I’m was a bit confused here too. I received the SkyConnect earlier this week and figured the docs would be up to the normal HA standards by now. This seems to mostly be a bit of a growing pain for HA of launching hardware and simultaneously getting the software/firmware/docs inline. That’s alright though.
On the sales page it says “Relies on the experimental EmberZNet support in Zigbee2MQTT.” - this is regarding the dual Zigbee/Thread support (the aforementioned multi-pan feature which is currently disabled due to a bug).
My first thought reading that was that you had to use Z2M to get the mule-pan feature. That would be strange since Z2M is not a core add-on (not owned/controlled by HA).
In the page’s “Works with Home Assistant and Zigbee2MQTT*” statement “Home Assistant” is synonymous for ZHA. The SkyConnect is also supported in z2m, but the disclaimer rightfully qualifies that z2m’s EZSP support is currently labeled as experimental (rightfully so in my limited testing, but it gets better daily).
Multi-pan and “easy” install-of/migration-to multi-pan is a ZHA focused feature. Using multi-pan with z2m is probably not “officially” supported (and may never be). Multi-pan is expected to work eventually with z2m, and I think some have tested it already. I would wager after the dust settles and a little community involvement both ZHA and z2m will be well supported and documented with multi-pan.
I’d also wager most any EFR32MG21 based stick will work with HA’s multi-pan architecture, but HA may not take care of flashing the firmware and installing the add-ons/integration automagically.
Thanks for the explanation here. IMO this is incredibly poorly written on the page then. Explicitly mentioning z2m is confusing if not also explicitly mentioning ZHA.
This would make sense if z2m were a very small/minority user base (that is - if ZHA were THE way of integrating zigbee devices with HA), but it seems that z2m is very popular (I couldn’t find a way to actually quantify it’s use vs ZHA though in the HA Analytics, since z2m is coming from a non-core repo).
I have no dog in the z2m vs ZHA discussion, as noted I’m still using deconz. Only just starting to considering a move to one of the others. Thanks again for the explanation, it’s appreciated.
I can see that. Side effect of whoever wrote the copy being too familiar, assuming everyone else has the same view, maybe a little too concise, AND trying to be diligent in pointing out the z2m experimental status.
Both are solid, each with their own strengths, neither necessarily better than the other. I personally prefer z2m, but keep both running.
Before I found this thread, I was thinking that it is my fault that I don’t find any documentation or guidance to make this dongle work. ZHA, Zigbee2MQTT, Deconz?!? Mmmmmmh I just wanna use my ZigBee bulbs !
Ok, can’t get it to work, neither multi protocol nor just Zigbee. Moved back to the old zigbee stick, which was a simple task. This SkyConnect thing found a spare place in the bin.
I guess, I’ll wait a year or so and look for more mature hardware in 2024. But it was fun trying, therefore worth the money…
Honestly, I totally missed that link in the manual in the box. I mean I saw it, but I expected that the link would lead to Home Assistant SkyConnect - Home Assistant which is just a generic infosite
But https://skyconnect.home-assistant.io/ is actually useful! Thanks for sharing. I think it’s not linked easily available in the documentation. Or atleast not where I expected it.
Hello,
i read the https://skyconnect.home-assistant.io/ but have a different Setup: Rpi 3b+ with Raspbee 1 Module on Top. HASS OS is running on an Intel NUC.
If i understand right, i have to make a complete new Network and has to pair all lights and switches new ?
A backup from RPI deconz to HASS OS deconz integration would not work ?
My Plan was to switch from RPi deconz to HASS OS Sky Connect ZHA.
Thanks for reading and perhaps answering.
Best Wishes
!
