Advice on Zigbee range extending

Configuration Zigbee
24

Hi,

I have few a Xiaomi Aquara water sensors added through Zonoff Zigbee USB Stick (Not through Aquara Hub). Some of them which are far from the USB Stick become unresponsive. I bought two TRÅDFRI Signal repeaters and added them to the network. But the water sensors (Ones far from the USB Stick) are still offline. Do I have to do anything additional to increase the Zigbee range through these repeaters or just adding them to the network should work?

Thanks in advance!

25

With Aqara devices, it is best to re-pair them with the router installed. Xiaomi Zigbee devices are known to stick to their original route, and for not changing by themselves.

2 Likes
26

Thanks. Apologies for a dumb question! How best should I repair? Do I just put the sensors in pairing mode or remove them first and repair again? How do I make sure sensors pick the repeater when pairing? Keep near the repeater than the zigbee stick when repairing?

27

Press the button until the blue led pulses, near the router.

3 Likes
28

Worked like a charm. Thank you!

29

I’m having trouble getting aqara sensors (motion and contact/door) paired up with Tradfri repeater bulbs. To begin with, all sensors were paired with a Conbee II stick, but I was experiencing some lag intermittently that I’d been unable to troubleshoot - and some of the sensors had yellow/red lines indicating low Link Quality Indicator (LQI).

So, because I had read the Tradfri bulbs worked well as repeaters, I bought 3 and placed them around the house. All three bulbs paired up with the Conbee II (and each other) right away.

What about the sensors? One random sensor automatically switched over from Conbee to one of the bulbs. But no matter what I do, I cannot get any of the other sensors paired with any of the repeater bulbs.

Here is what I have tried - what else can I do?

  1. Deleted sensor from Phoscon app, repaired*. Result: Pairs back to Conbee
  2. Deleted sensor from Phoscon app, unplugging Conbee for 10 mins, repaired*. Result: Pairs back to Conbee.
  3. With sensor paired to Conbee, from Phoscon app I scanned for new light while pressing the pairing button repeatedly (6-10 times) on the sensor (read this method here). Result: No change, still paired to Conbee.
  4. Left one sensor next to a lamp with a repeater bulb for a week . Result: No change.

**All repairing efforts attempted with sensor directly next to the repeater bulb (2 feet)

30

Tradfri does not seem to work with aqara sensors. I cannot see the Tradfri repeaters in Conbee at all.

31

I have both Aqara and Tradfri repeaters on Conbee II. I have added the tradfri repeaters as lights through the Phoscon App.

I have had some problems with one Aqara door sensor disconnecting and never reconnecting, but only when it’s placement is at the limit of it’s range.

1 Like
32

I found out how to pair IKEA Tradfri repeaters with Conbee!!

  1. Turn on Phoscon new light detection
  2. Then you need to plugin the repeater and use a needle to press the little “reset” button beside the USB port for like 5 seconds.
4 Likes
33

Thanks to the advice on this thread I bought two Ikea Tradfri repeaters to get a better signal from my Conbee II downstairs to two LED smart strips from Lidl connected upstairs more consistently. They were easy to setup with Phoscon, as @Mulperi says, use a paperclip to get them reset and then search for new lights in Phoscon. Thanks for the advice and help folks!

1 Like
34

it works perfectly thanks for the info! in the end I think it is the best and cheapest solution to extend the Zigbee signal

1 Like
35

I have a long house and some of the Sonoff SNZB-02 Zigbee temperature sensors have lower signal strength because they are in the far corners of the house.
I just got a Sonoff S31 Lite Zigbee outlet, which has a TI CC2530 chip in it, and the ability to act as a repeater.
I have a Sonoff Zigbee Bridge (Tasmotized) and was able to easily pair the Sonoff S31 with it.

I put the S31 outlet closer to my farthest temp sensor than the others.
After reading about the Zigbee standard, I got the impression that Zigbee was a “automatic” mesh network. see reference:


Thus I was expecting that the far temp sensor (with the weaker signal) would automatically start using the S31 as a repeater, back to the ZB Bridge.
After waiting 2-3 hours, there is no evidence of repeating going on.
The ZHA-Map add-on is showing that all the ZB devices are still connecting back to the ZB Bridge.
image

Do I have to manually remove the far temp sensor from the Home Assistant Devices page, and then manually trigger a pairing of that far temp sensor with the S31, using the “Add Devices Via this Device” control?
Add Devices Via this Device

Eric

36

I am now trying to manually add/pair my far temp sensor to the Sonoff S31.

First, I went into the HA Devices window and removed the far Sonoff temp sensor.
Then, I put the S31 in pairing mode by clicking on ADD DEVICES VIA THIS DEVICE and then pressed the pairing button on the temp sensor.
It appeared to start the pairing process, but failed to fully pair - no window opens to allow me to name it, and no new device in the HA Devices window.
ZB device pairing Interview Started

I think I’m performing the pairing process correctly, but it’s not working.
It doesn’t make sense that a Sonoff ZB outlet won’t pair with a Sonoff ZB temp sensor!

