Amazon Echo Dot Does Not Have ZigBee

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Gained early experience with automation technology in the private and industrial sector, can turn his living room into a movie theater with one voice command and is the owner of this website. He is happy to share his accumulated experience with every new article.

Amazon Echo is the beginning of Smart Home

Smart home means that various areas in the house, apartment and outside are managed via a smart control center. Devices are switched on and off according to programming or demand. Setting up such a control center requires some effort.

However, if a device like an Amazon Echo itself becomes the control center, the inhibition threshold is low: The devices are familiar and easy to operate. If the smart speaker from Amazon is then also equipped with a ZigBee Hub, even more devices can be connected and controlled with it. Water and smoke detectors are just two examples.

Many devices in the Amazon Echo product line are already equipped with a ZigBee hub. Amazon is by no means the inventor of ZigBee. The wireless mesh network was developed by the ZigBee Alliance, which was founded in 2022. The alliance still exists today, and more than 230 companies are members.

Short glossary: What exactly is this all about?

Radio standard: ZigBee is a so-called radio standard. Bluetooth and WLAN are also such radio standards. So this term is only about how compatible smart home devices communicate with each other. ZigBee has a very low energy consumption compared to other wireless standards.
Gateway: Gateway, hub and control center mean the same thing. This is the heart of the smart home system, i.e. the device that coordinates the communication of the components. If you use ZigBee as the radio standard for all devices, you need a gateway to create routines, for example.
Field of application: Gateways are often also the core of smart lighting systems. A smart speaker, and these are the devices of the Echo product line, is usually the all-rounder that helps you build a smart home that can be controlled via Alexa.

ZigBee: What is that exactly?

The first ZigBee specification came on the market in 2004, today it is known as “ZigBee 2004” and is considered obsolete. A first completely revised version came onto the market in 2006, and ZigBee Pro was then available in 2007. This somewhat modified version is aimed at applications that have to manage with low data rates and minimized energy consumption.

In November 2015, a security problem was discovered that the further development 1.2.1 mitigated. And in December 2016, a total of 20 certifications for eight manufacturers were issued for protocol version 3.0. This was to push the unification around IoT. The cooperation now allowed to control smart radiator thermostats as well as smart lighting systems and blinds via ZigBee.

Strictly speaking, ZigBee is a framework for wireless networks. Built on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, ZigBee extends the functionality of the standard by routing and secure key exchange. The other details are extremely technical, so they will be ignored here.

Important to know: The specification allows the developer three different devices, so-called ZigBee Devices. Between these devices the WPAN, i.e. the Wireless Personal Area Network is established. The devices can have three different roles:

End device: These are control or sensor modules. They are usually battery-powered and do not need all the features of the ZigBee specification. These devices do not participate in the routing of the network but register with a router of their choice to join the ZigBee network.
Router: The routers are responsible for routing the data packets through the network. Therefore, they need a larger range of functions and more hardware resources.
Coordinator: This device starts the network with previously defined parameters. Only after the start the coordinator takes over the tasks of the ZigBee router.

What devices can ZigBee connect and control?

Home and building automation is one of the typical applications of ZigBee. The wireless standard is used by consumer electronics, computer peripherals and wireless detectors, but also by washing machines and coffee machines. Lights, sockets, motion detectors and thermostats are typical candidates for ZigBee. Especially in the field of home automation, ZigBee has direct competition.

In other words, there are numerous alternatives to ZigBee. Besides Z-Wave, this is EnOcean. ZigBee is still being further developed. This is de facto now done by the Matter (Standard) project, led by the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA, formerly ZigBee Alliance).

Amazon has equipped the devices in the Echo product line with a ZigBee hub, but not all devices. The Echo Dot, as the “little one” of the product line, is one of the devices that does not come with ZigBee. That’s not a big deal, though. Because ZigBee doesn’t only have advantages:

ZigBee does not replace a smart home system hub in the Echo devices. While it is tempting to use the Echo device as a control hub for a smart lighting system, for example, there are severe functional limitations.
ZigBee is indeed extensible. Nevertheless, not all ZigBee-supporting devices can be connected to an Amazon Echo speaker simply because it has a ZigBee hub. That’s because the devices must then also be Alexa-compatible. Motion detectors and thermostats, for example, are more or less compatible, but work only very unreliably.
The selection of products that really do not require a control center with only an Echo device and ZigBee is small.

