Zigbee 3.0 to Ethernet bridge/gateway (wired not WiFi) inexpensive DIY project for ZHA

Man, those went FAST!!

I’d like to pre-order too if it is possible.

Hi, just wondering is it possible to get the gerber files for new poe coordinator. Parts are on the way just looking for a nice pcb to solder them to.
Thanks

thanks for the prompt, just added them. https://github.com/tube0013/tube_gateways/tree/main/tube_poe_coordinator

Did you source an Olimex ESP32-PoE? they are pretty scarce right now, hoping more drop soon.

Thanks a lot. Lucky me, could get one from Aliexpress, only worried about the quality. (ESP32 POE ISO Olimex Si3402 B Power Over Ethernet module ESP32 POE ISO EA |Cable Winder| - AliExpress) just about to reach Canada.

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A noob question @tube0013 does this gateway enable connecting devices from all over the network, thus eliminating having to ensure zigbee mesh coverage? I live in a big house with breeze block walls and I worry about zigbee meshing not being strong enough. Will your gateway help me?

No, zigbee would still need the mesh, the ethernet coordinators allow you to position the coordinator in a more central location than your HA system may be located. You would still need a good mesh to get coverage throughout your home.

Thread/matter once it is more available (and support is in HA) would allow more of what you are saying with its border router approach, where multiple LAN devices can act as boarder routers for the 2.4ghz thread network. Work is in the very very early stages for HA support - really all steps outside of HA, based on the EFR32 radio’s ability to now run zigbee and thread concurrently.

Yeah, Zigbee 3.0 is unfortunately still limited to only one Zigbee Coordinator per Zigbee network mesh so you only use a single one as a bridge/gateway. And there is no bridge/gateway communication over Ethernet/WiFi network whatsoever if you would be using in in Zigbee Router mode (so there is no Zigbee data/messages going on the Ethernet/WiFi network at all when using in Zigbee Router mode).

The benefit is really the ability to locate it anywhere in your house as long as you can connect it to your network. You can compare it to an alternative of connecting a Zigbee USB dongle via a very long USB extension cable in order to put it in the place in your house which will give it the best signal reception.

If they ever make a “Zigbee 4.0” specification version then I am sure they will include support for multiple Zigbee Coordinators on the same Zigbee network as that SPOF (single-point-of-failure) is really one of its major design limitations today. Or at least support for a hot stand-by Zigbee Coordinator for fail-over.

Would it be possible to make a wired Zigbee router that is POE powered?

I think I would order three of those if it could be done. It seems impossible to extend the Zigbee mesh to either end of the house or to my garage.

You can flash the router FW to the PoE coordinators and they will function as routers powered by PoE. I think cost wise stand-alone routers with PoE splitters to microUSB would be less as you don’t have the overhead of the esp32 PoE module which really won’t be used.

Once thread/matter mature the thread border router solution will make for mesh networks with multiple wired connections. I’m exploring using seeing if the PoE Coordinator can actually work as a stand-alone thread border router. It may have to wait until the availability of the espressif zigbee module but we’ll see still early days.

Good work here with Zigbee to Ethernet approach.

Just curious, do you also sell a zwave to Ethernet device?

I put a board together to route the pins from a z wave pi shield to work with the Olimex esp32 uext pins but had trouble sourcing a pi z wave board and then lost interest. Z wave is not something I can sell globally and if anything it would be a kit where the users would need to source the z wave board.

Are you making any more of these? I’d love to place an order if possible.

FYI, tube0013 does indeed, check out his other thread and TubeZB.com website:

https://www.tubeszb.com/

There is also more information in his GitHub respotiry here: