I am an absolute beginner and have a question about a new configuration.
Initial situation:
Home Assistant Green available
Aqara G5 Pro Camera (POE)
Zigbee ceiling lights
Shelly 1PM Gen4 for switching the ceiling lamps via a conventional light switch
Do I need a stick with Thread / Zigbee for my Home Assistant Green or can the Aqara G5 Pro take over this function as a Thread border router / Zigbee Hub in this variant?
What is the best way to set up the devices?
In the end, they should be operable via Home Assistant and Apple Home.
As always, the answer is… “It depends what you want to do.” Not very helpful, but there are some general points.
Apparently the Aqara G5 Pro can be used as a Zigbee hub, but there are caveats:
It will be designed to work with Aqara products - you may have trouble connecting with devices from other manufacturers.
Home Assistant would be controlling devices indirectly via the Aqara G5 Pro. I don’t know if this is even possible, but if it is you may find functionality reduced. In any event, you’d be creating a chain of controllers (HA - Homekit - Aqara G5) which is asking for trouble.
It certainly isn’t a replacement for a Zigbee USB stick.
A generic Zigbee USB stick like the ZBT-1 should connect to any device that implements the Zigbee protocol properly (a lot don’t - do your research before you buy your gadgets), so that’s a much simpler and more open-ended route to take.
I don’t use Apple myself, but there is a HomeKit integration.
I believe this is how the Aqara G5 would connect to HA, but it doesn’t sound ideal:
There’s a forum thread about adding it to HA here (sounds as if they’re in a similar position to you):
