Fixing my Zigbee with a network Zigbee coordinator
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- Опубликовано: 3 май 2024
- My Zigbee network became really unreliable and devices kept disconnecting from the network, making my smart home very un-smart. This is the story of the troubleshooting I did, and how I eventually fixed it.
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Full article for this video: www.homeautomationguy.io/blog...
Improving your Zigbee network reliability (Rock Solid Zigbee): • Improve Zigbee network...
SMLight SLZB-06 Coordinator: smartlight.me/smart-home-devi... 
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Okay, I'm a home automation enthusiast from Kyiv, Ukraine. I am using my Xiaomi Gateway v3 with custom firmware from alexxit and it does not always work well, that's why I came here for your experience. Little did I know, there's a multi-protocol hub from a company from Ukraine! I spilled my tea onto my keyboard when I heard it from you, crying "WHAT?!" :D
Man, I live in Mordor, and even here I've heard about this device :)
Support your country, shop local!
Thanks for giving away the answer in the first two minutes. Currently I've got about a dozen Wi-Fi smart home things, almost all of them Tasmota. Zigbee is my new project for battery powered devices and POE coordinators seem clearly the way. Love your videos, keep it up!
Thank you!
Your "WTF" was gold. I was exactly there a few months go.
Thank you for being fully transparent by saying you bought this with your own money. I appreciate that.
No problem! People offer to send me things every day to review on the channel, but I turn them down. I just do this as a hobby because I'm a nerd and find it fun, I have a day job that pays me enough to live on.
they have to per RUclips rules lol
Sounds painful, but valuable learning and troubleshooting for us all. Thanks for sharing. When I got started with Zigbee, I used a Conbee II and had loads of reliability issues. Then, I switched to a Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Gateway, and I’ve never had a device drop offline since. Both gateways were in the same location in my house.
Sonoff make great hardware, that's a solid USB dongle, I had one of those for agest in my old house and it was flawless.
Why didn't you continue using the Sonoff?
Omg you have NO IDEA how much I needed this video!!! THANK YOU!
I'm glad you liked it!
This was great for us to see. It doesn't matter how good you are at something, mistakes happen. But when they do, learning from them is the best thing.
100% agree
Thank you for another great video, glad to see you back.
Thank you!
It's amazing how every smart home youtuber I see pushes the usb coordinators. I didn't even know network coordinators existed until a couple of months ago
Nor did I! Which is why I wasn't pushing them 🤣
Thanks for posting, looks like a good option for when my current coordinator sleigh dies.
Glad you are back with the good content. I am having the same problem 😢
Thanks for the support!
Your videos are the best - thank you !
Glad you like them!
Excellent video, really interesting. I didn't realise you could get a network zigbee coordinator, so I immediately ordered one to replace my USB one.
I didn't know either until I had this problem!
I had the same issue. I am running ioBroker as smarthome system on a Synology under Docker. I used the Standard Zigbee Adapter with a USB Sonoff Stick. All of this placed in the Basement with a huge Zigbee Router Backend. Everything went well, then after a few weeks Devices start to become offline.
Switching to the same SLZB-06 Coordinater placed in the first floor and using zigbee2Mqtt as Middleware solved all the issues and the Zigbee Network is now rock solid. I was also able to remove some routers that didn't had any function other than just stabilizing the Network and I do not have to play around with USB which is a mess on a Synology with docker.
Awesome to hear! Glad it's working for you!
This is perfect timing! In the past weeks I have been migrating my 100+ network from ZHA with SkyConnect to Z2M on a dedicated PI with some Sonoff Dongle E's as coordinators and routers. Everything was going great until earlier this week when the cascading disconnect started exactly as you described. Tears weren't far away either...
I was considering splitting my network and running 2 instances of Z2M but this had drawbacks like pulling long USB cables as you described. This sounds muuuuch better! Thanks so much, you have made my life easier!
As you I have a lot of Aqara H1 wired switches, I read in a few places that they are notoriously bad team players on non-Aqara Zigbee networks. Hopefully this coordinator will set them straight.
So far my Aqara switches have behaved ok with my Z2M and coordinators! 🤞
It is strange that so many users are having the same problem these days, isn't there some problem with the network protocol or even with the home assistant itself?
I was watching a another youtuber (digiblue DIY) and he mentioned that Aqara's Zigbee 1.2 devices had serious problems and didn't follow the protocol properly. He then said that Aqara's Zigbee 3.0 devices were fine.
I haven't started yet, just in research phase, so maybe this isn't a thing, hopefully you can update the firmware on said devices and get them up to v3.
