Which zigbee coordinator is best for beginners?

[cinder marten]

I have done a bunch of research and have found that some recommend usb dongles ... however these can be finicky.

Others recommend something like slzb06M which is PoE ... I don't have a PoE switch (or any switch for that matter) or many more RJ45 ports on my router.

I know that it's better to purchase a quality item that will last rather than settle for something less, but do I really need to sink 100$ into a PoE coordinator when I can just buy a 30$ dongle?

[royal mica]

I would recommend a ZBT-2 its USB and works well out the box. buying it actively supports the project and with it being "official hardware" support for it is great.

[cinder marten]

I'll look into this thanks. Do you recommend buying a coordinator which can do Zwave and Zigbee in the same one? Does that exist?

[royal mica]

No

[knotty relic]

The ZBT-2 is the most user-friendly to beginners when you're using home assistant on HAOS, because it will be auto-detected and prompt you to set it up, including firmware updates. There's also documentation/guides specifically for using it.

[royal mica]

If you want a z-wave coordinator then i would suggest the ZWA-2 for mostly the same reasons as above.

[cinder marten]

i see, made by the same people i am guessing?

[royal mica]

yes that is also an "official" product by the commercial partner Nabu Casa

[cinder marten]

ok cool thanks

[cinder marten]

If this one is for beginners, what do more advanced people use?

[knotty relic]

honestly, it's a good option for advanced users too :) The main reason to use a different one is either because it's cheaper, or (for zigbee) because you want to locate the radio further away over an ethernet connection.

[royal mica]

no matter the level, these are the products I would recommend. I use a zbt-2 myself.

[cinder marten]

ok cool

thanks so much for the help guys, lot of options out there

[royal mica]

There definitely are benifits to the network ones and i think the smlight poe ones can also just use a non poe ethernet connection and you add a standard usb power supply too.
however if you don't specifically need them then the simplicity of the NC stuff is probably more ideal.

[cinder marten]

Either way my house isn't wired with PoE, when I move and renovate my first house I'm turning it into one massive computer

I guess a follow up question is if I ever have a device that is far from my ZBT-2, is there a way I can repeat the signal using a smaller zigbee coordinator plugged into a wall or something?

[royal mica]

FYI, for stuff that has 2.4 ghz antennas (e.g. wifi/zigbee/bluetooth) you should ideally space them a min 25cm apart. (2 wavelengths at 2.4ghz)

[royal mica]

most (but not all) mains wired zigbee devices (e.g. smartplugs) will act as "routers" which is basically a repeater. the routers create the mesh.

some coordinators have the option to switch them to "router" mode to do this specifically but not the NC stuff. I think the smlight stuff does have this option.

[cinder marten]

Are NC and smlight different manufacturers?

[royal mica]

yes

[cinder marten]

Ok, so in the future I might have to purchase a dedicated router as opposed to another coordinator

What's the range on the ZBT-2?

[royal mica]

there is a huge amount of variables around this question.

[cinder marten]

I can see that lol, can you ping the coordinator to make sure you're in range?

[royal mica]

it will either work or not work 😛 the more wired devices you have in your mesh the more reliable connections will be.

[cinder marten]

makes sense

[royal mica]

here is a visualisation of my mesh

[cinder marten]

Lol that's so cool, does HA make that?

[royal mica]

yup

[cinder marten]

Wait, can devices themselves act as routers/repeaters?

Dude this is so cool

"big flush" lol

[royal mica]

in general wired devices also work as routers/repeaters whilst battery devices tend to not as they are asleep to converse power when not being used.

[royal mica]

yeah i have a sensor rigged to detect toilet flushes. its mostly a novelty thing.

[cinder marten]

That's hilarious

pretty awesome

[royal mica]

if your looking for some reliable devices to help build out your mesh then i recomend the ikea INSPELNING smartplugs. they have various versions of them depending what country you are in.

[cinder marten]

I'll look at those thanks

Also, since we are on this, which lightbulbs do you use? I see a bunch of products some of which connect to a cloud ... but I want my bulbs not to connect to anything outside my network

[royal mica]

when i build out my network i put a bunch of them around the house to build out a solid mesh

[cinder marten]

Right and those will repeat signals to the rest of the mesh, pretty sick

[royal mica]

for lights, i tend to use smart relays inline and not smart bulbs. the few smart bulbs are wifi based.

[royal mica]

yeah you can see how they all connect to each other on my mesh visualisation.

[cinder marten]

so cool

alright thanks man seriously, I think I know where to start

[cinder marten]

my first project about learning how to use HA is literally to get a lightbulb to turn on, then I'll move forward from there ahah

[royal mica]

no worries. it can be a bit complicated to get your head around at first but building out with a solid coordinator and a few stable wired devices to build out the mesh it then becomes easy to add other random zigbee stuff.

[cinder marten]

The thing I find most complicated is the number of products and manufacturers ... I know a lot of them are kinda scammy and since I have no experience I don't know specifically which will suit my needs

But it's just trial by fire I guess

[brazen fox]

I can confirm that the Smlight SLZB-06 can be connected via a normal ethernet and powered by a standard mobile 5V charger. It works fine but the first configuration can be messy 😉

[jaunty vault]

for toilet flushes, lmao...

[royal mica]

whilst I don't suggest you use zigbee2mqtt and instead just use the normal ZHA setup. the Z2M device library is not a bad place to look for zigbee device suggestions HERE

[brazen fox]

There is no limits in what you can automate 😅

[jaunty vault]

yep

[royal mica]

its a door sensor rigged up to the button push mechanism.

[jaunty vault]

but, why.. i mean why?? lol

[brazen fox]

And my wife looked at me funny when I put a seat sensor in the sofa to switch on the TV... 😅

[brazen fox]

Measurement, I think

[royal mica]

so i can switch on a housewide announce declaring that pooping has taken palce and specify who it was based on bermuda device tracking.... and also add a random pooping fact via my local LLM setup.

[jaunty vault]

hehehe....doing release party in a bit?

[brazen fox]

Totally agree. I see valid motivation there 👍

[royal mica]

its also available as a discord bot... 😛

can use it as a secret security thing. disarm the alarm system by opening the fridge then flushing the toilet.

[jaunty vault]

Q

[royal mica]

yes... these things are mostly novelty but its fun...

[jaunty vault]

reday to watch release party?

ready

[royal mica]

not sure if ill watch it all or not yet because i am tired but yeah i will be putting it on.

[brazen fox]

Ah, it's a real release 😅

[jaunty vault]

yup

12 minutes

[royal mica]

yup, release is getting processed at the moment.

[jaunty vault]

@cinder marten if interested, here is a link to the home assistant update release party, might be fun to watch: https://discord.com/events/330944238910963714/1466028851355193406