Today I have a zi stick from aeotec. In order to get Zigbee2MTTQ up and running, I have to buy a Sonoff Dongle. As I understand it, I can’t run it with zi-stick?
I need your advice. Should I sell the Zi stick or is there a use for it even though I have Sonoff?
Ah that’s that new stick from Aeotec my apologies. (aeotec didn’t do Zigbee until very recently)
So that’s thier new one coming out of thier partnership with SmartThings.
You can technically use both sticks at the same time but it’s one stick per integration. So if Zigbee2MQTT is using this one nothing else can. You could use ZHA instead.
So two sticks two integrations or pick one or the other.
Sure. Just when you do that to be sure the integration is connecting to the ‘right stick’ specify it by id (the big long address for the stick listed under hardware) instead of the virtual USB port (ttyacm/ama0/1) in case they switch on you (it can happen)
Also because you’re setting up a second zigbee network make sure you don’t use the same zigbee channel for both and that your new channel is also not conflicting with 2.4Ghz, wifi in your area (there’s multiple posts here on wifi/zigbee coexistence so ill omit that here)
Finally, remember zigbee is a mesh network. Your new stick will create a new network so it’s range will be entirely independent of your other zigbee network. Plan repeaters etc. Accordingly