I am just starting to convert my home to a smart home. According to my so far research, HA running on a home server can eliminate the need of buying an IoT Hub, Bridge or Gateway.
But what I don’t understand is, how will then HA detect my smart device. For example, Zigbee supported devices work through Zigbee connection. So, if I don’t have a Zigbee gateway, how will HA detect and connect to my Zigbee smart device? Do I need to buy Zigbee devices that support wifi? For example this sensor supports wifi:
You’ll need some kind of Zigbee Coordinator, like a Skyconnect, or buy a Home Assistant Yellow, which supports Zigbee out of the box.
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HA is your hub.
You can use WiFi out of the box, or add a Zigbee or Z-Wave adapter which makes it hub for those networks, too.
Zigbee edge devices don’t support WiFi. It’s a different protocol, albeit there’s some overlap with the frequency range WiFi uses.
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Then there are two alternative Zigbee integrations, ZHA or Z2M. Whichever one you use will discover and pair with your devices.
You can’t just add sensors, though. You have to build a solid network of mains-powered devices first - lightbulbs and sockets usually - which the sensors will use to connect to HA.
Before you buy anything, do your research. A lot of cheap Chinese devices are quite buggy.
Have a look here:
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Good point about the two integrations.
I have found ZHA does everything I want, but I have heard that some people find Z2M more functional. I’m trying to avoid having to learn/install/maintain MQTT, but some people love it. That’s the great thing about HA - so many options to choose from.
The big plus with Z2M is that a restart of HA doesn’t affect it.
Back to the OP request though - you will require a Zigbee co-ordinator - there are plenty to chose from. I use a ZZH! adapter and it has worked perfectly for almost 4 years.
I think the point is that HA is amazingly flexible. If you want a really complex system, you can have it, want a super easy one, you can have it. What you are seeing about hubs and such is usually for proprietary systems and those system are using the same core technology that you add to HA. Think of HA as your hub, but it’s modular so you can use it how you want.
Take, for example, the Philips Hue system, this is just a proprietary box that has a Zigbee “dongle” (for lack of a better explanation for simplicities sake) to talk to it’s accessories. That equates to having a Zigbee dongle on your HA system. But, unlike those proprietary hubs, you can add more protocols. Your HA can be WiFi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, Z-Wave, Matter or Thread, all in one “hub” just by adding cheap components to your USB ports (generally). You can’t do that with the Vera, the Hue or any other proprietary system.
So “hub” is pretty generic, when you really drill into what that means. Alexa is a hub, Tuya has a hub - dozens of manufacturers have them but if you already have HA you likely don’t need a single one to still use the exact same devices.
In laymans terms think of your Home Assistant instance as the core brain hub in the setup and the adapters for each tech as a modular upgrade for said brain to allow it to connect and control each new branch of nerves that uses signals of one of the upgrades installed in a more central and flexible manner.
The scope:
House size: 350 Sq. meter
Expected no. of IoT devices and sensors: less than 60 (I’ll start with 2 devices max)
TOP most priority: Local control. Nothing should be sent to cloud AT ALL.
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With this kind of scope, considering all the kind comments above, the kind of setup I am envisioning is:
- Run HA on a home server
- Use SONOFF Zigbee dongle-E as a gateway and for Zigbee2MQTT
- Use smart switches instead of replacing all the bulbs, fans, etc. by smart ones.
- For privacy purpose, separate out the IoT on network so that they cannot reach internet. They should only be able to reach local area network.
- In future, I might use Zigbee repeater in case of range issues with dongle-E
Please advise?