What's the current best zigbee and 433 Gateway Options

Hardware
1

Hi there,

I’ve been a homeassistant user for a couple of years now, but I’ve just bought my first house so now I can really go to town.

I’d like to install hass on a kubernetes home-lab setup that lives in a rack - as such the “accessory” radio receivers become problematic as I need to set node-affinity by label to the node with the receiver, which sort of screws the point of a k8s installation.

In addition, I find the stability of hass running on a pi to be a bit too low to run everything in my house from.

I’m looking for radio gateways for zigbee and 433MHz - I run zigbee where I can (Some hue lights, mostly IKEA, and xiaomi sensors) and have some luvelite automatic blinds that work on 433.

Does anyone know of an “integrated” 433MHz and zigbee gateway? I currently use a raspbee on the pi.

If not, I’m thinking is to repurpose the existing hass pi as that gateway - run the deConz docker image and another image for 433MHz - but I don’t know where to start with the 433

Many thanks.

2

Zigbee - I use a Sonoff ZBBRIDGE Zigbee Bridge. Here’s a great thread to review.

433 MHz - I use the RTL433-to-MQTT add-on to translate 433 MHz RF messages into MQTT messages for sensors. Again, here’s a thread.

You have to be careful with the “auto-discovery” part. You’ll wind up with too many sensors that aren’t really yours, if you’re not VERY careful using it.

1 Like
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Do you want to only receive 433 messages, or send them too ?

4

For 433mhz RF I use a Tasmota’ed Sonoff RF bridge with Portisch.
It work as a gateway with MQTT messages and can both send and receive.
And it is cheap.

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5

For 433 I use the Bond Bridge.

6

For 433MHz check out RFLink Gateway → https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/rflink/

Warning! Do not get Sonoff ZBBRIDGE Zigbee Bridge as it tunnels serial traffic over WiFi which is not stable and that is something that both ZHA and Zigbee2MQTT documentation warns against using!

Instead either get a Zigbee Coordinator USB adapter like “ZBDongle-P” or “ZBDongle-E” Sonoff dongles from ITead, or if absolutely need a network-attached bridge/gateway then get a wired Ethernet variant such as those from TubeZB or ZigStar (and not a bridge/gateway that depends on W-iFi).

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What’s the difference between the -E and -P models? The prices are essentially equal.

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Different chipsets.

Both comparable, but your zigbee platform may lean toward one or the other.

See my take at: Which is the best? Zigate USB v2 or Sonoff v2 ZBDONGLE-E - #2 by jerrm

3 Likes
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Both can also be reflashed with Zigbee Router firmware (specific per product) and then be reused as a dedicated Zigbee repeater/extenders by putting it into a USB charger for power to get better range/coverage in your Zigbee network mesh. In fact, suggest gettings several known good mains-powered Zigbee Router devices that are always on to achieve a stable Zigbee network mesh before connecting/adding any battery-powered devices, as Zigbee transmission and reception has relatively poor range, and battery-powered products are “Zigbee End Device” which do not repeat signals to other devices. Regardless, highly recommend reading and following all the tips from here as it apply to all Zigbee implementations → Generic best practice tips on improving Zigbee network range and general stability · zigpy/zigpy Wiki · GitHub

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Installed the Sonoff ZBDongle-P this evening, replacing the old Sonoff ZBBridge Wifi device. Migration was very easy, and devices respond to commands much faster and more reliably, now. Thank you!