@affieuk good to know and a little reassuring. The issue might have come from the Sonoff Dongle E coordinator with the ezsp adapter. Ezsp is going in the trashcan and is replaced by Ember which seems to have a lot more support and momentum, Z2M has moved the Dongle E to a recommended coordinator as a result. It seems a lot of issues might have gotten resolved without needing to switch hardware and repair everything (migration from ezsp to ember only requires a firmware and setting upates) but it's still early days so I am still happy with my choice to move back to the older tried and tested hardware and zstack adapter. So far it looks solid.
Excellent update. I run HA on a Proxmox cluster but the instance has to stay on a particular node due to having a USB coordinator. This has recently started having issues with devices dropping out so a network connected POE coordinator sounds like it may fix both issues and I can experiment with high availability. Had to order via Aliexpress and wait for delivery as the UK supplier is charging double.
I switched from SONOFF Dongle-E with the SMLight-SLZB-06 POE and have been extremely happy. I did do a full reset including clearing off the device but that was in part to clear out other issues.
Zigbee spring clean! 🌱
Thanks for the video, Been having problems with various devices dropping off the network - Using a ConbeeII and have multiple routers around the place -so just ordered a SMLight POE (via Domadoo in France)
I hope it results in a stable network for you like mine is now!
Glad it worked out! Though that truly sounds like the Skyconnect was the culprit, rather than the location of the coordinator. I’ve got a Sonoff coordinator located at the extreme end of a long apartment with ~70 devices and it is solid.
It's been solid so far! But I figured it can't hurt to move the coordinator to a more central and less electromagnetic location
@@HomeAutomationGuydefinitely worth it!
@@HomeAutomationGuythough now I want one of the network coordinators for sheer nerd value and not for any practical reason. 😂
Great video! In my case i'm using ZHA with the sky connect dongle and it worked unstable and once or two time per day my zigbee network became unavailable and now i changed the protocol from the experimental zigbee/thread to just zigbee protocol and now it has been working fine and stable now.
Glad to hear it's stable now!
Can you share how you did this?
Thank you for the video! Though I imagine what you have been through, I am somehow reassured such things also happens to the gurus..
On my end, I was lucky to experience this just after the backup and transfer feature was introduced in ZHA.. No repairing needed when changing controllers.
That is a great feature, I wish I had that! Does it work when you change controller types as well?
@@HomeAutomationGuy. Yes, I switched from a sonoff usb dongle to zigstar PoE coordinator.
Great bit of heads up info, thanks
You're welcome!
Beautiful content. Thank you.
Thank you!
Thanks for this very informative video! I am in the US and use Z-Wave instead of Zigbee. Overall, my network seems pretty solid, but I have noticed that since I have started buying the 800 series LR devices, my network doesn't seem to act as much like a "mesh" as before. The reading that I have done about the 800 LR protocol seems to indicate backward compatibility with my 700 series USB-based hub and devices, but practical experience has shown that I **must** have the hub within about 20 ft and on the same floor as the 800 series switches in order for them not to lose connection every few days.
I ended up moving my NUC running HA along with the z-wave USB dongle (from Zooz) to my wife's 2nd-floor office, which is more centrally located than my own basement office. I access the NUC via remote control. However, I really would like to have the NUC and HA running in my server rack along with the rest of the my computers (and perhaps in the future running as a VM on a Proxmox server). I have been looking to replace the USB dongle with a network-based bridge like your Zigbee device, but haven't been able to find one as yet. I already use an Ethernet-based hub with my Phillips devices with HA, and it works great. If anyone knows of a product like this that works for z-wave, I would really appreciate hearing from you!
I bought the same SMLIGHT coordinator a few weeks ago; awesome!
They're really good aren't they!
@@HomeAutomationGuy I bought two of them (ZLB-06M's) and am having an absolute nightmare with them. Cannot get Z2M to start whatever I try. Support has been slow, monosyllabic and, so far, unsuccessful (I have now been offline for 4 days). The feature set is great, the web interface is great. They just don't work.
@@MarkAlexanderBuchanan The ZLB-06M version is also considered "Experimental" with Zigbee2MQTT and is designed for use with Home Assistants ZHA integration. This is why I went with the original adapter from them.
@@HomeAutomationGuythat’s very helpful to know. Thank you. I am a bit surprised their tech support didn’t mention that.
