How I turned my Raspberry Pi right into a Zigbee hub and made my good dwelling higher

Abstract

Zigbee2MQTT allows Zigbee units to speak with your house automation software program by way of MQTT.
Using a Raspberry Pi as a devoted Zigbee hub supplies flexibility in gadget placement.
Working Zigbee2MQTT on a separate machine ensures community stability when restarting Residence Assistant.

Sensible dwelling units use many alternative strategies to speak. Some units use Wi-Fi, others use Bluetooth, and a few use Matter or Z-wave. A variety of good dwelling units use Zigbee.

Zigbee has a number of advantages that make it an excellent match for good dwelling units. First off, it is low energy, so you possibly can run many Zigbee units from batteries. Secondly, it makes use of mesh networking, with every gadget capable of cross on info to different units within the mesh. Because of this even when a tool is much away from the Zigbee hub, it could possibly cross its knowledge by means of the mesh.

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In an effort to use Zigbee units, nonetheless, you want a hub that helps Zigbee, such as some Amazon Echo devices. For those who run a Residence Assistant server, you need to use a Zigbee dongle and software program akin to Zigbee2MQTT to attach Residence Assistant to tons of of various Zigbee units. Nevertheless, there are some good explanation why you would possibly wish to create a devoted Zigbee hub utilizing a Raspberry Pi.

Raspberry Pi 5

The Raspberry Pi 5 is a robust single-board laptop (SBC) that launched in the direction of the top of 2023. It is nice for DIY tech tasks and even as a low-power desktop PC.

What’s Zigbee2MQTT, and why do you want it?

Let your Zigbee units speak to your house automation software program

Zigbee2MQTT is open-source software program that works as a bridge between your Zigbee units and an MQTT dealer. It takes info out of your Zigbee good dwelling units and passes these messages on utilizing the MQTT messaging protocol. Software program akin to Home Assistant can then entry this MQTT knowledge, which helps you to combine your Zigbee units into your good dwelling automations.

The most effective half is that you would be able to join units that in any other case want a proprietary hub.

Sensible dwelling hubs such because the Hue Bridge take the Zigbee alerts from good bulbs and cross the info to the Hue app as a way to management your lights. You need to use Zigbee2MQTT to create your individual good dwelling hub that can cross knowledge out of your Zigbee units to your good dwelling software program of alternative.

The most effective half is that you would be able to join units that in any other case want a proprietary hub. For instance, you possibly can add Philips Hue bulbs to your good dwelling with no need the Hue bridge or add IKEA good dwelling units with no need IKEA’s good hub.

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What you may want to show your Raspberry Pi right into a Zigbee hub

You may want a Zigbee dongle to speak to your units

Raspberry Pi 5 vs 4 next to a computer mouse and keyboard.

There are actually solely two issues that you want to flip your Pi right into a Zigbee hub. First, you may want a Raspberry Pi to run the software program on. It’s best to be capable of run it on most fashions; I am utilizing a Raspberry Pi 3B+, and it runs with none issues.

Second, you may want a Zigbee adapter. The Raspberry Pi would not have native Zigbee assist, so you may want a Zigbee dongle to ensure that your Pi to speak to your Zigbee units. A list of compatible devices is out there within the official Zigbee2MQTT information.

Since Zigbee units ship lots of knowledge, you may additionally wish to run Zigbee2MQTT on one thing apart from an SD card. Studying and writing an excessive amount of knowledge to an SD card may cause it to fail — I personally use an SSD linked by USB as an alternative.

You may additionally must be operating an MQTT dealer. This acts because the middleman between your units and your software program, sending and receiving MQTT messages. You’ll be able to run an MQTT dealer as an add-on in Residence Assistant.

A Raspberry Pi model 1 with a trophy over it.

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Putting in Raspberry Pi OS in your Pi

You may want an OS to get your Pi up and operating

Zigbee2MQTT can run on Linux, Home windows, Docker, and extra. On this instance, I am operating it on Raspberry Pi OS, which is the official distribution for the Raspberry Pi, however you need to use alternate options if you would like.

Obtain the Raspberry Pi Imager software, and join your storage gadget to your laptop.
Choose your mannequin of Raspberry Pi.
Select the Raspberry Pi OS software program in your gadget.
Choose your storage gadget.
Click on Subsequent.
Choose Edit Settings.
Enter a hostname in your Raspberry Pi if you would like.
Enter the username and password you’ll use to remotely entry your Pi.
Enter the SSID and password in your Wi-Fi to entry the web wirelessly.
Below the Providers tab, test Allow SSH to mean you can entry your Raspberry Pi by way of SSH.
Shut the settings and click on Sure.
Affirm you wish to overwrite your storage gadget.
Await the Raspberry Pi OS to be written to your storage gadget.
When it is completed, take away your storage gadget, join it to your Raspberry Pi, and begin it up.

