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Home Assistant is open source home automation that puts local control and privacy first. Powered by a worldwide community of tinkerers and DIY enthusiasts. Perfect to run on a Raspberry Pi or a local server. Available for free at home-assistant.io

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Smart button not near zigbee hub (lemmy.nz)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I'd like to add a smart button to my HA setup. I don't have zigbee signal nearby, so I'm wondering what the best way to do this would be.

I'm using a Skyconnect dongle. There's wifi nearby. I want to control a smart switch nearby, which would also have zigbee but that also wouldn't reach the distance I need.

Is Matter a solution here? With a hub connected to wifi that bridges to the button?

Any suggestions on hardware?

Or any other suggestions?

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (11 children)

Can you not add a Zigbee extender?

Edit: Or just use the bottom over WiFi?

Edit 2: Or use this as an excuse to buy more Zigbee products to build up your mesh network until it reaches where you want to place the button

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (10 children)

Are there longer range zigbee extenders? I would like to avoid having to find places for a bunch of smart plugs across the house to extend the signal.

Wouldn't wifi battery operated buttons need batteries replaced all the time, isn't that one of the reasons for something like zigbee, the low power usage?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

You can put a coordinator in relay mode and use that, the antenna would help with the range. Get one of those outlets with USB and a right-angle cable and it'll be nice and low profile too.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

If it's in relay mode, does it only need power via USB or does it still need to be plugged into a server? I don't have any nearby devices to plug it into, I'd probably need to get some mishmash of USB charger and adapter to plug in the coordinator and power it, if it can't reach straight from my HA server all the way to where I want to put the button.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Yeah, it shouldn't need anything more than USB power, it's just another node in the mesh at that point. If you don't have one of those USB outlets just use a phone brick, that should be enough.

EDIT: See THIS for more info. While that's obviously written for Z2M some of it applies to other coordinators.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Sweet, I'll have a think of where I could put one. Any idea of range for ones that have an antenna?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The product page for the sonoff dongle says 40-50 meters line-of-sight but it'll depend on your walls and wifi interference.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Oh cool, thanks. None of the ones I looked at showed range info that I could see. It has to travel through a few walls, but I'm sure one will do the job with the right placement.

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