Here’s a log:

Sent ‘mgmt_permit_joining_req’ to 00:12:4b:00:22:6a:7f:06: [<Status.SUCCESS: 0>]
[0xfde0:1:0x0006] ZCL deserialize: <ZCLHeader frame_control= manufacturer=None tsn=48 command_id=Command.Report_Attributes>
[0xfde0:1:0x0006] ZCL request 0x000a: [[Attribute(attrid=0, value=)]]
[0xfde0:1:0x0006] Attribute report received: on_off=0
[0x75b3:1:0x0405] ZCL deserialize: <ZCLHeader frame_control= manufacturer=None tsn=165 command_id=Command.Report_Attributes>
[0x75b3:1:0x0405] ZCL request 0x000a: [[Attribute(attrid=0, value=)]]
[0x75b3:1:0x0405] Attribute report received: measured_value=7320
Device 0x39f3 (00:12:4b:00:22:14:f5:59) joined the network
[0x39f3] Requesting ‘Node Descriptor’
Tries remaining: 2
[0x39f3] Extending timeout for 0xc1 request
Device 0x39f3 (00:12:4b:00:22:14:f5:59) joined the network
Skip initialization for existing device 00:12:4b:00:22:14:f5:59
[0x75b3:1:0x0405] ZCL deserialize: <ZCLHeader frame_control= manufacturer=None tsn=166 command_id=Command.Report_Attributes>
[0x75b3:1:0x0405] ZCL request 0x000a: [[Attribute(attrid=0, value=)]]
[0x75b3:1:0x0405] Attribute report received: measured_value=7372
[0x39f3] Delivery error for seq # 0xc1, on endpoint id 0 cluster 0x0002: message send failure
Tries remaining: 1
[0x39f3] Extending timeout for 0xc3 request
[0x39f3] Delivery error for seq # 0xc3, on endpoint id 0 cluster 0x0002: message send failure
[0x39f3] Requesting Node Descriptor failed
[0x39f3] Discovering endpoints
Tries remaining: 3
[0x39f3] Extending timeout for 0xc5 request
[0x75b3:1:0x0402] ZCL deserialize: <ZCLHeader frame_control= manufacturer=None tsn=167 command_id=Command.Report_Attributes>
[0x75b3:1:0x0402] ZCL request 0x000a: [[Attribute(attrid=0, value=)]]
[0x75b3:1:0x0402] Attribute report received: measured_value=155
[0x39f3] Delivery error for seq # 0xc5, on endpoint id 0 cluster 0x0005: message send failure
Tries remaining: 2
[0x39f3] Extending timeout for 0xc7 request

37

There is only one coordinator device per zigbee network. The coordinator is the device that adds other devices, routers and end devices. I am still learning, but end devices that are battery powered often times will only be able to connect directly to the coordinator after they are added to the network. You could add any number of routers to the network and these end devices will still only look to connect directly to the coordinator. Hope I am wrong for your Sonoff end devices, but doubtful…

38

We know that line-powered Zigbee devices are supposed to perform a repeater function in the Zigbee network.
My original question, 2 posts back was essentially, How do I get the Sonoff S31 outlet to perform it’s repeater job?

In the absence of an answer to that, I’m left to just try stuff.

39

The Sonoff S31 repeater function seems to be working, now.
S31 repeating Temp sensor

Now, I’m trying to figure out what the critical steps were.

  1. paired the Sonoff S31 outlet with the Sonoff Zigbee Bridge
  2. removed the Sonoff Temp sensor from the Devices window
  3. paired the Sonoff Temp sensor to the S31. The temp sensor then showed up in the zha_map as a disconnected circle.
  4. paired the Temp sensor with the Sonoff Zigbee bridge. A few minutes later, the zha_map showed it connected though the S31.
40

Super! that looks like progress!

How did you do this? ‘paired the Sonoff Temp sensor to the S31’

41

I went to the Home Assistant Config tab,
clicked on the Devices menu choice,
clicked on the S31 Lite ZB device (which was already paired with the Zigbee bridge),
clicked on ADD DEVICES VIA THIS DEVICE, and
pushed the pairing button on the Sonoff Temp sensor.

1 Like
42

Thanks! Hope you get a good solid network.

43

Using the the ZHA integration “Visualizer,” I was able to confirm that three of my battery-powered devices (two Visonic door/temperature sensors and one CentraLite temp/humidity sensor) are currently connecting through lines-powered IKEA Tradfri and Ledvance smart plugs. So I guess I got lucky, so far. Good to know that some devices won’t do this. I’m not sure how you’d find out, short of trying them.

I’m a little concerned to hear the suggestion that the mesh won’t re-configure as devices are moved around. I certainly did a lot of that when I was setting up each device. At a very minimum, I thought that resetting them (like when changing batteries or unplugging) would cause them to re-discover other local nodes. Where would I go to learn more about this?