We had hoped that we wouldn’t have to make this announcement. Certain circumstances, such as Hubitat blocking our Hubs from firmware updates, have forced us to make a decision about our drivers. The changes in the recent 2.2.4+ Hubitat firmware are causing significant issues such as null pointer errors, etc. Since Hubitat is not willing to lift this block, there is no way for us to properly troubleshoot these issues. We realize that this is a huge inconvenience for all and impacts many of our beloved users, but it is unfortunately out of our control.
These roadblocks do not affect our future projects and will not discourage us in our work on the Collective Core. We will continue to move forward and remain focused on our goal. Stay tuned for updates.
In the meantime, Markus will attempt to troubleshoot issues in a limited capacity. He is looking for someone from the HE community to take over updating and troubleshooting his drivers. Please PM him if you are up to the challenge.
I suspected that this would be the case and had held off from updating my hub for a while, although once I noticed Markus had updated on HPM I took the plunge to 2.2.x a week or so back. To be honest it may just remain a static install from now on, I’m running a C5 with external radios so I’m seeing very little in the way of added value in new releases so if it ain’t broken…
I’m also deeply, deeply unhappy at the fact that there is essentially a back door into the hardware that allows it to be monitored and arbitrarily disabled. After due consideration I’m seriously considering updating my (very) outdated skills and trying other options.
I think you’d be up to the challenge. I’m taking an opportunity to think outside the box and persevere. I will continue to automate my home and keep it truly local. #unifi
For that reason my Home Assistant knowledge has grown 1000x fold in the past 2 weeks. Until CC is an option, it’s looking more and more like a hybrid HE/HA solution might be in my near future.
It is very unfortunate that it had come to this point.
I cannot understand why you have been blocked for updates on device you paid for!
But, It has happened and that sucks.
I wouldnt have a clue where to start with coding, but I’m hoping someone is able to pick it up and keep going with it as there is a huge user base for @markus drivers.
Markus will attempt to update what he can, so he’s not leaving things up in the air. It’s increasingly more difficult to troubleshoot issues when you can not see things for yourself. So, until someone takes over, he will do what he can. This is NOT something he wanted to have to do and he’s very upset over this decision and has been trying to figure out how to keep on with this, but the long hours he’s putting in between projects is going to take it’s toll on his health.
That’s my current setup. I’m in the process of getting my head around docker and node red with a view to running a headless server with home assistant and a few other bits and utilising the external radios from my C5 hub. I will almost certainly look into the CC offering when it materialises, either way I wish them well - most of my usage of HE is enabled by the work some of these guys put in and their efforts with both drivers and dashboard have been very much appreciated.
I’m not overly paranoid or dead set against web integrated services as a rule, I use a hue hub and Google/nest hardware in places but watching a small company act in such a fashion combined with a few other niggles when watching “official” interactions with customers, not to mention other active developers, has left enough of a bad taste that I’m actively working to retire the hub at this point.
Entirely understandable, the main reason I registered here was to thank him for his work on both the Aqara and TUYA drivers he’s been updating with machine like regularity.
As you say though, not really feasible if you can’t see what’s changing. Not to mention that adding so much value to the product of a company who has just trashcanned your entire online presence must be rather galling regardless of wanting to assist your userbase.
Doh’t know why I can’t edit my post. Was going to say I’m sure users of your drivers would be happy to make a small contribution towards a virgin development hub
It’s a user-level thing, a bit more reading around on the forum and that should sort itself out.
This would be one way, thank you for suggesting it There are many ways around this issue, but it is obvious we are not wanted as developers on their platform.
That’s just wrong. I can understand it if devs normally get access to the inner workings of the platofrm and you’re precluded as a competitor, but a f/w update?
It is how they do things, certainly not our style. We never had access to the “inner workings”, but as a developer in the platform you can observe much of it from the outside.
Just got this reported as a “errorjava.lang.NullPointerException” in a driver:
updateDataValue('model', newModel)
newModel is always initialized above this, so it CAN’T be null. updateDataValue is a built-in method. Something is really wrong, if someone with 2.2.4 can find the actually reason for these types of issues I’ll happily update my code, but for now I have no way of doing so.
April… I am shocked to hear that Bruce would steep to such a level. I haven’t announced anything yet, but I’ve moved completely to Home Assistant. It’s a far superior platform, at least for me, and free from back door control. I went with Home Assistant because 3 of my 7 hubs have died due to their cheap, overpriced hardware.
Welcome to the community! Great to see you here! Please feel free to share your automatons with your ecosystem here. No judgements. It takes more than one hub to accomplish cool. Love to hear about it!
There are many ways around this issue, but it is obvious we are not wanted as developers on their platform.
