ZigStream news
Guides and honest comparisons for Zigbee2MQTT, telemetry, home automation, and the trade-offs behind managed versus self-hosted tooling.
Latest article
A DIY Grafana and InfluxDB stack can be an excellent project, but its cost continues after the first dashboard. Learn which responsibilities recur and how to decide whether managed Zigbee2MQTT history is a better operational fit.
Telemetry is only useful when you can investigate it. Learn what MCP changes, where natural-language queries help, why answers need verification, and how a managed history service can support the workflow.
Read article →
Moving from InfluxDB 1.x to 2.x is more than replacing a package. Data layout, retention, authentication, APIs, queries, and background tasks all need review. Here is how to assess the migration before it becomes urgent.
Read article →
Checking a dashboard from your phone does not require publishing Grafana directly to the internet. Compare port forwarding, reverse proxies, VPNs, and outbound connections, then choose a boundary that fits your risk and maintenance budget.
Read article →
A small MQTT consumer can be a good way to start collecting Zigbee2MQTT history. It becomes a different kind of system when you rely on it for years of telemetry. Learn which responsibilities appear and when managed ingestion is a better fit.
Read article →
Power, current, voltage, and cumulative energy answer different questions. Learn how to interpret them, build useful history, and decide whether a DIY or managed telemetry workflow fits your setup.
Read article →
A current temperature or humidity reading answers what is happening now. Historical telemetry helps you identify recurring patterns, compare rooms, tune heating and ventilation, and investigate changes without relying on guesswork.
Read article →
A low-battery threshold is useful, but it often arrives late. Learn how to read battery history, distinguish real drain from noisy reports, and choose between a DIY monitoring pipeline and managed Zigbee2MQTT telemetry.
Read article →
A live Zigbee2MQTT dashboard tells you what a device reports now. Historical telemetry helps you understand what changed, when it changed, and whether an automation or device needs attention.
Read article →
Zigbee2MQTT telemetry accumulates quietly. Learn what retention and downsampling do, how to design a practical DIY policy, and what to verify when choosing a managed history service.
Read article →