Home Assistant SkyConnect (Home Assistant Connect ZBT-1) - official Zigbee and/or Thread USB radio dongle from Nabu Casa

Hardware
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I have no matter/thread stuff yet, so will wait until I do before reassessing

I prefer to have my mesh network separate from my HA instance. If they allowed a ZHA standalone container I would probably have gone that route, but for now z2m is great

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I’ve migrated from a conbee II (ZHA) to the skyconnect and somewhere along the way there’s an issue. Every time I restart core I lose the ability to use two Aqara opple 6 button switches as it seems it no longer knows which zha quirk to use… I have to delete and re-add them so that they pick up the appropriate quirk again…

Is this some unusual software / hardware interaction to cause this change?

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108

Is there a way to use touchlink with the SkyConnect?

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I’ve done the same thing, but using zigbee2mqtt.

Occasionally I’ll have devices just ‘leave the network’ and never come back. I suspect it’s a firmware issue with the device - even though it’s mentioned in the blog related to the multi-pan function, it’s basically what I’m seeing

"The bug is that Zigbee end-devices cannot rejoin the network through the coordinator: it kicks them and asks them to re-join, over and over. "

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I’m not using the multi-pan firmware though. There seems to be a bug with Aqara stuff that is being fixed at the moment.

The sky connect was a good way to show support for the HA project so I actually bought 2 with the intent to run one as pure ZigBee and the other as pure Thread. If that’s not possible I’ll just gift the second one to a friend who’s starting to scratch the HA surface.

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I recently purchased the new SkyConnect coordinator, partly as a way of supporting Nabu Casa, and partly to get onto what I believed would be the best supported Zigbee coordinator for H.A.

After receiving it I learned that it uses a chipset that still only has experimental support in Z2M. So I converted my H.A. setup to use ZHA. That generally works great – and actually seems more stable and responsive then Z2M – but I’m no longer able to use my six green-power based control buttons (all based on EnOcean PTM 215Z) :sob:, as zigbee green power isn’t supported by ZHA (due to lack of support in zigpy, I believe)

If SkyConnect and ZHA are meant to power the premier H.A. experience, then this issue with no green power support really needs to get resolved.

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For reference, this pull request for ZHA documentation would at least add a mention of these limitations as well as some other essential information I think is needed in an introduction to new users for the ZHA integration:

https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant.io/pull/24494

Introduction

ZHA integration follows the official Zigbee specification standards and uses one Zigbee Coordinator to set up and control a Zigbee network. Once ZHA has been installed and the Zigbee Coordinator is configured you will be able to directly join/pair Zigbee Router Device and Zigbee End Device products to that Zigbee network, regardless of the manufacturer and brand of that Zigbee-based product. Please see the respective sections below for compatible Zigbee radio modules hardware (physical radio adapter) and information on supported Zigbee devices.

Before installing the integration you will need to buy and connect a Zigbee Coordinator adapter to the computer running the Home Assistant installation. The general recommendation is to buy a newer model of Zigbee Coordinator adapter hardware and to flash the latest firmware to it, the reason that is it will usually offer better interoperability with all functions of most Zigbee 3.0 compliant devices on the market.

Supported devices are Zigbee Router Devices, which are normally mains-powered that act as Zigbee signal repeaters within the Zigbee network mesh to extend its range and improve coverage, and Zigbee End Devices, which will not act as Zigbee signal repeaters and are usually but not always battery-operated sensors.

Limitations

Note that ZHA only supports connecting one dedicated Zigbee Coordinator adapter with a single Zigbee network and that the Zigbee Coordinator adapter cannot already be connected or used by any other application. Any devices that are or have previously been connected to another Zigbee implementation will also need to first be reset to their factory default settings before they can be paired/joined to ZHA, please see each device manufacturer’s documentation.

ZHA does not yet support devices that can only use the ZGP (“Zigbee Green Power”) profile which is used in a few batteryless self-powered or energy harvesting devices, (such as for example; Philips Hue Click, Philips Hue Tap, and some “Friends of Hue” partnership switches). The reason for this is that ZGP profile support has not yet been implemented in the zigpy library.

ZHA does not support devices that can only use the ZSE (“Zigbee Smart Energy”) profile because “Zigbee SE” is not part of the Zigbee 3.0 specification standard and thus not implemented in the Zigbee stack of commonly available Zigbee Coordinator adapters.

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113

I want to use my RPi (Hassio) as a Thread border router and my Skyconnect with only Thread enabled firmware not multiprotocol. (use Sonoff dongle with z2m now)
Is this possible yet?

Read here that you can use separate devices as matter controller and thread border router. In fact they recommend it, or?
https://developer.nordicsemi.com/nRF_Connect_SDK/doc/2.1.0-rc2/nrf/ug_matter_gs_testing_thread_separate_otbr_linux_macos.html

I have an AppleTV4k (1st gen matter only). Can I use this as matter controller and RPi as Thread border router?

