Home Assistant How To Set Up Zigbee 2022

In the video below, we show you how to set up Home Assistant to use Zigbee smart devices

Home Assistant is a free and open source software for home automation

Zigbee is an open standard wireless protocol which is designed for smart home devices and Home Assistant can take advantage of this if you have the right hardware and you know how to configure it

But it can interfere with the network your computers and phones are using because it uses the same 2.4Ghz, channel 1

It’s more secure than using Wi-Fi smart devices though, because Zigbee devices don’t have direct access to your computer network and better yet these devices can’t be compromised over the Internet or leak information out to it

Zigbee is also more efficient as the devices can build a wireless mesh to give them better wireless coverage and reliability than Wi-Fi would

Compare that with your Wi-Fi network where adding more devices only slows thing down

Steps Taken

1. Hardware
   Home Assistant needs a controller to access Zigbee devices
   A popular choice is the Phoscon ConBee II controller
   Phoscon ConBee II controller
   
   An extension cable is also advised to allow for better reception:
   Basics USB 2.0 A-Male to A-Female Extension Cable
   
   Bear in mind Zigbee operates at the same 2.4Ghz as your Wi-Fi and uses channel 1
   Unless your access point can detect congestion and automatically switch to a different channel, you may experience interference
   If so, you may want to re-configure your AP it to use a different channel

2. Software installation
   Ideally Home Assistant will recognise the device and you can follow the wizard from the notification to install the software
   Otherwise you will have to manually install the Zigbee Home Automation integration

3. Integration planning
   Zigbee can form a wireless mesh so you should plan ahead for adding devices
   Mains powered ones that can act as relays will be more stable and reliable and should be installed first
   Aim to install devices closet to Home Assistant first, work your way out then add battery powered ones

4. Include a device
   To add a device to our Zigbee network, we first need to put Home Assistant into pairing mode
   Then put the device into pairing mode

5. Exclude a device
   If you no longer need a device you will want to remove it from the Zigbee network
   There is no two way communication needed, simply remove the device from Home Assistant

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