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thecrane

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#248107 10-Mar-2019 18:32
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Hi all,

 

I'm making 'some' progress with my Home Assistant setup, but my purchase of an Elelabs USB Zigbee stick has been a complete and utter fail!  As in I can't even count the hours I've spent trying to get the little bugger working - and zero help from the Elelabs people, who now seem to have stopped making them!!!  

 

So that's just great. 🙄

 

In essence, I was keen to know if anyone else has had any success with a good USB controller that can work with a Raspberry Pi-based home automation setup?  I know that if I go with (NZ-compatible) Z-Wave, the Aeotec stick from Fusion or Active Automation is probably my best bet.  But I have a couple of zigbee door sensors that I'm keen to get going (if I can), and finding other affordable NZ-frequency Z-wave accessories seems to be challenging.

 

Smartthings hub would be cool, as would a Wink, but they only come with US-legal Z-wave, and I don't back my hardware skills enough to get in there and disable that.

 

So, I've really come up with nothing.  Anyone out there got a great solution before I give up and just go Z-wave?

 

Thanks!


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richms
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  #2195220 10-Mar-2019 19:47
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I have had the parts arrive to do this - http://zteo.com/posts/zigbee2mqtt-step-by-step/ - but am still lacking motivation and effort to see it thru, since I still only have a test MQTT running on a windows PC it would mean doing it twice when I finally get a pi setup for that.

 

I have a US smart things and have just turned the zwave radio off in the web UI, from a quick look on a cheap spectrum there is nothing coming from it in the cellular band other than when its on and I start a discovery. But all my wemo lamps keep losing their connection to the smartthings and will only come back if I powercycle them 5 times to reset them and re search for devices on smart things. And that gets real old real fast.

 

If the zigbee2mqtt isnt any better I will be selling off some wemo lamps ;)





Richard rich.ms



danfaulknor
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  #2195353 10-Mar-2019 22:00
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I'm using this with a metric crapton of Xiaomi kit and Hue bulbs. Works a treat!

 

https://www.dresden-elektronik.de/funktechnik/solutions/wireless-light-control/raspbee/?L=1&cHash=c9c902ccdb43164696acccf81b62b2bd





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thecrane

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  #2196541 12-Mar-2019 14:35
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I haven't tried the Raspbee shield - might give that a go!  Are you using it with an RPi 1, 2 or 3?




gcorgnet
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  #2196543 12-Mar-2019 14:37
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I have gone through the DIY zigbee2mqtt route and it was way easier to get going that anticipated. I am using it in hass.io (Home Assistant).

 

Currently have 5 Xiaomi temp sensors reporting to it and will soon add a door sensor. It's been great, really.


danfaulknor
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  #2196588 12-Mar-2019 15:30
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thecrane:

 

I haven't tried the Raspbee shield - might give that a go!  Are you using it with an RPi 1, 2 or 3?

 

 

 

 

A 3





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kiwijunglist
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  #2206001 27-Mar-2019 23:08
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I use zigbee2mqtt. Works well.




HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.


Ruphus
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  #2206008 27-Mar-2019 23:59
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thecrane:

Smartthings hub would be cool, as would a Wink, but they only come with US-legal Z-wave, and I don't back my hardware skills enough to get in there and disable that.



Have a look at the Hubitat Elevation hub https://hubitat.com.

It's made by one of the Smartthings devs and supports NZ z-wave as well as zigbee. I use it for my z-wave door lock and light switches with HA and MQTT.

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