Is there an easy-to-use Zigbee HUB compatible with openHAB

Setup, Configuration and Use Beginners
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1

I’m not sure whether this is the right section to post my question, but it seems like this is the most general section for these kind of questions.

I’ve got a USB dongle with zigbee2mqtt working just fine, however, adding devices to the dongle via the CLI is a pain in the butt. Especially since I’m installing this system at my parents house whom do not have any knowledge about Linux or anything like that.

I’m looking for an easy to setup universal Zigbee HUB which is compatible with openHAB and is connected to your local network. I do not want a USB dongle connected to the local openHAB server. I prefer devices to be added to the hub via a mobile phone app. Is there anything like this? I can only find USB Dongles which still require me to use commands to add a device to openHAB.

2

I use zigbee2mqtt as well. I created an item to set z2m to permit_join and toggle this item to on to pair devices.

Thing: (Note my topic is “zigbee” not “zigbee2mqtt” - so adjust accordingly)

Thing mqtt:topic:mosquitto:zigbee2mqtt "Zigbee 2 MQTT Coordinator" (mqtt:broker:mosquitto) {
    Channels:
        Type switch : permit_join "Permit Join" [ stateTopic="zigbee/bridge/config", transformationPattern="JSONPATH:$.permit_join", commandTopic="zigbee/bridge/config/permit_join", on="true", off="false" ]
}

Item:

Switch    Zigbee2MQTT_PermitJoin                "Zigbee2mqtt Permit Join"                                                                                            {channel="mqtt:topic:mosquitto:zigbee2mqtt:permit_join", autoupdate="false", expire="1h,command=OFF"}

Sitemap:

...
        Switch item=Zigbee2MQTT_PermitJoin
...

You can even make this available via google home and tell Google Assistant to “Turn on Zigbee Permission” or whatever you’d like to call it. It would make it super easy to add new devices.

3

Thanks for your suggestion! I did find some information about permit_join, but will this item allow me to discover the new Zigbee devices using the openHAB GUI only, or would it still require my parents to add the devices manually to the .things and the .items file?

Also, what is the difference between enabling the permit_join option in the configuration.yaml and creating an item in openHAB?

4

The tag zigbee is for the official zigbee binging, not zigbee2mqtt. I changed the thread tag.

5

permit_join is only to allow a new zigbee device to join your zigbee network. It has nothing to do with openhab.

You will still need to add the thing and item into openhab after that, either via gui or via config file. Then after that, you’d need to incorporate them into your rules, either by way of group membership or specific rules just for that device.

6

Did you have a look into the “new” z2mqtt frontend?
It lets you do most things from a GUI, including reading log messages and turning on join permit.

7

Yes and no, the tag should be “zigbee” because this question is not directly related to zigbee2mqtt, I still prefer a different and easier solution instead of zigbee2mqtt.

8

It makes it a lot easier, absolutely. I will definitely look into this if there is no easier solution which won’t require me to manually add the devices to openHAB. I prefer an automatic detection method like Philips Hue bulbs, for example.

9

For “automatic detection” you could use the home assistant method (homeassistant: true) in the z2mqtt config which should enable auto-discovery in OH.
You would still need to add channels/items though.
Also take into account that it might change your mqtt structure.

edit: added link

1 Like
10

The OH Zigbee-Binding could also be used

2 Likes
11

If you are interested in the Zigbee binding let me tag @chris the developer.

1 Like
12

I’m gonna try the permit_join option with the openHAB zigbee binding, perhaps using the home assistant method in z2mqtt. Thanks a lot for the assistance!

13

I use the HUSBZB-1 USB Hub. I currently have 3 of them on remote servers covering my house and all my outside gates. Even monitoring my mailbox. They are about $40 on Amazon. I use them on RPI. The Zigbee binding works well with these. I configured it just like in the OH docs.