Hi everyone,
as a absolute Newbee i need some Clarification to understand better what i need. I bought a Beelink Mini PC and installed HA. So far so good.
I will add different Devices from Shelly or Led Panels with Zigbee Protocols ect. ect.
Do i think right, that i need USB Dongles for each Protokoll to make them availible. Like Zigbee?
And how you guys handle long distances? Our Mini Pc should be located with all other Network Devices in the basement. what is not the best Place for wireless connections.
I understood that Devixces like Shellys Gen 4 can work as Repeaters, but do they also work with HA.
And my last Question. To make it work, is it necassary that every Device from any Light, to any Power Plug needs a straight connection to my Beelink with HA ?
You can’t really say “this manufacturer’s devices work” - you need to research each specific device. How to do that depends on which HA integration you’re using.
Z2M provides a handler for each device it supports, and there is a list you can use to check whether yours is one of them:
ZHA aims to support any device that implements Zigbee correctly (it’s surprising how many don’t), so it is more difficult to provide a list. You need to check the forum and the GitHub page to see which ones have issues.
There is a useful database of Zigbee products:
Zigbee is not good at long distances. The signal is very weak and easily blocked by walls etc. You need a lot of routing devices to pass messages from one point to another. In a building with lights and sockets this is not a problem - it’s how it’s designed to work - but it’s not the best protocol for passing messages between buildings - from the house to the garage, for example.
No. Zigbee is a mesh network and messages are passed from router to router until they reach the coordinator dongle. In fact the dongle should only be connecting directly with a handful of devices.
At least for zigbee, there are also (beyond USB ones) ethernet based zigbee coordinators, which can be placed anywhere with ethernet connectivity (so in a better, more central, location).
Matter itself has no rf protocol, that would be thread.