Sonoff ZB Bridge Ultra: new and all powerful bridge to be the centrepiece if your zigbee network

The new Zigbee bride from Sonoff now provides the most comprehensive zigbee bridge for your devices if you use them in eWeLink application. It shares a similar hardware than iHost possibly offering all the functions of the iHost to be made available for this bridge as well
Zigbee Bridge Ultra: itead.cc/product/sonoff-zigbe...
Zigbee Bridge Pro: itead.cc/product/sonoff-zigbe...
NSPanel Pro: itead.cc/product/sonoff-nspan...
iHost: itead.cc/product/sonoff-ihost...
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Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:41 Price
1:38 Review
2:45 Setup
4:56 Sonoff Zigbee options
7:49 Zigbee map
9:16 Comparison
15:11 Why the Ultra?
16:37 Device Settings
18:22 Scenes
21:35 Outro

[@mr_ion]

Beginner here:
I want to start my journey in the home automation and would only want to use Matter/Threads enabled devices. From my understanding - I should completely ignore any Zigbee devices, as they all go through an outside cloud environment.
Am I correct?
Where should I start if I want to have it well done and integrated, in-house :)
Thanks!

[@csongorvarga]

Yes and no. Zigbee is not Matter/Thread, so you should ignore it. But Zigbee can be local as well. Most of the commercial solutions (like Tuya, Sonoff, Smartthings) put all the logic in the cloud as it is easier to serve the same functions to thousands of customers. But there are other solutions where the logic is local and it talks to the zigbee devices locally. Matter/Thread is great, but so far I have seen smart plugs, light bulb, light switches and that's more or less all. No door sensors, motion sensors, temperature sensors, etc. That limits the what you can build with Matter/Thread only.

[@mr_ion]

@@csongorvarga Thanks for the quick reply!
I'm looking at the light switch Sonoff MiniR4M but then realised that it can only do on/off and doesn't have a dimming function for example.
I expect them to bring on the market more advanced devices like sensors that you mentioned. Are you optimistic about it in the next year or so?
And yes, I'm looking for a local setup, or at least more secure and not dependent on various cloud(s). I'm considering using my Qnap NAS as a "cloud" replacement.
Thanks for your advice!

[@nguyenvanluyen6944]

Hello, How about the zigbee radio compared to ihost?

[@csongorvarga]

I don't have an extensive Zigbee network to see any issues with it. Both of them are working fine, both of them have turbo mode, I would say it is comperable, but the external antenna of the Ultra must be somewhat better.

[@PetervdSanden]

Hello, Why can't i find the Sonoff SNZB-05P waterleak sensor anywhere, bud on the Ewelink channel on YT?

[@csongorvarga]

I am getting one. I guess it is not released yet.

[@GuillermoRiera]

Can I connect Sonoff M5 wifi switches to this product, in order to show them in Homekit via Matter?

[@csongorvarga]

No, the Matter sharing only applies to the Zigbee devices. M5 is not zigbee, it is a wifi switch.