More than one Zigbee coordinator

Configuration Zigbee
1

Can I somehow have 2 e.g. Sonoff ZbBridges in my HA working? Only one integration allowed :frowning:
Problem is that ZHA devices are in two separate houses on same LAN network but distance is too big for Zigbee… Also no place to install Zigbee repeater.
Best, JR

1 Like
2

Hi, unfortunately you can’t do this, it would be like trying to install two routers on your home network i.e. they would conflict.

One way around this would be to move the Sonoff Zigbee Bridge with ZHA to the remote house because this connects with Home Assistant over WiFi. You could then install a Sonoff Pre-flashed CC2531 USB Stick into your Home Assistant hardware and run this with Zigbee2MQTT. I have done this and can confirm that it works.

3

Thanks for a prompt reply :slight_smile:
Will try to install an mesh extender SF-BASIC ZBR3 in the middle then… maybe it covers the distance.
Best, JR

4

Is it possible to use 2 coordinators with 2 different integrations?

For example, the Sonoff using ZHA and then another (e.g. ConBee II) using deCONZ Addon or Phoscon integration?

5

Yes it is (if you use zigbee2mqtt even with the same integration, but not when you use the add-on). However, you do create 2 separate Zigbee mesh, the Zigbee devices linked to one coordinator won’t work as a repeater for the zigbee devices linked to the second coordinator.

6

Makes sense.

I’m actually considering the separate networks intentionally, as I’ve seen reports of Sylvania lights having limited buffer sizes, resulting in dropped transactions on large or very busy networks. As an experiment to see if I get improved reliability, I was thinking to split my 80+ device network into two with separate coordinators. Good to know it should be possible. My second ConBee II got lost by USPS this week, so now I have to wait for a second one to ship :cry:

7

not an expert. but you could flash both sonoff bridges with tasmota (mqtt) option and create separate networks.
They report to HA via mqtt. not ZHA

8

Hi All,
Looks like this is the right place to ask my question…
I have a Pi4 with a zzh stick and zigbee2mqtt. I have have a Smartthings hub using the ST integration so I see all devices connected to both. The reason for that was that the battery devices were dropping off regularly when a powered device would be switched off and that turned out to be the route. So I left all powered devices (lights, etc.) on the zzh stick and all battery devices on the ST hub. So far all is OK but I am having to make some weird choices in terms of hardware based on whether they would go on the zzh stick or the ST hub.
My question is - is it possible to run zigbee2mqtt on another device, just standalone, and connect to the same mqtt broker of the Pi4? Essentially I want to achieve the same setup as with the ST hub, i.e. to have separate networks for battery and powered devices, but without the ST hub, i.e. avoid the cloud as I see a slight but annoying delay from triggering the sensor to the light coming on.
Or is there another way to run battery and powered devices on a single zigbee stick and not use proprietary hubs?

9

In my humble opinion, this really is a missing feature.

It seems that the only existing “solutions” look more like workarounds than what would be the ability to properly add other Zigbee coordinators to a Home Assistant instance.

HA’s Xiaomi integration allows you to use two (and probably more) WiFi/Zigbee gateways. ZHA doesn’t. You then have, for now, to resort to using the “multiple integration” approach, for example ZHA and zigbee2mqtt in parallel.

From what I understand, this comes from the fact that most Zigbee coordinators owned by Home Assistant users are devices that attach via USB to the computer that runs the Home Assistant software itself. In this case, having a second USB coordinator attached to the same computer (involving an integration that can handle it) appears totally meaningless due to the way Zigbee works. I think the ZHA integration was programmed with this in mind.

But if you consider “network” Zigbee coordinators (WiFi or Ethernet), this design choice turns out to be a limitation. A home can sometimes span across distances that can’t be meshed with a single Zigbee network but can share the same network through ethernet wiring. In my personal situation : I have a flat located on the first floor of a building and a music studio down in the basement. Both “zones” are linked with ethernet but one single wireless Zigbee network cannot handle the distance. My idea would be to add a second Silvercrest/Lidl Smarthome Gatexay (I already have one in the flat) as soon as ZHA supports this (IMHO, missing) option.

1 Like
10

Hello
I’m new here, but I have same problem, below I’m trying to show easy way my network and requirements.
Installation is in 3 floor building. I use coordinator cc2652p

  1. On each floor ar. 80 devices
  2. I need separate coordinator on each floor
  3. I need (would like) to connect on 1 HA instance
    Is it possible to connect more than one coordinator via ex. :
    a) Lan Network?
    b) Wi-fi?
    c) Modbus?
    d) other way ?
    I need to add that I need solution with few coordinators because there is problem with add more than 3 repeaters on ZigBee2Mqtt in series.

I think this topic is very interesting and I hope I can get support here.
Regards
Adalbert

3 Likes
11

Hi,
yes it’s possible by using LAN Coordinator.
and having 2- infinite amount of Z2M.

12

I know a easy solution using Z2M.
ZHA at the moment is not possible.

13

Not sure if this was already asked, have not seen any answer yet. So I have a Conbee attached to a Raspi4 and control it via deCONZ Addon-On.
For some reasons, I’d like to have an additional coordinator e.q. cc2652p which will then be
controlled via ZHA directly.
Does such a configuration work??
THX - JJ

14

Yes,you can have 2 coordinators from different vendors and using different addon.
However you need different channels and PANID, for example channel 12 and 15.

15

I’m using Z2M. What is the PANID? And how do I go about changing it?
Thanks

16

I’m using the Conbee II stick with ZHA but feel it’s struggling to cope with my 100+ devices paired to it, so thinking of adding another Zigbee stick (under ZHA). The extra stick could be another Conbee II (on a differerent Zigbee channel) or maybe a SonOff Zigbee stick.
Does anyone know if this will work?

Thanks.

17

I don’t think you can run 2 instances of ZHA at the same time.

1 Like
18

Oh really…that’s a shame.

thanks.

19

You could add a zigbee2mqtt integration as an option, not sure if you can add 2 sticks on the same machine though but you could use a stick on another one, eg via ser2net

1 Like
20

francisp is correct, you can currently not have two instances of ZHA at the same time in Home Assistant, nor have two Zigbee coordinator adapters in one ZHA instance at the same time.

See discussion → https://github.com/zigpy/zigpy/discussions/673

Not sure if that could be changed in the future with the development of ZHA websocket server + addon?

https://github.com/zigpy/zha-websocket-server

https://github.com/zigpy/zhaws-addon

ConBee II should be able to handle 200 devices as long as you have enough Zigbee Router devices for range and coverage spread as well as stable environment without too much EMF/EMI/RMI interference.

If have a very noisy environment so that your Zigbee Coordinaor and Zigbee devices will have to resend message over and over again which might overwhelm even the most powerfull Zigbee Coordinaor.

Be sure to following these general tips and best practices:

https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant.io/pull/18864/commits/970295a277e8f01d3ee39eeeaacf453625b988d3 from https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant.io/pull/18864

and

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zha#best-practices-to-avoid-pairingconnection-difficulties

Remember to also regularly upgrade firmware on your Zigbee Coordinator adapter as it get bug-fixes

1 Like