The simplest method to begin with Zigbee or Thread simply obtained even higher, with Residence Assistant Join ZBT-2. This USB adapter plugs into your Residence Assistant system and opens up a world of sensible machine choices. Between its exactly tuned antenna and next-generation chip, it’s a giant step up for anybody trying to join Zigbee, Thread, or Matter gadgets on to Residence Assistant.
For all our Zigbee followers, this may be one of the best improve you’ll make all yr. We’ve squeezed each inch out of this expertise, giving it one of the best vary, velocity, and stability attainable. The identical could be mentioned for our Thread-heads on the market (yeah, I simply got here up with that cool nickname 😎), making Matter or ESPHome Thread
When you’re a kind of folks nonetheless rocking three completely different hubs, what are you ready for… one other big server outage to take down your sensible residence? Ditch these cloud hubs and take again your privateness right now. As an added bonus, your gadgets will possible get extra controls, vary, and resilience.
Obtainable right now beginning at $49 and €45 (that’s the MSRP, and pricing will fluctuate by retailer). Designed and constructed by Nabu Casa and the Open Residence Basis, each buy helps fund the event of Residence Assistant. For fast specs, particulars, and the place to purchase, go to our lovely Residence Assistant Join ZBT-2 web page.
What are Zigbee, Thread, and Matter?
The brief reply is that they’re all open requirements that permit sensible gadgets discuss on to your sensible hub of alternative, like Residence Assistant. We love open requirements as a result of they don’t depend on the cloud, which implies your gadgets are absolutely underneath your management at residence, with no danger of turning right into a paperweight if the producer will get bored of paying the server charges. Additionally, when used with Residence Assistant, your sensible residence information by no means wants to depart your house, which is at all times higher for privateness.
Zigbee is a wi-fi commonplace that’s been a cornerstone of sensible residence expertise for practically twenty years, with hundreds of gadgets from manufacturers like Philips Hue, IKEA, Aqara, Sonoff, frient, and ThirdReality. There’s a great probability you have already got a few of these gadgets in your house, they usually’ll have their very own hubs, which frankly are simply taking over further area, as every part is best linked proper to Residence Assistant 😉.
Matter is the massive new commonplace – its tech is cutting-edge, and rising actually quick. It may well use Wi-Fi to speak to gadgets, but when that machine is battery-powered, it’ll most likely use Thread as a substitute. Matter gadgets that use Thread are getting actually good, and lots of are Works with Residence Assistant
Whether or not you arrange your Join ZBT-2 to make use of Zigbee or Thread, you possibly can’t actually go improper, as each requirements have gadgets for practically each sensible residence want. Each give gadgets nice battery life, take some pressure off your Wi-Fi, and counterintuitively, the extra gadgets you’ve, the higher the vary and stability could be.
Standing on the shoulders of giants
In 2022, we launched Residence Assistant Join ZBT-1 (initially known as SkyConnect), our first product within the Join line and first USB adapter. Join ZBT-1 was designed to be the simplest, most secure method to join Zigbee gadgets to Residence Assistant. It additionally got here with Thread connectivity help, which was very new on the time. All these years later, it continues to obtain software program help and is a group favourite.
Gross sales of Join ZBT-1 helped fund Residence Assistant’s improvement, and we realized a lot that has influenced its subsequent iteration. Alas, as a lot as we love our little Join ZBT-1, right now we’re saying goodbye. Now we have now ended manufacturing of Join ZBT-1, however software program help will proceed. When you’re nonetheless utilizing Join ZBT-1, count on it to maintain working far into the long run.
In case you are trying to improve your Zigbee community with a Join ZBT-2, don’t overlook you possibly can proceed to make use of your Join ZBT-1 as a method to dip your toes into the world of Thread – it’s very simple to swap working modes
Upgrading every part
In comparison with its predecessor, this model has upgraded every part. First off, we’ve doubled the product quantity from ZBT-1 to ZBT-2… that’s 2x higher already! However there’s positively extra.
Keep on with an antenna
First off, to realize peak efficiency, we moved away from the small “stick” kind issue. Small USB sticks are handy, however USB ports and close by electronics can create interference that weakens the sign. With Join ZBT-1, we beneficial utilizing a USB extension cable to maintain the adapter away from noise.
The antenna has gone from security pin-sized 🧷, to tablespoon-sized 🥄
With Join ZBT-2, we’ve designed away this difficulty. It’s a lot simpler to correctly place because it’s now a free-standing antenna and base, which is completely tuned for Zigbee and Thread. The bigger antenna isn’t solely good at broadcasting to additional away gadgets, however can also be good at listening out for faint alerts from far-off gadgets. We even optimized the bottom, which acts as a “floor airplane”, boosting the antenna’s efficiency. It features a 1.5 m (4.9 ft) USB cable that permits you to place it in a great place to keep away from any interference.
