I am starting to put together my system and I need to purchase a device to communicate with my short list of equipment which at this time are all zwave devices.
Should I buy a zwave usb doggle or can I go to lowes and buy a Smartthings hub?
Will the smartthings hub work as just a hub or will I have to use it in an around about way?
Almost everyone here uses a USB dongle for Zwave, The Aeon Gen 5 is probably the most popular.
I don’t think there is a good way for OH to work with SmartThings Hubs at this time.
ok thanks. Do you have a common solution for a zigbee doggle?
There are several that are popular. But some require more work than others. Zigbee support in OH is not as mature as Zwave, but it is being worked on pretty heavily. Look at the README for the Zigbee binding and it will show you what dongles are compatible.
An alternative approach that had worked well for me is to use a vera. I know that vera has a poor reputation -but I think that impacts people who install plugins and try to run automation on it. As an network addressable gateway to zwave and zigbee it has been rock solid for me. It also let’s me put my zwave device in a cabinet on my main floor while openhab runs on a server in the basement.