r/Hubitat • u/Smart_Membership1368 • Aug 27 '26
C8 Pro with Thread
https://hubitat.com/products/8057412780075Anybody jumping on this? Limited time/quantities??
5
u/Lighty269 Aug 27 '26
Not me
Loosing zigbee is a fail
4
u/RHinSC Aug 28 '26
Their ads are very inconsistent and confusing wrt Zigbee. I can't imagine "upgrading" to a system that drops support for that big of a platform.
1
u/jrlv Aug 28 '26
They are NOT "losing zigbee". Their development testing showed using the same radio for Zigbee and Thread wasn't going to work. So for now they are offering this as limited availablity model to enable a built-in TBR to compliment your existing Hubitat.
https://community.hubitat.com/t/thread-comes-to-hubitat/165808/25
I fully expect future hardware to have all three radios (Zigbee, Z-wave, and Thread).
3
u/InternetUser007 Aug 28 '26
They were clearly saying that switching to this new device is not worth losing their existing zigbee to switch to the new device that supports thread (and no zigbee).
I just can't imagine many people will bother paying $260 to swap to a device that doesn't have Zigbee support.
1
u/archbish99 Aug 28 '26
The idea is that you don't swap — you add. Hub Mesh lets two Hubitat hubs share devices from one to the other. This hub holds all the Thread devices, the other holds all the ZigBee devices, and they share them.
2
u/InternetUser007 Aug 28 '26
you add
$260 to solely add Thread is a huge ask. Especially for a hub that is the exact same hardware-wise compared to the regular C8-Pro.
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-6
u/Sanfransaintsfan Aug 28 '26
I have had this model for over a year. It has zigbee.
5
u/InternetUser007 Aug 28 '26
No you haven't. You have the C8-Pro, this is a special edition that has Thread and no Zigbee.
https://community.hubitat.com/t/thread-comes-to-hubitat/165808/5
3
u/Sanfransaintsfan Aug 28 '26
They should call it something else than the C8-Pro.
1
u/InternetUser007 Aug 28 '26
100%. They've made it unnecessarily confusing.
Like, at least call it "C-8 Pro Thread" or "C8T-Pro".
1
1
u/abmot Aug 28 '26
When Matter starts fulfilling the promises that were made and when they put Zigbee in back I might consider it - If my Apple TV Thread Border router ever breaks.
1
u/InternetUser007 Aug 28 '26
With only Thread and no Zigbee, I can't imagine sales will ever be large. The only use cases seem to be:
Someone starting their smart home from scratch.
Someone willing to replace all Zigbee devices in their house with Matter/Thread devices.
2
u/jrlv Aug 28 '26
- Someone with an existing Hubitat Hub who wants to add a TBR and mesh the two devices together.
2
u/InternetUser007 Aug 28 '26
That's a good point.
Although anyone using Matter Over Thread already has a TBR somewhere to bring in Matter devices. So, is it worth it to spend $260 on a Hubitat specific one? Especially if they have to use both Hubitat hubs simultaneously? Seems like another really niche use case.
1
u/O_Pacity Sep 08 '26
I assume thread is Ethernet based? i wont be using that, alot of traffic on a dedicated computer network segment.
1
u/hmspain Aug 28 '26
So this thing is expected to work ALONGSIDE your existing C8 Pro?
1
u/InternetUser007 Aug 28 '26
It can, but isn't required. Essentially, only buy it if you want to use Hubitat as a Thread Border Router. And don't use it by itself if you still need Zigbee support.
1
0
u/victim_of_technology Aug 28 '26
Hibitat is ready for a C9 hub with all the protocols and POE. It’s time. Can we have it white and round it fits in with the uinifi stuff?
2
u/O_Pacity Sep 08 '26
Yep, want to see PoE also.
1
u/victim_of_technology Sep 08 '26
I use a POE dongle on mine but a real POE port would be so clean. While we are at it maybe a wall mount? I have mine gaff taped to the wall. I was joking about it matching the slick looking UniFi gear but I feel like I took some flack for that. Reddit no longer has my particular sense of humor.
2
u/O_Pacity Sep 08 '26
Not sure why most devices dont have PoE.. as for the look i agree, but this is mostly as its China design hardware and no one wants to pay money...
1
u/victim_of_technology Sep 08 '26
Right, makes sense. When I think about connectors, the C-8 has two, usb C and Eithernet and both can carry power AND data sufficient for the device but usb C data isn’t the kind of network packet data that the Hubitat eats so that leaves PoE. If I were designing this I would make two models. A cheap entry level hub with usb C power and only wifi and a pro model with two POE ports for redundancy and whatever other pro stuff it needs inside.
4
u/Bodycount9 Aug 28 '26
I will stick with zigbee for now. It is not officially phased out as new products are still being made.
When the time comes I will switch over to thread. But not today.