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Putting in Zigbee2MQTT in your Raspberry Pi

Getting the software program onto your Pi is slightly difficult

As soon as Raspberry Pi OS is put in, you must be capable of entry your Raspberry Pi remotely from a pc. You’ll be able to then set up Zigbee2MQTT immediately onto your Raspberry Pi.

SSH into your Raspberry Pi by coming into the next in PowerShell on Home windows or Terminal on Mac:
```
ssh [your_username]@[your_hostname].native
```
Enter your password.

Enter the next instructions to put in Node.js and the mandatory dependencies:

sudo curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_20.x | sudo -E bash -

sudo apt-get set up -y nodejs git make g++ gcc libsystemd-dev

npm set up -g pnpm

To create a listing for Zigbee2MQTT, enter the next:
```
sudo mkdir /choose/zigbee2mqtt
```
Set your self as proprietor of the listing by coming into the next and changing [your_username] with the username you arrange for Rasbperry Pi OS:
```
sudo chown -R [your_username]: /choose/zigbee2mqtt
```

Clone the Zigbee2MQTT repository by coming into the next:

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Koenkk/zigbee2mqtt.git /choose/zigbee2mqtt

Set up the required dependencies by coming into the next:
```
cd /choose/zigbee2mqttpnpm i --frozen-lockfile
```
Lastly, construct Zigbee2MQTT by coming into the next:
```
pnpm run construct
```
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Configuring Zigbee2MQTT in your Raspberry Pi

You must level Zigbee2MQTT at your MQTT dealer

As soon as Zigbee2MQTT has been put in, you may have to configure it to connect with your MQTT dealer.

Copy the default configuration file utilizing the next instructions:

cp /choose/zigbee2mqtt/knowledge/configuration.instance.yaml /choose/zigbee2mqtt/knowledge/configuration.yaml

nano /choose/zigbee2mqtt/knowledge/configuration.yam

Within the configuration file, set server to the IP handle of your server. For instance:
```
server: mqtt://192.168.1.6:1883
```
To permit units to be found by Residence Assistant, underneath homeassistant, set enabled to true.
Press Ctrl+X to exit.
Kind Y to verify that you simply wish to save the adjustments.
Press Enter to save lots of the adjustments.
You are now prepared to begin Zigbee2MQTT. Ensure that your Zigbee dongle is linked to your Raspberry Pi, and sort the next:
```
cd /choose/zigbee2mqtt
```
```
pnpm begin
```
Zigbee2MQTT ought to now begin. You’ll be able to cease it at any time by urgent Ctrl+C.

A Raspberry Pi 3B in the official case on a colored background.

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Discovering units utilizing Zigbee2MQTT

Activate discovery and pair your Zigbee tech

Now that Zigbee2MQTT is operating, the ultimate half is so as to add some units to it. You may want to permit units to hitch the community after which put the units in pairing mode to ensure that them to hitch. By default, becoming a member of will open the community for 254 seconds after which flip it off.

In a browser, navigate to your Raspberry Pi’s IP handle adopted by :8080. For instance, I have to enter 192.168.1.6:8080.
It’s best to see the Zigbee2MQTT entrance finish.
Click on the Allow Be a part of (ALL) button.
Your community will probably be quickly obtainable to hitch.
To attach a tool, put it into pairing mode. If Zigbee2MQTT helps your Zigbee gadget, you could find the tactic for placing it into pairing mode by looking out the Supported Devices database.
It’s best to see the gadget seem within the Zigbee2MQTT entrance finish. It might take a while for the gadget to be acknowledged and the knowledge to populate.
Repeat for some other units you wish to add.

It’s best to now discover that your units have mechanically been added to Residence Assistant, together with all of the obtainable entities. Now you can use the units inside Residence Assistant nonetheless you see match.

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The advantages of operating Zigbee2MQTT on a Raspberry Pi

You’ll be able to place your Zigbee hub within the optimum location

It is potential to run Zigbee2MQTT inside Residence Assistant as an add-on, and it is a lot simpler to put in than following the steps above. Nevertheless, putting in Zigbee2MQTT on a Raspberry Pi gives some vital advantages.

The most important profit is that you simply’re not constrained by the place your Zigbee hub is positioned.

The most important profit is that you simply’re not constrained by the place your Zigbee hub is positioned. I used to run Zigbee2MQTT inside Residence Assistant, however my Residence Assistant server is positioned subsequent to my router, which is much from being central to my dwelling. It meant that lots of my Zigbee units would drop off the community as they had been too distant, even with different Zigbee units in between extending the mesh community.

Now that Zigbee2MQTT is operating on a Raspberry Pi, I can place it anyplace I need. It is now positioned centrally in my dwelling, and my Zigbee units not often drop off the community anymore.

You additionally haven’t got to fret about Zigbee2MQTT happening each time you restart Residence Assistant for any motive. Because it’s operating by itself machine, your Zigbee community ought to keep up and operating even when Residence Assistant goes down.