First of all, sorry if there is approximations in the words and terms I use through this post. I am completely new to the automation and Zigbee world and therefore I may not have a good understanding of the concepts involved.
I recently bought some electrics shutters which are using Zigbee as their protocol (more specifically, Zigbee Home Automation) to control them. (Profalux shutters). The Conbee II key is compatible with those shutters and I was able to connect one shutter to its network, and was also able to control it using the deCONZ app. Only caveat was that the shutter was recognized as a light, but reading through a few Github issues made me understand that this is pretty standard.
However, doing that made it impossible to control the shutter with its remote or the “main” remote that can communicate with all shutters. The reason is that, when connecting my shutter to the Conbee II network, I made it leave the network that was already in place.
As I don’t have a device such as a Raspberry which could keep the Zigbee network online all day long, I want to be able to join the currently existing Zigbee network (with all my electric shutters) instead of creating my own.
So, if I am not mistaken, I don’t want the Conbee key to act as a coordinator, but instead to act as a router; I already have a coordinator which hosts the network.
However, in deCONZ, I wasn’t able to use the Conbee key as a router, even with manually setting up the network key that I sniffed with zshark.
So, is there a way to join the existing network using the Conbee adapter and send commands from there, instead of getting all my shutters to leave their network and join the new one ? If so, what are the parameters to set in deCONZ ?
Regarding Zigbee standard for a given network you can have only one coordinator. Consequence : a Zigbee equipment (End Device or Router) can be paired on only one network.
As far as I know, the ConBee2 firmware acts only as coordinator .
So you can’t use a ConBee2 as a simple router.
Because your shutters are on a dedicated network other than the one driven by the ConBee2 you can’t see the shutter equipment on the ConBee2 Network directly. Nor can you bind the shutter of the ConBee2 network with the remote control of the dedicated shutter network. You will have to use a HA Gateway for this purpose.
Indeed, if the Conbee II can only be used as a coordinator, I will not be able to make it join the existing network. In that case, I’ll just buy a Raspberry and create my own, controlled network using the key.
However, what raised my doubt is the following option in the deCONZ software network settings:
It seems like it is possible to use the Conbee adapter as a router, but the option doesn’t seem used or well documented. Or am I mistaken and this option is designed for a totally different matter ?
Not the first time I see your issue, I know the theorie but not the pratice ^^.
On light remote for exemple there is 2 “pairing mode”, the touchlink that link a bulb to a remote, and the classic inclusion. If you use the first one both device will leave to make their own zigbee network.
And something specific to Profalux, you don’t need a gateway, all devices are router, but one can work as coordinator for others.
