Nabu Casa
Home Assistant Connect ZBT-2
- Zigbee
- Thread
Verified September 2026
At £38 it sits between ConBee III (£37) and SMLIGHT's PoE coordinator (£61), and for most Home Assistant users it's the easier call: Nabu Casa builds and supports it directly, it's the only stick with an official teardown-free Zigbee/Thread switch, and the extension cable ships in the box rather than being an afterthought — treat that cable as non-negotiable, since USB 3.0 ports are a known interference source for 2.4GHz radios. Pick ConBee III instead only if you specifically want deCONZ's REST API; pick the SMLIGHT if you need PoE placement away from your server. Otherwise ZBT-2 is the default choice.
In Home Assistant
| Control | Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Permit join | Switch | Opens or closes the Zigbee network to new device joins. |
| Firmware version | Sensor | Reports the installed Zigbee or Thread firmware version, used to confirm which mode the radio is currently flashed for. |
| Network channel | Sensor | Diagnostic sensor showing the active 802.15.4 channel the coordinator/border router is operating on. |
| Radio connection status | Binary sensor | Reflects whether Home Assistant can currently reach the device over its USB serial link; flips off during firmware flashes or USB dropouts. |
| Reset coordinator | Button | Wipes the device's network keys and settings in Zigbee mode; has no effect in Thread mode since network state is stored in Home Assistant instead. |
Switching between Zigbee and Thread firmware is a one-click reflash from the integration's menu, not a full teardown — but a Zigbee-mode factory reset wipes the coordinator's network keys, while Thread network state lives in Home Assistant itself and survives a reset. The chip is multiprotocol-capable in theory, but the firmware still enforces one radio personality at a time, since Nabu Casa's own testing on the predecessor found simultaneous Zigbee+Thread operation caused device stability problems. Community reports describe route-error spam and timeout restarts on early firmware builds with certain bulbs — treat the bundled USB extension cable as mandatory rather than optional, since USB 3.0 ports and drives sit right in the 2.4GHz band and are a documented trigger for the coordinator dropping and reforming its network.
Specs
- chip
- Silicon Labs MG24 (Zigbee/Thread radio) + ESP32-S3 (USB-serial bridge; ~4x the baud rate of ZBT-1's bridge chip)
- modes
- Zigbee coordinator or Thread border router radio (one at a time)
- range
- No official metres figure published by Nabu Casa; the taller pillar antenna and MG24 chip are marketed as improving link quality over the discontinued ZBT-1/SkyConnect, particularly through walls and floors
- antenna
- External omnidirectional pillar antenna, 24mm diameter x 164mm tall; 4.16 dBi peak gain, 10 dBm TX power (EU) / 8 dBm (rest of world), 2400-2483.5 MHz
- replaces
- Home Assistant Connect ZBT-1 / SkyConnect (EOL)
- connector
- USB-C (USB 2.0/3.0), 1.5m cable included, 5V/500mA draw
- dimensions
- 83 x 83 x 179mm including stand and antenna, 157g, polycarbonate case