I need some help figuring this out.
In my household i have the classic setup with HA and Zigbee, works perfectly.
Now i bought a warehouse 1km away and i want to install some door and temperature sensors, etc not to much.
What’s the best option to connect (via web/wifi) those warehouse devices to my home HA, regarding investment/viability?
Zigbee + Zigbee Hub
Wi-Fi devices
In both cases they should connect with a web service and then a can add into my HA.
I think i prefer to use zigbee, do you guys know any hub with a easy connection to HA via web client and can pair all zigbee brands?
There are two options, you can setup a remote HA instance and connect that back to your main instance or setup a VPN with a dedicated instance or the other option is to see if you can use LoraWAN based gateway and devices to connect to your main instance to monitor locations at distances it supports.
That said iirc some of the Ethernet based zigbee coordinators like the SLZB-06 have a vpn option built in so that you should be able to have it act as remote antenna for the main instance you want to control via a dedicated zigbee mesh.
Wow, i didn’t knew about this SLZB-06 device!
So, i just install it on my warehouse router via ethernet, then access his build in program locally and setup all the devices and the VPN, correct?
I didnt get the best way to connect the SLZB-06 to my home HA.
Thank you!
Point to Point and Multipoint Wifi Bridging is generally what is used in locations like farms or general locations where it makes sense due to the layout and connection needs, a good example of this is the recent video of the unifi setup for Cerro Gordo, CA.
New setups take advantage of the 60Ghz band for the backbone connection.
LTT also has a PtP setup they did with a short run between the main office and one just across a lot to share main internet at both locations.
As for the noise on the zigbee network you just need to see what are the most chatty devices you have and find ways to mitigate them or swap them out if they are causing issues, the same can be applied to the other protocols. Else you just need more router devices to improve the mesh to the endpoint devices.
For non PtP/MP dedicated devices your range will be limited by the materials of your walls and floors and how they are setup in the layout.
For example my building where my unit is has one flat side facing the parking lot and the other side makes it look like an E; that flat side is 50m from my window to the bins clear line of sight I can still reach my 2.4Ghz Wifi where as the other side due to all the brick etc it cuts off at the corner at 20m away.
Ah yes, this is why they provide extension cables with the usb based coordinators. I don’t use one myself with my skyconnect; its plugged in directly into the mbeat 7 port hub that is sitting on top of my rack in my setup and plugs in directly into my nuc for the VM instance of HA I have.
I use the switcbot bot via the hub 2 matter over wifi bridge to toggle power on the port when I need to should zha on restart fail to see it connected the easy way and have a cr2 battery eliminator cable to save on replacing its battery heh.
The other ports I may add in a z-wave stick when I want to play with those devices.