What is the strategy for dealing with zigbee in multiple buildings? The buildings are far enough apart that the zigbee device attached to my home assistant can’t communicate with them.
I used zigbee bulbs in the 10 outdoor lamps I have, that way I don’t need two coordinators. You could also set up Zigbee2MQTT in the separate building, requires networking available in the second building though.
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You can install a network based coordinator or a remote installation of Zigbee2MQTT. Either way you’re still limited to one integration, one coordinator so if you’re already using ZHA or Z2M you’d need a second integration tondrive the stick if you run a network coordinator.
You can do this with Z2M and Z2M edge or ZHA and Z2M or…
Personally if it were mine I’d just run Z2M on a remote pi and connect back with MQTT
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Agree that a separate z2m instance is the best solution.
That means you at least need network connectivity in the remote building.
If that connectivity is wired, I would lean toward an ethernet coordinator and a second instance of z2m on the HA box. Primarily just to keep all management, backup, etc in one place.
If it’s wifi, I’d probably use a Pi or similar at the remote running it’s own z2m. None of the coordinator designs are truly intended for remote connectivity, and although I think the risks of wifi are generally overstated in the forums, keeping z2m local to the coordinator seems the most stable choice.
Depending on the device count and mix, other possibilities would be wifi devices, or 3rd party hubs. There are tuya based and aqara hubs that expose their zigbee stuff via homekit.
If no network connectivity, some if the long range zwave stuff looks interesting, but devices are few.
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