I have not found a better place to ask this, therefore I try here and I hope it can stay, or it can be answered
I am in the way to install HA in my 2 story house. (i own the basement and the floor above) The ceiling I would consider normal concrete with the usual stuff in it. When it comes to signals / waves / I believe it will restricts / blocks most of the stuff.
First as a nice newbie I thought I will buy just 1 hub (Aqara M3 for the living floor) and ZBT-1 stick for HA+Pi4 to the basement, to build the zigbee mesh + other communication stuff, but then i realised that it can be only 1 coordinator in a zigbee ecosystem.
Since I am planning to move most of the electronic stuff (LAN switch, NAS, HA on Pi4, etc…) to the basement, I would like to know what is the best way to build up a solid network on the living floor area. (i have dedicated LAN connection between the 2 floors, I assume the signal won’t make through the concrete ceiling…) I have no experience with the ZBT-1 stick, but I assume having that kept in the basement, won’t be good enough to reach the living area above. Maybe I am wrong, does anybody using similar setup in a 2 story house?
I am already looking for Routers (or range extenders) to expand the signal and make sure that the living area gets the right coverage. Does the community has a good suggestion about Routers/signal repeaters, which works easy and good with HA in general and also with most of the zigbee end devices? (Here I am assuming that all Zigbee end device can connect and I do not need to buy as many hubs as many brand of end item i buy since all end item sales site has this remark, you need “our” hub to work…)
I am also open to replanning. Would it make sense to move the HA+Pi4 up to the living floor and have it setup with ZBT-1 Stick? But then the question the other way remains how to push down the signal to the basement?
UPDATE/EDIT: Maybe this can be sorted out with an smlight product PoE ? since the LAN is anyhow there…
That is only partially true. First of all, see if it is true you cannot get a working mesh across floors. Many of us, including me, have concrete floors and multiple levels on one ooordinator, with well positioned routing devices.
Second, if it is true that the mesh won’t reach far enough, you can have multiple coordinators having multiple zigbee meshes. They just won’t mesh across networks but Home Assistant will still be fine. You will need to think about what integrations though, you cannot have two ZHA integrations afaik, but one ZHA or zigbee2mqtt and one Aquara should be just fine. I think you can have ZHA and Zigbee2mqtt together as well. Others will know for sure.
To add to the above, you must have a stairway. One smart plug near the top of the stairs, and another near the bottom, should solve your problem. Virtually all smart plugs act as routers. You don’t even need to plug anything into them.
I am not really familiar with signal strength of a zigbee mesh network, that’s true . However when it comes to wi-fi i am disappointed on so many levels in my life so far Sometimes even my regular cellphone network is so rubbish that I just use my wired old style phone (landline) to make a call
But I am a believer so I will give it a try! In this case for multi story apartments as you mentioned you positioning Routers and not coordinators, correct? May I ask what brand / type do you use?
On the second part what you said, if I understand correctly, HA will still control them as a whole even if I cannot make it in a one single mesh ecosystem? So if the signal is weak, I can place a coordinator at the basement, I can place one in the living area, it will do 2 independent mesh, but HA will see all devices, and then I can group them, etc etc…
On the Aqara M3 Hub i already found this: Aqara joins Works with Home Assistant - Home Assistant which if I read properly, the hub is restricted to Matter Bridge. So will work cool with matter, but not with zigbee, however if I understand correctly from the Aqara website, the Hub can handle zigbee devices alone, just won’t be exposed to HA, correct?
Workers just demolished the internal stairway last week… Probably this week they fill the whole to create another room in the living area instead of the stairway.
In common area of the House there is a stairway downstairs to access, bicycle storage, wash, heating, electricity room… Unfortunately, I cannot plug anything here as it is a common area. My plan btw to use the basement signal to reach the wash room because I want smartplugs to the dryer and washing machine to get notification when they are ready
But… Are they filing that hole in the floor with reinforced concrete, or wood? The signal might still get through if it’s just wood. Or near any other penetrations in the concrete.
But still… seeing the answer from Edwin, it seems that it does not matter where the HA+Pi4 sits… Assuming it remains in the basement, I just need maybe 1 HUB in the living area + your idea some smart plugs in the living area to boost the signal “as router” should do the trick.
or vica versa, move the HA+Pi4 to the living area, with ZBT-1 stick or SMLight product and 1 hub in the basement. Now i just need to find the right HUB which works nicely with HA.
Suggest you do some research on the concept of a “mesh” network. It’s not really a “boost the signal” situation, but instead a “transfer” or “pass along” the signal. Having an understanding of how a Zigbee mesh works will be key to coming up with a decent solution for you. (This is not meant to be a slam on you at all - just a recommendation of an area to focus on improving your understanding.)
I have many brands for Zigbee. Philips HUE is reliable but expensive. I placed HA on the middle floor, a Sonoff-E coordinator on extension cord, and 2 extra Sonoff-E flashed as router, not coordinator, all near the stairway. But mostly I use smart sockets as routers and never unplug any zigbee
Yes, You cannot use native zigbee groups across 2 networks, but you can use HA groups for that. Otherwise you loose nothing, other than the fact that the meses can’t help each other.
Ethernet connected zigbee coordinators exist, they would be the best solution to get a starting point in a floor that is not reachable for another mesh.
Certainly, I will look for that as well. I am kind of starting this now so I am really trying to gather as many info as possible. Not just about actual devices and reviews but the background as well thx !
since all end item sales site has this remark, you need “our” hub to work…)