I have the good fortune of setting up an entirely new system from the ground up for a property we purchased, and I have read that in terms of best practices when it comes to adding radios to HA to support the various protocols, it is wise to use a separate device for each protocol, which is perfectly fine (and preferred) to me.
With that in mind, here is what I am curious about for each:
Z-Wave: Plan to use the Zooz C800 (while I wait for the HA device to be released)
Zigbee: Skyconnect from HA
Thread/Matter: Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 flashed with custom firmware
Are those 3 devices the best choices? If not, what would be better and why?
I currently use a Skyconnect in dedicated zigbee mode and a GL-S200 (gives me BLE over MQTT as well) as my thread router in my setup, I was looking at the Zooz 800LR (but may as well wait for the nabu version of the stick to buy) for Z-wave devices that I may want to add and play with in the future as well as a LoRA and 433 setup for those just to have options.
The main thing regardless of the co-ordinator you go with is the primary mesh you are are going with and to make sure you have enough routing devices to allow proper coverage of the location you want the setup to work in.
Also you only need a thread border router for Matter over Thread devices like the Aqara P2 Door and Window sensors, Matter will work just as is when its wifi based like with the Switchbot Hub2 (I have one just to use my switchbot bots over matter instead of BLE when I had issues with generic BT adapters dying).
And if you want IR support look into the broadlink RM line.
Thank you for your response and the detail you provided. Very helpful indeed! I too want to dive into 433 and LoRA. In fact, I want to use LoRA to set up a notification system when mail is delivered. We are in a rural area and do not have mailboxes at our houses, instead it is at the entrance to our development in a ‘mail hut’ so that the postal service doesn’t have to waste time driving along the entire length of the road that services all the houses.
Yea mail notifications would be the main use for me for LoRA an I have an idea on how to get it installed for my mailbox but need to source parts etc since I don’t have the gear to solder and 3d print at this time.
Since its a type that is built into the brick and the access is via the back to unlock via padlock and extract letters I was thinking of installing a small swing door on the inside at the front using a reed sensor then that is fed into the main relay that has everything connected to it for power and top up power via a small solar panel to keep it charged up.
That’s a solid choice, though I’d suggest something EFR MGM24 based (eg Tube’s or Smlight’s) for something more future proof/capable. People have reported stable, performant, meshes with 300+ devices using that chip, where problems start appearing between 100 and 200 devices with other chips.
Given the pain and frustration I see with people taking that approach I’d suggest an ESP or using Google or Apple devices.
Thread via a stick only works well enough if you use HAOS, as the devs have been able to tweak the OS (a lot). On other platforms it’s a real crapshoot.