Dresden-Elektronik has this month unveiled two new
ZigBee home automation gateways taking the form of the Raspberry Pi based
Phoscon Gateway and the smaller USB stick style hub, the ConBee II. The ZigBee
enabled home automation hub is based on the third series of pine mini PCs and
enables Linux and Windows computers with a ZigBee gateway.
The ConBee II can be easily attached to Ubuntu and
Raspbian based Linux computers, as well as Windows computers supporting Windows
10, 8 and 7 systems. Enabling users to analyse the communication between ZigBee
devices, a connection can be established between the ConBee II and the
Wireshark sniffer program by using the free ZSHARK software, say its creators.
The 61 x 18 x 9mm USB stick offers IP20 protection and both supports -20 to
55°C temperatures.
The Phoscon Gateway supports up to 200 ZigBee nodes
and can also be used as a stand-alone wireless access point if desired.
Utilising the Raspberry Pi’s 10/100Mbps Ethernet port and wireless 2.4GHz
802.11n connectivity. Other features include a 2.4GHz ZigBee radio, HDMI port,
microSD slot, micro-USB port for power and 4 x USB 2.0 provided by the
Raspberry Pi.
The Phoscon Gateway is priced at US$ 170 or roughly
€ 150 and the smaller USB stick ConBee II is priced at US$ 38 or roughly € 34 more
details jump over to the official Dresden-Elektronik website.
