PoE Zigbee Router

Configuration Zigbee
1

Hi
After some advice…

I’ve got HA / Zigbee2MQTT running on a device. Zigbee devices connect no problem at all.

However - I’ve got a ‘Mancave’ in my house, the other side of a fire wall with no realistic opportunity to extend the mesh via bulbs / sockets.

The devices in the Mancave are VERY patchy at best, because they grab a connection through a window, through a window at 90degrees, and to the bulb on the ceiling in that room!

I would like to hardwire a Zigbee router into the loft space above the mancave… I’m looking for a recommended piece of hardward that would be PoE and I could just leave running as a router in the loft space…

I’ve done a bit of research and found this
https://smlight.tech/product/slzb-06m/

What do you guys think? Can you think of better options?
As a cheaper alternative, I guess I could get a cheap usb Zigbee router, connect it to a spare Pi3 I have and stick that in the loft space…? If using the Pi, any recommendation of best OS to use for the purpose of running the MQTT service?

Cheers

2

Do you want a router or a second coordinator ?

If wanting a router, no need for a pi or a poe coordinator, simply flash a Sonoff dongle (either P or M) or other Zigbee dongle with router firmware, and plug it in a USB charger. Or buy a IKEA signal extender.

If wanting a second coordinator, a Pi would do, or a POE coordinator like the UZG-01, the slzb-06(m) or one of TubeZB coordinators.

If using the Pi, Debian would do, or Raspberry OS.

3

I use the SLZB-06 Zigbee Ethernet PoE USB LAN WIFI Adapter here: SLZB-06 Zigbee Ethernet PoE USB LAN WIFI Adapter

It comes already configured for home assistant and Zigbee2MQTT. I just plugged it in when it arrived and it pretty much just works. It’s been rock solid for 6 months. Super fast and highly reliable. I highly recommend. It can also be flashed to make it a router/repeater.

4

Thanks for the reply. I’m very new to Zigbee and very much in the still learning phase!
There’s no way that a Zigbee device in location 1 will be connect to a Zigbee device in location 2 and it’s just not practical to extend the link between the two with bulbs / plugs etc.

I think I’ve misunderstood how it works… Am I right in thinking that a PoE Zigbee Router in the second location would be useless then? I was thinking I would be able to tell it to connect to my Zigbee2MQTT instance running on my HA box… perhaps a router only connects to other Zigbee devices directly. Oh. In that case perhaps it’s a second coordiator I need to set up, so a separate mesh for the 2nd location.

5

Correct, it does not route over ethernet.

6

sounds good… but I already have a Sonoff Zigbee P device plugged into my HA and connected to Zigbee2MQTT… Am I right in thinking I can’t have a 2nd coordinator though… And a router isn’t going to help because it can’t reach another Zigbee device in the other part of the house…

I was thinking that the SLZB-06 as a router could connect devices in the new location back to the Zigbee2MQTT service I have running on HA… but I’m guessing not?

7

Thanks for confirming…
So I need to set up a 2nd Zigbee network then…? I thought you could only have 1 Zigbee2MQTT coordinator per home assistant though?

8

OK - another thought…

My HA instance runs in a virtual machine on VirtualBox…
Could I start another virtual machine, install Zigbee2MQTT on that virtual machine, connected to the SLZB-06, and point it to the HA MQTT broker on the other virtual machine? That would eliminate the need for the Pi

9

No, you can have as many Zigbee2MQTT coordinators as you wish. Just use a different base topic.

10

I thought HA was limited to just 1 instance of Zigbee2MQTT running?
Although, I’ve just read about a work around using an extra ‘/’ on the end of the repository, which makes 2 appear!