zigbee2mqtt VS Z-Stack-firmware

Have you considered Zigbee2mqtt[0]? You'd be running an extra program, but the docs are really good, it's pretty lightweight, and MQTT is incredibly easy to talk to from python or basically anything else.

[0] - https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/

For Zigbee, I can recommend using the Zigbee2MQTT (https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/) integration instead of HomeAssistant's built-in ZHA system. It might be a bit more complex to set up, but it's very powerful and works fantastically. (User "simon42" on YouTube has some good videos about the topic, but they're in German.)

This is definitely better than many of the alternatives but still not perfect. With Zigbee etc you end up locked into one or more of the ecosystems, not to mention some manufacturers implementing it in a way that has weird quirks (see [1]). With esphome you have a limited choice of devices (would love to see more), but you also usually end up locked into keeping a 2.4GHz WPA2 AP for your devices (and you miss out on mesh, but also the problems when it doesn't work...)

1: https://github.com/Koenkk/zigbee2mqtt/issues/16717

I can recommend this: https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/

You can keep your Hue bulbs and devices but threw away the app, hub, and need to work with hue as an institution at all.

I got a $30 USB zigbee stick to replace the hub. works great!

It looks like it uses zigbee? If you have a server you could run zigbee2mqtt. You'd also need a zigbee dongle / adapter.

\also posted on the z2m* github device discussion board

If you want to use HA on your phone, you would need to install it on the pi, along with either ZHA or Zigbee2MQTT for the Zigbee network interface. Debian alone won't be able to interface with most of your smart devices.

I still haven't understood if the devices will change the path using the better route or not (since I've just tested a bTicino switch K4003C and it keeps using the worst path with 1 or 0 signal quality over a near Ikea repeater with a signal quality of 50).

cc2530, CC2531, etc.: I found many using/reflashing these as gateways or routers and there is a repository of firmwares for that, but did not find anything about using them to build implement end devices (sensors/actors).

It'll be one of the ones listed here: https://github.com/Koenkk/Z-Stack-firmware/blob/master/coordinator/README.md

Have you read the readme in the coordinator folder? That is probably the info you're looking for: https://github.com/Koenkk/Z-Stack-firmware/tree/master/coordinator

Is it possible to use the Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus-P as a ZigBee sniffer? I downloaded Packet-Sniffer-2 and flashed it with the cc26x2r1lp/sniffer_fw.hex (at first using cc2538-bsl.py, then later using TI's Flash Programmer 2 and the cJTAG pins), but the Sniffer Agent doesn't see it. TI's supported hardware list includes the CC2652R, but not CC2652P, but I was hoping they'd be similar enough that the same firmware would work. But on the other hand, the Z-Stack firmware for the two chips are different.

Sonoff Zigbee USB Dongle 3.0 based on TI CC2652P+CP2002N (flashed with the latest firmware 'Z-Stack-Firmware CC1352P2_CC2652P_launchpad_coordinator_20220219.zip for coordinator' using 'TI flash programmer 2',

ZigBee can do way more than 32 devices depending on what coordinator you use. With a modern cc2652 based coordinator you can do 100s of devices. See the routes column (and explanation) in the table on https://github.com/Koenkk/Z-Stack-firmware/blob/master/coordinator/README.md

I succesfully flashed the stick (CC1352P2_CC2652P_launchpad_coordinator_20220219.zip)

This device just plugs in and acts as your coordinator. Here is the latest firmware if you need it the factory firmware may be sufficient: https://github.com/Koenkk/Z-Stack-firmware