Is there any benefit in moving lights bulbs from Hue to zigbee2mqtt?

Configuration Zigbee
#1

I have home assistant on a RPi4. And a zigbee2mqtt network with an CC2531 stick. Connected to my Zigbee2mqtt network are mainly xiaomi devices (motion sensors, contact sensors) and Ikea devices (power outlets)

I also have a phillips hue with 10 Phillips hue lights and 4 Innr lights.

So now I have 2 zigbee networks 1 zigbee2mqtt and 1 Phillips hue. I was wondering what’s the upside and downside is from migrating all the hue blubs tot the zigbee2mqtt network? Of course you have only one Zigbee network but is it worth the trouble of migrating the bulbs.

The reason that I’m considering this is that frequently my garden lights become unavailable for a few seconds in home assistant. I followed all the suggestions in this forum and other forums but I can’t seem to resolve it. Maybe migrating them to zigbee2mqtt will do the trick.

#2

The benefit is that you can stop using the philips hue bridge. If you have zigbee2mqtt stick then no need for the hue bridge.

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#3

And you will have a better mesh, and less interference.

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#4

Xiaomi are funky devices. Ikea devices are known to play well with Xiaomi. I don’t know about Hue and innr. Xiaomi have irregular reporting intervals which causes certain zigbee repeaters to think the devices are offline. Merging the two zigbee networks may be perfectly fine. But if your Xiaomi devices start dropping off, go back to your original setup.

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#5

Would yo be able to use the official Hue app in someway? thanks

#6

No, if you migrated a bulb from hue to zigbee, it’s no longer a hue bulb. If you keep your bridge however, you can use aqara devices through zigbee2mqtt and hue integration for philips bulbs… it does however defeat the idea of a single bridge.

#7

I’ve been in the process of setting up a Zigbee network using a ConBee USB radio, and moving Hue bulbs is the next thing on my list. I’m actually more preferential to using the ZHA integration rather than zigbee2mqtt, because it’s not dependent on a broker.

Have you migrated any of your Hue devices yet? If so, how has that gone for you? I’ve got to disassociate my bulbs from the Hue hub, and there’s documentation on how to do it. However, I just haven’t had the chance yet.

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#8

With ConBee you can’t use ZigBee2MQTT, either DeCONZ or ZHA.

#9

With ConBee you can’t use ZigBee2MQTT, either DeCONZ or ZHA.

Soon you can:

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#10

Alle the hue devices are working fine. They are working better then when they where connected to the hue bridge, Also no problem with te Xiaomi and tradfri devices. Everything works rock sollid

The only problem I have is with the Innr lamps they give the following errors:

zigbee2mqtt:debug 2020-03-03 10:26:00: No converter available for 'RS 128 T' with cluster 'genOta' and type 'commandQueryNextImageRequest' and data '{"fieldControl":0,"manufacturerCode":4454,"imageType":260,"fileVersion":285409283}'

zigbee2mqtt:error 2020-03-03 11:14:44: Publish 'set' 'state' to 'Tuin_links_2' failed: 'Error: Command 0x00158d0001cd1b3c/1 genOnOff.off({}, {"timeout":6000,"manufacturerCode":null,"disableDefaultResponse":false}) failed (Error: Data request failed with error: 'No network route' (205))'

I raised a post on the zigbee2mqtt forum about this.

#11

Answering the original question, yes, there are benefits.

  • The Hue bridge doesn’t stream events to HA, so HA most poll it. As fast as Hue sensors seem to respond when attached to a Hue hub, they will be even faster when HA immediately knows about events rather than at the next polling interval.
  • More bulbs on your Zigbee network will give you a more robust mesh. Battery-operated devices may experience longer battery life. “Dead spots” may be eliminated.
  • Hue bridge can be unplugged. One less IoT device talking to “the cloud”.
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#12

I use almost exclusively Innr bulbs and the work absolutely fine with Xiaomi devices. I can highly recommend Innr

#13

Sorry to hijack a thread. A current Hue user, but looking to get some motion sensors and use Conbee2 for my RPi4.

If and once I set up the Conbee2 would this mean I can then remove the hue bridge from my home?

Would I still be able to add further Hue bulbs to my home in the future?

Thank you

#14

While dependency on something might be considered bad, using messaging layer between provider and subscriber(s) is better and more flexible approach.

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#15

If you unpair your Hue lights from the Hue bridge and then pair them to the Conbee2, you will no longer need the bridge to control them.

Additional bulbs you purchase should be paired to the Conbee2. However, be advised that many Hue bulbs ship with outdated firmware and should be upgraded (often called Over The Air, OTA, updates). Normally the Hue bridge takes care of this procedure automatically (it detects the bulb’s firmware is outdated then downloads the latest version and uploads it to the bulb).

I think you have to use the PHOSCON app to perform Over The Air (OTA) updates. In other words, it doesn’t happen automatically.

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#16

Thank you Taras.

Also, I notice there is a RaspBeeII so can I go for either, or should I stick with the Conbee2?

Thank you

#17

Someone else will have to help you with that question. I don’t have any experience with either device so I can’t comment on their pros and cons.

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#18

Thank you for your reply, I’ve now discovered a thread discussing zigbee2mqtt as another alternate.

It’s a minefield of information :smile:

#19

And don’t foeget there’s also the ZHA integration :wink:

Regarding RaspBee vs. ConBee, I’d recommend the ConBee because you can put it on an extension cord for a better range (and/or less interferemce with other devices close to the Pi). Also if you ever decide to move the setup to another machine such as the NUC, the RaspBee will be useless as it only works with the Pi.

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#20

Thank you @Burningstone.

Love this community, it is so very helpful. Appreciate it all from everyone who has helped and apologies again for thread hijacking :+1: