Adding my First Zigbee Devices

Configuration Zigbee
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Hello all

I Hope you are Well.

I will be receiving my Home Assistant Green Tomorrow so I am looking forward to that.

I will also be receiving a ‘SONOFF Universal Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus Gateway with Antenna for Home Assistant, IoBroker, Zigbee2MQTT’ and a USB Extension Cable.

Beyond what Home Assistant should Automatically Add when it is First Setup, i.e. Synology Nas, Marantz AVR, Router etc. I will be looking at Adding Phillips Hue Lights in the Near Future.

When Adding my First Phillips Hue Lights is there a minimum number of Lights that I should look at Adding since I know that they are Zigbee Devices and will Create a Mesh Network.

Thanks for any Tips.

Kevin

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There is no simple answer to that. One light near the coordinator will work fine. One battery operated sensor near the coordinator (couple of meters, no interference or heavy walls between), even without a lightbulb will be fine.

But placing battery sensors all over the home and expect them to stay connected without anything acting as a Zigbee router in between is futile.

Zigbee lightbulbs, even many, that are unplugged from time to time is also a no go. Sensors or bulbs relying on that bulb will drop out or be unreliable.

Some brands will behave better than others in those respects. Philips/Signify is expensive, but hetter behaved than most other brands.

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Hello @Edwin_D

Thanks for the Reply.

Nothing is ever Simple is it :slight_smile:

The House is only Small, a 2 Bedroom Semi Detached.

The Internal Walls are simple Cavity Walls,

The Phillips Hue Bulbs will be permanent once Installed, I have no intention of removing them.

I will be looking at adding some Battery Operated Sensors, mainly Motion Sensors but I thought it best to start with the Lights First.

Thanks

Kevin

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Sitll looking for easy answers :slight_smile: I would not dare to name a number. Probbly lower than most people :-). I guess you’ll be fine, since you ask the right questions and did your homework.

Edit: don’t overthink it. Start out. You can always put in some zigbee routers later if needed. They don’t need to be lights. Could be separate devices, smart sockets. You’ll have plenty before you know it.

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Hello @Edwin_D

Easy Answers, Always :slight_smile:

I just want to be prepared for things if I should encounter any Issues but what you have said, I should be fine, hopefully :slight_smile:

Thanks

Kevin

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ps. No need to use @ mentions when replying to people. That is handled by the thread. Good luck!

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It’s not about removing them, it’s about how they are switched. Smart lights must have permanent power to remain smart and to remain functioning as a Zigbee router. If you are sticking with conventional, mechanical switches you will need to not use those and turn your lights off with HA or install a relay switch with detached mode behind the mechanical switch.

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Hello

Thanks for the Reply.

Possible Stupid Question incoming :slight_smile:

Since I am New to Zigbee and Home Assistant could you Please tell me if it is possible to Replace the current Standard Light Switches, I am in the UK, with Zigbee Light Switches?

Thanks in advance

Kevin

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Yes, you can but again, they either need to be wired to provide permanent power to the bulb (you use automations to capture the button press and toggle the lights) or they need to have a detached mode built in.

Your cheapest way would be to use something like the Sonoff ZBMINIR2 behind your existing switches. There’s a good thread here: https://community.home-assistant.io/t/zha-advanced-features-of-sonoff-zbminir2/787340.

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:grinning: :rofl:

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Hello all

Well, nothing is ever Simple :frowning:

I just removed a couple of Light Switches to see how Deep the Back Boxes are and…

18mm :frowning:

So, replacing the Light Switches seems to be out of the question.

I think the only real option left to me is to have the Phillips Hue Lights and Motion Sensors in the Rooms.

Although, I did recently see that some of the Phillips Hue Bulbs now support Motion Detection directly, although I do not know if that is supported by Home Assistant, yet.

Thanks

Kevin

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  • You can use smart dimmers with dumb bulbs. Then power can be cut
  • You can use smart switches in detached mode so power keeps going to the bulb.
  • You can hardwire power and replace the switch with a battery powered remote that looks like traditional gear. This is possible with shallow boxes.
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Make sure you have the optional coin cell installed for valid time before you start anything up.