Hello,
I very recently started with home automation deploying a couple of Zigbee devices which I manage with Smartlife.
Further investigations raised my interest in HomeAssistant and I soon installed it in a VM machine hosted on a Synology NAS. so far so good.
I then installed the Mosquito Broker, got the Zigbee2MQTT package but couldn’t get it to work as it looks like I need to have a specific USB dongle attached to the computer where Home Assistant is running. Here is probably the issue as my Zigbee devices are all “attached” to a Zigbee wired hub and I couldn’t find a way in ZigbeetoMQTT to declare this wired hub.
Can someone help ?
Would like to know if there is a way to use a Zigbee wired hub to “talk” to HomeAssistant.
Thanks in advance
if it is one of these listed under hybrid (network + usb) or network, yes
If not, you will need to tell what wired hub you have.
Hello Francis,
Thanks for the short and quick answer.
I’ve been through the list of proposed Zigbee2MQTT wired bridges but before I go for an additional investment, I need to better understand what is wrong with my current hub which is Zigbee/Tuya compatible.
Here it is : https://www.aliexpress.us/item/1005001585660474.html?
Is it missing something which prevent it to work with Zigbee2MQTT ?
By the way, I just succeeded “attaching” this hub to HomeAssistant using the TUYA module which is included in HomeAssistant. I can now see all my Zigbee devices.
This being done, I however wonder if there would be any benefit going Zigbee2MQTT instead of Tuya. Would I get more information from the devices if I was going for Zigbee2MQTT ?
I must admit that despite having read multiple articles I am still confused by the additional benefits I should expect going to Zigbee2MQTT which seems to be THE technology that knowledgeable person promote.
There is no Access to the Zigbee chip for non-tuya Zigbee software. Some Tuya gateways can be hacked, like the Lidl gateway. But not yours.
z2m expects to be the master coordinator of the zigbee network. z2m would replace the functionality of the Tuya hub, not work alongside it.
To use the Tuya hub hardware with z2m would require flashing the hub with alternative firmware, that may not even exist or be possible. Even if possible, z2m would then be an entirely new zigbee network. All devices would need to be re-paired and would no longer be linked to the Tuya cloud.
The z2m advantage is all devices would be local with no cloud dependencies, faster response times, and the ability to use non-Tuya devices.
If you want to experiment with z2m, grab a Sonoff ZBDongle-P or similar and run it side by side the Tuya net.
Francis, sorry, I do not understand your answer as I am lacking knowledge.
My understanding so far is that Zigbee and Tuya are from the same technology and therefore Zigbee2MQTT should be able to “understand” zigbee/Tuya tehnology and therefore “transmit” the “messages” received from the Zigbee devices to the Mosquito Broker which in turn should pass it to HomeAssistant.
Hello Jerrm, Thanks for taking the time to improve my understanding of this technology.
Let me phrase what I understand from your answer : Z2M is the piece of sowtfare which “talk” to a device named “coordinator”. This “coordinator” is somehow similar to my “hub” but with a major difference : it can “talk” to Z2M which is offering local residence, faster response time and ability to use non-Tuya devices.
So, this technology provides broader integration than the Tuya/Zigbee one. In other words, with one of those “coordinator” installed and the use of Zigbee2MQTT I could integrate much more home-automation-thechnologies than I could with the Tuya hub which I own.
Is my understaning correct now ?
No, but it does make it more reliable since you won’t rely on Tuya’s servers being reachable.
Yes, you’ll be able to add devices from other vendors (like Aqara, Sonoff and Philips Hue) apart from Tuya devices, all from a single integration and using a single hub. Despite zigbee being a “standard”, practically all vendors (especially Tuya) are known to deviate from that standard. Z2MQTT takes care of all that for you, whatever device you add.
No, because Z2MQTT doesn’t recognise your current hub, since there’s no software written to understand that hub’s communication. It’s a bit like plugging in a random usb device into your PC without any drivers available for it- windows might realise there’s a device plugged in, but that’s as far as you will go.
Just bite the bullet and buy one of the supported adapters listed in the Z2MQTT site - it might seem like an extra expense, but you’ll be thankful later.
Wow, Francis, Jerrm and Shadowfist, thank you so much for teaching me in a few minutes much more that what I was able to get navigating the net for hours.
Best regards.