Fun with Home Assistant SkyConnect and Zigbee2MQTT. Moving my setup.

I will be providing an overview of the new SkyConnect Zigbee/Matter dongle as well as migrating my whole Zigbee2MQTT from my Home Assistant Yellow to my Home Assistant Blue.

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Mostlychris
24165 IH-10 West
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#HomeAssistant
#SmartHome
#skyconnect

00:00 Intro
01:01 ZHA vs Zigbee2MQTT
03:24 Zigbee2MQTT Interface
04:38 ZHA Quick Look
08:48 Add SkyConnect to HA Yellow
09:56 Configure Zigbee2MQTT to use SkyConnect
13:15 Export Zigbee2MQTT backup
13:46 Install z2m and SkyConnect on HA Blue
15:58 Migrate z2m configuration from Yellow to Blue
17:39 Post migration cleanup
18:12 Device Naming Clarification
23:16 Recap and final thoughts

[RebelMagpie]

Thank you. Worked like a charm. I couldn't have worked that out n my own.

[jmr]

I often wonder if some devices aren't compatible just to keep you in their ecosystem. I've always been Z2MQTT because of the compatibility.

[DementedDog]

Great vid thanks - I used it to set mine up and I've got all the sensors connected (aqara) without a hub 🙂

[mschweiz-ce]

I had z2m run on a Yellow for some weeks, using a config which had run stable on a Raspi before (productive). On Yellow, z2m kept crashing every once in a while and I had to revert back to the Raspi. During this short period of time, however, I noted a more stable Zigbee signalling behaviour than with the Deconz stick: no loss, just reliable.

[holgerwinkelmann]

Another problem I have after moving to ZHA, ZHA is in the core, every restart of HA will lead to a new coordination of the network. And in general, for me, ZHA is much more laggy and instable as Z2M was even it was running as container in HAOS, even better on an external RaspI

[RBHMMX]

Please be careful not mixing matter and thread together. It is closely connected but not the same thing

[simoneatough]

Any update on stability with the skyconnect? Ive been having random crashes of my sonoff stick, and i have a skyconnect i could migrate to, but would involve re-pairing all 65 devices

[kevinrust]

I just cannot seem to get z2m to start with my skyconnect in stead of zha.. Completely removed zha.. running ha on a virtual machine on synology

[martimreis]

Thank you for your video. Are your sensors working reliably after the migration to skyconnect? Do you know if it is compatible with all aqara sensors such us the aqara cube?

[chrisw]

No 'u' in Aqara. Just pretend it's a k instead of a q.

[michaelmenzie]

i know its not fully supported and i already have zigbee working with ZHA on another stick. i wanted to see if i could just get z2m working with the skyconnect along side it. i have followed the video as he got it to work but my z2m will just not start.

[Joseph-kokl]

Great info thanks. I do have some questions though- You showed everything except how to move from Z2M on a external dongle to Z2M on the Yellow. Would love (Need) to know how to do that. If you mentioned that I missed it. Currently still using my Sonoff dongle w/ the Yellow but would like to move it all to the internal radio w/o needing to re-pairing all 64 things I have. Thanks again!

[liuesstuo]

The bla bla bla is what made me like it 😅

[MrDead]

for my personal setup and devices ZHA lacked many entities that were exposed in zigbee2mqtt so migrated across, interested to see how matter progresses over the next year

[bsem]

Have you tried connecting Z2M to your Skyconnect via its multiiprotocol firmware/addon? My Sky Connect just shipped but I have been researching and some have it working.

[EsotericArctos]

Technically the Zigbee and Matter support is software within Home Assistant Add-On and not on the stick itself, though the stick can standalone do Zigbee or Matter. Dual support is still software supported. I am probably just being a little pedantic there with wording, but that could confuse some :). How do you find SkyConnect with Zigbee2MQTT? I have heard that is still experimental and could still be unreliable. Also heard on the last Release video from Home Assistant that Matter was still not really production ready for the Yellow or SkyConnect. Curious to here more of your thoughts on that. You are correct that ZHA cannot send from one hub to another. That is an advantage of Zigbee2MQTT. You can migrate the Zigbee Network between Z2M and ZHA, but often entity names won't transfer

[SayWhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat]

CRAP. WHy da hell they did not include external antenna on that thing?