Is there a reason we are still messing with sonoff firmware on the esp32? Why cant we just use esphome or something else as the tcp bridge?
i havent had many issues on zb2mqtt in normal operation - but i do see weirdness in the logs and randomly see entities go from unknown to known states - although in normal use i have not seen much on the frontend but have had a few sonoff snzb-04pr2 contact sensors lose state/status but those have their own documented issues and having switched to different contact sensors i have not seen this issue
To be clear I have a dongle-m…just ordered smlight cc2652 slzb-06u. I’m about done with sonoff. I have a no-name cc2652/ch9102 usb stick im tempted to switch to, but with the smlight ordered I dont wanna repair everything twice
When I started this discussion, I was originally using the Dongle E.
I initially used the EZSP driver, then switched to EMBER. In both cases, I didn’t notice any change in network behavior (neither for the better nor for the worse).
I have always kept my Dongle E firmware up to date.
What I identified as a source of instability in my network (while using the Dongle E) was the fact that it was originally using channel 11. Since I live in a complex where many Wi-Fi networks compete for the same frequency, it seems this was causing interference (and instability) on my Zigbee network.
Switching my Zigbee network to channel 25 is what improved things.
As for the Dongle M, I haven’t tested it again yet.
@helgemor I wouldn’t use the Dongle Max just yet.
I’m sticking with my Dongle E—configured for channel 25 with 40 devices—and it’s working fine.
I was surprised by your feedback on the SM Light dongle, as I’ve always heard good things about that brand.
As for the M dongle, it looks like @piellick found a promising lead regarding the issue. If Sonoff’s engineers replicate his test, we might be close to a solution.
It is a bit confusing to me that you are not experiencing any issues with the EMBER driver.
Whenever I use EMBER, the Zigbee2MQTT add-on inevitably encounters the errors I mentioned and restarts itself once or twice within a 24-hour period.
The restart happens silently in the background and usually completes within 3–5 seconds, so in most cases it is not noticeable from the Zigbee devices on the network. However, I created an automation that sends a notification to my phone every time Zigbee2MQTT restarts, so I can easily track how many times this happens during the day.
Have you monitored your setup in a similar way? Or, if you check your Zigbee2MQTT logs from the last 24 hours, do you see any errors similar to the ones I mentioned?
I am using Zigbee channel 11, and with the EZSP driver I can run the system completely stable without any errors or unexpected restarts.
What I still cannot determine is whether this issue I am experiencing with the EMBER driver is specific to my setup, or whether it is a broader issue.
Home Assistant generates so many logs that I simply disabled everything.
I dream of the day they create a management interface for this, so I can check off a list which logs I want recorded and which ones I don’t.
What specifically did you monitor?
ZigbeeMQTT Bridge restart?
ZigbeeMQTT Bridge connection state?
Or ZigbeeMQTT Bridge log level?