Yes but there are no other alternatives for tiny wireless sensors like contact sensors, pir, thermometers, etc.
TuyaMQTT requires flashing the devices with a new firmware, correct?
No. Tuyamqtt works using tuya local protocol exactly like smarthomej tuya binding. The devices are untouched and can still be controlled using the tuya app although not at the same time, as you are aware.
If flashing is easy, I’d flash them with esphome, but sometimes it’s too hard to open things to flash, e.g. light bulbs, or I’m too lazy to flash.
The number of my unflashed tuya devices is growing.
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Yes, I know. Unfortunately, I sometimes express myself clumsily or incorrectly.
A better phrasing would have been “… or is it like Olaf with ZigBee that not all devices are supported by the Tuya-binding?”
I will tryout the binding first but good to know there is an alternative available.
Why do you prefer esphome overe Tasmota?
I haven’t set up an MQTT broker yet, but since I was not able to find a presence detector meeting all my needs I’m considering using esphome too because of this video
This raises the questions: Is it better to run the MQTT broker on different device than the openhab instance or is this unnecessary?
How do you to templatise your Mqtt devices?
Best regards
Note that Tuya also makes ZigBee devices. In a lot of cases, you can choose either WiFi or ZigBee flavour. I would choose ZigBee over WiFi, especially with devices coming from China manufacturers (I wouldn’t want to expose my WiFi network). ZigBee also works more reliably compared to ZWave, which always have node disconnected problem). To address range issue, I recommend one of the new adapter. I am using the SONOFF Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus ZBDongle-P. It is way better than the CC2531 I was using before.
Lastly, IKEA also makes ZigBee blinds; I haven’t tried them yet though.
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I believe, and I could be wrong here, as far as device support goes, the two are the same. Working with the tuyamqtt is easier though, at least for me.
I used to use tasmota. From time to time it resets to factory default, rendering the device inoperable until I reconfigured it with the correct template. This lead me to creating a script to do a regular config backup to ease recovery.
Then I tried esphome, and never looked back. All its configurations are done on my computer as yaml files, which then gets compiled into the firmware. So once it’s flashed to the device it would not get wiped out because it’s in the firmware binary, not in a separate nvram settings.
Esphome also enabled me to write the firmware (in C++) for custom built devices with esphome framework for which I’ve previously used platformio.
Depends on what computer you’re using. Localhost is faster if it can handle it. I run my stuff on a xeon CPU with 64gb of ram along with a lot of other stuff including Frigate, Plex etc. these apps run inside their own docker containers, making it easy to update and manage.
I made an items and things file generator that uses templates for each type of device - GitHub - jimtng/openhab-itemsgen: Generate .things and .items files for OpenHAB using pre-set templates.
It works fine but I now create the things and items directly from JRuby code, no longer creating items and things file. I haven’t yet published this method yet, but the idea with template and device list yaml is similar.
zigbee - but in my Opinion you have to deal with additional zigbee2mqtt Software
a few Years ago i have used the integrated Zigbee Addon but no luck, the addon was unstable and laggy lately after few days for me
since then i use zigbee2mqtt connected via mosquitto mqtt broker to openhab - works like a charme
BUT zigbee2mqtt is NOT a “fast selling item” - you have to deal with several Problems when you buy a cheap and crappy Coordinator such as CC2531
with actually CC2652x Coordinator you can build a really strong & reliable zigbee Mesh Network
BUT you have to deal with the Software - install & forget will not work ^^ especially after z2m Upgrade there could be some Problems… not often but it can.
I use this dongle too. So far so good.
no, the mosquitto broker is really economical with RAM/CPU
mosquit+ 633 0.2 0.2 15948 9392 ? Ss Nov09 13:25 /usr/sbin/mosquitto
so it make sense to install local & connect via localhost
in z2m Forums i read alot of problems, sorry
i would prefer CC2652RB from slae.sh
i am using this without further problems
Would you mind sharing some links? I’ve only started using the sonoff dongle recently and I wasn’t aware that it has problems. I was using a TI development board before this, and although it was working fine, I wanted something that looks better.
