I wanted to reduce the amount of local pull I have on my network and i would like to have more reliable instant reaction when using dimmers/switch’s so i ordered a conbee and a raspberry pi to see if that works.
While waiting for it to arrive i wonder if it makes sense to just drop my hue bridge or it makes to keep the lights on the hue bridge and just have the switches and sensors on conbee ? That way i can still use hue and family apps to control the lights.
i also got a (still wrapped) tradfri bridge as i just installed 20 E14 and GU10 bulbs - haven’t yet figured out which bridge it would make sense to put them on.
What have you guys done ? Put all in one bridge or some combination making homeassistant the master of getting them to speak together ?
I started right away with a Pi, a ConBee stick and the deconz software. For me it works fine. Up to know I have three Milliskin spots and a E27 bulb from Philips, all controlled by Busch Jaeger ZigBee Light Link eqiupment and of course Home Assistant. So far it works fine for me. I don’t need any other bridge.
A friend of mine is also using deconz running an a Pi. He controls both: Philips and Ikea lights. He is also satisfied with this solution.
only real reason i’m hesitant to kill the hue bridge is that I do actually use it for two things:
setup wake up light alarms (the time changes occasionally and the app is the fastest way I know to change that)
my kids love when I use the hue disco app to have the kitchen lights rock out in color to the beat of the music.
I assume neither of the above is feasible with conbee “owning” the lights ?
(I do plan to move all my switches and sensors to conbee as I never if rarely adjust those via the hue app(s))
Deconz api is based on hue. So at lest some apps should work with deconz just as with hue. I don’t know how well. I once paired the hue app with deconz as well
My experience with deconz has mainly been positive.
I have some hue lights, xiaomi door and window sensors and ikea trådfri lights.
My primary reason for deconz was to have only one zigbee hub and mesh and to avoid some Chinese sniffing through the xiaomi hub (reasonably or not). Furthermore to use hue dimmers and sensors as a part of my HASS setup.
Most of the time it works fine, hue works best and seldom comes unavailable while the xiaomi is a little more unstable. Trådfri is in between but closer to hue.
If I should do it all over I would choose deconz again.
note, I think i’m going to run conbee on a separate raspberry pi - seems it prefers to have more native access plus docs says to disable bluetooth and I need that part for other things
You don’t need to disable anything if you’re using the conbee. And it works perfectly fine in a container ;). But you can potentially use the full desktop version of deconz if you run it on a separate Pi, which has its advantages
Hi there, digging this up from the grave as I could not find any better…
I have theConBee II, a Hue bridge (V2) and some Hue bulbs and switchs.
I was wondering if there was a way to have the ConBee join the network from the Hue bridge ? The idea would be to still be able to use the Hue app (GF loves it + hue firmware updates) but also be able to add some sensors (like Xiaomi Aqara motion / door) and avoiding to have 2 separated network, so all my bulbs can be relays for the sensors.
Or maybe the opposite, have the Hue hub join the ConBee network ?
Or I could give emulated hue a shot but not sure it would behave as good as the bridge…
I think you’re asking the wrong question.
No, you can’t have a bridge joining another bridge. But since you already have a ConBee, you could pair all your devices on your ConBee.
As for the Hue App for the GF, you can an emulated Hue hub on Home-assistance and everything should work fine.