Question: Even with the range issues on the CC2531, would that be fixed with nearby repeaters - for instance in the room that the CC2531 is going (I am trying it out) I have 3 Hue lights, and I can add a zigbee smart plug into my set up as well. Given the proximity to the always powered items, which would repeat the zigbee connections (and my use of other hue bulbs around my apartment) would this be an issue still? What do you think?
in theory that is true. in my case i wanted to reduce the number of hops from end devices to coordinator, so i upgraded to a cc2530 with cc2591 with external antenna for $15. It works well.
Iām pretty new to Home Assistant and bought a CC2531 a few months ago. I got it working with zigbee2mqtt along with a few bulbs and Hue dimmers. Zigbee2MQTT was a bit of a learning curve but worked well.
I have since moved house and started with a fresh HomeAssistant install. I tried ZHA and really liked how easy to use it was. I always got in a mess with the entity names in Zigbee2MQTT.
My new house is bigger and the CC2531 is struggling with range so I have ordered a CC2652RB. It does not have a PA but I have heard reports the range is still a lot better than the CC2531.
So, I really canāt decide whether to go with ZHA or Zigbee2MQTT. I only have a few devices at the moment but want to expand. I prefer the usability of ZHA it may limit hardware choices due to compatibility. Does anyone know how accurate this compatibility list is?
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That list is (in my opinion) the best maintained list about zigbee compatibility.
Does the CC2652RB have an external antenna?
I use the CC2530+CC2591 ($15, eBay) and power it with a variable-voltage USB power supply. it covers the whole house and has been very reliable.
I agree the cc2531 range was basically useless.
Fast forward 6 months from my previous post and I switched to ZigBee2MQTT 
Mainly because :
- it is decoupled from HA and thus my network does not restart at every HA restart
- MQTT allows me to plug into my network from other things than HA
- ConBee II stick is now compatible with it
- Well integrated into HA thanks to ZigBee2MQTT Assistant
Not that I had any issue with ZHA, I first just wanted to try but then it works well and Iām lazy to migrate everything back, and I like the "future-proof side of MQTT-ing my home setup.
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Any installation guide for setup ConBee II with ZigBee2MQTT? Thanks.
Hi !
If you want to install it as an HA addon, you can follow the instructions from the addonās page. The full documentation can be found on the official ZigBee2MQTT website.
The only ConBee specific config is in the adapter settings, where youāll need to have something along those lines :
serial:
adapter: deconz
port: >-
/dev/serial/by-id/usb-dresden_elektronik_ingenieurtechnik_GmbH_ConBee_II_REDACTED-if00
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Thanks Twan. My installation is HA docker on Ubuntu, ConBee is configured in the docker compose yaml file.
Do I need something like this: https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/information/docker.html? The document is referring to CC2531. Iām not seeing ConBee related configuration.
Yes, you can follow that doc. You will need to adapt your compose file with the correct device like so :
devices:
- /dev/ttyACM0:/dev/ttyACM0
Just replace /dev/ttyACM0 with the correct path to you device (2 times, separated by a : !)
You can find your device by running ls -la /dev/serial/by-id/ on your host.
Hope this helps 
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Thanks. Noted, it will be useful in case I test zigbee2mtqq later.
When I started zigbee, zigbee2mtqq was first considered. However either need flash or buy pre-flashed CC2531, and also read that the antenna wasnāt that great, conbee wasnāt supported at that time (or I didnāt know). So I started with conbee II and deconz, worked great, but noticed deconz process constantly uses over 5% of CPU despite I only have 2 bulbs and 4 buttons, which keep my laptop very warm.
I migrated to ZHA sometime ago, it works and that extra 5% cpu is gone.
Maybe I will try zigbee2mtqq in the future, since I already have mqtt container used for many tasmota devices.
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I have been running z2m for a while, at the beginning with a CC2531 and now with CC2652R1.
I was wondering how you deal with light-bulb update ? I havenāt been finding any good way, but re-pairing with their original hub. I was thinking about getting a conbee II, just for that purpose. Do you have any other solution ?
Zigbee2mqtt can do OTA updates. Check the zigbee2mqtt documentation, or simply use zigbee2mqtt assistant.
actually yes, create a backup first via de phoscon ui so you can just restore it when you are not happy with ZHA
Indeed if migrating is what you want to do. One of the advantages of ZHA to me was that you donāt need any additional addon. You just give the stick path to HA and it will take care of it. My last post where I explain I switched to Zigbee2MQTT might interest you as well
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Well, for me performance is the most important thing. For now iām using deconz, but with more the 100 zigbee devices sometimes the websocket traffic is high towards home assistant and i can see the cpu usage that causes. So with mqtt this will not be any different but i wonder if itās better with zha directly 
My guess is that it would remove the need for HA to communicate and interpret with another system, so, yep should be ālighterā. But thatās a guess, right ?
Is the cpu usage an issue ? Do you feel lag when using your devices ? If no, then the pain of moving everything and risking to need to re-pair all your devices might be bigger than the need to switch over 
when moving switches like ikea somfysk the updates are rapid and I can see the cpu usage go up towards 100% for HA only
I have a question regarding the status update of the zigbee devices. Sometimes I noticed that the status on my HA/mqtt is not matching the actual device, in this case, it is bulb. The bulb is on but HA/mqtt show off. I think this may due to sometime my family member used the wall dumb switch to turn on/off the connected zigbee bulb. So does this mean that in such case, the bulb is not reporting the status to mqtt? Any workaround to fix this?
Another question is that the zigbee xiaomi button works ok, but in the network map, they are not connected to any devices, is this normal?
Thanks!
If the bulb is turned on/off outside of ZigBee, it is quite normal the status is not correct in HA. Zigbee2mqtt has a fix for it : reporting: true. Check it in the zigbee2mqtt documentation.
For your second problem: if it works, it does not matter it does not show up as connected on the network map.
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