Zigbee2mqtt: getting rid of your proprietary Zigbee bridges (Xiaomi, Hue, TRADFRI)

[badstraw]

This is amazing!!! Before I order some wall switches and sensors, I have a few questions…

1- How fast is the response time using the USB sniffer instead of the actual gateway? I’m asking because I would like to get a door sensor.

2- Do I have to copy data/configuration.yaml to my configuration.yaml? Or do I keep both…

3- If I reboot the pi, is it going to automatically launch zigbeetomqtt or I need to setup systemd…

Even though It seems that it’s really easy to flash the USB, I’m not understanding how to run it with
just npm start

Thank you very much for sharing your work…

[Koenkk (Koen Kanters)]

1. No difference from the gateway.
2. You dont have to copy configuration.yaml, just edit.
3. No, you need to setup something (systemd, supervisor, etc…)

This will provide you more information: https://github.com/Koenkk/zigbee2mqtt/wiki/Running-the-bridge

[leeuwte (Benny de Leeuw)]

What a coincidence, I started developing the same a few weeks ago and running it flawlessly. I certainly will follow your progress. If I have the time I’m trying to move everything which is possible to ‘microservices’. At the end for me Homeassistant will only do the automation and UI part.

[nickrout]

I like this, I hate the Xiaomi hub, although making it bark like a dog creates amusement with my own dogs. My real worry is that I am completely dependent on some company updating my firmware and NOT screwing the system.

I also wonder about range. I had to move my Xiaomi hub to another room to get range to my kitchen the other day. In terms of range is this hub better or worse than the Xiaomi hub?

Also if I wanted to make multiple homes, do I need all three hardware components (ie debugger, sniffer and cable) for each hub? Or is the debugger just needed to flash the sniffer?

[SaWey (Sander Weyens)]

Hi all, just wanted to point out there is already a bridge for using ZiGate with home assistant:

New custom component : ZiGate (obsolete)

Hello, Doudz component has progressed far more than mine and I would recommand anyone who would like to have an “up to date” zigate support to switch to his (https://community.home-assistant.io/t/another-component-for-zigate/). While I don’t use it personnaly, the response from the community seems nice and Doudz is prompt to support new versions. That does not mean I’ll abandon zigate which is a fantastic tool, but I’ll focus in the future on a version purely based on MQTT with a simple daemon…

[hijinx (James)]

As I understand it ZiGate works differently from zigbee2mqtt.
All the “intelligence” is on the ZiGate device, which exposes an API back to the home automation service (HA, Domoticz etc)

With zigbee2mqtt the intelligence is in the node.js software.

Also there is deconz (with dresden electronics raspbee/conbee) - again using a proprietary (more expensive) USB zigbee dongle

And HA ZHA, which supports a different (more expensive and harder to obtain) Zigbee dongle.

[badgerhome]

Parts are on order, looking forward to giving it a go!

@Koenkk Any plans to support more than 20 devices? I have LOTS of Xiaomi Sensors around the house.

Is there a maximum limitation due to the hardware?

Thanks again

[hijinx (James)]

Debugger is just required to flash the sniffer is my understanding.
Once the sniffer is flashed it stays flashed.

[nickrout]

I think it is confusing that you have a conf file called configuration.yaml and so does home assistant. Maybe in your docs make it clear that your configuration.yaml relates to your software, and has nothing to do with home assistant’s configuration.yaml.

[nickrout]

Cool, that is what I thought, just checking.

[hijinx (James)]

I’m currently working (slowly ) on wrapping @Koenkk docker images in a hass.io addon.
Im not moving that fast as I am waiting on the USB devices to ship from China, so cannot test anything yet…
I was planning to map the zigbee2mqtt configuration.yaml into a sub dir in the HA config dir called “zigbee2mqtt”.
So the full path would be //hassio_server/config/zigbee2mqtt/configuration.yaml

[nickrout]

I don’t and won’t use hassio, but good work on your part. Nice to see an open source zigbee solution!

[Koenkk (Koen Kanters)]

I’m currently testing a firmware which support 48 devices.

[aherbjornsen (Anders Herbjornsen)]

I have an existing setup using Deconz, would it be possible add this device to my existing network as a secondary controller?

Also, I’ve currently got ~45 devices and are adding new ones all the time. Will 48 be a hard limit or will there be support for more?

[jarod83]

Does it require less resources?

HA has an embedded MQTT while one or more Zigbee2mqtt can update.
So the push could be faster than monitoring each bridge, right?

Nice work btw.

Thx
Bob

[Robban]

I think that deconz had a device limit of approx 200 devices

[Koenkk (Koen Kanters)]

48 will be the hard limit (for now), you have to setup another zigbee2mqtt instance to get more.

[aherbjornsen (Anders Herbjornsen)]

Setting up several instances would be counterproductive, as I assume that would mean having several Zigbee networks. Then you would lose the dynamic mesh configuration you have in a single network.

48 devices is a very low limit and will be a serious limitation. Which is a pity, because otherwise this seems like very nice addition to Hass.

As Robban wrote, Deconz has a limit of 200 devices - and that seems like a more realistic approach.

[piotr (Peter)]

That would be a dealbreaker for me as I already have far more than 48 devices. I like the concept though.

[Koenkk (Koen Kanters)]

It seems that NWK_MAX_DEVICE_LIST needs to be increased in the CC2531 firmware to support more than X number of devices. We need some expert to optimize the CC2531 firmware as I don’t know how to do this.