Goodbye SmartThings: Why I Moved My Smart Home to Local Control

I used SmartThings for years. It was the easy choice. I bought the hub, connected it to Google Home, and for the most part, it worked.

Until it didn't.

The problem with SmartThings is that it lives in the cloud. When I tapped a light switch on my phone, that signal went from my house to a Samsung server somewhere, processed the command, and came back to my hub to turn on the light.

If my internet went out, my smart home became dumb. I couldn't control my own house because a server was down or my ISP was having a bad day. That wasn't "smart" to me anymore.

The Switch to Local

I already had my Unraid server running 24/7 (as I covered in my other post), so buying another hub seemed wasteful. I decided to virtualize my home controller using Home Assistant.

The only missing piece was the radio. SmartThings has Zigbee and Z-Wave radios built-in, but a server doesn't.

I picked up the Z-Stick 10 Pro for about $60. It’s a 2-in-1 USB stick that handles both Zigbee 3.0 and Z-Wave 800 series.

The Setup

1. Pass-through: I plugged the Z-Stick into my Unraid server and passed it through to the Home Assistant VM.
2. Integration: Home Assistant picked it up immediately. I used Z-Wave JS for the Z-Wave side and Zigbee2MQTT for the Zigbee side.
3. Migration: This was the tedious part. I had to exclude devices from SmartThings and re-pair them to the stick. But I only had to do it once.

The Result: Speed and Stability

The first thing I noticed was the speed. With SmartThings, there was always a delay. A half a second or so, but noticeable.

With Home Assistant and the Z-Stick, it is nearly instant. I tap the button, and the light is on before my finger leaves the screen. Because it is local, it works even if the internet is down. My switches talk directly to the server, which talks directly to the lights.

No cloud required.

The "Wife Factor" and Watches

I still connected Home Assistant to Google Home, so voice commands work exactly the same as before. The family didn't even notice I changed the entire backend, which is the mark of a successful migration.

But my favorite new feature is the watch integration.

Because Home Assistant is so customizable, I set up shortcuts on my watch. I don't have to yell at Google or pull out my phone. I just tap a shortcut on my wrist to switch the lights or toggle the shades.

If you are still relying on a cloud-based hub, you are renting the ability to control your own home. Get a Z-Stick, spin up Home Assistant, and take the control back.