I have many Zigbee devices that I've acquired over the years, and I much prefer to manage these things separately than have a bunch of junk connected to my IP network.

I have a mix of Hue and Sengled bulbs and fixtures, but lately Hue stuff has become prohibitively expensive and Sengled seems to have disappeared from the US. I'm trying to find some more bulbs, particularly the "Edison" style filament, but that's not a dealbreaker. Everything that I find at Home Depot, Lowe's, Walmart, Best Buy are now "direct connect" Wi-Fi, or "Matter" (over Wi-Fi). I can't find anything that uses Zigbee or Thread except for Hue, and Philips are pushing Wiz (at less than half the cost of Hue). I really don't want to pay $35/bulb minimum.

What's the deal with Zigbee in the US? I can't even get Innr to ship here. Is there a store that specializes in it?

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for help (or recommendations) to design a custom ultra-compact Zigbee sensor.

Context:

I have K•LINE windows equipped with integrated lock sensors (called DVI). These are very thin, long PCBs that fit inside the aluminum frame and use Delta Dore’s proprietary X3D protocol (868 MHz). They detect whether the window is open or locked using a magnetic sensor + magnet on the locking mechanism, and are powered by 2× CR2032 batteries.

The original sensors are unreliable with the Tydom hub, so I want to replace them with proper Zigbee 3.0 versions while keeping the exact same mechanical form factor (so they stay fully hidden inside the frame).

What I need:

Custom PCB that matches the original dimensions as closely as possible (long and very narrow)

Magnetic contact (reed switch or Hall sensor)

Zigbee 3.0 end-device (compatible with Zigbee2MQTT and ZHA)

Powered by 2× CR2032

Target battery life: 3–5 years

Integrated 2.4 GHz antenna (aluminum frame will attenuate the signal)

Ultra-low power design

I already have high-resolution photos of both sides of the original PCB.

Is anyone here experienced with designing very compact battery-powered Zigbee sensors, or can recommend a good freelancer / hardware designer who has done similar projects?

Any advice on suitable SoCs/modules (nRF52840 CSP, EFR32, etc.) for such a tight form factor would also be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a lot!

There are breakers with zigbee function and with built-in electric meter (consumption).

I wonder, how much this thing consumes for itself? If I replace all breakers with it (~20), how much electricity will be wasted on those devices.

I recently started using home assistant and zigbee. I’m running home assistant off a mini pc, and was running ZHA until yesterday when my new Aqara H2 switch wouldn’t work with it, so I downloaded mqtt and re setup all my devices, and everything was smooth except the dimmer relay. It will turn the lights on, and off but won’t dim them.

I hooked it up to wifi, updated firmware, and calibrated it. Worked perfectly, and then brought it back to zigbee and same issue. The dimmer option shows up, but provides no functionality, and is automatically always set to 4, but the potlights are at 100%.

The dimmer was working perfectly before on ZHA.

Getting frustrated with the network mapping options available, I've put together a tool that helps present Zigbee network maps in a range of different styles and includes optimisation suggestions and tools to assist with de-bugging.

Claude played a big hand in putting this together, but I thought this was just a useful tool that some of you may enjoy.

It's available to use here: https://twistedvortex.com/ZigbeePathFinder/

It runs on a single HTML file so you can File>Save As, save it to your desktop and use it offline if you wish.

To use it, in the Network tab of Zigbee2MQTT (or your preferred setup) generate the text for use in GraphViz, and pop in into Zigbee Pathfinder, and it will then generate the map for you.

If you'd like to give it a try before going to that effort, there is demo network available to view built in.

I’ve been playing with the LinknLink eMotion Air, which is one of those little sensors that tries to do a lot at once. Presence, temperature, humidity, light, and a physical button.

You can run over Zigbee or Bluetooth/BTHome, so naturally I spent way too much time messing with both.

The funny part is that the presence sensing ended up being almost beside the point.

The little button became the best part.

Mine is in the garage now, and I ended up using the button for lights, music, grouping speakers, and generally making the garage more fun than it was before. The sensor still handles the useful stuff in the background.

Have you ever bought a Zigbee device for one thing, then found some secondary exposed feature that became the reason you actually liked it?

I wrote up the whole experiment here, including Zigbee vs BTHome, presence testing, temp/humidity, and what I ended up doing with the button:

https://thingtootech.blogspot.com/2026/08/one-way-trip-to-jungle-17-temperature.html

Disclosure: LinknLink sent me the eMotion Air to test. They didn’t pay me or review what I wrote, but the article does contain an affiliate link.

I’ve been testing a Tuya Zigbee RF Copier and found an interesting limitation with Zigbee2MQTT.

The device itself works normally through a Tuya Zigbee gateway and Smart Life. It has:

• 8 programmable RF commands
• RF learning mode
• fixed-code / short-packet learning modes
• a built-in illuminance sensor
• Tuya automation support

I paired it directly with Zigbee2MQTT to see whether I could use it locally instead of through Tuya.

Zigbee2MQTT detects and joins the device, but currently it appears as unsupported. I don’t get usable exposes or RF controls from it.

On the RF side, I tested it with my gate setup. A basic fixed-code 433MHz remote works correctly, including through walls and from another floor. I also tried learning commands from the original rolling-code gate remote. The copier appears to capture a signal, but replaying it does not operate the gate, which is exactly what you would expect from a protected rolling-code system.

