Brainstorming: how to build a reliable zigbee network well integrated in HA?

Hardware
1

After some weeks of test I am wondering what is the best way to build a reliable zigbee network well integrated in HA.

I bought some Aqara sensor (water leakage, movement and button) and They do what they promise enough cheap to be attractive.

Then zigbee2mqtt is easy to configure and works very well. Unfortunately it has a very short range. My house is on three levels… Should I sprinkle everywhere zigbee smart plug (which one?) hoping to increase the range?
I tried deconz too but I had some issue pairing the devices… Maybe its range is wider?

Using a proprietary hub should be a good way to follow? Xiaomi hub indeed isn’t too much “international” speaking only Chinese. Smartthings hub could be a good alternative?

So, I’m a little bit confused.
I need that my zigbee network is reliable and can cover all my house from the basement to the roof.

What do you think of?
I would like listen to your opinion about this.

Thanks

2

Deconz is a good solution. I’m sad you had those issues. If it was some time ago the latest fw and version of deconz have improved Xiaomi support and stability.

Of you’ve kept your conbee the zha component just got support for conbee in latest version of hass

3

I have in my drawer a Raspbee. Because I would run deconz on a stretch-lite regular image I couldn’t take the advantage of the UI. So here there would be another doubt: Does Raspbee work worst than Conbee or they are equivalent talking about the range? And then, what is the best way to extend the network in whole the house?

4

Have a house with thick concrete floors and 4 levels. Had the same trouble as you but not anymore.

Simple tricks:

  1. add a short (e.g. 50cm) usb cable between the cc2531 and your Pi of nuc, so the cc2531 has less interference with wifi or even maybe with BT (all using the 2.4 Ghz band).
  2. add more routers (e.g. cc2531 flashed with router software or other mains connected zigbee devices)

Now even zigbee sensors at the 4th floor reach the concentrator at the 1st floor. I have about 25 sensors and switches (most xiaomi-aqara) all working fine.

1 Like
5

I’m not a zigbee expert but, based on what I’ve read, zigbee routers extend the network. In practice, AC powered zigbee devices (not battery-powered devices) are designed to behave as routers. So your idea to install zigbee outlets is the standard method for extending the network.

EDIT

Additional ideas for extending the range:

6

Shouldn’t be any real difference between conbee and Raspbee afaik.

You definitely need to add routers to your system, you can’t only run sensors.

7

@Robban, @123 is there any outlet/router brand which is recommended for compatibility and reliability?

8

If you want power plugs I highly recommend Innr sp120, it can also measure power usage.

If you want lights, you can’t go wrong with hue lights

9

I just took away some dust from my Raspbee…
Connecting via VNC to the UI (ok I’ve just discovered you can connect to the UI via VNC in the container !!!) I can see all the nodes connected by a green line to the gateway.
Indeed, just few out of them are recognised with a name and a model. The other ones are just named by a number.
Only the recognised with a name are visible in HA. Others are not.

1 Like
10

This GitHub issue make me think that zigbee 2mqtt does not have a proper hardware to build a reliable solution:
https://github.com/Koenkk/zigbee2mqtt/issues/842

11

I am bound to say that deconz has a wider range than zigbee2mqtt.
Pheraphs it could be a little bit awkward to manage.
I am figuring out if there is a way to fix the end device names at least in HA.
If I’m not mistaken HA creates entities, according to this, just for binaries sensor naming them binary_sensor.<deconz_name>
Unfortunately deconz assigned to some device a progressive number which progressive is not.
Is here a way to definitely name these device in HA in a recognisable and fixed way?

12

You can rename all devices in deconz using the deconz service in hass

13

Thanks @Robban, I managed to change the deconz name using the deconz.configure service but in HA the entities kept the old name.
Of course I tried deconz.refresh_devices and then restarting HA hoping that the entities could be renamed following the node name in deconz.
Is there any way to do this?

14

When I have added a device to deconz I have followed the following steps:
1-Add device from phoscon web app (if it was previously paired with another gateway, unpair it from the original gateway)
2-Check if device is working and check in HA
3-rename in deconz
4-restart HA so it gets the new name
5-check in HA Configuration/Integrations/deCONZ for the new names. If needed, rename the sensors and restart HA again.

It’s long, but I had to follow this route because I was migrating sensors from Hue to deCONZ and didn’t want to change all my automations.
If someone knows a better way, please tell us!

15

HA reports correct name in Configuration/Integrations/deCONZ. Unfortunately entities are still named in the old way “binary_sensor.something-old”

16

You can change entity_id since a few releases back

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How can I change it?
Maybe modifying the filed “entity_id” in .storage/core.entity_registry?

-Edit-
Definitely via UI in Configuration/Integrations/deCONZ page. :sweat_smile:

18

In HA I cannot find Aqara/Xiaomi motion sensor which I can regularly see in deCONZ UI.
Am i missing something?

19

They should be there

20

again… some issue pairing devices:
I re-paired again motion sensor and one out of four was this time recognised by deconz as “alarm” and was correctly populated the node list view. Only this then was appeared in HA. Others still missing. In deconz they have only an “adress” ad node but decon dosn’t completely recognize the sensor.
Mmmmm