Been using HA for a few years now. All wifi devices.
I have a large investment in wifi - tuya (esphome) for power plugs, the window sensors etc - so many power monitoring plugs in use that I have two spare.
I wanted a few more door sensors as they came up cheap on aliexpress and I thought I could set lights flashing when the kids left the doors open and the air con was on. This was I thought a good time to add some zigbee - so I bought a smlight stick and updated it to FW 7.4.1 (latest it said), and three door sensors and three water leak sensors.
It all seemed to install fine and work fine - easy I through, so I bought a few bulbs (2 x GU10 and one e27), and more door sensorsā¦ GU10ās were to be outside, about 3m from the controller, and one exterior wall - they did not work - well, one paired, one did not, but I could only control it for a few minutes. The extra door sensors also paired but when installed were flaky (too far away ?)
The HA device (and smlight stick) is at one end of the house, and all the new stuff was the middle / other end.
I then read that you can use zigbee power plugs to extend the range, but I dont need any of these as I am covered on wifi, and have some extras.
I saw I can look into the wifi channel, but looks like I am ok as channel 11 wifi is in use which apparently is best as 15 for zigbee, which it isā¦
I have seen there are signal repeaters/boosters on ali express, usb powered. Is that what I would need next ? spread them around ?
Iām thinking it is likely cheaper to have stayed down the wifi route nowā¦ I never really had an issue with the batteries on the door sensors - over 6 months easily on each.
I guess I jumped in a bit too quick on this and the high density wifi (and my own massive number of wifi devices (49 active), and my multiple access points, prob means this is not a go-er. I will swap out the close wifi door/window sensors with the zigbee ones so not all is lost there, only one water sensor works stably, so the others will go to the bin. The one bulb I have that is portable (e27) - i tried it in loads of locations but it did not help with any range. I can swap it out with a close lifx bulb so thatās not wasted. Just the two GU10ās to chuck out it seems, and maybe add a smart switch or a shelly instead - or buy two wifi GU10ās.
I guess I have no routersā¦
It may be a case of throwing good money after bad, as I dont need any other stuff currently.
Are those $6 usb zigbee repeaters any good on aliexpress ?
The latest and greatest SMLIGHTs arenāt always the best option. The chip matters a lot with those devices when intergrating with HA. I run multiple SLZBs but use the CPU models: C2652P.
I misspoke/mistyped when I said routers, I meant repeaters.
I recently purchased two 4 packs of bulbs:
ThirdReality - $30 for 4.
Sengled $57 for 4.
I donāt have signal issues / need the repeating function, but according to the web the ThirdReality bulbs have repeaters, but the Sengled donāt.
However the Sengled bulbs have better color reproduction - the color I select in HA is what I get on the bulb - the TR bulb (I only tested one) had problems with Yellow - it came out greenish-yellow.
My point is your problem maybe because of the type/manufacture of bulbs you purchased - hence buying some bulbs with repeaters may be the solution.
Iām sort of all bulbāed out now though. I have more than I can use, same as the wifi switch/power things. I am after the cheapest way of knowing if I can get the GU10ās working (it will cost be $10 to replace them with wifi, or $20 for a shelly switch). I think you are right though, I placed the zigbee e27 bulb I have on the inside of the exterior wall where the GU10ās are - and no help. The graphical layout in HA does say the bulb is a ārouterā so I got a bit excited for a secondā¦
I had a few issues with my zigbee and whilst this is only anecdotal from personal experience the biggest bits of advice I can offer areā¦
Build a zigbeee ābackboneā that will span your entire house based on lights/sockets (with repeaters) from the same vendor. (If you need to fill spots use dedicated repeaters but try and stick to the same manufacturer. If at all possible build your backbone via line of sight/least possible obstruction (zigbee maybe wireless but as we are all to aware it can be - lets say frustrating (just in case the kids are reading)
Limit your vendors - i use ikea (lights/sockets/controls), sonoff (sensors and switches/dimmers), and a very small amount of tuya( extension leads and scene switches).
Keep battery powered devices powered (i change batteries at 30%) - in my experience weak batteries are definitely a factor in responsiveness of anything that relies on or is driven by sensors and switches.
So my backbone was built, from one ikea light in every room/landing, in order of distance from the last light. I then added the required sockets in each room. I then added the battery switches/controls in each room. I then let the zigbee network sit for 24 hours to do its thing before adding any other devices - call it a running in period if you like
All devices subsequently added via the nearest light.
Personally Iām glad i took the plunge. Nuking my entire previous zigbee network (āfrom orbitā) and moving to this approach has improved the stability and responsiveness of my zigbee devices.
Good luck whatever you decide to do.
BTW it took me an entire day.
EDit - this was done 2 years ago and I havent run into any real issues since then.
Out of the 4 home assistant installations I know of IRL. 2 have constant zigbee problems that are never resolved and 2 work fine.
Why is that? Iām not sure if itās hardware choices, zigbee stacks, bad administrators, etcā¦ But if you want āeasyā I would say zigbee is not it.
I stayed up a bit last night and got the zigbee2mqtt working, and added a door sensor to it perfectly. I suspect the issue before was that I still have the other zha integration started.
I got excited again, but the ābulbā does not pair - keeps repeating the interview process with ācannot get node descriptorā. At least I found the ideal location on a wall backing onto the two GU10ās, that also reaches the controllerā¦ just need a cheap something to make that jump (there is a lifx light there I could replace).
The bulb paired fine if right next to the controller. Moved from USB3 to USB2 port for the controller, then HA wont boot at allā¦ Tried powering off and on the Mini PC. It pings okā¦ get a webpage, then it says connection lost. just cannot access its webpageā¦ Had to pull the USB and restart it, then connect the USB. All back in action then.
With zigbee2mqtt, and the map in that, I can see the bulb is actually acting as a router as three devices are connecting through it - alas not the two GU10ās on the outside wallā¦ I have swapped the wifi devices close to the ZigBee to far away , and replaced with ZigBee closer - so getting there slowly. I ordered a repeater to try and get the GU10ās working in the meantimeā¦
I replaced all my HomeDepot ecosmart color temp bulbs with third reality and itās been amazing. Really impressed for the price. Colors are pretty bad but temperature is great, white temps, and they seem brighter. For the price I use them as white temp bulbs like I had before with the option for colors. RGB is OK, yellow is mostly green though. Itās not a hue BUT hue is 40-50 a bulb and this is like 7. Very impressed for the price. I have about 40 installed and no dropouts yet.
Maybe Iām just one of the lucky 2 out of 4. But ZHA is the one thing in HA which I never have to troubleshoot or deal with when updating. Itās been totally plug-and-play for me, for 5 years now.
Admittedly, I use the āplainā built-in ZHA, no MQTT involved. I donāt use any bulbs, just sensors and smart plugs. And I took all the advice and made sure there were mains-powered devices sprinkled strategically around my house and outbuildings. I even have some devices I bought off Ali Express.
I suspect there could be interferene problems if youāre in a location with lots of WiFi networks. You also need to get the Zigbee coordinator far enough away from the HA host device with other wireless adapters. The quality of the coordinator itself may also play a role.