I will see if I can return the “M” versions and swap to the original
I ended up talking to Serge at SMlight who was adamant that ZLB-06M is fully compatible with z2m and, after much experimenting, I now have both coordinators up and running. I just need to get mqtt to discover the devices connected to the coordinators. Progress all the same though
I know the feeling when smart home stuff stops working, I had the same problem though I only have a couple of dozen devices, no where near what you have. The solution for me ended up being the angle of the antenna on my sonoff USB zigbee adaptor. For some reason about 15 degrees below horizontal works reliably, not vertical or horizontal. I realise this may mean my signal quality was marginal all along so if it happens again I will upgrade as you have explained here.
Well there you go, thanks for sharing! My SkyConnect didn't have an adjustable antenna so I never considered that.
Love your honesty! Starting my jerny in HA I made the same dongle mistake, for the time being switched to ZHA back then, now getting anoyed with it missing several settings for many devices, decided do by a supported USB dongle. Had I seen your vid 1 week earlier I might also have both the eth coördinator 😅 now waiting on my SONOFF dongle P, to switch out my dongle E....
Sorry about the poor timing 🤣 I hope your network sorts itself out now and is stable!
@@HomeAutomationGuy no worries! Getting everything ready for a big addon build to our house and other vids of you helped selecting the right switches! Aqaras are on there way. Btw, might have found an intresting router dimmer from EcoDim! They dont require a neutral and are also able to be set up with a hard wired dual switch setup! Availeble in multple configurations. Could be intresting for other european based HomeAutomation enthousiasts...
@@BergkampPhotography Thank you for sharing!
This is the reason im going to put shelly 1's before my important hue bulbs, as a standalone backup.
I was using a Sonoff Zigbee and had the same unreliability issues. Was driving me nuts, as mine was in the middle of the house and I had 20 repeater devices. Ended up getting a Tubes PoE gateway, as it will allow me to power it off my switch, which had\s a UPS. In the 18 months since I changed and have not had any issues, aside from the flat battery problem we all get. Definitely recommend the Tubes ZB PoE gateway.
Thanks for sharing!
Great solution. It seems to be THE solution
So far so good!
Appreciate the video, thanks
You're welcome!
As they say, "we learn more from our failures than our successes." I had a major home network failure recently and it came down to a single bit of corruption on one machine due to a power failure. I learned plenty before I got it fixed. But pairing up 100+ devices ? Yikes. I sure hope you have an uninterruptible power supply in your network closet. I do. Now. Great video.
Thank you! And yup, I've got a UPS that gives me about 20 mins before it shuts down the home server. I learned that lesson back in the days when I was a network engineer!
Yep, pulled my skyconnect as I was having the same problem. Back to my prior Conbee II stick and problem solved. Still have 1 motion sensor that keeps disconnecting but it is an ancient one so most likely it is the problem there.
It works so well with ZHA though!
For now never had any problem wirh my first model sonoff dongle. Important to have the latest firmware instaled on this dongle as well
Sonoff dongles are great!
Hi Alan, glad you figured it all out after all. And thanks for the valuable insights (as always). In hindsight, do you venture to speculate that replacing your skyconnect dongle with an ITead Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus (for example) would have cured your ills?..
It is likely that would have fixed it. I used that exact USB dongle in my previous house without any problems!
I thought this was a great excuse to try a network dongle which I could place anywhere in my house other than the basement, which is why I didn't switch back to it
It’s so true. My smart home still gives me grief. As a matter of fact, I’m writing this in the dark because my smart lights don’t think I’m here 😪
Can you ask Ke to turn them back on?
@@HomeAutomationGuy unfortunately she has a mind of her own now and stopped listening #skynet
Because of issues I heard other people having, I started my Zigbee network with that ethernet-Zigbee coordinator 🤣 It also avoids the USB 3.0 port interference issues that can mess with Zigbee.
No complaints after year 1! It goes to a UDM SE connected to a UPS, so 100% uptime thus far (except when I unplugged it once by mistake)
Glad to hear it!
Thanks
Thank you so much for your support 🙏
Another timely video! Similar story but running sonoff zigbee dongle plus via usb extension into a HomeAssistant Yellow; every 5 - 10 days devices go offline. I thought it was interference with the inbuilt zigbee device, but bought the SMLight SLZB-06 to try. I have so far not moved across due to the problem of repairing 89 devices. Guess now is the time.......
Some times you just need to take a deep breath, and do the annoying and boring job in front of you 😔
You don't have to repair anything in zigbee2mqtt, it takes all the configuration automatically
Wow! That's interesting
Thank you for great video. Have you tried the newest Ember driver for EFR32 coodinator yet? It seems to be much better than CC2652.
