Does home assistant zigbee integration can integrate with all zigbee devices?

Hello,
I am new to home assistant , I would like to buy Orvibo Door lock which supports Zigbee and Bluetooth. You can find the product here https://www.orvibo.com/en/product/t1/install.html
Can home assistant Zigbee integration auto-discover this product? Do i have to do any coding?
Generally, if I buy any Zigbee product like sensors, light switches, door locks from china will it be auto-discovered in home assistant without having to code anything?

Please Help
Thanks

So the simple answer is no, but the complex answer is there are a few things to understand.

  1. Zigbee is a communication technology and was original designed for industrial use.
  2. On top of the technology there is a messaging protocol and for home automation there are some standard ones HA1.2 (which has some subsets) and Zigbee 3.0. So either of those is what you look for.
  3. Some manufacturers do weird things with their messaging protocol.

The long and the short is if you are using ZHA and the device strictly supports the protocols above, the device should join ZHA without any issue. If the do something different then you may need a quirk written to work with the device.

There is a pretty good resource for devices here

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Its also worth noting that there are different approaches to implementation which also make a difference. Factors can include:

the type of zigbee router you use e.g. ConBee II Zigbee USB Gateway, CC2531, Nortek GoControl)
the software you use e.g. deconz, ZHA, zigbee2mqtt

The resource @meremortal pointed you at is great. As are the help forums here.

The door lock you listed doesnt seem to be on the compatibility list above, but that doesn’t mean it wont work with one or all of the solutions. I havent looked here so its worth doing that to see if people are already using it and with what.

My own personal experience was that I started with a ebay CC2531 stick and ZHA, and lets just say it wasn’t a success (others have had no issues). I switched to Zigbee2mqtt and it works with all my devices so far.

The biggest tip is patience, especially when pairing devices which seems to be a consistent area of issue for many.

Hope that helps - happy to chat if you have further questions but I’m no expert.

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Thanks, @meremortal and @tachikoma1373 for the help. So I can understand that any device not listed on the resource provided can not be auto-discovered in Home assistant UI and needs coding to integrate.
-Well, what about Z-wave door locks, do all devices integrate easily with home assistant? is there any list for compatible devices (like the one provided above for Zigbee)?

No not necessarily, the list is only what users have reported as working. It’s a great resource but not exhaustive.

As mentioned previously with ZHA, anything which follows the standards will work most of the time. There are a few features which are lacking in ZHA though and therefore some features offered by devices are not available.

For the other two Zigbee integrations, every new device needs to be coded.

Sorry I don’t have any Z-wave as in Australia we work on a different frequency so not a lot of availability and anything which is available is very expensive.

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@meremortal can you explain what you mean by

For the other two Zigbee integrations, every new device needs to be coded.

I haven’t had to do any “coding” for my zigbee2mqtt integration. All my devices have been detected and installed automatically (once you get them to pair :wink: ), although I know that may not always be the case.

Thanks

There is a very large file which configures the devices. If everything worked out of the box why would the link below be needed :grinning:

Every new device which hasn’t been previously coded has to be added.

So if I understand what you are saying:

ZHA supports all devices that adhere to zigbee alliance standard out of the box but, non standard devices need to addressed via ZHA device handlers.

Zigbee2mqtt supports devices that have already had a device handler written and included in the “very large file” (I assume this is devices.js?) but, or have a zigbee-herdsman-converters written (which as I understand it are the equivalent of ZHA device handlers).

So a new device that is standards compliant should be visible to ZHA without any “dev” work. To work in zigbee2mqtt the same device would either need to be added to devices.js OR have a herdsman converter.

Correct that is my understanding. You seem to have it nailed so why are you quizzing me? I am only trying to help the original poster.

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chill fella, you seemed knowledgeable and I was seeking clarity from someone I felt knew more than me.

All good, because zigbee2mqtt is doing a conversion from one protocol to another each new type of device needs the code work. Not saying that is a bad thing if all your other sensors are running MQTT.

So when I purchase a device I should look for a zigbee 3.0 compatible device and then it should pair with home assistant automatically, right?
will all the product features be available in-home assistant for example door lock featues like

  • See the state of the lock from within HA
  • Lock/unlock the door through HA
  • See which keycode unlocked the door.
    and many features?

Sorry for hijacking but on the other hand, the answer can add something to the topic.

Are you still using that stick?
Does this mean that with such a CC2531 stick and by using Zigbee2MQTT all devices using the zigbee protocol should work in HA?

@Nick4

Are you still using that stick?

Yes, If your are interested this is the link https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Zigbee-USB-Dongle-CC2531-Zigbee2MQTT-Antenna-Preflashed-Home-Assistant/193407048077

Does this mean that with such a CC2531 stick and by using Zigbee2MQTT all devices using the zigbee protocol should work in HA?

My interpretation is “kind of” :slight_smile: I think of it like device drivers - as long as there is a driver for that device (or at least a compatible one) or someone has written a custom one then yes. The same would be true for ZHA and others though.

I can only talk for ZHA with the locks.

It doesn’t yet integrate the key codes, there has been some talk about it on the forums.

You can unlock and lock it from HA, you can see the status, I even run an automation at night which checks all my window and door sensors and the Yale locks to check everything is secure. If not it tells me. I want to extend it to tell me what is not closed but haven’t had time yet.

The other answer is ZHA currently only supports HA1.2. In saying that Zigbee 3.0 devices will fall back to HA1.2 but you might miss some features. I run a lot of Zigbee 3.0 devices. In total I have 148 zigbee devices currently on ZHA with a Conbee II USB stick.

Thanks for the support.
Does the conbee II stick have a good range ? What is the range of it , will it be capable of handling around 120 devices inside a house of around 800 m2 ?
Can all devices connect to the conbee directly without routing ?

Yes, it has a pretty good range.

That depends on how many of these are mains powered (can act as a router), if it’s only battery powered devices and no routers it won’t work.

No.

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Hi, Thanks @Burningstone.
I am thinking of using Texas instrument [CC2538 + CC2592 dev board hardware flashed with Z-Stack Home 1.2.x coordinator firmware] which is supported by Zigbee2mqtt. It has a very good range.

The question is does it also support ZHA integration?

I am hesitating to purchase this because I need to flash it with Z-Stack Home 1.2.x coordinator firmware and there isn’t support for it in the community in case things doesn’t go right.
This is how its flashed

I don’t know, I only use the ConBee and the RaspBee in the past.

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See https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zha/ for the list of supported and experimental devices. The one you mention is in the experimental section. I tried ZHA with my CC2531 and had real issues getting anything to bind. That’s why I use zigbee2mqtt. That said, others have had no issue with ZHA so I’d suggest you try both when you get it.