I also have concerns about chines products but why would you expose your WIFI network?
That’s something I can not confirm. I have 60 Zwave device in use and so far everything works very good and reliable. It’s important to have no ghost nods.
IKEA is a good point, but the additional hardware puts me off quite a bit
Okay, sounds great.
Very good point! A near future project is to use face recognition software like deepstack or some which will need new hardware for sure and I think that would be a better place for the MQTT broker
I’ll come back to this when I’m ready to use mqtt. 
Isn’t that another point against zigbee?
I doubt that there is any kind of software where “install & forget” works well for a long time. I use ZigBee with a Dresden Electronic ConBee and the deconz binding. I have not come across any device that is not supported.
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In retrospect, I might have been better off opting for ZigBee, but I had read that there can be problems because, like WIFI, it works at 2.4GHz.
There are obviously more devices with ZigBee, but I didn’t know that at the time.
Switching is out of the question now, it’s just a question of whether I want to bring an additional protocol into the house, but I think I’ve moved on from that idea.
please avoid deepstack like the plague. It constantly uses CPU even when nothing happens. very suspicious.
Use codeproject instead. It’s api compatible with deepstack anyway.
I have 4 access points in a relatively small area, 60+ wifi devices, 50+ ZigBee devices. No interference issues that I’m aware of. The wifi channels where I live isn’t busy though. I understand if you live in a high density city apartment it could be a different story.
No it shouldn’t be. I’ve been using zigbee2mqtt for several years (at least 3-4 yrs). I can’t recall ever having a problem due to upgrading z2m. You can probably just set and forget it, never upgrading if you are concerned. Newer versions are usually for adding new device support. If your devices are working, there shouldn’t be any reason to upgrade.
Thanks for the warning! I want to use double take with Frigate and then CompreFace or FaceBox.
Can this be done with a NVIDIA Jetson Nano?
You’re certainly right that there wouldn’t have been a problem, but if you’re not familiar with the subject and someone writes something like that, then you start to think about it. As I said before, now it’s too late to change.
In theory, you should connect all IoT devices to a separate WiFi network, but in reality, it depends on the age of your system. Sometimes the system is just too big and / or built so long ago that it is cumbersome to rip them all out to build proper segmented networks for the IoT devices. Even if you’ve separate networks, I imagine it can be somewhat painful trying to bridge the network to do useful things. The problem with Chinese devices is that many of them are notorious of hacking / extracting user info (gov mandate); that is what I meant by exposing the WiFi network - you gave the devices the password to your WiFi. Zigbee and ZWave are much safer from this perspective.
Regarding ZWave, I also have a number of ZWave light switchs. They work very well for the most part. The problem is when you’ve a switch that drives an inductive fan (e.g. washroom fan). Sometimes it can cause problem forcing you having to reset the device, which will then require re-pairing with the coordinator. Subsequently, you end up with a new ZWave node id which will force you to change all references. That is the pain point of ZWave. In contrast, ZigBee devices just re-join the network; almost zero maintenance from the code perspective.
I suggest to be open-minded. Reading your messages make me feel like you are trying to find holes to disregard a technology that you chose not to adopt. No technology is perfect. And as you can see by now, most of us, including myself, has multiple protocols in the house. WiFi tends to be more popular with less technical people as they are cheaper and they come with apps that people can control. But that comes with a disadvantage: the eco system tends to be locked in. I prefer ZigBee as they are almost equally cheap, and they have well supported eco system that is off the cloud. Despite started out with ZWave, I am now actively moving away from it due to the node problem I mentioned above, and due to the cost. ZWave is quite a bit more expensive compared to ZigBee as the vendors have to pay royalties.
My point is that of course you need to take maintenance into consideration, but don’t shut off all options just because of that.
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