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In order to use Multi-pan with the SkyConnect you need to install the “Silicon Labs Multiprotocol” add-on which then depends on using the Silicon Labs cpc-daemon?

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I understand the SkyConnect configuration / integration is temporarily disabled.
Is there any ETA on when the SkyConnect integration will be ready for deployment?

Thanks

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Integration works. Only multipanning is not supported at the moment.

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Will skyconnect be detected if it connected on a USB to IP dongle? I am in Hyper-V so am stuck for a connection!

Edit: ‘be detected’ as in can i configure a connection, not necessarily auto detected!

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It should work over TCP/IP using wired Ethernet LAN, (in ZHA connect socket://[IP]:[PORT] for example socket://192.168.1.10:9999) but note that it is not recommended to use a Zigbee serial bridge over WiFi, see → https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zha#warning-about-wi-fi-based-zigbee-to-serial-bridgesgateways (and for Zigbee2MQTT see https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/advanced/remote-adapter/connect_to_a_remote_sonoff_zbbridge.html).

FYI, for how-to do it with Ser2net software see → https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/advanced/remote-adapter/connect_to_a_remote_adapter.html

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I was coming to conclusion that this is a problem of my own making and I should just get an ethernet co-ordinator like Tubez instead - but…

Z2MQTT then - am i understanding this correctly:

  1. I install the ‘windows’ version on the actual machine, plug the skyconnect in
  2. configure it and it spits out MQTT onto my network
  3. Add the integration into HA in hyper V and it then interfaces with the devices via Network- MQTT-W11 ‘real machine’-MQTT component on W11-skyconnect and then to device?

If so that looks like the workaround? Although the future Matter function is lost…

I really should just return the skyconnect and get a Tubez or similar shouldn’t I?!

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To summarize what I mentioned above, personally, I like recommend these type of setups in general:

  • If want to use Home Assistant’s ZHA integration then it is today highly recommended to use a Zigbee Coordinator USB adapter based Silicon Labs EFR32MG21/EFR32MG13, Texas Instruments CC2652/CC1352, or ConBee II (dresden-elektronik), in that specific order if stability is your highest requirement. ZHA also support other Zigbee Coordinator adapters but they are either older or not supported as well. See https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zha#recommended-zigbee-radio-adapters-and-modules

  • If want to use Zigbee2MQTT instead then it is today highly recommended to use a Zigbee Coordinator USB adapter based on Texas Instruments CC2652P/CC1352P or ConBee 2 if stability is your highest requirement. Zigbee2MQTT also support other Zigbee Coordinator adapters but they are either older or not supported as well (e.g. “experimental”). See https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/guide/adapters/#recommended

  • I personally recommend using a single dedicated radio USB adapter for each separate wireless protocol as it both decreases complexity and at least on paper should offer better performance.

    • So a tip is to use a single dedicated Home Assistant SkyConnect USB dongle for Thread (and Matter over Thread) and then buy another separate single dedicated Home Assistant SkyConnect USB dongle (or other Silicon Labs EFR32MG21 based USB adapter) with ZHA or alternatively a separate single dedicated Texas Instruments CC2652P USB adapter instead if using Zigbee2MQTT.

  • If not absolutely necessary try to avoid internally connected Zigbee Coordinator adapters that are mounted inside the computer case since that will increase interference and decrease reception.

  • If not absolutely necessary try to avoid network-attached Zigbee Coordinator adapters today because they will add unnecessary complexity. Instead recommend just using a Zigbee USB adapter with very long USB extension cable if possible, read → Zigbee networks: how to guide for avoiding interference and optimize for getting better range + coverage - #3 by Hedda

Regardless of Zigbee solution read/follow all of these generic guidelines → Zigbee networks: how to guide for avoiding interference and optimize for getting better range + coverage

I would not personally install Z2M on Windows OS but otherwise think you got the gist of Zigbee2MQTT, though there is also an (easier) option to Zigbee2MQTT via the addon if want to run it on the same machine as your Home Assistant OS or a Supervised Home Assistant instance, but then you loose your wanted feature of running it as stand-alone on a other machines on the your local network.

Better would be to buy and use a single-board computer (SBC) with Linux OS to run Zigbee2MQTT, such as example an Raspberry Pi or Hardkernel ODROID and use that as a dedicated appliance for just for that purpose. You should then also be able to squeeze in for example ZWaveJSMQTT (ZWave JS MQTT) on the same computer with a Z-Wave 700 USB dongle like the Aeotec Z-Stick 7.

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Thanks Hedda - a lot of those are what i would like to do but (for my current arrangement) can’t because hyperv wont take a USB pass through. In theory i can’t plug any USB’s into my machine.

I think the Z2MQTT solution is an option though if it comes to it - thanks for the input, i am looking at a few options and that is defintitely one i hadn’t though of.