This is what working with ZigBee looks like in practice

If the ZigBee Hub is integrated in the Echo device, the application is naturally low-threshold. So you don’t need to be afraid of complex setups. Smart home devices connect easily and quickly with the Echo device.

First, put your smart home device into pairing mode. Then you give the command via Alexa to search for devices. The Echo then does this for 45 seconds. The device must then be assigned to a room or a group. Once this is done, you can control the devices via Alexa and voice commands.

The next step is to set up routines. This also works via Alexa. In terms of programming, routines are if-then rules, so it’s a simple thing. First, choose a name for the new routine that is unique. Then enter the if rule (usually an activation word). A possible solution: On the call “Good morning!” the light goes on, the alarm clock off and the blinds up.

What exactly happens on the call is defined in the so-called then action. So you specify what should happen on your command. Possibilities are:

A calendar entry is created.
Devices such as radio or TV are controlled.
Amazon Skills are activated.
The light is switched on or off.

If the action is not to take place immediately, but with a time delay, this can also be set up, namely via the “Wait” function. In general, routines are a nice thing, because they offer many possibilities. However, you don’t necessarily need the ZigBee Hub to the Amazon system. Because many systems can also be connected to Alexa via a simple skill!

You already have alternatives to ZigBee at home!

ZigBee is simply a wireless standard. And you already have several of them at home. You certainly have WLAN, which is a wireless standard. With it you have connected your computer with the periphery (printer, scanner, cameras, smartphone).

You are also probably using Bluetooth. This is a wireless standard that is primarily used for so-called wearables and consumer electronics.

In the smart home area, Z-Wave and EnOcean are still particularly important. They come into question for sensors and illuminants as well as for switches. But which standard can do what?

WLAN

WLAN transmits at 1,000 to 1,300 Mbit/s and has a range of 50 meters. This works in the range from 2.4 to 2.4835 GHz and at 5.0 to 5.7 GHz. The power consumption is high. The WLAN standard WiFi 5 is currently in use. WLAN is a thousand times faster than ZigBee and has five times the range, but it also needs a lot of power.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth 5.0 Low Energy transmits 1 – 3 Mbit/s at a maximum range of 10 meters. The frequency is 2.4 to 2.483 MHz, the energy consumption is low. The data transmission rate is higher than with ZigBee, but the range is shorter. If you want to connect sensors in different rooms, Bluetooth is not sufficient for a reliable connection.

Z-Wave

Z-Wave transmits only 9.6 to 40 Kbit/s, but over distances of up to 30 meters. The standard uses the frequency 868 MHz. The energy requirement is low with this main competitor of ZigBee. Z-Wave is highly compatible and has a long range due to mesh networks. However, it is not an open source standard, the US company Silicon Labs owns the rights to this technology. Manufacturers are therefore unable to adapt the protocol.

EnOcean

EnOcean transmits 125 Kbit/s over distances of up to 30 meters. EnOcean also uses the 868 MHz frequency and has an even lower energy consumption. EnOcean is mainly used for ultra-low-energy sensors that generate power even through temperature differences and movements. This is why the sensors do not need batteries or an external power source.

Important to know: ZigBee 3.0 also supports this function with the Green Power specification. EnOcean is not as widespread.

So there are quite a few ways to use smart home devices and especially the Amazon Echo Dot without ZigBee. In fact, you already have two options with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. However, it will be difficult to use the Echo Dot as a control center for the smart home.

Conclusion: ZigBee is practical, but it also works without!

It is of course a practical matter when Amazon equips its Echo devices with a ZigBee Hub and thus enables you to enter the smart home. Thanks to Alexa, routines are quickly set up and operation is simple. But you don’t have to give up this convenience just because the Echo Dot doesn’t have an integrated ZigBee Hub.

You can also control many smart home applications via Alexa Skills. You can use other standards than ZigBee, there are enough of them available. The Echo Dot, for example, connects Wi-Fi and Bluetooth devices directly. This provides you with high data transfer rates at a great range (WLAN)!

Attention: When installing electronic equipment, please be sure to observe the manufacturer’s safety instructions. You have to take care of your own safety. The information on this site only helps you to learn.
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Amazon Echo Dot Does Not Have ZigBee – the Alternatives