I use Xiaomi and originally thought, god not another hub, but now I have 2, 1 for upstairs and 1 for down stairs. The buttons are great, I have the old version behind my bedside drawers, which is a all off button, so we don’t need to worry about turning lights off before we go to bed.
Then a new square one as a door bell… works brilliantly, and loads of other sensors now.
Another option would be to use something like Zigate (zigate.fr) which is a vendor neutral, open source gateway that I’m using myself.
I use it for the Xiaomi stuff since I didn’t want a gateway that’d phone home and I liked the idea of it being open. There’s a custom component for it that’s being developed. I’ve used this combination for a while and it’s working brilliantly. Basically it’s plug-and-play.
Range is good and I use it with a round Xiaomi button to turn oft all the lights when I go to bed for example.
Edit: by the way, the Xiaomi button can do up to four clicks for an action, giving you four functions to build into it.
Yes, it plugs into a usb connection of the Pi. I’m running it on HASSio by the way. There’s also a wifi version that connects to the Pi via wifi but I don’t have that.
The Zigate custom component has an init function for the Zigate too, so basically what I did is:
insert zigate into pi usb connection
add custom zigate component to HA
add config (zigate: in config)
restart pi
use zigate.init service through developer tab
start adding your xiaomi items
You can put it into join mode through a service call and then hit the button on the sensor or button… See New custom component : ZiGate (obsolete) and its github page
You might want to check if @eLRIC knows. (He develops the Zigate custom component for HA)
I do know that Zigate (the device) is aimed at “any” ZHA compliant device. If you have more specific questions, I think asking in the component’s topic would probably yield more answers by people with more devices.
I got Zigate because the firmware is open and I wanted to use it for my Xiaomi devices.
I have a few of those around, but I do not have power at the location. I love them with ESPEasy where I can… very handy to throw a button, display and sht30 on a wemos.
i have a box full that i got frustrated with trying to flash them with espeasy, i just couldnt suss out the process, unlike the esp12’s which just flash. any pointers would be grateful :-), i have projects lined up for them, but dont need the frustration.