Hi all, newb here. I have spent countless hours reading documentation, blogs, forums and watching videos and thought I had a plan, but now I’m not sure it’s viable. My primary goal is to maintain local control (no cloud, 3P apps) and to try to use as much ‘standard’ functionality as practical. For now, I’d prefer not to have to disassemble anything to flash it.
My plan was to start with a few Zigbee sensors/plugs/switches using ZHA and the Sonoff Zigbee dongle E. I planned on getting Aqara sensors (seem to have the best reviews) and Sonoff plugs to also act as routers…until I read that they don’t play well together.
I really like the Aqara for the small form factor but I don’t want to end up with a lot of sensors and network that are unreliable. I’ve read the blakadder compatibility documentation but that doesn’t have a cross-reference for what manufacturers work together.
What would be a recommended mix of manufacturers for a newb? Is there a resource that would have this? I’m happy to do my own research, but what I have seen so far is confusing, sometimes contradicting, incomplete, and often outdated.
If it helps, I’m running Home Assistant 2022.8.6 supervised on Ubuntu and it’s essentially a new install.