I made the switch a few months back before Ember support was there, so I've not tried it yet
A year ago I switched from ZBdongle-P to ZBdongle-E, it was a little more stable but sometimes some devices disconnect and need to be repaired... If I understand the SLZB-06 has the same chip as the ZBdongle-P and the SLZB-06M as the ZBdongle-E. So for me is it better to buy the SLZB-06M ? Great video like allways ;)
I was going through the pain of a unstable ZHA/SkyConnect zigbee network as well some weeks ago. It got me for the last half year. I found out there were some unstable router devices not paired very well. Unpairing and repairing has fixed stability for me. I found out about them in the automation traces that some entities didnt get changed when i run the automations. Especially scenes and light groups that timeout when a single device is unreachable. Rock solid now thankfully!
Glad to hear it!
Great vid - what setup are you using to run Home Assistant? I am using a HA yellow and my devices are connected by Zigbe2mqtt - not sure what radio HA yellow has built in / should i consider switching it out to your recommendation - any thoughts?
I use Proxmox to run Home Assistant (you can find a video about my home server on my channel)
The yellow uses a similar chip to the SkyConnect, but I wouldn't recommend you change anything in your setup if it's working properly!
@@HomeAutomationGuy thanks for the reply. I will stay as is for now as my systems is been really stable so far 👍
I went through all of this using a combo HUBZ stick. I moved to the Skyconnect (I'm on ZHA). But one thing I noticed along the way. The zigbee got real bad when I moved offices. Apparetnyl in that process one of the light bulbs that was playing router was turned off in my office and I was no longer there to notice. Use the visualizer to look for routers showing offline.
Thanks for the tip!
Hi! I saw your blog post about using smart switches with smart bulbs and you mentioned that Aqara switches have a 'decoupled' mode. Is there a similar function/alternative for the Candeo dimmers? Looking to do the same thing. Thank you!
The Candeo's unfortunately do not have a concept of a decoupled mode
Great video full of lots of useful information, but why are you not using ZHA?
The devices I have in my home are better supported by Zigbee2mqtt.
Thanks for this, I'm looking to do the same. Hopefully, it will be a 'massive release' as you had said at 9:33. :)
"Massive Release" is the subject of my OnlyFans
Thank you for this video. Actually, I learned a lot from your channel. But I have a question. I am using Home Assistant Yellow with MQTT. So, if i switch off the coordinator comes with HA yellow and use this instead would it help in resolving my issue? specially I am facing the same exact issue lots of connection drops I even switch off the 2.4 GHz wifi and still same issue.
Yes, it should work the same way as mine then
I recommend getting the "p7" version. It's the same chip with more memory. I moved from a 2652p usband didn't have to repair anything
P7 is new and has not been tested as extensively as the regular CC2652P chip. CC2652P is the chip that you can run and forget about it.
Great video as always, ive just recieved mine. im only just starting off and a complete noob, I've just installed HA on an old Dell 3050M, I've just bought this zigbee coordinator and some plugs, buttons, sensors, bulbs and Blind motors. I'm going to start setting up some automations this weekend and I have 1 question, is there a way to have a button on the dashboard to Turn on an Away/Vacation mode that will turn on and off selected lights/lamps at set times, Open close blinds at certain times. This would be a great help and would make a great video for noobs like me.
That is all quite possible - check out some of my other videos for tips on how to get it working.
Had the same problem which increased when I decided on four Zigbee networks, the house, the office (50m away), the machinery shed (150m away) and the front gate / letterbox (350m away). I had a main Intel Nuc HA and then Pi HA Remote units all with zigbee USB dongles trying all the main brands. Then SD card failure on the house Pi HA ! In the end I used the UZG-01 Ethernet Zigbee gateway x 4 and got rid of the HA remote Pi's and now a plan to connect the front gate. I used the Zigbee2MQTT hack to install three instances of Zigbee2MQTT on the one HA server along with ZHA. The front gate was harder requiring a WiFi connection, in the end I used two GL-AR3300M mini routers with external antennas 3-4m away. It's been five weeks and so far no more stress or disconnections. I wish I found your video's before I started this journey.
That sounds like a frustrating journey! I always worry that more Zigbee networks means more interference, but yours sounds quite physically separated so maybe it works ok
@@HomeAutomationGuy Yes distance made me give it a go, located in a rural, country area with no crazy wireless noise across the spectrum makes it easy.
Hey I literally did the same thing. I replaced my skyconnect with the poe and I no longer get the message my zigbee network is 98% full. And I only have about 25-30 zigbee devices in total. And I got a very long usb extension and found that to help very little. Now zigbee is solid with no more warnings.