4 instances the velocity
Inside Join ZBT-2 is the Silicon Labs MG24, a sophisticated Zigbee/Thread system-on-chip. In comparison with the MG21 utilized in Join ZBT-1, it brings increased processing energy and higher sensitivity to weak alerts.
Extra baud, the higher 😜
We additionally took the chance to quadruple the interior communications velocity of the chip – taking the baud charge from 115,200 bps to 460,800 bps. In our testing, we noticed constant enhancements in machine responsiveness. Don’t count on your gadgets to activate 4 instances quicker, however you’ll really feel the distinction when turning on a number of gadgets concurrently.
Constructed for Residence Assistant
It’s very easy to reap the benefits of all this efficiency, as we at all times work to make Residence Assistant {hardware} tremendous simple to start out with. Simply plug within the machine through the included cable right into a spare USB port in your Residence Assistant system, and the setup wizard will information you thru every part. This all works so nicely as a result of the identical individuals who constructed Zigbee and Thread into Residence Assistant additionally helped construct Join ZBT-2.
You can begin a brand new Zigbee or Thread community in minutes, or use our improved migration instruments to maneuver an current community over. It’s an easy improve, and most adapters migrate with just some clicks. Better of all, each Residence Assistant person upgrading to new adapters will profit from these new migration instruments. Simply one other instance of how {hardware} gross sales assist degree up our software program improvement.
Compatibility and adaptability
Residence Assistant Join ZBT-2 helps Zigbee 3.0 (and sure, we’re taking a look at Zigbee 4.0 help as nicely) and is protecting tempo with Thread’s speedy improvement. We’ve examined it working nice with ZHA, zigpy-cli, Zigbee2MQTT
If it’s a Zigbee-certified machine or Matter-certified machine that makes use of Thread, it ought to work out of the field. Residence Assistant already has one of many widest compatibility lists on this planet, and our group repeatedly expands it with each new launch. For manufacturers that help the performance, there are additionally Over-the-Air (OTA) firmware updates for gadgets.
Simply notice: Join ZBT-2 can solely use one protocol at a time, that means you need to select both Zigbee or Thread. We’ve executed in depth testing prior to now on operating each on the similar time, and located it simply doesn’t work nicely for an entire record of causes.
Second-generation energy
Our second-generation Join line merchandise are all about being open and performant, and one addition that fulfills this promise is our inclusion of the ESP32 chip. Join ZBT-2 contains an ESP32-S3 as its USB controller, which is a little bit overkill for this job, however opens up a world of potentialities.
ESP32 gadgets are nicely understood by our workforce, but additionally the group. It implies that anybody can change the firmware on this chip and probably unlock cool new talents. For example, our not too long ago launched Join ZWA-2 makes use of this similar chip to help experimental firmware that provides new performance. This isn’t to say we’ll do the very same factor with Join ZBT-2; it’s extra to say the sky’s the restrict with our second-gen merchandise. The firmware it ships with is simply the beginning, and we’ve some cool concepts cooking on what we are able to do subsequent.
Open design
Have a look at all these uncovered pins and pads 🤤
After we say open, we imply it. Within the bodily sense, it’s simple to open Join ZBT-2 as there are not any clips or glue, just a few beautiful commonplace Phillips head screws. The board has a beautiful silkscreen, which explains all of the chips, uncovered pins, and pads.
The bootloader is unlocked, and all of the firmware we construct is open supply and obtainable to switch. We’ve additionally constructed a brand new web site
Why USB?
Earlier than you get within the feedback asking about Energy-over-Ethernet (PoE)… we completely agree it’s cool, however on this event, it’s not the path we took. Sure, PoE has turn out to be simpler to make use of and its efficiency, if carried out appropriately, could be fairly good (our testing with Join ZWA-2 exhibits a fairly minor velocity hit). Join ZBT-2 is concentrated solely on ease-of-use and pure efficiency. That mentioned, there are quite a lot of PoE followers on the basis, and product gross sales assist fund improvement, so who is aware of, perhaps we’ll discover a method to please everybody.
Don’t disguise it
Most different USB adapters are designed to be hidden away, dangling behind a server cupboard. For one factor, antenna orientation is fairly vital, but additionally cool tech needs to be on present! We’ve designed Join ZBT-2 to be proudly displayed, and the highest even lights up like a candle – excellent timing for the vacations 🕯️.
All of it provides up
Not science, however an fascinating before-and-after of only one community, a couple of 60% enhance in direct connections 🤩
Nabu Casa
What are you ready for?
Get essentially the most out of your sensible residence with an adapter that’s open supply at its core, delivers most efficiency, and appears good doing it. Residence Assistant Join ZBT-2 is on the market right now for buy, and as at all times, thanks for supporting Residence Assistant!
