Zigbee Home firmware project aims to provide similar functionality to ESPHome open-source firmware, but for Zigbee devices based on Nordic Semi nRF52 wireless microcontrollers, and later on the newer nRF53 MCUs. The firmware relies on Nordic Semi ZBOSS for Zigbee 3.0 stack and should eventually enable a range of Zigbee devices to be flashed with open-source firmware and facilitate integration with Home Assistant open-source home automation framework through ZHA integration, and support for Zigbee2MQTT is also being worked on.
I’ll have to check if there is a new preferred option or if the firmware still needs to be replaced before use, but when I got mine set up I got this sonoff USB zigbee dongle and it’s running all my ghetto hack zigbee devices like my stock garage opener with zigbee relay parallel with the wall button, a bunch of ad to DC crap connecting things like moisture and humidity sensors and ceiling fans in the bathroom, flood sensor under the dishwasher, etc.
Edit: random other note, I read somewhere that people were having better battery life on battery powered zigbee devices with mosquito and zigbee2mqtt over zha which I am currently using. When I get the time to finish reworking my home lab I’ll be testing it myself.
The fun part to me is making janky diy things that no company would make, and also just knowing your stuff doesn’t spy on you. I’m not sure if they are definitively more secure than wifi devices, but I also like my home automation crap to not make pages and pages of ip leases on my router and have them accessible to anyone with a wifi device or for them to be able to access my network.
There are a lot of things you can do with ha gadgets in general too. My current project is repair and redesign of my automated bird room. In the morning it slowly opens the curtains and dimmer fades the full spectrum bird lamps and room light on, and in reverse at night. There is also a thermometer that is used to set a generic space heater with a smart plug to maintain optimal bird comfort temps. The curtain rail system is being reworked to cover the windows better and there is a second heater elsewhere I am gradually testing a control board replacement to have direct control over zigbee. I am also looking at air quality monitoring and a bird exit alert system to track when my pigeon breaks out.
I’ll have to check if there is a new preferred option or if the firmware still needs to be replaced before use, but when I got mine set up I got this sonoff USB zigbee dongle and it’s running all my ghetto hack zigbee devices like my stock garage opener with zigbee relay parallel with the wall button, a bunch of ad to DC crap connecting things like moisture and humidity sensors and ceiling fans in the bathroom, flood sensor under the dishwasher, etc.
Edit: random other note, I read somewhere that people were having better battery life on battery powered zigbee devices with mosquito and zigbee2mqtt over zha which I am currently using. When I get the time to finish reworking my home lab I’ll be testing it myself.
I don’t think I realized how many devices run zigby, thanks for this! I’ll have to spend more time reading about the protocol.
The fun part to me is making janky diy things that no company would make, and also just knowing your stuff doesn’t spy on you. I’m not sure if they are definitively more secure than wifi devices, but I also like my home automation crap to not make pages and pages of ip leases on my router and have them accessible to anyone with a wifi device or for them to be able to access my network.
There are a lot of things you can do with ha gadgets in general too. My current project is repair and redesign of my automated bird room. In the morning it slowly opens the curtains and dimmer fades the full spectrum bird lamps and room light on, and in reverse at night. There is also a thermometer that is used to set a generic space heater with a smart plug to maintain optimal bird comfort temps. The curtain rail system is being reworked to cover the windows better and there is a second heater elsewhere I am gradually testing a control board replacement to have direct control over zigbee. I am also looking at air quality monitoring and a bird exit alert system to track when my pigeon breaks out.