - I just added a couple of motion sensors to my hub. They were easy to connect and work as advertised so now I have a basic security system. If motion is detected while the system is armed I get a text message/push notification on my phone and all of the lights in my house turn on. The hub itself has been working great for me. I will still say the SmartThings app needs a little work to make it a better layout and a little more user friendly, but overall I'm still pleased.**Update 10/11/2015** - I have added a couple of open/close sensors for my front and rear doors and added my LiftMaster garage door opener. Overall, I am still happy with SmartThings, but I am removing one star and going down to 4 stars. My main issue right now is the SmartThings support. I still have not been able to resolve the issue I mentioned above with the smoke detector. Support takes about 3 or 4 days to reply. I understand they may be backed up on support tickets with the initial launch, but then again doesn't that speak something about the state of the product they launched? My initial support e-mail got a reply within a day, but since then it's been about 3 or 4 days between each e-mail. The support rep keeps asking me questions mostly in quickly written e-mails only a few sentences long. They have only made a couple of quick suggestions, none of which worked and one I had already tried anyway. Basically, at this point support is worthless for me. It is only because everything else I have set up works as I want it to that I'm still satisfied overall with my hub. I truly hope they do not end up alienating a lot of customers due to the excessively long support times. They should have hired more people to cover the initial surge of support tickets that often come with product launches. They also need to get to redesigning the app to make it more user friendly and adding useful features like grouping items together in other categories besides Rooms.-- UPDATE 12/1/2016While there have been a few ups and downs with this system overall I would say there are a lot more ups. I am still happy with this and I have seen improvements in reliability and functionality since I first bought this as the SmartThings team continues to make improvements. The app was also redesigned so it is better than before, though it might still need a little polishing to make it a little more user friendly. As I have added several devices since my first review they have all pretty much worked flawlessly. I have added a couple of Hue color bulbs and they work great, though there is a lack of color control for routines. You can change colors manually or for the Alarm function (i.e. they can turn red if the security system goes off), but I cannot find any way to change them through a normal routine. Also, SmartThings will integrate with the Echo so if you spend $50 on and Echo Dot you can have some pretty cool voice control of your home! It's not perfect as it is mostly just basic functionality (I can turn my hue bulbs on/off, but cannot change the color through voice), but it is still pretty useful and fun.

