Alternative Second Zigbee Meshes?

Hmmm, You may have opened up another hole for me. The reason being, unless you can get the devices seen in Phoscon, you cant get them into NR the way I'm doing it. SO quite possibly, diyHue could fill that gap. Looking at the list of devices it can support, they list Iris, and ST sensors, yet Phoscon doesn't see these.

Well the docker is installing now, here I go again :joy:

Do you need to un-pair all the devices currently connected to the deCONZ? (I'm really hoping not!)

Are you talking about sensors? No, those are not seen in Phoscon the same way you would see them in Hubitat. They are only listed in Phoscon under sensors and switches.
image
But they are not available to Hubitat through DIYHue. That would need the deCONZ Node-Red nodes. That exposes all devices connected to deCONZ. deCONZ is weird in the way it handles sensors. You don't get to "see" the device until you go to edit the device grouping.

image
But if they are connected to your Conbee, they're in deCONZ somewhere.
But it doesn't sound like DIYHue will solve your problem. The Hubitat/Hue integration doesn't support sensors.

Yeah that bit I know. But I can connect ST sensors to deCONZ, but they don't show anywhere in Phoscon. TBH I'm not too bothered about motion showing in HE, as NR is operating those.

Added the Hue bridge, all my lights are seen and just updated deCONZ (At least I can switch back easily if needed). Lets see what it gives me :wink:

If they're connected to deCONZ they HAVE to show in Phoscon. You don't see them listed under "sensors"?

No, Which is very odd, as with the ST ones, I do get the "Ready" and I can see them in deCONZ, yet they just never show. Checking a lot of forums, I'm not the only one with this issue. Just seems to be something they have never resolved.

Then how would you integrate them with deCONZ automations if they aren't visible in deCONZ? That's very odd.

What zigbee channel do you have your Conbee set to? I had a problem connecting my Lutron CBR when the conbee was on a lower channel. it wouldn't show up as a switch in Phoscon till I changed the Zigbee channel.

1 Like

No, lol. These are ones I cant get working on deCONZ. All my Xiaomi and a single Hue are there, as are all my Xiaomi contacts etc.

Yet this one is in deCONZ, but not seen in Phoscon.
image

And bingo, there is it. I remember once ST wouldn't pair on 25. I think your right.
I'm on 15.

I'll have a play, and apologies to the OP for derailing this :frowning:

1 Like

SLIGHT if any....
Where I think it is relevant, it does a very good job of illustrating the type of tinkering required if you want to use a DIY solution like DIYHue or Node-Red with a Conbee. The reason I had to use DIYHue is that I wanted to integrate digital RGB LED strips controlled by ESP boards into Hubitat. DIYHue has a library of Arduino sketches for different types of LEDs which facilitate integration with DIYhue. Basically, I wanted Hue Strips without having to pay for Hue strips. Now, how much of that savings I ended up using on headache medicine....well, that we'll never know.

Which is another great selling point for DIYHue. It allows for integration with wifi devices. Tasmota devices, for example, can be paired to DIYHue with direct tasmota firmware. No special rules or tinkering or drivers required. Also Yeelight bulbs are auto-discovered.

1 Like

Does deCONZ require a conbee or can you use another device such as an Xbee setup as a coordinator?

Apparently you can use an Xbee, but I dont know how its done.

Plugin

Xbee router settings

1 Like

I was never able to get these to pair, they just refused. How did you manage it?

Inner or the Aurora or the new osram ledvance ones all better than my £50 a pop hue GU10 RGBW ones.

@Royski, I believe what you linked to is referring to using the Xbee as a repeater, not a coordinator. It mentions the Xbee "joining the deCONZ network". If it were the coordinator it would be creating the deCONZ network, not joining it. I believe the only coordinators for a deCONZ network are DE devices (ConBee or RaspBee).

@Royski What's your long term experience with the Conbee 2 and Xiaomi devices? I just added one tonight and it works fantastic with my Lutron Connected Bulb Remotes on HA, which I'm syncing back to HE. So now I'm thinking if I can add all the Xiaomi sensors to the Conbee 2, I can stay at just one Xiaomi hub (for my Xiaomi buttons) and still eliminate my HomeKit automations I've been using to sync Xiaomi sensors to HE.

I'm using ZHA with the Conbee 2 just as @stephack is, instead of deCONZ. Not sure that's going to make a difference. Seems more the radio that's made the difference over the Nortek already.

Interested to hear your thoughts and long term experience with Xiaomi on the Conbee 2. Thanks to this fantastic new project, I now have a way to use the HomeKit Controller feature in HA to get Xiaomi HomeKit gateways and any other IP based HomeKit device, plus whatever else the Conbee 2 will pair to HA, back into HE. So it's not the end of days if it doesn't work well, but I'll be the first to admit that my obsession with connecting different systems is getting a little out of hand, so a reduction of a least one gateway can be considered progress. :crazy_face:

1 Like

I have a more general question about the earlier topic of this thread around 2 or more Zigbee meshes...

I started out with a C-4 and recently setup my C-7 primarily running my lighting setup, moving my Hue bulbs and accessories across. I also have a number of Samsung contact sensors and buttons linked to my C-4. From the comments re ZLL and ZHA, should I be leaving those on the C-4 rather than moving them across to the C-7? Relying on Hub Mesh to integrate those sensors into my lighting rules on the C-7.

Thanks,
Simon

Since moving them over, I went about replacing them and selling on the Xiaomi, bar 5 wireless switches. They're still on deCONZ for now. But not one glitch. At one point I was considering getting rid of my Hue bridge and moving all lights across (I still might yet). But I really cant fault the stick and software.

I think the only downside is, when removing devices deCONZ REALLY doesnt like to let go, or it maybe the Conbee, I'm not sure. But you have to edit the DB and remove entries manually if that happens.

I hear ya! 3 HE Hubs, Homebridge, HA and deCONZ, oh and Node Red. Its like a plate of spaghetti in here, but all is working and very fast and most importantly, local :smiley:

3 Likes

You have battle fatigue, eh? I like them too much to part with them, and I know that even if I my results turn out different than yours (due to my using the internal Home Assistant ZHA instead of DeCONZ) I'll still have the option of bringing them into HE via HomeKit Controller

But it's looking really good. Will they keep their pairing for me too is the question. This joined and completed the interview in an astounding 2 seconds!

Screen Shot 2021-02-12 at 12.14.57 PM

Oh, it's actually much worse here. :flushed:

I would definitely leave the Hue bulbs on the C-4 by themselves. Hub Mesh works incredibly well if you haven't tried it yet. So very simple to get setup too.

The C-4 will come in handy too with any Z-Wave that can't be joined without S0 on the C-7. There are a few devices in North America that have this issue, so I wouldn't be surprised if you ran into a few in Australia that behaved the same.

1 Like

Yes, I have setup hub mesh which is how I am currently using the contact sensors in my lighting rules, but I was intending to move these over to the same hub as my lights, but I may not do that now.

1 Like

Yeah, after two years fighting, they won. :expressionless: I loved the form factor, and just how quick they were (when they worked).

Oh brother. :joy:

1 Like