As a homeowner with a concrete-heavy structure, I’ve always struggled with getting consistent Zigbee connectivity across different floors. My house has a basement, a first floor, and a garden shed, and I wanted to ensure that each area had its own set of Zigbee devices without relying on a single network. After some research, I stumbled upon the idea of using multiple Raspberry Pi setups with their own Zigbee sticks. Each Pi would control its own set of Plugwise Circle devices, creating a dedicated network for each floor.
The challenge was integrating these separate networks into a unified system. I discovered the OpenHAB Remote Binding, which allows different OpenHAB instances to communicate over the network. This setup meant that I could control devices on the basement network from the first floor and vice versa.
Here’s how I did it:
- Installed OpenHAB on each Raspberry Pi.
- Configured each Pi with its own Zigbee stick and set of devices.
- Set up the Remote Binding on the central Pi to discover and connect to the others.
This approach has been transformative. Now, I can create rules that involve devices from multiple floors, such as turning on basement lights when the garden shed door opens. The system is robust, and I no longer worry about signal loss between floors.
If anyone has tips on optimizing this setup or suggestions for improving inter-network communication, I’d love to hear them! Let’s keep innovating for smarter homes!