I’m looking for some hardware and I hope you can help me.
I found some Xiaomi door and motion sensors on Aliexpress but I’m a bit confused.
I’ve seen some that need a Xiaomi gateway and some stating that you only need an app to connect the sensors.
I want to add them to my Hass.io installation.
So which one is best?
And does anyone know if it can be bought in a packet (at least 5 door/window sensors and 1 motion sensor (and the gateway if needed))?
Well, it depends where you are running Home Assistant from.
When you run it on a raspberry Pi, you could go for either a Conbee 2 stick or a RaspBee Pro.
When you run it off a NUC/Desktop/laptop etc, then Conbee 2 is your only option. You would have to check where you can buy these. I live in The Netherlands and there are plenty of dutch stores offering these devices. You could also order it from phoscon directly. I believe they ship worldwide.
The USB stick you linked on AliExpress is a zigbee2mqtt stick. Yes it’s cheaper than deconz but deconz is user/more newbie friendlier. It has a nice GUI where you can manage the devices/add new ones etc. Zigbee2mqtt does the same but requires Some coding knowhow and no GUI. When you buy that zigbee2mqtt stick you would also need a ccdebuger and a downloader cable to flash the image to it, unless you purchase a pre-flashed one… but then you wont be able to manage or upgrade the stick without the other two components. So when comparing, i’d go with deconz.
Then, when choosing a doorbell, there are so many options to go for. But what do you want? Do you need live streaming? Do you want a more out of the box experience? Etc. There are plenty of topics on this forum regarding doorbells, try to search for it.
And regarding sensors etc, always check the deconz compatibility list. (Deconz actually supports more than there’s listed, but lacks some update on this list). But that list also gives you some idea’s on stuff you could purchase for your house
Get yourself a usb extension cord too. 0,5 m would do. I understood that usb (either conbee or zigbee2mqtt stick) could have some issues with inteference from the machine itself when directly plugged into usb port.
Check the Wyze sense sensors, thy are cheaper than the Xiaomi ($5) and the hub is included. I have both and the response time is instant on both. The integration in HA is super easy too.
thanks. has little sense to UK enthusiasts as it is possible to order a camera (but one has to wait for about 2 months) and there is no other products on offer (checked on Amazon.co.uk)
I just recieved my ConBee 2 stick and have it set up.
Does anyone know if I can add my Chinese and LSC (bought in Action) wifi lamps to the Phoscon app and if so, how do I do that?
The lamps are not being discovered