Good day my peoples! As many of you know, I am somewhat obsessed with technology and gadgetry ( and have been since I was a lil kid). I am pretty sure that I drive my wife crazy with all the gadgets and gizmos I have but she loves me still #Blessed . I remember watching the Jetsons as a kid or Lost in Space and thinking , "How cool would it be to actually have the ability to control things in my home remotely and automatically ?" Well, this has actually been a "reality" for many years but up until recently, has not been connected in ways that we all have wanted. Such as the ability to remotely lock you door (from your phone or internet ) , turn on/off your lights if you forgot to , close your garage for you automatically when you leave the neighborhood and endless other things. But NOW we have come into this age of "the internet of THINGS" which is essentially many different "things" that all communicate together to allow for the above mentioned actions to take place. I did a brief review previously on the Wink Connected Hub so forgive me if some of this is similar. I liked the Wink but it was almost too simple for what I wanted the potential for . So I bit the bullet and jumped on the SmartThings bandwagon for a nice price of $99. I already had bulbs, siren, motion sensors and door sensors from my wink and was told that they "should" all work with the SmartThings hub. I received my hub next day (Via Amazon ) and ripped the box open to check it all out. I knew that since I had an existing Smart Home network (via Wink) that I would need to disassociate all my devices from that hub before they would connect so I went about my way to Exclude all items from my Wink hub (this is somewhat time consuming since , at least for me , I had to actually "exclude" each device 1 by 1 from the wink hub) Once I did this , I shut off my Wink hub and then put in my batteries in the SmartThings hub v2 , hooked it up to power and plugged it in to power and Ethernet (there is NO WIFI ) . I downloaded the iOS app and went through the setup process , well attempted to . My first try was a no go, the app just kept sitting there on the Waiting screen while it looked for the hub . I power cycled it and it came right up after that (I was worried because I had read that several people had the same issue and it had ended up being bad units that were sent out) . I did open a ticket with Samsung in the meantime but figured it out in minutes. (Another note is that they have no phone support and the Tech Support is anything but speedy...took a day to get any response and another few days after that for another response so be prepared to read a lot of forums if you are lost on anything) . I was able to enroll all my devices, Schlage Connect Door lock, my GE z-wave Dimmers, All my GE Link Bulbs, My TCPConnected Bulbs, door sensors and motion sensors (Re-branded 2gig z-wave units), and rebranded 2gig Siren (although it showed up as a switch only) fairly simply. Everything seemed to pair quickly and showed up on the app. At this point, I had all my items on the app and was ready to start the Automation part. This is where things get "sticky". The possibilities are endless or seemingly with the Samsung Smart things, but the execution is a bit overwhelming and can be confusing. An example would be setting something up to turn on lights automatically when walking into the room. The initial setup of this is pretty simple via something called "smart app" (their way of calling an automation rule ) There are ones that are created by Samsung SmartThings team and ones that the "community" creates. The thing with these are that every persons situation and setup is different so it is not always a cut and dry setup. Sometimes you will have to create an SmartApp for 1 set of lights to turn on , then create another one to turn off but again its really difficult even here to try and explain it. My biggest issue I kept running into was that my lights would turn off while I was still in the room (even though I had it set to turn off automatically 15 min after motion stopped) What I didn't realize was that the way it is currently setup is that ,this particular "App" starts that 15 min timer after motion stops but doesn't start over if it senses motion in between so imagine you sit down on the couch for a few min and lay there for only 2-3 min, at that point the app thinks no one is there ,so it starts the 15 min countdown to turn the lights off so even if you get up and move, it doesn't register that and then ends up turning the lights off. I realized this after a while of tinkering and reading online that this is an issue with the current software and they are working to resolve it. The cool thing though is that these devices actually have the ability to have programs written for them and "coded" so if you are good at Coding , these are quite the amazing little tool. They have an open API that lets the user configure all types of settings . The thing is , they don't really directly tell you about this and you have to do a lot of reading and understanding before you can jump into it (I am a techy person and even for me it confused me ) I eventually was able to run a custom " Smart App" and get the lights working for me but even then with the only 2 sensors I have for motion, I am limited as to what I can do. This has a ton of potential but is not generally "consumer friendly" in that I can't imagine most people picking one up and making "just work" which is why things like Wink, ADT Pulse and IRIS exist and do quite well. For the price , this has some really cool features and the future is looking bright, See below for a brief list of Pros and Cons and some pictures of the HUB itself.Pros:-Fairly reasonably priced at $99-Seemingly Endless possibilities of things to control-Works with ALOT of different "Smart Things" such as z-wave , zigabee and potentially others down the road.-The fact that it works with different "things" means you don't have to purchase the "Samsung" branded "things"-Version 2 has Battery backup so it will still communicate with your battery powered items in case of power outage-Has the ability to work "offline" meaning that if you lose internet , it will still function locally (most others like Wink , will not work at all if no internet)-Has ethernet connection-Has a large community online of willing users and tons of apps and infoCons:-App is too confusing to navigate ( I really preferred the Wink one to this as of now) Also no support for multiple users which defeats many of the built in options-No wifi which means you have to have it plugged in to Ethernet to communicate so if you want to connect new devices , the unit itself needs to be close to that item while doing the initial "inclusion" (there are ways around it such as long Ethernet cable or putting it in inclusion mode then disconnecting Ethernet but it is still a pain)-To have your house running properly , you will need to spend a considerable amount of money on devices to make it work as you like ...primarily sensors which are average of 40-50$ each and you will need one in every room or hallway and/or every windows. Then you still need to get things like door lock (200+), Thermostat (120+), garage opener (100+) and so on and so forth.-Support sucks and is pretty much non existent but they do try the best they can.-The whole process can become overwhelming and confusing (even for a seasoned tech person)

