Zigbee – Outlookme

So for the last few months I have in my spare time bean trying to find a way to run a PIR sensor on a battery.

I remember reading a news article a few months ago where Amazon, Google and Apple agreed to find a working standard for IOT devices. Lets face it currently you buy a Philips Hue bulb so you have to by the Philips hue hub same for IKEA, google or if you are really not to caring a Chinese hub.

So I researched into this for a moment how can I have my own hub? I currently have

Somfy for my external shutters.
EQ3 max cube for my heating.
Philips Hue for my lights.
433mhz hub for my current designs

I also wanted some windows door sensors, PIR sensors and some heating sensors. But I wanted these on battery no doubt it would have been another hub.

So I hit YouTube where there is a wealth of knowledge but also some total rubbish. I found this one YouTube video that made my blood boil as the YouTube fella had half a million followers and was saying that Zigbee is useless compared to WIFI. Why use it over WIFI etc etc.

15 minutes into the video (I will not link it) arr this makes sense he is sponsored to sell yet another WIFI related smart home device with its own hub.

So obviously none of that waffling in the video put users off as most people are better that just believing 1 person.

The comments hit the nail on the head: Energy

I can tell you a WIFI battery device does not last long, most Zigbee “end devices” run on battery like my temperature sensor contains a coin cell. This will last for 2 years. Yes 2 years this is exactly what I needed.

So yes this is still a DIY project and it did not take long until i found : https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/

1 website with all i needed to get started. I will not go on to much, the link to zigbee2mqtt will fill you in on how Zigbee works and definition explanations for Router, Coordinator and end devices.

I have these 2 devices so far, still awaiting my china order for the rest: