If a smart relay with dry contact, would you like it will be a wifi or Zigbee device?
I need a zigbee one and I was shocked to find there is none. Though it is clear there should be both, wifi and zigbee. I would also suggest making some physical jumpers in mini smart switch R3, making it possible to switch between wet/dry contacts and between normal closed and normal open modes. This way you’ll have universal switches and no need for different models.
heard a Wi-Fi one is coming soon
Zigbee. Wifi is too expensive in energy use. Dry contact would be more useful for low DC applications where battery use is more common. Same with powering the switch. DC 4-13 would be best.
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Also wifi means you can easily make one with Tasmota or ESPHome. Zigbee hasn’t yet appeared as an Arduino an Arduino library, last time I looked, so there would be much less complication from home made devices.
Things would change when C6 gets popular, which can work with Zigbee and Thread too.
And it’s already supported by Arduino I think; For ESPHome, that’s a move for HA to decide.
Last time I checked Arduino supported the C6 but not the Zigbee/Thread on it and there was only a Zigbee shield. Only option used to be the ESP IDF. Things may have changed though.
I asked on ESPHome GitHub when the C6 was newish, but H2 old, but was surprised by the amount of negativity. Was a while ago. Was thinking that most HA people have a Zigbee network and so it’d make sense to have a Zigbee option. Maybe it was just those developers that inhabit the ESPHome GitHub.
There were some “fights” between open-source dependencies, causing the slow adoption of Arduino lib of new esp framework as far as I know
Just found ZigbeeCore on the Espressif GitHub pages. I think maybe Espressif thought the old situation was stupid (and it was) and done it themselves.
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It’d be nice if Sonoff used the ESP32 C6 as then you’d have both WiFi and Zigbee possibilities with the same PCB.
It’s still expensive, not sure if @SONOFF-Staff has plans to use this chipset for future product lines.
My guess was that the whole Zigbee board cost would compensate for the added cost and that being able to reuse the same design for wifi, Zigbee and Thread (if it takes off).
As eWeLink Cube can use Tasmota devices (I’ve only seen wifi), albeit a limited number of capabilities, is there an equivalent way to get these Arduino Zigbee devices into the eWLink ecosystem? As Espressif themselves are doing it I would guess they follow the standards and if the capability matches that of a Sonoff device that already exists it would be okay? I recently got a C6 as part of a Kickstarter thing. May give it a go now I know there is a Zigbee library and presence detection is close enough with the basic settings.
From the hardware wise, yes. However, development costs are still there, especially for less mature solutions. I only know one smart home vendor that used esp32’s none-Wi-Fi solution on the market.
Btw, just tried the official zigbee demo with c6, looks cool
That does look nice and it’s good to know the iHost added it. I was never sure what would happen. Is that the example when you install the Zigbee library in the Arduino Library or an example in the ESP-IDF?
I backed a Seeed Studio Watcher when it was on Kickstarter and it can have UART out. Was thinking of connecting the UART output to an ESP 32 C6 and mimicking a presence sensor. It outputs whatever AI task it is set (default is local AI person detection) to and outputs a picture (I’d ignore). Have already connected it using local HTTP to the iHost/Node-Red and from there to Telegram/Discord.
demo code of esp Arduino; a few clicks and copy-paste would work
Thanks. I will have a look. I haven’t downloaded that library.
As regards the C6: do you think Matter over Thread will take off? I thought it was going to be bigger, but everywhere seems to be matter over wifi. I thought most matter devices would use Thread by now, but there is hardly anything.
That was the main reason why I suggested CM4 compatibility for the other thing. That way you could add thread just by changing the carrier board.
less mature tbh, one or more thread devices go offline in my home from time to time, which is annoying. While Zigbee and Wi-Fi devices I have are relatively more solid.
But personally, I hope things will change when Thread 1.4 is widely adopted.