Ok, I’ve done a fair bit with wifi devices, now I’m waking up to zigbee.
Got myself an S26 R2 to play with, but just wanted to clarify a few things…
So, if I had a few of these around the house, would they form the man backbone of the zigbee mesh network? Or do they not provide that function?
And also - possibly n00b question - I presume there’s still a need / benefit to flash with esphome? Couldn’t see anything obvious on the site and only searched online for a few mins before giving up and asking for experience rather than random sites…
Zigbee is a mesh network so it’s a bit different. Zigbee devices can be an end device, or a router device (in addition to whatever it actually does likes controlling a plug). Routers contribute to your zigbee mesh, and devices connect through the mesh. This means you need more router devices to have a strong mesh. I use a few plugs where my network is weak, but otherwise have found that devices are stable. I can’t see on the zigbee2mqtt site if they’re a router or end device, but most powered devices are routers. ZHA and Zigbee2mqtt both tell you the device type if you go digging.
If they’re zigbee devices I don’t think they can be flashed with esphome. They’re not normal esp devices and that would likely disable the zigbee networking.
I’m starting to replace some wifi devices with zigbee too, Yes many zigbee devices will act as a repeater or router for other devices to connect through, the only devices that tend not to have this functionality are battery powered devices like pushbuttons or remotes.
Just a word of warning, those S26 Zigbee outlets have quite poor range so you might still run into issues if you only have a couple of them.
As far as I know there is no alternative firmware for the Zigbee and Z-wave devices. nor is there any real need for one as they do tend to “just work” but that also means you are stuck with the features and functions they give you. There are some Zigbee bridges that can run ESPhome to add some customisability, but that is just for the wifi side of the device.
Ah, ok, so I need to have a few sockets near each other to prevent 1 being the mesh “gateway” and the inevitable network failure if someone disconnects it. I just presumed these things had a range similar to wifi.
Zigbee can have very good range depending on the products, but those outlets have poor range initially due to a bad antenna id guess, then they are plugged into an outlet, low to the ground, up against a wall, probably near lots of wiring and even grounded metal boxes in many cases. So it’s a bit of a worst case scenario for signal strength.
In homeassistant you should be able to go into the device page and pull up signal level information to see if you need to add or move devices to fix a deadspot.
Zigbee devices are already cloudless local devices, you don’t have to flash them unless there are alternative firmwares that add functionality you desire.
They also need a coordinator to comunicate with HA. You can get a zigbee stick, depending on how you plan on integrating these devices there are some chipsets you should look for. If you want the easy route go for ZHA and maybe the skyconnect stick, otherwise you can go with zigbee2mqtt route which supports more devices and is more customizable and look at their list of recommended coordinators.
Most mains powered zigbee devices act as router and extend the newtork, not all of them do and not all that do are good at it. Some manufacturers use custom implementations of zigbee like Aqara which can cause issues.
I use zigbee2mqtt with a sonoff P stick and I am happy with it, it’s not as plug&play as ZHA, but it’s easy to add support to new devices if they are not already supported.
I have MQTT for some other stuff, so Zigbee2MQTT sounds like the best option… and thanks for suggesting the Sonoff stick… I like their products, so a recommendation is always good - thanks
If you do decide on the sonoff stick make sure you get the P version, not the E version as the later is under experimental support and better for ZHA. You can also have a look at the other zigbee recommended adapters for Zigbee2mqtt: https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/guide/adapters/
Thanks I was getting confused by the differences between them.
Any ideas on network to zigbee? My HA Pi is far away in the furthest corner of the house, but ethernet is more central to start the mesh off in a better location.
The guide on the official website has a few recommendations for network zigbee coordinators as well: https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/guide/adapters/ I cannot recommend any as I am using a USB coordinator. But you can also jump on the official Zigbee2Mqtt discord and ask for recommendations there, you can find it linked under support on the website.
I recommend you join that discord as there might be issues that come up and there are a few people on the server that could help you with the troubleshooting.
One thing you have to keep in mind is that you can’t place the zigbee coordinator near other 2.4GHz networks like wifi APs/extenders, bluetooth adapters or microwaves. Well, you can, but you will run into many issues.
That’s a very good point… I was just checking if there was space near the APs… d’oh! Good catch - thanks!
