I’m looking into openHab, because I want to use different smart home solutions.
Currently I’m using a Hue bridge, with some Hue and Innr lamps. Also I have three Dect thermostat, which are connected through my FritzBox.
And here is my problem: I don’t want to buy a second bridge!
I have already some RaspberryPis at home.
Now my question: Is it possible to buy something like USB dongles etc. for the Pi, to communicate with all the smart home devices, without additional bridges? And does openHab support that? And if yes, what do I need for that?
I’m also looking for to use z-wave in the future and I don’t want to setup a third bridge.
I hope you understand my thoughts and can help me to accomplish my small smart home
Yes, of course, as long as there is a USB dongle that supports the technology and there is a binding in OH that supports it. For Zigbee and Zwave and others the answer is a definite yes. Note that Hue are fully compatible with the Zigbee binding. But in some cases a hub is required because there is no dongle or there is no binding. So you need to do a little bit of research before you buy to determine what is supported.
That would be great. Unfortunately it doesn’t work like that. You need to decide what technologies best fit your needs and then look to see what and how that technology is supported by OH. Only rarely will you find a dongle that supports more than one technology/protocol.
Well, openHAB has 300+ bindings. That is, it knows to talk to 300 different smart devices or smart home systems. So obviously there is no simple or quick or comprehensive answer to your question the way you have put it.
OH talks to most widespread subsystems such as KNX, ZWave, ZigBee (Hue,Tradfri, …), Homematic, Xiaomi through bridges so you need them, yes you need to buy them. However, they are not necessarily dedicated devices like a Hue bridge or CCU for Homematic is. For ZWave it’s USB sticks and for ZigBee and Homematic you actually can do either, buy a bridge/CCU OR a ZigBee/CUL USB stick.
You should carefully plan your smart home so you don’t end up having too many different technologies. It’s ok to in addition interface with existing devices such as your TV or garden robot, but generic technologies you shouldn’t be using more than 2 or maximum 3. And if I were you, I’d avoid proprietary stuff like Homematic.
So don’t always buy what’s apparently cheapest for an application. Don’t start with a device in mind but scan the market first, browse the forum to hear how others did it - else you’ll be quickly paying more in the long run.
It is okay for me to use multiple dongles, well my RaspberryPi3 has 4 USB slots
I guess I’m switching from Homematic to ZigBee for the door sensors.
But I’m still curious, what are you using at your smart home and which devies are you using for the communication? The correct device name would be great for looking them up
Everyone’s requirements and therefore decisions are unique. Providing such a list would be worse than merely unhelpful because it would give you the impression that you can just copy someone else’s setup without doing the hard work of trying to figure it what your own requirements are.
The proper way to go about this is to figure it what you want to achieve and your constraints, find devices/technologies that can meet your requirements. Then come back here to research if this specific devices/technologies are compatible with OH and if anyone is experiencing problems.
You are asking us to let you put the cart before the horse.