My z2m install grenaded itself on an upgrade. Just spent the weekend reinstalling and redoing my scenes, automations and dashboards.
Ouuuuuch
Great video. Did u get the M version of the coordinator?
No, I think the M is less compatible with Zigbee2mqtt
@@HomeAutomationGuy I have been using the M for about 3 months. I only have about 25 zigbee devices. Rock solid. PoE with the switch connected to UPS. The coordinator keeps running even if power goes off. I think these things do not like sudden lack of power. Congrats for the videos. I am learning a ton with you.
Hello Alan, I had this problem too.
The coordinator (conbee 2) is on my office in basement and, even if I have a lot of devices that act as router (lights, switches, etc) the signal was poor or unstable around the house (concrete walls and 2 floors + basement). I solved with a couple of signal repeater from Ikea, are cheap (around 9 euros) and works very well.
I placed one per floor almost in line above the coordinator this to reduce the signal loss caused by the concrete slab, and it works.
Anyway, these zigbee network adapters are interesting, I think I will buy one to place it below the roof to spread the signal on the whole house (hope)
I hope it works out! But if your network is working fine now I'd just leave it how it is. If it ain't broke don't fix it
@@HomeAutomationGuy I have to inform about but - I think - that those devices will act even as repeater. if so I don't have to do nothing on (pairing etc)
What signal repeaters from IKEA have you been using?
@@gabrielzalisz I posted the link of the ikea website but it was deleted, they only sell one, it is a signal repeater with an usb for charging
@@crc-error-7968 Thanks for letting me know! I was unable to find this repeater in Czech IKEA, seems like they don't sell it at all, that is very uncommon for IKEA. I was however able to find it on Polish IKEA. Maybe I'll order it from there :-)
@HomeAutomationGuy the article link is not correct I think?
Also, a link to smlight site would be great.
Thanks for the video, good content!
Whoops! Thanks for letting me know! I've fixed it now 🙏
thank you very much , can this ethernet zigbee router be used as a zigbee repeater also?
Yes, you have to install the firmware that transforms it into a router, it is very easy to do
Hello, good video, I did not have to reconfigure anything after migrating from a Sonoff dongle to this one, it takes everything automatically, now I do not want to disappoint you but I am having problems with random loss of devices, I keep testing to see if the problem persists. Greetings from Argentina.
All the best!
Thanks for this! Position is key I think. I have the SkyConnect with Z2M at the center of my house, stable af for more than a year. Also the skyconnect is connected to a Synology that runs my VM with HA, again super stable! But this poe one is very interesting! Did you notice any difference in terms of latency compared to the usb one?
Nope. It's just as quick as the USB version from what I can tell
@@HomeAutomationGuy Grand!
for 3 story house how many coordinator is best and all with Coordinator mode or Router.
One coordinator and routers wherever you need them. It's not so much the size of the house, but how well the signals travel through the building materials.
Another important thing to mention is that with this coordinator, it's easy to expand the network to remote locations using the built-in WireGuard.
I've never found a solid use case for that, but it's a cool feature!
@@HomeAutomationGuy In my case, a certain number of devices located in different cities (my apartment and my parents' house) are centrally controlled by a single server. Of course, everything stops working on the side where there is no server if the internet goes down, but there is a backup channel for this, so overall the solution seems to work.
Excellent video. Had a few issues myself.
I am currently using the silicon labs sky connect USB stick with Home assistant predominantly for Z2MQTT on a Win 11 machine with Virtual Box environment. When I start the Home assistant on Virtual Box I find the USB stick is not picked up so I either need to remove the stick and scan for hardware changes in device manager or physically remove and add the stick back, which is not ideal.
So the questions.
1 If this stick is a network enabled stick does it not have the same issue as a USB stick if connected with network POE connection etc?. Will it pick it up without any issues?
2 Have you found any other way of migrating current devices instead of re-pairing devices.....?
1. Yup. It should be picked up once the network connects.
2. Sadly not. I had to re-pair everything
Do you think the positioning actually mattered then, since it seems like the main problem was the sky connect support for mqtt
It's difficult to say, but because the SMLight is so portable it makes sense to keep it in the middle of my house away from the basement.
Hello!!! What a great video!!! Im using the sonoff zigbee, but i have the same problem that you had with the old donggle, and need to move it to another location, because my concrete house doesn't help with signal strength. Can i use this device with ZHA over ethernet?
Yes you can!
@@HomeAutomationGuy do you recommend me to make the switch? I have less than 40 devices
@@felipegilhiriart If you have ethernet where you want to locate the device, it will be a good potential solution.
