Zigbee Tuya Gateway with IR + BT

A Zigbee gateway with IR blaster and Bluetooth Mesh built in, which is three hubs in one black disc. It runs all three at the same time, which means one device on a shelf can reach your Zigbee sensors and switches, your Bluetooth Mesh lights, and the air conditioner and television that only ever answered to a remote control.

• What a Zigbee gateway with IR blaster replaces
• Three radios, and why they are in one box
• Fifty devices, and a network that improves as it grows
• What still works when the internet drops
• Which of the three gateways to take

The infrared side is the part people underestimate. It learns the codes from your existing remotes and fires them back at 38 kHz across a full 360 degrees, up to about ten metres. So the air conditioner comes on before you get home, the television goes off at bedtime, and both end up in the same automations as everything else.

On the Zigbee side it carries more than 50 devices, and every mains-powered one repeats the signal onward, so the network gets stronger as it grows. Door sensors, water leak sensors, motion sensors, switches and plugs all report into the same app. Scenes keep running locally even if the internet drops.

It joins your Wi-Fi on 2.4 GHz, runs on a micro USB supply and works with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.

What a Zigbee gateway with IR blaster replaces

Air conditioners, televisions, fans and decoders in most Dar houses answer to nothing but a plastic remote. They have no Wi-Fi, no app and no way into any automation. This gateway learns their codes and fires them back at 38kHz across a full 360 degrees, up to about ten metres.

Once it has learned them, those devices behave like smart ones. The AC comes on before you get home, the TV goes off at bedtime, and both sit in the same scene as your lights. No new hardware on the appliance and nothing to replace.

Three radios, and why they are in one box

Zigbee handles sensors, switches, plugs and locks. Bluetooth Mesh handles the cheaper mesh lighting that has become common. Infrared handles everything that predates all of it.

Most houses end up needing at least two of the three. Buying them as one disc rather than three separate boxes saves a socket, a shelf and the annoyance of running devices across two apps that do not know about each other.

Fifty devices, and a network that improves as it grows

The Zigbee side carries more than fifty sub-devices. Every mains-powered one, a plug or a wall switch, repeats the signal onward, so a sensor at the far end of a compound reaches the hub through everything in between.

That is the opposite of Wi-Fi, where each new device takes another slot on your router and the far ones simply drop out. Add Zigbee devices and the mesh gets stronger.

What still works when the internet drops

Scenes stored on the gateway keep running locally through an outage. A motion sensor still switches a light on, a door sensor still triggers what it is set to trigger.

What you lose during an outage is remote control from your phone and voice commands, because those go out through the internet. Set the automations that matter as local scenes and the house carries on regardless.

Which of the three gateways to take

This one if you want the infrared blaster, and in a house with air conditioning that is usually the deciding factor. It joins 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, runs on a micro USB supply and works with Alexa and Google Assistant.

If you have no infrared appliances to control, the plain Zigbee Tuya Gateway does the Zigbee half for less. If your household runs on iPhones and you want everything in Apple Home, take the HomeKit Zigbee gateway instead. The app all three use is documented at tuya.com.