Moving a device from Philips Hue Bridge to Deconz

[kenm]

Is there a recommended method for moving devices from a Hue bridge to Deconz with a Conbee II? Also, I'm assuming that splitting devices between the two will weaken the zigbee mesh. Can someone confirm this?

[TC1]

Each device, the Hue Bridge and the ConBee, are separate ZigBee network controllers. So yes, placing devices on each one effectively weakens each network mesh. Because of this, I chose to put my Hue bulbs on the ConBee network along with my various ZigBee sensors. I keep the Hue Bridge around for firmware updates on the Hue bulbs when needed.

That being said, if you have a large amount of ZigBee devices then there's nothing wrong with putting some devices on the Hue Bridge and some on the ConBee. I believe this is the way Wim runs his ZigBee devices and Hue bulbs.

Same philosophy goes for Z-wave, sufficiently large networks can be divided among several controllers for speed and mesh reliability.

[pistacheL0]

I wonder what is ‘’large’’.

How many nodes? How far?
I know the official number of nodes but never seen a network as big on forums.

Here i have 76 devices, which 27 are hue bulbs in a 5/1/2 appartement. Still goes smooth.

I wonder how it will goes when we are going to buy a house.

[TC1]

Large can be described in a number of ways, including devices / physical network area / network activity.

If one has a lot of physical devices that are constantly communicating, that could be considered large.
If one has a house/building with great physical distance between nodes, that could be considered large.
If one has a network that is very chatty due to continuous home automation events, that could be considered large.

In each one of the above use cases, strategically dividing the network between two or more network controllers can improve speed and/or reliability. Most of the above issues likely happen in large buildings, like commercial offices and facilities. Of course some folks are fortunate enough to afford very large residential homes and might face some issues.

In the end, "it all depends". Everyone's home is unique in how the network was setup by the user, but some careful pre-planning can eliminate many issues before they become issues.

[kenm]

Thanks TC1 and pistacheL0. My Zigbee installation is currently very small (11 Philips Hue bulbs and downlights) and 2 Innr plugs. I was looking at switching to deconz for the mapping feature, but someone pointed out that I'd lose some of the Hue specific controls the hub/app/Homekit provides when going to deconz. I purchased a Conbee II but I may just hold off for a little while until I get more devices.

Thanks again