Zigbee gateway with support for multiple vendors?

[mfalkvidd]

Thanks everyone.

I now have a working Zigbee network. Used zigbee2mqtt, sonoff zigbee 3.0 usb dongle, a bunch of sonoff temp/hum sensors. I was able to join three existing Ikea trådfri devices to the same network, where two of them act as routers to make the network more reliable.

I'm impressed with the reliability of the network, and the battery life of the sensors (powered by coin cell batteries and sometimes updating as often as every 10 seconds). This looks reliable enough to be used in projects.

[mfalkvidd]

I spoke too soon. One of the SNZB-02 (the one in the attic) stopped reporting. Before it dropped off, it reported a lqi of 105 and 100% battery. The Ikea tradfri router is about 6m from the attic device.

I put a second device in the same location and pressed the join button. It registed in the network but has never reported any values.

I also put a device in the car. I understand this is not a normal use case, but I thought the device would rejoin the network every time the car is back home. But that doesn't seem to work.

So so far, the robustness of the network doesn't seem to be as good as I hoped. Maybe Zigbee is not the right solution for projects.

[rejoe2]

@mfalkvidd said in Zigbee gateway with support for multiple vendors?:

I spoke too soon. One of the SNZB-02 (the one in the attic) stopped reporting. Before it dropped off, it reported a lqi of 105 and 100% battery. [...]
So so far, the robustness of the network doesn't seem to be as good as I hoped. Maybe Zigbee is not the right solution for projects.

As already mentionned:
@rejoe2 said in Zigbee gateway with support for multiple vendors?:

So basically, imo in most 3.0 cases with "simple devices" like sensors and bulbs the question is not whether a specific device can be integrated, it's other issues that matter:

• the quality itself. I had some very disappointing buys, e.g. an rgbw bulb from Lidl with painfull white light color, noname Xiaomi-motionsensor clone (battery empty after some hours?), same with Sonoff motion sensors, that additionally didn't work at all...

Especially the SonOff stuff seems to be disappointing. For the rest, it mostly depends on the stability of the network itself (amount of "always powered" router type devices).

But finally, I still prefer using (wired) MySensors for some of the things that's still in the pipeline to come somewhen in time :grin:...

[novicit]

@mfalkvidd Please keep us informed on how this goes for you.

A few months ago I also implemented a zigbee network for similar reasons. The nodes are very inexpensive, small, and coin cell powered. I am using these for common applications like temp or motion. That way I can use MySensors nodes for the more custom or complicated applications. So far I have had no problems, actually am surprised at how reliable and fast it is. I have tried to limit the number of different vendors as I understand that can present a problem. I opted to use ZHA (Home Assistant) instead of MQTT, so far works great. Using Sonoff USB 3.0, all other Sonoff zigbee nodes, Sengled bulbs, and Aqara cube, vibration & water detectors. If I run into any problems will also post here.

[Using Home Assistant, Intel NUC, Zwave, MySensors 2.4 & 915, Zigbee, ESP]

[hlehoux]

What is also most interesting with zigbee is a very important number of devices, and low price of them compared to zwave for instance.