Zigbee newbie - move from homematic devices to Zigbee ones - suggestions?

Configuration Zigbee
1

Hello community,

I am new to HA but got a lot of help and good ideas from here to move over from my Homematic installation to HA.

With over 200 devices, or channels, in Homematic and 4 persons in my house, I allways get into trouble with this silly 1% duty cycle limmitation. And yes, I already optimized all my programs so they only “send” something when a something should change. But anyway, with that lot devices and 4 persons there is much movement in the house and so the communication between the Homematic devices and their central station.

So I decided to move over to HA with Zigbee. Since Zigbee is a mesh like network and doesn’t has any duty cycle, I hope the communication gets better.

First I moved my new Hue lamps to HA using a Hue Bridge. This works very good with no problems.

Now I want to add some other devices that Philips doesn’t offer, like duo wall switches. I tried the Aeotec Pico Duo Switch but I couldn’t connect it to the Philips Hue Bridge.

I don’t want to give up my Philips Hue Bridges cause I use the HDMI Sync Box on 2 TVs. If its needed, I would by another Zigbee hub, but which one?

I want to be as future proof as possible. My HA installation is running on a synology disk station in the basement, so please no USB stick solution for Zigbee. A network device would be better.

Also, I need a suggestion for a good device supplier. Thought Aeotec would be a good supplier. But it says “Zigbee 3.0 works”, but it doesn’t work. Anyway, I would like to use switch modules only with clamp ports, no screws. This was the reason I tried the Aeotec ones. Are there any other out there? Homematic also got allways clamp connectors. Sadly the Shelly ones all have screws :frowning:

Maybe someone can share their exprience with me and some suggestions. Also if it’s a good idea to keep the Hue bridges only for the 2 TVs and move all the other lamps to another Zigbee hub. Is there any hub that can also update Hue lamps?

Thanks and regards,
Benny

2

Zigbee is great, but it does come with its own issues of network congestion and overlap with 2.4g wifi networks, you have to make sure you set your channels on wifi and Zigbee to not overlap or you will has issues - especially with so many devices. For me, I find having a nice mix of Zigbee, Z-Wave and Wifi (and Matter in time) provides a nice failsafe in case one protocol has issues I still can do most things.

Hue is Zigbee on most of their stuff, so you can just skip the hub and link them directly to your Zigbee network, and with their back-and-forth on privacy issues it’s not a bad idea to think about it.

I use Sonoff for my Zigbee dongle and it’s done very well.

3

Did a lot of research in the last hours and ordered a new “Zigbee Coordinator”, as it’s named in ZHA, this one with “EFR32MG21” chip:

SLZB-06M

I think I will then only use the Philips Hue bridge for this TV ambient function and move all other devices to the new SLZB-06M over ZHA. Let’s see if the Aeotec switches are connecting to the SLZB-06M.

I hope ZHA is a good choose to go and be future proof.

4

Nothing is future proof, but your choice is good enough for now.

Any particular reason for this requirement? You’ll be severely limiting yourself with this.

They’re also WiFi devices, not ZigBee. They won’t work with your new coordinator.

If you’re new to HA, the temptation to do everything at once is ever present. Resist the urge and take it one step at a time. Read up on the basics in HA docs and the threads here (especially the cookbook threads).
Do 1 change at a time until you’re confident your system is stable. Take frequent backups & keep a local copy of each one
Most importantly, research on HA support for a particular device before buying, otherwise you’ll easily get frustrated.

Feel free to ask for help here if you ever get stuck. Even the most seasoned users were newbies once.

5

Yes. Copper is a weak metal. So it will give in some day. I know this experience from all my junction boxes after moving in our house. The electric was near 30 years old and some out of some screw terminals you could easily pull out the wire cause the force was gone.

Other point is the cheap small screws, mostly with no information about the needed torque.

With clamps you don’t have these problems on pure copper. The clamps don’t loose their force in their lifetime.

I don’t get it why there are mostly no switches with clamp terminals. Almost all wall outlets has them. Even my fuses in the basement. It’s only a question of costs, and for me a sign of quality.

Thats the reason I would like to use the Aeotec devices :wink:

6

You have your answer right there: costs. The Aeotec relays cost at least $10 more than the Aqara T2 relay (which also includes dry contact support, something the Aeotec doesn’t).

It’s your choice at the end of the day, but I wouldn’t be worrying about screws coming loose in 30 years, when these devices would probably be obsolete in 10 years. If you’re worried about the softness of copper, just use metal ferrules and you’re set.