Best IR blaster (with Zigbee connectivity)

Hardware
1

Hello there everyone, and thanks for being a part of this amazing community.

After looking for a while, I found there are some “zigbee to IR remote” products apparently accessible for buying. I’m not sure if any one of those will work on Home Assistant, and using deconz.

I make a list here:

https://zigbeealliance.org/zigbee_products/ir-convertor/

http://www.zigbee.com.my/products/en/AV-Controls/IR-Infrared-Emitters/IR-Infrared-Emitters-Full-Directions-p80c63c78.html

Of course, I know the star on IR connectivity is the BroadLink Rm Pro, or the similar ones but I really want to keep everything into zigbee technology…

Will any of those will be easy to integrate with Home Assistant?

1 Like
2

Why? The beauty of home assistant is that technologies can be mixed and matched. There are literally 100’s of open source IR adaptors capable of connecting to HA. Why restrict yourself?

Example: GitHub - 1technophile/OpenMQTTGateway: MQTT gateway for ESP8266 or ESP32 with bidirectional 433mhz/315mhz/868mhz, Infrared communications, BLE, Bluetooth, beacons detection, mi flora, mi jia, LYWSD02, LYWSD03MMC, Mi Scale, TPMS, BBQ thermometer compatibility & LORA.

3

You’re right… I’m now getting to connect the Xiaomi Vacuum cleaner V.1 and seems promising…
I’d say, I want to avoid a lot of wifi devices around…
If there is not option I’ll just buy a wifi one. But, as I asked before, do anywant know if there is anyone with zigbee??

Thanks!

4

I don’t see any here https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/information/supported_devices.html

The other resource I am aware of is https://zigbee.blakadder.com/

5

zigbee2mqtt works with HEIMAN HS2IRC (found it from its device list, link to the list already posted), though i found this alarming stale issue#1957: Heiman Remote (HS1RC-M) cannot pair.

6

Zigbee won’t clog the router. I converted all my wall plugs to wifi ones. Now I wish I could go back in time and buy all zigbee ones. Router maxed out. Had to buy a couple extra routers to handle all the hardware. Plus zigbee is chained so you can achieve distances that Wi-Fi can’t.

2 Likes
7

wifi won’t clog a decent router. Your argument is ridiculous.

8

It’s not about “clogging wifi” or “restricting oneself”.

ZigBee (and Zwave) devices are far easier to set up, have lower power consumption (they even run on batteries most of the time) and their information security stance is far better than putting a promiscuous and almost never up-to-date with security mystery software Wi-Fi device on your LAN, which can then access the Internet / be accessed by other potentially hostile devices in it / receive a malicious implant.

“But you can firewall the device!” – ahem, you don’t need to do that with ZigBee (or Zwave).

Sure, you can mix and match, but why mix and match when you can stick to one protocol and your problem is solved?

4 Likes
9

I agree mostly with @Rudd-O . However Zigbee/Zwave is not necessarily easier to setup.

The problem with the firewall is that you have to set it up properly which requires more skill. And even when set up properly, you can still have enabled some devices that are themselves accessible from the internet and through which you can potentially access the internal network to connect to less secure devices or the other wifi objects and send malicious commands.

I am sure that this has already been discussed somewhere on these forums, but the “best” IR blaster was rather expensive and I did not learn how the cheaper alternatives really perform.

2 Likes
10

I am not sure what it is worth, but this is a product that is sold for about $30 https://energycite.com/products/contents/zigbee-ir-blaster-19/

11

On my side I ultimately set up a separate Wi-Fi network for IoT devices, and in this network the following network policies are in effect:

  1. All devices have a /32 mask. This means no talking amongst themselves. Every bit of IP traffic goes strictly through the router. (Devices are not expected to support IPX/SPX or AppleTalk, so this is an adequate stricture.)
  2. All devices are strictly firewalled off the internet and all other network devices. They may not converse with them.
  3. Only traffic coming from HA to the device (and, in the case of local push, traffic from the device to HA on specific ports only) is permitted. This is enforced by firewall rules in that router.

I know, this would ordinarily be an epically dumb way of setting up a LAN, primarily because we expect that in a LAN devices must talk between each other without the intervention of the router. But that is not a reasonable expectation in an IoT LAN.

This is how I secured the few Wi-Fi devices that I have.

2 Likes