wireless RaspBee Premium - ZigBee addon for Raspberry Pi with Firmware

I'm investigating my options in home automation and so far this is the winner for lighting. I got a Pi 2 and the RaspBee to test on Cree Connected ZigBee bulbs.It's only my first couple days fiddling with it but this is what I learned so far:1. It doesn't seem to work on Pi 3: the device might, but not the software. I just used a spare Pi 2 and it worked fine.2. Place the device on the very first GPIO pins, 1-11. The picture on the website shows it on 3-13 for some reason.3. The only software I needed to install was the "deCONZ for Raspbian Linux"4. deCONZ cannot be started headless. Meaning, there needs to be a desktop installed and either a monitor or VNC connection so you can start the application and it can't be started over SSH.5. deCONZ starts a web front-end that can be accessed from another computer or phone, anything with a browser, and the default username and password is delight:delight.6. The aforementioned web service likes to crash and force you to VNC over and use deCONZ to reset it - I'm still trying to figure this one out. After a crash, deCONZ still runs so I imagine the REST commands will still work and the issue is with the web service, not the software itself.I'll update as I play with it.UPDATE 4-21-16It's been a few weeks, I've had time to get used to the device, and I'm still very happy with it - I changed my rating to 5 stars.The range is fantastic, farther than the Samsung Smart Things hub. Granted, I live in a 900 sqft apartment, but it covers that no problem. It's faster too, the Samsung would sometimes take a second or two to toggle a light, this guy is almost instant - barely noticeable. They updated the picture on the website and it's shown on the correct GPIO pins, and they updated the content to make it a lot clearer how to get started. I still can't figure out why the web service keeps crashing but it's a quick thing to reset and my switches still work fine when it's unavailable. The CPU on the Pi 2 spikes at a whopping 3% with deCONZ and X running - it's very lightweight.The web application has out-of-the-box support for Philips HUE switches but, using the deCONZ "bind dropbox" plugin, I was able to get an OSRAM Lightify switch, Amazon product B0196M620Y, to work perfectly. I landed up buying 8 more, they work great and I imagine any other ZigBee switch or device can be joined using deCONZ. I'll be adding motion sensors and temperature control in the coming weeks so we'll see how that goes.Basically, if you're looking for quick and easy home automation, this might not be the device for you. But if you're a home automation and/or Linux nerd, who likes weekend projects, and fiddling with Pi's, then this is definitely the way to go. I don't understand why so many reviews say it's too complicated; it's an addon board for a Raspberry Pi, what should one expect? I wouldn't suggest this for my parents to use, they're getting my Smart Things hub instead ;)

This is a great product and has proven to be extremely well thought out and absolutely reliable! It's range is surprising, it's compatible with products from 3 different vendors and trouble free to operate. I withheld a star because I think the documentation requires better organization, and centralization.This addon has demonstrated industrial like construction and reliability. Haven't needed to touch it since installation, can't say that very often.

I got sick of the Lightify Gateway dropping devices and the terrible app. I finally gave up and grabbed one of these to run deConz. It works fantastic. Integrates well into Home Assistant using their deConz platform. Local control and very fast response times. Includes diagnostic software to troubleshoot nodes that are acting up, which is a priceless feature not available on commercial zigbee gateways.

for a designer point of view, this is a trash as it has no clear doc w.r.t the dev process.it was said to support 6LowPan, but no clear doci bought 2, and wasted me 2 weeks to read all realted doc on its website and decided to give up.

UPDATE: I will be giving this device 3 stars (moved up from 1) as the company has decided to make a few changes to their business model. When I purchased this device, it was $75 for a "pro" version- meaning I would be able to write my own firmware and take advantage of more than 5 devices connected to the network. For a good half a year, dresden failed to release working development headers so we could start development. Only recently were these headers released, so things are starting to turn back to good.It seems the RaspBee now only comes in the "pro" flavour which has been made available at a more manageable $35 (down from the previous $75 for the "pro") Kudos to Dresden for this change!Does the job, but doesn't do much else beyond extensive user customization. That's what it's sold for, anyways... for users to build on top of their platform. deCONZ (the controller daughter app for the RaspBee premium firmware) is on the right track but still has a lot of work to go through before it's deemed stable.For starters, you can't run deCONZ headless... so your Pi needs to keep an X session open (or boot to desktop). This is a hassle for any well-versed linux user, and especially when the gui isnt really required for this application. It's nice, but I'd like it to be an optional package.Also, Dresden (the company that makes this addon) provides little support regarding writing any firmware for this device. Beyond what their datasheets give you and what you can come up with through some reasoning, their support email is rarely replied to. I could not get the Atmel BitCloud stack to fully initialize after compiling my own binaries for this microcontroller. Right now I'm stuck with interfacing with deCONZ, which isn't terrible given they provide a fairly versed c++ api. I'd still like to see more from an up-charged dongle.

Great product for it's value. This product will be one of the most important part of my home automation system. It has a sophisticated software with a usable GUI and both developers of hardware and software are always open to improvements and third party integrations.Besides of these I think packaging is great small box have a security patch and I know that I am the first one who opens it.

Perfect for DIY home automation. Allows you to use a multitude of different brands’ Zigbee enabled devices without a bunch of expensive, separate, and proprietary hubs.

A very interesting way to emulate a Hue Hub's functionality. This hardware, and the deCONZ software function well. I don't think that this was intended for use by the standard consumer, it didn't work out for me, I ended up with an actual Hue Hub.