Ikea sell some, Tuya do some (like most Tuya that’s a very mixed bag), or you can flash a CC2652 based stick and turn it into a router.
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hope its not out of date, chipping in do HA needs HUB for zigbee devices like lights, doorlocks? and for lights, curtain, door locks, power gate is it recommended to use zigbee rather than the common wifi integrations? any considerations in speed etc?
for door locks I dont see wifi supported in HA or correct me if I am wrong, looks like zigbee is the only choice
Not a hub, a coordinator (the radio that speaks Zigbee).
And yes, the general recommendation is to avoid WiFi as many WiFi devices are cloud based, and you’re at the mercy of the manufacturer.
Well, many Zigbee devices are also originally cloud based, but you can integrate to Home Assistant and break the cloud dependency, just like you can do with a bunch of Wi-Fi based stuff, like Shelly, etc, and you also have some Wi-Fi options that are not cloud fr8k the design, like Tasmota, ESPHome, etc.
I love the mesh capability of Zigbee, the small packages that make them super fast, the low battery consumption…
For battery devices - zigbee, zwave or thread. WiFi battery devices exist, but battery is measured in months instead of years.
For mains powered, I think it’s mostly preference as long as you avoid cloud dependent integrations. There are plenty of wifi integrations that are not cloud dependent - HomeKit, Matter, ESPHome, Tasmota, etc. Then there is a pretty long list of wifi integrations that may have a cloud component for initial setup, but are local control. I avoid them if I can, but it’s not an absolute deal breaker if it is the best device otherwise. For instance I still have several Wiz bulbs from early on, I could replace them, but it’s not worth my trouble.
Just keep in mind you will need enough mains zigbee/thread/zwave devices around to have a solid mesh for the battery devices.
The hubs maybe, the devices are only ever local. Zigbee has zero IP connectivity.
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That’s right.
To summarize its better to use Zigbees for switches, lights, door locks, curtains and maintain low use of wifi as much as we can?
okay based on that same summarize as @Tinkerer, if we want to automate a whole house, we keep it Zigbees for switches, lights, door locks, curtains adding to that sensors, water sensors door bells etc, makes me wonder then the only WIFI devices that we should think of getting or setting it up as WIFI devices is? as looks like most devices like switches etc are better to be zigbees, cmiimw 
The problem with WiFi is usually:
- Higher power use, leading to shorter battery life
- You’re at the mercy of the manufacturer
Any WiFi device that’s got local API support should be ok, though there’s been cases of manufacturers removing those with firmware updates.
Similarly anything that can run ESPHome, Tasmota, WLED, etc is going to be fine.
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I dont see the need of wifi tho if zigbees can integrate without hiccup, its just up and down and on and off but suppose some devices might be wifi but mostly zigbee, thanks for the advice!
My case is a little different, i have a large house that require a few zigbee hubs to connect all the smart swicths, how could i use this with the zigbee Dongle ? Will it cover my whole house ? How could i extend the signal ?
It doesn’t need to cover the whole house.
It covers the distance to a group of powered, routing devices (nearly every line powered device)
who in turn route for child devices who In turn route for child devices etc, etc. Until the home is covered with a wireless mesh. That’s why distance between your powered routing devices to your farthest points and building a strong mesh is CRITICAL for success in Zigbee.
I use approx 25’ (~8m) between wired routing nodes in planning deployments (about 1/4 what the spec says it can do) and I’ve never had a mesh fail for coverage…
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Reading this thread I found great advice but didn’t find the info I am personally looking for. Hopefully some of you can clear things up for me.
I live in Mexico, in a two story home with 3 bedrooms. Our walls are centerblocks not wood/drywall like in the USA. I wanted to keep my smart home setup with WiFi only (still do), but my wife is being silly, and doesn’t want me to run wires because of the “dust” I make when I cut into the walls.
I’ve done some research and seems the Aqara contact sensors are the way to go. But they run with zigbee. Since they are battery operated they would just be end devices but offer no “mesh” extension.
So here are my 2 main questions. 1st, it seems ZBDongle-E or P would work. If I mainly want to use it for the Aqara contact sensors which one should I go for assuming I could either one of them?
2nd question. What should I use as a repeater? The HA server is upstairs, that is where the ZBdongle would go. Ideally it would cover all of the 2nd floor. What device should I get to put in the first floor? Ideally I would have one zbdongle connected to the server, and one repeater. I do understand there are many variables and I might end up having to use more than one repeater. If I want to keep the number of repeaters as low as possible, which ones should I get?
The E yes, not the P.
Almost any mains powered Zigbee device - though some are better than others. Avoid Sonoff, OSRAM, and Tuya. Innr’s plugs are a solid choice.
Keep in mind that a weak mesh from too few repeaters (routers in Zigbee speak) means less reliable sensors and shorter battery life.
At the moment I have no plans to use zigbee powered devices. I am being forced by my wife to use the Aqara battery powered contact sensors.
From the extra reading I’ve done, seem I will start with two ZBDongle Es, one upstairs attached to the HA server running as the gateway/coordinator, and a second one downstairs flashed with router software. If I have signal issues, will just add more ZBdongles falshed as routers as needed.