Extend zigbee via ethernet?

OK before you yell at me I have done search after search after search and haven’t been able to find a simple solution to this. I have a detached garage that was converted to an office. Our house is brick exterior as well as the garage. I do have ethernet going to the garage. However, I can’t seem to get a good Zigbee signal there even with routers and repeaters plugged in as close as possible to office. I also have one plugged in the office. I can’t seem to find anything about using my ethernet to extend the zigbee signal except for flashing a Sonoff bridge with Tasmota. Is that really the only solution? Just seems like there would be a simpler way. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Make it more dense. (Almost) every device on mains is a repeater, no need for dedicated repeaters or multiple coordinators. Also check your 2.4Ghz WiFi channels not interfering with Zigbee channels.

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Tubes makes zigbee coordinators that can be connected via Ethernet. I use one to have the coordinator centrally placed in my house.

Join the wait list. It is not generally longer than a week or two.

Edit: but yeah see Tinkerer’s comment below.

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Because it’s not possible.

You could run a second mesh, using a network connected coordinator. You can’t however extend the mesh that way.

Thanks for your input. Sorry I didn’t mean to say I have repeaters. I do have sockets on mains. I have them plugged in as close to the side of the house to the garage as possible and one plugged in at the garage. I will check the wifi channels as you suggested.

Ok thanks I guess I just wanted to confirm that. Like I said I saw a few threads about ethernet and flashing the sonoff bridge. I will try the other suggestions. Thank You.

Thanks I did see those. But if my understanding is correct those are coordinators and I already have my coordinator in my house. So seems like others have said it’s not really possible or has to be a second mesh which defeats the purpose.

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Correct.

Those threads will either turn it into a coordinator, or a router - and if it’s a router it’s not using the network to extend the mesh.

Why don’t you run an ethernet cable to your office?

You could run another zigbee network. Connect it to the house with z2m.

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I don’t have much experience with Zigbee myself, other than having a Hue system. But I’ve heard the Zigbee Protocol doesn’t have a hard requirement for mains powered devices to be repeaters unlike Z-wave.

So not ‘every’ mains powered zigbee device has routing capabilities. Also some vendors (like Hue) only route through their one devices.

So I don’t know if you can check if it’s actually routing the traffic, but I’d suggest you do if it’s possible.

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In addition, I don’t know how big the distance between your house and garage are but as Zigbee range is 10 to 100 meters, I feel like both mains powered devices should easily reach eachother in ‘open’ air.

While many people say that having 2 separate Zigbee meshes (and two Coordinators of course) is a bad idea there are situations where it is not, like a distant garage or building outside Zigbee router/repeater reach.

I have a Zigbee mesh (ZigStar CC2652P) in my house running Zigbee2MQTT and another one with the TubeSZ CC2652P LAN-Coordinator in my garage running ZHA, both in the same HA-instance. This works just fine and I find it easy to track/memorize which Zigbee entities belong to wich Zigbee mesh.

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Very true, i think there are “flourishing” a misunderstanding in regards to Zigbee networks, in more than 1 aspect, i.e the fact that they have a very “narrow” bandwidth (2MHz), beside WIFI 2.4Ghz only use 1 Channel (22MHz), pretty much very easy to Separate 1 WIFI 2.4Ghz Channel from up-to 2-3 or more Zigbee Channels, with no/ or very little overlapping, amount of “traffic” are in the end depended on END-Devices … and i also don’t get the idea of shooting +100 devices in-to a 2MHz wide Channel (even thou they are "small-talking, and can handle it), when you can shoot 50 in-to 2 Channels, and by this also, if 1 Coordinator/integration brakes/ goes down, it doesn’t affect the other/s, and some Coordinators(not usb in HA-Device) can “live-on” even if HA Device breaks.

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Separate meshes are a in general bad idea when some one uses multiple coördinators and isn’t aware that the devices linked to one cannot route for devices for the other coordinator. If the area overlaps and the number of routers is limited per coordinator, both messes are less stable the then what it could be with a single mesh.

Separate meshes that do not overlap in area are generally no problem, e.g. in the OP’s case when they are too much out of reach for a single mesh. That is, unless you want to directly link devices in groups or scenes across both meshes. Direct linking is great for switches/lights, because if HA crashes the remote still works.

Right, but it’s sounds like saying 2 sub-nets is generally bad, if one is not aware that you can’t talk with/see devices on another subnet.

Yes, i’ve heard, but this “statement” is not verified with any facts, saying “it’s less stable” without saying “based upon this or that”, it’s nothing i would ever be able to take into account

If a couple of Devices with a specific PANID and paired to a Specific Coordinator, in A Specific Channel, become unstable, due to other Devices on another Channel, paired to another Coordinator with another PANID … beside, i would think twice to ADD a “Router”, as Zigbee have a fairly good range, and “loosing” a “routing-table” can be a pain to figure out, so mesh in all honor, if it works without, don’t add another failure-point, and if you NEED, then think/plan carefully, not different from WIFI-Mesh, or drawing water-pipes for a heatingsystem, or electricity-system … last but not least, which Zigbee Channels are overlapping eachother ? , sure their might be “traffic” interference if you plan for 2 Zigbee-net in 1 room, or openplan area, mostly depended upon which Devices and how many that are involved.
And you say “less stable”, but without specifying, beside than “with a single network” as-well as

generally no problem ?

Again, im sorry it’s nothing i would ever be able to take into account ( in specific because i do have , i.e a motion-sensor(Aqara) controlling a light(Ikea) via an automation in HA, no problem, no lack) … maybe it could become a problem, if i have 50 devices on same floorplan, but that’s in no way a part of my “Plan” thou im around 1 dozen zigbees on this Open floorplan already :slight_smile:

Not sure what you mean, thought at first this was something you do in HA, on a per-device/group basis, mesh/zigbee/wifi/ethernet etc. is “seemless” or ?

I assume by “direct link” he’s referring to binding, which is where one Zigbee device can directly control another, with no involvement from HA (or anything else)

I ran two overlapping meshes for a few months, zero stability issues as they were on different channels. I agree that simply saying that overlapping meshes is “less stable” is meaningless.

I’m talking about the quality of the links between zigbee devices, which increases with the number of zigbee routers. If you put half of them in another mesh, you get less links.

TLDR. The only “.” in there are not meant to separate sentences but … Are you deliberately trying to confuse people?

How do these problems relate to the OP’s question or to having two meshes outside of eachothers transmission range?