Overview
Zigbee and Z-Wave are the two most widely deployed wireless protocols for building and home automation devices such as sensors, switches, locks, and thermostats. Tenders for smart buildings and retrofits often require support for one or both. ControlBird connects to Zigbee and Z-Wave devices through the established open gateway for each rather than embedding a radio stack, so a single coordinator serves many devices into the platform.
Key requirements
- Device coverage
- Work with the broad range of Zigbee and Z-Wave sensors, actuators, and controllers.
- A radio coordinator
- Use a coordinator to bridge the wireless devices onto the network.
- Consistent data model
- Present wireless device data the same way as wired equipment.
- Two-way control
- Read sensor state and send commands to actuators.
How ControlBird aligns
- Zigbee through zigbee2mqtt
- ControlBird integrates Zigbee devices through the widely used zigbee2mqtt gateway, which connects a Zigbee coordinator and publishes device data over MQTT into the platform.
- Z-Wave through Z-Wave JS
- Z-Wave devices are integrated through the Z-Wave JS gateway in the same way, over MQTT.
- Devices become entities
- Once bridged, wireless devices appear as entities in the tree alongside wired equipment, so they share the same history, alarms, dashboards, and automation.
- Honest about the approach
- ControlBird does not embed a Zigbee or Z-Wave radio stack itself; it relies on these standard gateways and a supported coordinator. That keeps device support broad and current, and it means a coordinator and gateway are part of the deployment.
Need this for a tender?
We can provide deployment-specific detail and supporting documentation for procurement and security reviews.