How do I bind a ZigBee device to a particular repeater

Configuration
1

I’m using the official blue HA zigbee dongle, and a number of white label repeaters.

Is there any way to bind a particular device to a particular repeater after it’s been added to my network?

2

I don’t think so. That’s kinda how mesh networks work.

3

Zigbee2MQTT has such option. However I have no experience if it really works and how stable is such choice when the network is rebuilded automatically.

4

Unfortunately, from my experience, whether a given zigbee device ‘sticks’ to communicating primarily via a router that you ‘join it to’ when you pair the device to the network seems to depend on the firmware in the given device and router you are joining it to. Some device behave well, others not so. Do some googling on this forum and the zigbee2mqtt github or discord discussion (even if you are using ZHA, which I highly recommend to not use, move to zigbee2mqtt instead). You will probably have to do some first hand experiments to see if your devices maintain the ‘recommended’ route you setup up or not.

When sharing requests for help, do share as much detail about the particular devices you are using.

Google on the HA docs, discussions and such to learn how to add a zigbee device ‘via’ a specific router. This takes a bit of learning to master.

Sorry to be a bit pedantic, however if you are going to ‘get in and use zigbee, or any tech’ you should use the correct terms. There is no such thing as a ‘repeater’ in zigbee. Unforunately, even some vendors incorrectly use this term. Zigbee had three types of devices : coordinators, routers and end devices.

Good hunting!

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5

As I said, I’m using the official HA dongle, and white label repeaters. There isn’t much more to say as they’re unbranded and cheap.

6

From my experience, ‘devil is in the details’. And when asking for help, those details make the difference between success or not. Good luck!

7

Could you expand on this? I’ve seen a few debates on ZHA vs Z2M around and I’d be curious what makes you say this.

8

Not really. You can join via particular device, but the device may ultimately choose a different path. Same is possible in ZHA.

It’s up to the device. Some can be very sticky to the initial router, others easily jump to other routes.

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9

Don’t want to hijack this persons thread, however I will share a short set of points:

  1. Yes, lots of debate…
  2. I’ve used both Zigbee2MQTT and ZHA, as well as a number of other zigbee network setups : Hue, Ikea, Tuya, Smartthings, Google, Amazon, Apple, my own hillbilly tech :wink: .
  3. I would like ZHA to be successful, but in a way that allowed it to continue to run (and control lights for the significant other :wink: ) even during Home Assistant upgrades, crashes…
  4. I would like ZHA to be successful, however, there is not enough developer resources available for it to be as robust and deep as I find Zigbee2MQTT.
  5. Just monitor the github releases, bug reports, discussions for both projects. The amount of new devices and tested updates of devices in the Zigbee2MQTT universe is massively larger than ZHA.
  6. Creating low cost, interesting and useful devices has become much easier for vendors in the last 12 months. You find a new useful device, you want it to work with Home Assistant as quickly and reliability as possible. Answer is most likely to be Zigbee2MQTT.
  7. When you have a problem or question with an open source system, you want the system with the largest user base, this is Zigbee2MQTT. Since it works with many other home automation systems than Home Assistant, this population of users is vastly larger.

Good hunting and good success with home automation in 2024 and beyond!

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