I am in the process of research and purchase for the things i need to uplift my home. This was perfect. But i have yo ask about the repairing. That sounds so painful! Is there a way to save the paired state and then upload to a new device?
You don't have to repair anything in zigbee2mqtt, it takes all the configuration automatically
Just purchased two. Always keep a spare. I shall follow your lead thanks.
I also bought two, for the same reason 🙈
The SMLight SLZB-06 might be only $30 in the US but in the UK it is £64-75 GBP or $80-$94. I have a similar symptoms to problem you describe but I'm using the Sonoff ZBDongle-E co-ordinator . However I only have 45 devices. I installed a couple of Ikea signal repeaters and a few powered routing lights and this improved the stabilty but not completely. I did wonder if there is diagnostic data available within Zigbee2MQTT that might be useful for example LQI or whether there are any automations that monitor the network health.
the sonoff E runs the same chipset as the skyconnect and recommended for ZHA. if you want Zigbee2mqtt then get the sonoff plus instead
There's zigstar/lilyzig which is a very similar if not as capable a device. Probably can get it cheaper.
aliexpress ~£35
Did you tried updating the adapter firmware? The Silabs is not marked as experimental anymore so I wonder if it should perform well now with latest firmware. SLZB-06 developer also recommends the SLZB-06M (Silabs)
I did update the firmware when I first bought it, but have not needed to since then. The process worked well though
I had my fist bulk disconnect few days ago. Thanks to your video I realised I have experimental ITead Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus V2 model "ZBDongle-E". I did purchased SMLIGHT SLZB-07p7 Zigbee USB CC2652P7 adapter immediately. I hope, it will be stable. Thanks!!
I hope so too!
did you run with ezsp or ember driver on your skyconnect coordinator?
And did you try to firmware update the skyconnect?
Only ember is possible with newest version of zigbee2MQTT and that requires a firmware update of the skyconnect.
I have been running with skyconnect and zigbee2MQTT without any issues
When I switched there were no new firmware updates available and Ember wasn't supported with Zigbee2mqtt
Super interesting product. I think my only fear would be taking down my zigbee network during network downtime... But it is certianly an edge case and something that can (usually) be accounted for. Will need to keep this in mind for the future!
Also, I found that your method of pairing all routers from the closest to the farthest drastically improved my zigbee network reliability, and I also decided to not always let Z2M choose the router new devices would pair to... I occasionally had devices paired to others half way across the house and it accounted for some serious issues
Fair point, luckily my network hasn't been down except when I do a firmware update, which I normally do when everyone else is in bed.
I've only recently started choosing which router to pair through and it was the only way I could pair one of my Aqara temperature sensors. Oddly the rest of them paired fine with the default Allow Join
@@HomeAutomationGuy as much as i love aqara features and price, I've been turned off of them recently due to stuff like this. I'm having excessive battery drain on some of my aqara devices and obscure issues relating to which router they're paired to. Probably just gonna use alternatives, which is a shame because on paper they're fantastic products.
I am starting out with Aqara devices and have a Aqara M2 Hub , would this device replace the hub or has to run in addition to the hub
?
It replaces the hub, but you will need Home Assistant and Zigbee2mqtt as well. If you're happy with the M2 hub then keep using it. It's a good system
@@HomeAutomationGuy Cheers mate
WTF i felt that in my soul
It was a dark time in the Home Automation Guy household.
Especially when your spouse feel the pain when showering in the dark by a damn light not coming back online 😅😂
Did you try flashing to 7.4.x and switching the adapter to ember?
Nope, I think the Ember support only came out recently didn't it? It also sounds kinda experimental so I went with a tried and tested Zigbee chip. No more messing around!
my Sonoff Dongle-E is in the experimental list and often was causing issues, restarting Z2M fixed the issue, so I set up a restart add-on automation, my Zigbee network has never been as stable as now.
Ah, gotta love the old "scheduled reboot" method 😁
I have my sonoff stick 50cm from the old Office PC which runs the HA. Wi-Fi access point is right next to the PC. Around 100 Zigbee devices working very reliably. My previous Rasberry PI was struggling, devices were dropping all the time. 5 year old mini PC was what fixed my reliability problems.
Glad to hear it! Sometimes more grunt is needed
I also have the SLZB-06, but haven't had the time to install it yet. Dreading the re-pairing too ;-)
Have you considered installing a second Z2M inside HA for the new coordinator, and then move everything over step by step, instead of all in one go? And if yes, why did you decide not to do that?
I hadn't considered that, it's a very clever idea!
