Explain hubs to me

[Ebo100]

I have a number of Alexa devices coupled to some tp-link sockets and Sonos and looking to expand the home automation, currently without a hub anywhere.

We are looking at motorised blinds and have looked at Somfy for an Alexa powered option that I can expand with various sensors but it looks like it needs their own Tahoma hub to control everything. The website has this at around £280 and some of their sensors at £90; which seems excessive when an Echo plus and smarthings hub are much less. So is a hub a hub or are they all unique in the language and/or protocols and would an echo plus be able to control everything?

The website https://shop.somfy.co.uk/smart-home/smart-home-pac...

quotes Integrated protocols: io-homecontrol and RTS but this means nothing to me

[richatnort]

Take a look at home assistant and see if there is an integration for it. I have all my smart stuff plugged into it and built loads of automations through it and works a dream! All runs on a pi too!

[mizx]

RTS is Somfy's proprietary radio blind control protocol

I have Somfy blinds and looked into this too, it seemed at the time the Tahoma hub was required, I think I remember reading a forum thread where someone had put some code etc. together to make this work, though can't for the life of me remember which smarthome ecosystem.

It looks like they have these myLink plugs - https://www.somfysystems.com/en-us/products/contro... edit: unsure if I just missed this before, finding it difficult to find any info on these or where they are sold.

Last time I looked IFTTT on my phone had Somfy support via the Tahoma hub.

Edited by mizx on Sunday 25th August 22:12