UZG-01 vs Sonoff , more then 1 MQTT or use UZG as router?

Configuration Zigbee
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I received a UZG-01 today, and I’m still in the early stages of my Home Assistant (HA) setup. I’m wondering what the best approach would be.

Should I drop the Sonoff devices and use the UZG as a coordinator, or should I use it as a router with Power over Ethernet (PoE) on a different floor? I saw the Bearded Tinker review it on YouTube, and he suggested that running more than one zigbee2mqtt setup could lower link quality. Currently, my link quality is around 100, so I’m unsure if I need a split setup. It would be helpful if someone with more HA experience (I’ve been using it for 2 months) could share their insights and advice.

I run both Zigbee2Mqtt and ZHA on 2 Sonoff USB for now all is however MQTT and Z-Wave

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You can run the UZG-01 as a router, but don’t think it will route Zigbee over Ethernet, it does not. it is nothing more than a e.g. a Sonoff Dongle (P or E) flashed with router firmware, except it is powered over POE instead of using an USB charger.

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that sounds disappointing,

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Yeah this has been asked and answered so many times recently that think it now need to be added to FAQ or something.

That is a quite good description for how it work then you put it into Zigbee Router mode. When in Zigbee Router mode it more or less makes the Zigbee chip into its own seperate device and there is no Zigbee traffic over the Ethernet port.

@jasperowaale There is no such thing as Zigbee over IP/LAN. There is no way to way to bridge a Zigbee network other LAN or WAN (i.e. Ethernet/Wi-Fi, or VPN).

Lack of such a feature is one of the main limitations of the Zigbee specification. Not sure if that is something that the CSA will ever be addressed in future Zigbee specification revisions → https://csa-iot.org/

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@francisp maybe you and others want to help review docs update about this for ZHA and Z2M? See:

and

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Perhaps Im wrong, but to me, it looks like you are able to set it as a Networked Zigbee device? and not just POE or a nice landing page, the https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRNvplBPBYA review looks to suggest that your able to Link via VPN to remote locations and control Zigbee network from HA

Serial settings

serial:

Location of XZG

port: tcp://192.168.1.86:6638
baudrate: 115200

Disable Zigbee led?

disable_led: false

Set output power to max 20

advanced:
transmit_power: 20

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Yeah that is bad marketing as it is not a magic bullit. Yes it is a serial (UART) proxy server you could connect to it via a socket however using it over anything other than a local wired Ethernet LAN is a terrible idea and you in the long-term you will for sure have a horrible experince doing so. It is just a standard Zigbee Coordinator radio adapter connected via a Ser2Net type Serial-over-IP proxy server on an ESP32 chip. In practice it only works as a Serial-over-LAN tunnel but it does not work well over unstable connection because the serial protocol used was only desigbed to work over a direct attached cable. I added that to the FAQ now because tired explained what a very bad idea it would be to try have a stable connection to use it long-term over WiFi or worse VPN to a remote site. If you want to that explained further or discuss why it is a bad idea then please post in one of the many existing discussions about it instead of starting a new one, see example all the replies to these threads