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Since discussing different Zigbee2MQTT setups any further and deeper here would be way too much off-topic for this thread I recommend that you ask for advice in Zigbee2MQTT support channnels (https://github.com/Koenkk/zigbee2mqtt/discussions, though a quick suggestion would again be for you to consider looking more into if a better setup option for Zigbee2MQTT might be to instead buy and use a single-board computer (SBC) with Linux OS to run Zigbee2MQTT (such as example a Raspberry Pi or Hardkernel ODROID) and use that as a dedicated appliance for Zigbee2MQTT (and maybe also other smaller IoT applications such as the Mosquitto MQTT Broker). Anyway, Zigbee2MQTT has a very small footprint so it would really be overkill to run it on a PC with Windows OS. And if you want to run several different application that all have small footprints on the same single-board computer with Linux, then suggest run either the Zigbee2MQTT image in a Docker container with Docker Compose or in a virtual machine on Pimox/Proxmox (Pimox V7) virtualization hypervisor (virtual machine manager) or even a combination of the two (with the Zigbee2MQTT image for Docker on Linux running inside a virtual machine under Pimox/Proxmox):

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Although that seems the logical choice, I’m not so sure.

ZHA is my test network and I’ve moved it between adapters several times.

The re-pairing process always goes easier with the TI stick, and distant devices seem better behaved.

Take this for what it is - anecdotal and subjective.

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Today I recived my SkyConnect!

My current setup was using Phoscon+Conbee II, so I took a backup of my conbee II with zigpy tool to get Open ZigBee Coordinator Backup Format since I did not want to repair every zigbee device I own.
Added ZHA choose my new SkyConnect and restored my backup, found lots of devices and renamed them as my old entities from Phoscon, eveything looking fine. So I thought.

Now to my problem :smiley: I cant add any Ikea light bulbs or TRÅDFRI Control outlets, my first time using ZHA is there anything that I need to know? I can pair Hue bulbs and other Aqara smart plugs without problem, even several meters away from the SkyConnect. My old Conbee II is unplugged so that one does not interfere. Does not matter if I am 1 cm from the SkyConnect, tried multiple USB ports and currently using usb2.0. Anyone got any tips? :slight_smile:

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Some Zigbee Coordinator dongles do have better range than others when distant devices communicate diretctly to the Zigbee Coordinator and not going through the closest Zigbee Router device, but that should not matter as is not how Zigbee it meant to work, instead you are suppose to extend your Zigbee network by adding many Zigbee Router devices that that use mesh networking that take care of the total coverage. That is, the actual range between the Zigbee Coordinator and devices that connect to it directly should not matter as it should rwally only need to talk to the closest Zigbee Router devices, as all you should need to do is add more Zigbee Router devices (and maybe re-pair devices that have range issues if they do not automatically connect to a closer Zigbee Router device).

So if distant devices connect directly with the Zigbee Coordinator then something is wrong and you should probably try re-pairing that device to a closer Zigbee Router, but first add more Zigbee Router devices if needed. Personally I recommend buying a few IKEA Trådfri Signal Router devices (or reflash Sonoff Zigbee dongles with Zigbee Router firmware) and add them spread out in your house to act as the backbone of your Zigbee network with them creating the core of the mesh network.

I also mention that in this other best practice guidelines thread → https://community.home-assistant.io/t/guide-for-zigbee-interference-avoidance-and-network-range-coverage-optimization/515752

Zigbee technology uses mesh networking (a type of network topology/architecture), which means that most mains-powered devices are a “Zigbee Router” that can act as a signal repeater and range extended by transmitting data over long distances by passing data messages through the Zigbee network mesh of intermediate devices to reach more distant Zigbee devices. Thus the key to a great and healthy Zigbee network is to add/have many “Zigbee Router” devices relatively close to each other in order to achieve good coverage and range. So you more or less just need to add/have several mains-powered Zigbee devices in the network that act as “Zigbee Router” devices.

  • Add more and decrease the distance between Zigbee devices in Zigbee network mesh to get better range and coverage:
    • Zigbee uses mesh networking and depends on having many “Zigbee Router” devices to extend range and coverage:
      • Recommendation is to add additional mains-powered Zigbee devices known to be good Zigbee Router devices.
        • Add more Zigbee Router devices and reduce their distances to extend network mesh coverage and range.
          • Note that not all mains-powered devices have firmware that makes them act as a Zigbee Router device.
          • Some brands/models of Zigbee Router devices are known to only work well with the same brand of devices.
      • Buy a few known good dedicated Zigbee Router products (for example the “IKEA Tradfri Signal Repeater ”).
        • Search community forums for more “Zigbee signal repeater” or “Zigbee range extender” Zigbee Router tips.
      • Buy a few additional new Zigbee USB adapters to use after re-flashing them with Zigbee Router firmware.
        • Reflash/reuse modern Zigbee USB adapters to act as Zigbee Router devices by changing Zigbee firmware.
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