Hi,

Philips will soon require an account to use their shitty app so I’d like to move away from them. I also have a few IKEA Tradfri stuff.

I look around on this sub and a few others and it seems like these are the best options:

I think a hub is better than a dongle so I don’t have to use Home Assistant and I can keep using HomeKit as before. If I have to, I don’t mind Home Assistant but it was very clunky when I tried it a few years ago, not sure how it evolved.

Although here are my criteria:

  • It must not require an account,
  • I’d love something that works with the Hue Sync Box. Is it realistic? Maybe with hass-emulated-hue? I don’t mind replacing it if there’s something as good,
  • It’d be nice to be able to use HomeKit.

Feel free to share your experiences!

  • Uninterested_Viewer@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Your first two options listed are simply ZigBee coordinators, not “hubs”: you’d need to run ZHA or ZigBee2mqtt on a computer (could be as simple as a Pi) to use them. Home Assistant is usually what people pair this with for automations, but I prefer the combination of ZigBee2mqtt + mosquito (MQTT broker) + nodered.

    • Spaylia@alien.topOPBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      Your first two options listed are simply ZigBee coordinators, not “hubs”: you’d need to run ZHA or ZigBee2mqtt on a computer

      So a coordinator requires a software to interface it, whereas a hub is standalone (given that it has an app or something)?

  • WorkingISwear@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    You cannot just use deCONZ or similar with HomeKit. Doesn’t work that way. It’s just an antenna. You will need Home Assistant or similar to make the dongle work.

  • NightStinks@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    You cannot just buy a hub like deCONZ, ConBee, Sonoff etc and it just magically work with homekit. If it isn’t homekit certified it will not work without something like home assistant or homebridge as an intermediary.

    • Spaylia@alien.topOPBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      Ah yes, it needs to be HomeKit certified. Would there be a generic Zigbee bridge that’s HomeKit certified?

      • Shepo84@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        10 months ago

        Home assistant works perfect in HomeKit, plus you have the benefit of advanced automations in home assistant

  • Shepo84@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    If you are using hue through HomeKit, you should be able to pause / block the hue hub from the internet and still use it through HomeKit. This is a work around to hue wanting to access your devices.

    Alternatively, Home Assistant is amazing if you ask me. I’m an amateur and found it really easy to uses. The only reason I’ve kept the hue hub is because I already have it set up, otherwise if I was starting from scratch I’d use a Zigbee dongle or home assistant yellow for all my Zigbee devices

  • TheJessicator@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I like Smartthings. Is it the best? No. Is it the most functional? No. But it supports a lot of devices and it’s really easy to use. And coupled with Alexa, there’s very little you can’t do. For more complicated things where it might seem impressive, the key is often virtual switches and sensors.

  • ijuiceman@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I have the Tuesday ZB PoE version,and would never consider anything else. I had nothing but issues with 2 Sonoff gateways and was ready to trash my whole ZB setup. Paid the money and that was over a year ago. Now I rarely get any devices randomly disconnecting. I also get power redundancy due to my switch being on UPS

      • venquessa@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        10 months ago

        All of these devices and hubs use the same chips from Texas Instruments.

        There are basically 2 defacto chips. The “older cheaper one” and the “newer expensive and powerful one.”

        The ZZH is the later. Most others (do check) are the lesser chip.

        Issues with the lesser chip are:
        * Limited number of devices supported (something like 16?).
        * No support for “direct binding” close proximity binding - required to re-bind re-join a Phillips hue bulb.

        • Lower signal strength.

        I have 4 Hue smart bulbs acting as routers around the house, which helps, but honestly it’s far more reliable than the Wifi setups.

        • Spaylia@alien.topOPBEnglish
          1·
          10 months ago

          I would guess CC1352 is the older cheaper whereas CC2652 is the more powerful one?

  • Pukit@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I use a sonoff bridge flashed with Tasmota. I use the system with HomeAssistant which can also do HomeKit.

    The best bit of the sonoff bridge is as it’s WiFi you can put it anywhere and not be near your server. My server is in the basement and my hub is plugged into a usb socket in an upstairs cupboard.

    Everything I have is zigbee. Bulbs, switches, plugs, door, window sensors, blind rollers. I use to have zigbee trvs on all the rads.

    System has never let me down yet.

    • foreveratom@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      Seconded. Same setup, solid as a rock, with a few additional wifi bases devices on top of zigbee