Dresden-Elektronik announced the release of a ZigBee-enabled home automation hub based on a Raspberry Pi 3 SBC, as well as a second-gen USB dongle for enabling laptops and other Linux and Windows computers with a ZigBee gateway: the ($170) Phoscon Gateway and ($38) ConBee II USB dongle.
- The Phoscon Gateway, which supports up to 200 ZigBee nodes, appears to run on the original Raspberry Pi 3 SBC and it’s enabled with the Raspberry Pi’s 10/100Mbps Ethernet port and WiFi. Other listed specs include the 2.4GHz ZigBee radio, an HDMI port, a microSD slot, a micro-USB port for power, and a power adapter. The device supports -20 to 55°C temperatures. The hub can also be used as a standalone WiFi access point.
- Compared to the original ConBee stick, the new ConBee II ZigBee USB dongle offers an improved signal amplifier with longer radio range and features a 32-bit Cortex-M0 controller (Microchip’s ATSAMR21E18A) instead of the previous 8-bit AVR-based SoC. The USB stick offers IP20 protection and supports -20 to 55°C temperatures.
These gateways are compatible with almost all known manufacturers of commercial and DIY Zigbee devices, such as Philips Hue, IKEA Tradfri, OSRAM Lightify, Xiaomi Aqara, Innr, XBee Series 2, Trust Zigbee, and Dresden Elektronik’s own FLS ballasts.
Both devices run Dresden-Elektronik’s deCONZ Zigbee Gateway software that supports intelligent control of smart lighting, sensors, and switches via the short-range, 2.4GHz ZigBee (IEEE 802.15.4) wireless mesh networking standard. The software works in conjunction with a new Phoscon App, which runs on Android and iOS mobile devices or any web browser.
