Aqara Zigbee motion sensors don't seem to use repeaters and become unavailable after ~12 hours

Configuration Zigbee
,
1

I am troubleshooting some aqara motion sensors setup within Hass.io
They are connected via the husbzb-1 controller which is working flawlessly with other devices.

TL/DR

  • 1 aquara motion sensor is close to the hub and works fine.
  • 2 other aquara motion sensors repeatedly become unavailable
  • Repeaters added to the husbzb: smartthings outlet, GE lightswitch don’t seem to be utilized by the aquara motion sensors
  • I haven’t found any useful information in the logs when the sensors become unavailable.
  • I have an aqara door contact sensor in the laundry room and that is functioning fine.

Open Questions

  • SmartThings & Hue hub: Can devices added to husbzb use these as repeaters?
  • How can I find in log files what the parent of a zigbee device is?
  • What would be the best/easiest way to map the network?

DETAILS

One of the aqara motion sensors is about 10ft from the controller in the living room. It’s working perfectly and im using it for motion and occupancy automations. I saw a post about them not working when mounted upside down. This one IS working and IS mounted upside down! Many other post out there about them becoming unavailable but the conditions didn’t quite seem to match with mine in various ways

I have tried 2 other aqara motion sensors in various locations further from the controller.

  • laundry room [40ft through 3 walls + fridge]

  • kitchen [30ft through 2 walls].

They usually work for about 12 hours, then go into an unavailable state until I remove and re-add them.

I’ve turned on debug logging for ZHA but the best information i can glean has mostly been from the “add zha device” screen. That info doesn’t go into the home-assistant.log file. Is it being written to file?

There is a smart things outlet in the living room (between the hub and the kitchen/laundry room) which I changed from the smart things hub to the husbzb controller to act as a repeater. I did this because im unsure if the smart things hub will repeat signals for devices that were not attached directly to it (I am unsure of same question with my philips hue hub)

I also added a GE zigbee lightswitch in the laundry room to the husbzb to repeat the signals directly from that area but it didn’t help and that lightswitch is working perfectly. I shutdown the hass box and pressed the buttons on all the devices to be sure they re parented themselves.

I moved the unavailable sensors closer to the hub in the hallway to see if it would become available again. I also pressed the button a few times. That was 4.5 hours ago now and it’s still unavailable.

Been going through all this moving around, re-adding, re-parenting, trying to route through repeaters for 3 days now.

I’m pretty much at my wits end with these things…I like their small size and form factor and wide angle of detection as compared to most other zigbee motion sensors but they seem very unreliable and I don’t get why they appear to not parent with a repeater. I haven’t seen any logging of a parent Id in the logs when I add them.

Log Settings

logger:
  default: info
  logs:
    homeassistant.components.zigpy: debug
    homeassistant.components.bellows: debug
    homeassistant.components.zha: debug
2

I’ve only got one of the motion sensors, lots of other aqara sensors. No problem with them connecting via routers, most of which are IKEA bulbs and a couple of IKEA sockets. I use Deconz, but that shouldn’t make a difference. I have also use a conbee 2.

I think, in the last year, I’ve never had to re-pair the motion sensor. Maybe pressed the little button on a couple of occasions, mostly if someone turned the lights off, or following a Deconz update. Other than that, very reliable.

3

Something I’d like to rule out is WiFi interference. How can I find out what channel(s) the hub(s) are using?

4

Smartthings outlets don’t play nice with Aqara.

Ikea outlets do. Ikea outlets have the same manufacturer as Aqara.

Aqara doesnt follow the zha protocol well. There are lists out there of what devices will repeat Aqara and what won’t.

If an Aqara shares a mesh network with a Smartthings outlet, they will play nice as long as they don’t use each other to route. Hence why your other Aqara device works fine. Sometimes Aqara will route fine through a Smartthings outlet for a few hours before dropping. Aqara follows a different reporting interval, which some repeaters don’t handle well over time.

5

Thanks, that’s useful info. Do you have links to the lists you refer to. I searched and couldn’t find a useful one.

Any idea about this GE lightswitch: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015YJAHY0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

6

I was able to identify that the smartthings hub is on channel 24 and and philips hue hub is on 11. Haven’t been able to find out for the hubzusb yet though. Maybe something in /proc that can tell me that.

7

Ahhh, this post has a lot of useful info too: https://community.hubitat.com/t/xiaomi-aqara-devices-pairing-keeping-them-connected/623

3 Likes
8

You found the thread I was talking about

9

I removed the smartthings outlet from the network and put it back into the smartthings hub. Same with the GE lightswitch. Everything is working smoothly now. Thanks for the tip off.
Have a Sylvania smart plug on the way from walmart since they seem to stock the non “-A” model. :+1:

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