Is there a use for the Sonoff zigbee bridge I just bought?

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First off, disclaimer: I am very novice to not only Hubitat, but home automation as a whole. This is my first post on here, in fact. So, i apologize if the answer to this is right in front of my face, but I have searched several different phrases and couldn't really figure anything out..

I purchased a Sonoff bridge along with several of their sensors from Aliexpress, and they've just arrived today. My plan was twofold - have a "router" for several of my battery powered sensors, current and future, and extend the range of my zigbee "network" (is that the correct term?)

Anyways, I paired some sensors that I already had in place that were paired with HE, and some of the sensors that came with the bundle, to the new bridge in the next room over from my HE. I thought once all that was done, I could pair the Sonoff bridge with Hubitat, "porting" the sensors along with it, and control the sensors with Hubitat. Similar to what I have done with Hue.

After all that was done, I went to pair the bridge with Hubitat and can't seem to figure that out.. I ended up repairing everything with Hubitat, but is there a way to bring the sensors over so I can control the with Hubitat, but directly paired with the bridge? Or, is the bridge essentially useless in my case?

Also, very unrelated, but for geofencing, there is no "pin" on my Hubutat app.. I've enabled location and geofencing within the app, is there another step I am missing? Not super important, but I have a lock on the way that I would like to automatically unlock as I get close to home. Again, not super important, but it would be nice. On my app, towards the bottom of my map, it says "Out of Geofence" no matter where my physical location is. There is a blue dot that is accurate, but no pin anywhere in the world!

I am having a blast (too much, in fact, I'm worried I'm going to drive us to bankruptcy :stuck_out_tongue: ) so far with everything!

Thanks!

Edit: I need to change my username! I feel like an egg when Twitter first became a thing...

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Zigbee uses only one coordinator in a mesh which is usually Hubitat itself. You can't add a second one to extend the range. You have to use other powered ZigBee devices that act as routers, such as plugs and switches, or dedicated repeaters such as the IKEA ZigBee repeaters.

There is no other integration for that hub over the network either. Some ZigBee based systems like Philips Hue have an integration over the network to the hub itself to control lights for example. So unfortunately there probably isn't a use apart from maybe updating the firmware on those devices by connecting them to that hub for an update and then resetting them to add them back to HE.

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Bummer! Hue was so easy, I just assumed this would be the same haha. But thanks for the quick answer!

Is there a way to atleast allow it to be a dedicated repeater, or is that out of the question as well since it isn't a "dedicated" repeater?

Edit - or, extend the zigbee mesh network? Not sure if that is synonymous with repeater or not.

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I think this is the post you’re looking for:

BTW, welcome to Hubitat :grinning:

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Thanks! Flashing Tasmota definitely looks way over my head, but I suppose if the bridge is useless without it then it couldn't hurt to give it a shot!

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