I just sucked it up and did the re-pair all in one hit, it was a pain in the arse but not too bad in hindsight.
@@HomeAutomationGuy I guess you documented the names of all devices beforehand so you could name them the same after re-pairing? Or did Z2M do that automatically?
@@sandphotoNL Zigbee2MQTT already knew the names of my devices because I had paired them before, so I didn't need to do anything else
@@HomeAutomationGuy That's good to know, thanks!
Have you tried flashing the new firmware for z2m and using ember?
No, the new firmware wasn't available when I had this issue and nor was Ember on Z2M (As far as I am aware)
I don't know which version of Z2M but late 2 (since 1.35) they are very unstable, specially the last one which has some changes in the drivers (not limited to skyconnect) under the hood. Could be the reason
This issue started last year and I fixed it in February 2024, so I don't think it was related to the latest driver change.
Will this network coordinator work with thread / matter (BTW great video)
I think there are versions that do. Check out their website in the description of the video for more information
Omg, my zigbee setup and issues mirror yours almost exactly! Only difference, my coordinator IS in middle of house and I'm on ZHA. I did same with wifi and moved channel to 11, didn't help (ZHA on channel 15.) I've now ordered Sonoff dongle P to take over from HA yellow coordinator. Based on your experience, do you advise to ditch USB coordinator and go straight to Ethernet connected coordinator? Not clear why Ethernet is better than USB?
For me, both battery powered AND mains powered routers fall off regularly, including IKEA repeaters 😢
Network was better for me because I have ethernet wired around my house and could easily move the coordinator that way. If it's already in the middle of your house make sure your dongle is connected via a USB extension cable rather than directly into your computer. Sonoff make great dongles, hopefully this solves your problem 🤞
Informative. I'm currently duplicating my server as a fallback. It and the coordinator are single point failure items that I feel need to be replicated in the event one of them dies. Glad you sorted it out.
I've often thought of duplicating my setup somehow. It might make for a good video...
@@HomeAutomationGuy yes please do. I'm using two i5 Lenovo Thinkcentres for servers with Virtual box VM. Not sure how to make this as painless as possible.
Have you tried running multiple Zigbee coordinators? Might need to run multiple copies of Zigbee2MQTT but that shouldn't be too difficult.
How do you join devices to your network? Do you do a Join All or do you specify the repeater for different devices? I don't recall you mentioning this in your Zigbee video. I struggle to get my devices to join unless I bring them close to my coordinator so feel like I am doing it wrong.
The problem with running multiple coordinators and different instances of Zigbee2MQTT is that this creates even more 2.4Ghz radio interference and can actually end up harming your network more than it helps.
I usually do a Join All, but if I find a device isn't joining properly (Like my Aqara Temperature Sensors) I specify the closest router to where I am eventually going to keep that device and try that.
Is there a noticable delay switching zigbee devies over ser2net or the smlight-adapter?
I noticed absolutely no delay. I had it hard wired into my gigabit network though
@@HomeAutomationGuythanks for your reply and this great video :)
Finally!!
Sorry, I've got a day job and a dog so making videos takes a long time for me 😉
I'm considering the same, currently have a USB. Am concerned about creating a point of failure with having an up and running network
I don't think I'll ever use a USB dongle again in a house like mine. Maybe in a smaller apartment or something it would be more than fine.
I’m in a completely different position. I’ve got 100+ devices which were previously paired with a Sonoff USB Zignee adapter plugged in via extension cord to my rack on the loft. This set up was working fine for years, but the AQI was quite bad and sometimes individual devices were not communicating properly. About 6 months ago o have moved to SMLight SLZB06 and that’s when a nightmare has started. Every 12-48h my Zigbee mesh was going completely down with Z2M crashing and requiring a restart of both Z2M *and* power cycle of SMlight adapter at same time. After a few weeks I have replaced the SLZB with another one thinking it’s faulty, unfortunately nothing has changed. After another few weeks of trying to troubleshoot my Zigbee mesh, I have replaced the adapter once more this time with SLZB06M and changed Z2M drive r to ezsp (and now ember). This has slightly changed the erroneous behaviour but also made it less predictable. With 06M Z2M just randomly stops communicating with nodes after a few hours without any crash and again requires full Z2M restart to start working properly again.
Oh, that sounds very frustrating - I'm sorry to hear that!
@@HomeAutomationGuy yeah it is. The biggest frustatration is that i dont know what else i can do to troubleshoot it or even pinpoint it to one of the elements (for example SLZB clearly works fine for you, but i have tried three different (incl. M version) ones and the issue persists on all three of them. Anyhow i am waiting for a ZigStar adapter now, once i test it i should know more.
