I think this is where I’m getting frustrated. (On top of my frustration that like 4 lights just decided to stop connecting to my Unifi for absolutely no reason again.)
It’s not clear if I can just plug into the HA Zigbee or if I need MQTT or if they both have their uses or when/why, etc.
HA Zigbee is the easiest to set up. You just plug in the stick and add the Zigbee integration (usually this is even auto-discovered).
Zigbee2MQTT is slightly harder to set up, but still very doable. It supports a wider range of Zigbee devices, although Philips Hue lamps (or any not-too-obscure Zigbee device) should not be a problem on either HA or Z2M.
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I think this is where I’m getting frustrated. (On top of my frustration that like 4 lights just decided to stop connecting to my Unifi for absolutely no reason again.) It’s not clear if I can just plug into the HA Zigbee or if I need MQTT or if they both have their uses or when/why, etc.
HA Zigbee is the easiest to set up. You just plug in the stick and add the Zigbee integration (usually this is even auto-discovered).
Zigbee2MQTT is slightly harder to set up, but still very doable. It supports a wider range of Zigbee devices, although Philips Hue lamps (or any not-too-obscure Zigbee device) should not be a problem on either HA or Z2M.