I want to set up Xiamo Aqara door / windows sensors instead of 433 MHz sensors, as I think the 433 is not stable enough.
We already have a lot of IKEA stuff set up, through the IKEA gateway, lights, switches and covers.
I can of course start out by just adding a deconz, and then set the sensors to use that one, but at some point the range will be a problem, as the sensors are of course not routers.
So what is the best way forward?
Some of my door sensors (3 of them) are in the same room, and two more are quite far away, I have two more I want to add later on.
If I add a deconz, will the IKEA rollerblind integrate to it (it isnât shown in the compatibility list)?
I guess I have to move ALL the bulbs and the remotes to the new gateway, but could I do it in steps?
One thing that is absolutely important here, is that the light should work with, or without, the Home Assistant, and I am under the impression that you can set the controller and light pairing up directly in zigbee, right? So that it is completely independent of the gateway and HA?
It works fine ( and I think it is right at the bottom of the compatibility list)
I would move them all, not sure whether the two zigbee networks would interfere with each other / wifi while you ran them both. Personally, Iâd plan to get them moved pretty quickly.
You can set the controller and light in deconz/conbee so they operate if HA isnât available. I donât know whether the functionality for pairing directly between switches and bulbs / blinds that ikea provide works once youâre paired to something else. Iâve never tried.
This functionality will be lost when you connect to DeCONZ, however as you said you can configure the remotes in DeCONZ to control lights even if HA is unavailable, however I donât like this, I want to have all âautomationsâ configured in a single place.
@fribse
Are your light bulbs wired to be always on? I have Hue Dimmer Switches next to each light switch and âeducatedâ my wife to use the remote and in case the remote doesnât work (meaning HA is down or has some problems), she knows that she just needs to use the normal light switch. In the last two years we only had to use the normal light switch for 2 days and that was because I was migrating all my devices to a new ConBee stick. We never had to use the normal light switch because HA was down.
I agree, I have basic connectivity in deconz, fed up to HA and then automated in Node-red - very rarely fails, usually when Iâm messing about
My family have all forgotten what switches do, lights either go on and off automatically according to ambient light level and movement or they ask google to do it.
âBrain the size of a planet, and all I get asked to do it turn lights on and off. Life? Donât talk to me about life.â
Thankyou for all this great info, I have to keep the direct manipulations from the switches to make sure the lights work with or without, I know itâs a lot of extra work, but itâs important to keep the WAF very high
Yes, and that is exactly what I donât want to do. That is going to lower WAF dramatically, and that is big priority here.
I want the system to be just as stable as with a mechanical switch, and the zigbee network can make it almost as good, where the HA will never get that high in stability.
I very much agree in having the automations collected in one place, but the most basic settings will have to be local for me.
This is more an issue on your side, my system never let me down. HA is extremly stable for me. But I also change everything on the dev environment before merging it to production.
there are zigbee wall switches, they let you keep your current bulbs and give you control from the physical switch and HA, but without issues of going âout of syncâ, or remembering to press the nearby remote instead.
Personally, i thought about it and decided my family werenât so stupid that they couldnât learn to not press the switch.
But if you need it, may be worth a look at whatâs available in your country.
Ah I see what you mean. However in the last 2 years this was nothing more than a theory, no problems in real life.
When I control the Dimmer from Deconz, I always need to be careful to not use a button in home assistant that is already linked by deconz otherwise there can be some issues, thatâs why I prefer one place for the automations, but thatâs just me.
Hi @Burningstone
I got the first stage done, I received the Conbee today, and itâs just too easy to add it to HA , and then add the 7 aqara door sensors. I am very surprised of the range of the conbee, it reaches all my sensors without even having moved the IKEA stuff to zigbee, ie there are no routers available in the conbee networkâŚ
So at the moment I have two parallell zigbee networks, and so far I donât see any problems.