Just a quick update - I’ve got a Zigstar UZG-01 since last week, and so far it is rock stable
@@dinth Glad to hear it!!
That’s the reason I switch more and more devices to z-wave. My z-wave network is stable for years, as where Zigbee is always keep having trouble. I have tried many different coordinators.
Perhaps I should try this one. Thanks for sharing.
I've heard good things about Z-Wave but there are so few devices compared to how many exist with Zigbee. Thanks for the comment!
@@HomeAutomationGuy True. Although I see more devices coming. I think the license is holding many companies back.
I'm using a conbee 2, and some time ago my whole zigbee network (only 5 sensors and a bunch of smartplugs) went down overnight. I thought the conbee 2 had gone belly up (I had that problem before with a sonoff stick) , so I ordered a new one. But i had the same problem with the new stick. So I went to the forums and someone said I shouldn't plug the stick straight into the pi but use a USB cable to get some distance between them. I did that, and the problem disappeared as quickly as it has appeared.
It's amazing how much of a difference that makes. I don't understand electronics or physics well enough to get it, but I agree it makes a big difference!
@@HomeAutomationGuy i can only guess that it was some kind of EM interference from the pi. the weird thing is, up until that point it worked ok, and then BAM!, and nothing.
TIL a new device from Ukraine! Thanx a lot!
You're welcome!
7:05 they sure know how to thumbnail.
They also make good tech!
Well that's a coincidence... I too love Zigbee, and think it's way more reliable than Z-wave, WiFi, Bluetooth or any other wireless protocol. However, today my Zigbee network failed too.
Honestly, absolutely nothing beats hardwired connections.
That's true!
I’m a complete noob, in fact I’ve not even started anything yet. I’m looking at buying a refurb dell mini pc 16g ram and 250gb ssd to start and want to start with zigbee but I’m not sure if it’s zigbee or zigbee2mqtt I’m best using. I’m looking to go for something I don’t have to replace for a some time. So which am I best going with zigbee ZHA vs zigbee2mqtt.
Any help would be great, any sorry if it’s not tech terms but I’m a complete noob
ZHA is the easiest to get started with
@@HomeAutomationGuy What would be the best controller for that, i like the idea of having a network one so i could make it more central in the house compared to where the mini PC will be or is this me over thinking issues before i get the issues haha
@@manicmarley5731 the one I am using works for ZHA as well
couldn't you run mqtt on rpi with zigbee usb ? why serial ?
You could definitely do that, but the Pi isn't that powerful so I wasn't sure how it would perform
Hi, thanks for sharing!
Not that it matters now, but a useful trick if you have a USB device hanging off a computer somewhere else (Raspberry Pi for example), you can forward USB over IP (support is directly built into the Linux kernel, you just need to install the userland tools).
This has the effect of making remote usb devices "appear" local to other applications on your machine so your Zigbee2MQTT wouldn't have known anything had changed
This sounds really interesting. Do you have pointers to any further info on this?
I didn't know that! That's cool
@@markxexar9386 Tall Paul Tech covered it a few months back: ruclips.net/video/9RAR1lo_Yc0/видео.html
Z Wave imho is significantly better. Much further range and bullet proof. I have had rock steady Z Wave for about 6 years. The downside is everything is a bit more expensive.
Z-Wave is solid, but it has less devices to choose from. The upside is that all the devices are guaranteed to work together
@@HomeAutomationGuy True I run an M2 hub in the bedroom for blinds and curtain openers as nothing z wave is comparable. Though have just ordered one of the network zigbee adapters to try. I found the Home Assistant one shocking to use!
I tried this process, unfortunately, all my helpers covering switches to light at ha were lost. Had to create all helpers again and adjust automations. Just leaving this here for information.
Edit: Found out it was because I restarted the ha as a whole and not only the addon. Recovering last ha backup brought them back.
Oh, that's frustrating.
Does anyone have any experience with a simple installation of a broker, Zigbee2mqtt and Node red on Linux without using an application like Home Assistant or Jeedom? Good idea or not ?
I know it can be done, but I'm a massive Home Assistant fan so have never looked into NOT using it
I had similiar problems with the skyconnect stick (with a smaller network and i couldn’t pair one switch) updated the firmware of it to 7.3.2 and everything worked smoothly.
Next time zigbee2mqtt updates and sorts out the last few bugs in the ember drivers i will likely update the firmware further.
I agree it will become super stable as time goes on, but I needed my network stable TODAY, not in the future.