SHS - Homey Bridge vs Zigbee2MQTT

what to use, and why?

Cons and pros

For now I got Z2M but I‘m not convinced, so I would like your opinion on that.

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I would definitely keep it at Z2M.
Homey’s Zigbee integration is not as reliable as Z2M with a good Zigbee dongle.
I’ve never had a more reliable Zigbee network after switching to Z2M.

What makes it that you are not convinced by Z2M?

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I concur. Z2M has been extremely reliable for me and usually supports new devices much earlier. Plus the community Zigbee2MQTT app works very well.

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ok, I guess I will stick to it :wink:

I did order a bridge so I was unshure allthough Z2M works. What Coordinator do you use? For now I have the conbee2 which is ok I guess.

What about the other Protocolls, do you add a Bluetooth or something else? I use mainly zigbee…

And where do you run your SHS, I run it on proxmox with mosquitto and z2m. The backup possibility in proxmox is great.

And lastly, how to update SHS, just run the script again?

Ok, one more, do you use influx / grafana for longtime visuals? I heard they don‘t keep the data as long on hemey, not shure about SHS, cause limited storage is not a problem. Thank you :wink:

See this for some more information on storing historical data and grafana: How to log all device's measurements to TimescaleDB, and view them in Grafana

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I don’t know about Proxmox, but on Synology it is a pain in the *ss to get/keep USB dongles working.
A UTP dongle also gives you much more flexibility in where to place it, and it also has a web interface for settings, updating firmware, etc.
So I would definitely recommend a UTP dongle. I swapped my Sonoff USB dongle for it.
I use this one:
https://a.aliexpress.com/_EJMWBos

When you run Proxmox, you would certainly be able to run Z2M in a separate Docker container as well.

I don’t use Bluetooth, as almost all of my devices are Zigbee. These are widely spread, cheap to buy, energy-efficient, etc.

According to the Proxmox Homey SHS installation the newest imge is automaticlly installed at every restart. See:
https://support.homey.app/hc/en-us/articles/23975241078940-How-to-install-Homey-Self-Hosted-Server-on-Proxmox
On my Synology I use Watchtower for automatically updating my containers.

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I have had this SMLIGHT SLZB06M — Smart Zigbee Gateway for Home Assistant | SMLIGHT for a year or so connected to Zigbee2MQTT and from there use the Zigbee2MQTT | Homey to add the sevices to Homey.

The only thing missing from that app is support for adding Z2M scenes as devices to Homey.

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Define “long”?

What you heard is probably about the detailed data being not keeped that long: Insights data gets averaged in time, causing loss of big deviations/spikes/drops in older insights data.

I don’t think they’re changing all kinds of generic Homey features, but you’re free to request for “adjustable” insights.

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Ive got my SHS server up and running on proxmox and works great. Want to get my Zigbee devices over but not using the bridge.

If I was to buy a sonoff dongle max

Run it over POE and install this MQTT broker MQTT Broker | Homey

Will this work or am I missing something?

Thanks

Yes, you’re missing a zigbee controller.
It needs to get connected to, say, zigbee2mqtt. It’s not an all-in-one device.

You can probably install zigbee2mqtt f.e. as Docker image, or on linux on the same machine running proxmox. Follow the link to find out

@ Homey: use the zigbee2mqtt app by Robin to add the zigbee devices to Homey SHS.
No need for additional MQTT apps.

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16 posts were split to a new topic: SHS and Thread

uhm

I might have been mistaken, @Doekse is suggesting here that the Sonoff Dongle Max can run a border router on the dongle itself.

I might need to change the wording there. You still need a OpenThread Border Router running in Docker for example for it to function as a Border Router

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I would rather go for a Zigbee gateway/coördinator with a CC2652 chip, not the EFR chip like the one Homey uses.
I have this one and it’t superreliable:

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Hi everyone. Over the last 3 days I tested SHS on my Proxmox. I also have this gateway, which is reliable, however I have it paired with Home Assistant as ZHA. Now for testing I paired it with Z2M on Docker, and I already encountered problems with my devices that weren’t supported but were working (where with ZHA everything worked without any issues). I connected devices to Homey SHS and tested. My recommendation: The best integration for Homey is the app: homeassistant-community, and I connect whatever I want and however I want to Home Assistant, and in Homey I integrate the devices I need. In Home Assistant I had to go back to ZHA, because Z2M constantly had some connection problems, and with attributes or functions of relays: 2-Gang from Tuya. Some had button settings: toggle, momentary, and others the same ones no longer supported these. In ZHA no problems. I checked these apps, and I consider that the best one for now is Homey integration with Home Assistant through the app: homeassistant-community. I also have WS2812B LED lights and sensors, which I managed through Arduino and MQTT software. Works much better than WLED, ESPHome, or Tasmota. Everything done in Arduino with help from Claude :wink: I know these are 2 platforms Homey and HA, but you can connect everything to HA, and thanks to HA you can integrate almost everything in Homey too :).

I assume you first made sure that ZHA wasn’t also using it at the same time?

Of course! :slight_smile:. ZHA was uninstalled

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Quite some report :wink:

Different experiences on my side.
A few years back I started with H.A. + ZHA, but moved to Z2M rather quick, because it supports way more devices out of the box (in my experience that is!), amongst many other advantages.
And in case you miss functionality, you just should ReadTheFineManual.
Not trying to convince you to move to Z2M, just trying to show support for devices/functionality can be added.

That’s very odd.
Now I’m curious: do you mean network-, or zigbee connection problems?
If network, it’s unrelated to Z2M?
If zigbee: which adaper do you use?

Besides a few Sonoff ZBDongle E firmware update issues, Z2M is rock solid with my setup.
But the difference is, it’s running as H.A. add-on.

I have a general question regarding setting up an external Zigbee dongle.

I have installed the official MQTT server.

I established an MQTT connection to the MQTT server via the Sonoff Zigbee dongle’s web interface. I entered the MQTT server credentials.

I installed the Zigbee2Mqtt app in Homey and want to connect to the MQTT server, but it tells me that no Zigbee bridge has been detected.

My Zigbee dongle is connected to the network via LAN.

What am I doing wrong?