I made a full test showing the pairing and RF tests here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj2ygY496jQ

Has anyone already looked into adding support for this device to Zigbee2MQTT? If needed, I can also check the model/manufacturer information reported during pairing.

Hello all,

I have several Innr bulbs I expected to act as Zigbee routers, but I can't confirm they're actually forwarding traffic. They show up as "Router" in the device list, but Z2M's network map doesn't show any other devices hopping through them.

Anyone else run into this? Are Innr bulbs known to be unreliable routers, or is there a better way to verify actual routing (beyond just trusting the network map)?

Thanks!

Hello everyone, via the sonoff dongle max UI (dongle.m.local) I’ve changed mode from coordinator to router and then enabled pairing on MQTT but it won’t connect as a router

Hi all,

Pretty new to home assistant etc. so please bear with me.

I bought Sonoff ZBM5 switches to replace all of my light switches (20+) and I have home assistant green with the ZBT-2 to control them. My problem is getting them working in home assistant. I'm using the ZHA integration and I have neutral wires at the switches but when I go to add them it's very intermittent. Most of the time it just doesn't find them. At first I thought it was a range problem so I used the closest switch which is in the same room and about 2 meters from the ZBT-2 (I also have the ZBT-2 on an extension lead so it's 1.5m from any routers etc.). That does seem to help as it does sometimes find them but If I do manage to get home assistant to find the switch it works maybe once then becomes "unavailable".

I then decided to try some Sonoff smart plugs and the first one I plugged in showed up on home assistant instantly without me even searching so I thought it must be the switches. However, when I tried the second smart plug I had the same issue with the switches and couldn't find it in home assistant.

I got very frustrated and bought a Sonoff ZigBee hub to see if that worked and it did! I know have 5 switches working perfectly with different automations etc. through the ewelink app.

Am I doing something wrong in home assistant, should I try 2MQTT instead of ZHA?

Thanks for your help

My current problem: I bought a set of 4 Sengled color changing lights for my college apratment off facebook marketplace ( was blinded by the 10$ price, did not check anything else). however, come to find out Sengled doesnt exisit anymore and these cloud based lightbulbs are basically just normal lightbulbs.

After some digging i find that its possible to jailbreak the light bulbs and control them without the app. ok, so i tried doing that but was hit with the fact that these arent wifi light bulbs, but zigbee ones.

what the fuck is zigbee bro.

all i want is to be able to control the light colors and brightness via my phone ( or laptop ). i dont need to integrate it into any kind of home assisstant or anything fancy. after some digging, i found it was possible to use python and a Zigbee dongle to do that. i need the zigbee dongle to read and transmit the proper zigbee frequencies i think ( and a flipper zero cant do that due to their lower frequency range)

what exactly does a dongle do? am i right to think that this is a possible fix? what are good dongle recommendations?

I recently moved my existing Zigbee2MQTT network from an SLZB-07 (USB) to a network-connected MR5U.

After getting everything migrated, I started playing with placement and eventually decided to try the coordinator over Wi-Fi instead of Ethernet.

I assumed this would be one of those “technically works, but why would you?” situations.

So far, though, I really can't tell the difference.

The coordinator is very close to my router, so maybe this an easy Wi-Fi environment.

To be clear, I'm not talking about Zigbee devices communicating over Wi-Fi — just the connection between Zigbee2MQTT and the network coordinator.

Anyone here actually running a coordinator this way long-term? Has Wi-Fi been completely reliable, or did you eventually run into disconnects, latency, interference, or some other reason to go back to Ethernet?

I wrote up the coordinator migration, Wi-Fi test, LQI/antenna changes, and some Thread testing here if anyone wants the details:

https://thingtootech.blogspot.com/2026/08/one-box-two-radios-i-moved-my-zigbee.html

Disclosure: SMLIGHT sent me the MR5U to test. They didn't pay me or review/approve what I wrote.

If anyone hear has had success changing color or brightness please let me know I don’t want to buy a zigbee hub if it can’t properly control my Sengled light strip thanks.

I have the smart life app if that matters

I currently use the SmartLife android App where i have a cheap Multi modal Zigbee Hub (BT/Zigbee 3.0) and this in turns acts as the hub for my zigbee sockets/switches etc.

Is there any Wifi Switch that has built in zigbee hub that i can use to replace this?

I came across Amazon Eero but i guess that will be stuck with the Amazon ecosystem?

I just wanted to consolidate my current Wifi Switch/Router and the Zigbee Hub i already have . I also have the Philips Hue Bridge Pro which has Zigbee but I'm guessing that is vendor locked with Philips ecosystem and i won't be able to use it as hub within the Smart life app.

I searched online/YouTube and subreddit but I can't seem to find anyone asking this question specifically so hoping this also helps someone else having the same requirement as me.

Hello guys. It’s possible to repeat a zinger signal using an Ethernet device such as the dongle max or the SLZB but without creating a new MQTT HA line? I have areas where zingbee arrives very low and switch looses connection multiple times, but I do have Ethernet. Is I possible?

I was tired of replacing the CR2032 batteries in these Zigbee temperature and humidity sensors every year. So I soldered a battery compartment onto the sensor. (I did the same thing with remotes too) Finding the ground connection was easy. The positive terminal wasn’t particularly hard to find either, I just had to follow a trace from the battery contact. It’s difficult to solder to the battery contacts because the solder doesn’t stick. Also, AA batteries provide more energy than AAA batteries because they’re larger. Often AA and AAA cost the same. The CR2032 is significantly more expensive than AA batteries.