I have only had this hub for a few weeks, but so far I am VERY impressed with its capabilities.I did my research into what hubs are currently available to make your home into a smart home - and most reviews and information keep pointing back to the Samsung SmartThings Hub.I think the biggest draw for most people is the customer service that comes along with it.Let's be honest - designing a smart home for your personal tastes is a homebrew hobbyist project that is NOT cheap and will come with its share of frustrations.This hub will instantly download the newest firmware once you connect it to the internet. It will appear to reboot once this is done.DON'T BELIEVE IT!!this was the only major cause of frustration for me. Once all the lights stop blinking and go solid green again, take a moment and unplug the power and backup batteries. This will force a hard reboot and THEN your hub should function just fine. You can then start pairing away.Side note:We had a helluva time getting my wife's phone to log into the SmartThings account. I set everything up on my phone, which is an LG G5, without issue. I sent her an invitation request, but because her phone is a Samsung Note 5, she already had an existing Samsung account. It simply would not accept the invitation and log in. And yes, we had created a separate SmartThings account for her phone.I got lucky, though. I went into the settings for her phone and to her accounts. My plan was to deactivate her existing Samsung account - but in her accounts section was the SmartThings app. So I clicked on it, entered her new SmartThings account info, and voila - logged in with access to everything.The only thing that does not work is we cannot add her as a mobile presence device. Gotta figure that one out.I like the sleek design of the hub. It doesn't take up much space, make noise, or get hot. We have a 25 download 2 upload internet account and everything works instantly for us. No delays or waiting for things to happen.The only negative thing I have to say is that it does require internet access to work. That also means that Samsung's SmartThings Cloud server MUST be working properly and MUST be connected properly to third party Cloud servers, too (ex iHome). So if connectivity is an issue for you then this may not work all the time.Currently I use the following with it:Sengled Element Plus bulbsEcobee3 thermostatIHome sp6x plugLutron Casetta switches (best option for older home wiring with no neutral wire)Ecolink motion sensorEverything works as it should when their cloud server is running well. There is a strong community help discussion board, too.Ideally do believe it is your best choice with what is currently on the market.

Setup was a breeze. Pretty much connect it to your network, plug in the power, install the app, and let it do it's thing. Before buying this, I was a bit nervous as I had read a few negative past reviews, but I have experienced NONE of the issues others have described. My SmartThings hub has been rock-solid since the day I installed it, and has been performing flawlessly with the numerous smart devices I have installed throughout my home, (admittedly, mostly Z-Wave devices). I would recommend this to anyone who want to get into doing their own smart-home automation and security.

Muy buen producto, es el cerebro de toda mi casa inteligente, tiene varios protocolos (Zigbee, Z-wave, Wi-fi, etc) lo cual lo hace compatible con varias "things" (dispositivos), tiene una aplicación móvil donde controlas y configuras todo, además, yo que soy un "geek" tiene APIs y varios opciones para agregar tus propias apps y configuraciones, asi como una consola , la verdad me gustó mucho y su "comunidad" está bien soportada. Se integró de una con mi brigde de HUE (Phillips)Una recomendación, al configurarlo en el app, no aparece México, tienen que seleccionar "Estado Unidos" y fijarse en establecer grados C para la temperatura, después, hacer un "reload" desde el app a los dispositivos que reportan la temperatura, como el sensor de movimiento o el sensor multiusos, para que se vea correctamente.

The Good Parts* Z-wave support is pretty good* Works with WeMo* Works with multiple Logitech Harmony Hubs* While not cheap, reasonably priced when on sale* Nicely designed unit* Built in battery backup* Mobile app is pretty goodCould Be Better* Doesn't support all Zwave customization parametersThe One Really Bad PartWhile it may have improved, the sign-up process (which I did in Feb 2018) was ridiculously bad. Around the time I signed up, Samsung had just begun phasing out SmartThings accounts and required a Samsung account. I did not really want to sign up for a Samsung account, but if you want to use SmartThings, you don't have much choice in the matter.So as I'm registering, the sign up form asked for a ZIP code.After many attempts trying to input a Canadian postal code, I guessed maybe the app really wanted a ZIP code, so then tried entering valid US zip codes and it still wasn't working.I eventually scrolled my screen a little and realized there was some help text below input field that said "invalid postcode" (in that exact wording and case).At this point I realized that the app did know I was in Canada and did want a postal code. After some more trial and error I eventually realized that the zip code field would only accept a postal code if it was in ALL CAPS and contained no spaces. Keep in mind that I'm doing all of this on a smart phone, and I doubt that most people think to turn on their caps lock when entering their postal code. This is 2018, and even a junior developer knows how to validate a postal code while ignoring case and whitespace. Even laziest developer would at least tell the user the expected format of the postal code, i.e. 'M1M1M1'.While it was clear the app knew I was in Canada because of my valid postal code, the registration process still had the nerve to ask me what country I was in. No kidding. All this annoyance just to be able to turn a few lights on and off with an app. This was hands down the worst onboarding experience I've ever had, and I've had a lot of bad user experiences.

I made a mistake buying this hub as I thought it was the version with WiFi capability.I tried it even though and it was a bice product overall.The drsign was nice (all white and not too huge)It was easy to connect and to link with the Samsung appIt was easy to link devices (as long as they were already added to the known devices list frim Samsung)As I aaid, overall it's a great product,the only downside is the fact that it absolutely has to be wired to be connected to the network.Recommandable product.