Best option to connect "imcompatible" Hue lights to HA Yellow?

Hi everyone!

This week I received my HA Yellow after waiting for 7 months. I was previously running on a PC with VirtualBox and the migration was pretty easy.

But apart from migrating from VBox to the Yellow hardware, I also wanted to combine all my Zigbee devices on the Yellow’s ZB radio and get rid of the Sonoff Zigbee USB Dongle and the Hue Bridge (I had many sensors and switches connected to HA through the dongle + Zigbee2MQTT, and 7 lights through the Hue integration).
Migrating the sensors and switches was easy, it required a simple reset on each device and they kept their names.

But I am having trouble with 2 of the 7 Hue lights, they are a specific model, Philips Hue Bloom (model 72997). They are in the same distance/room as other Zigbee sensors and switches, around 8 meters (and a couple of walls) from the Yellow hub, there’s no apparent reason for them not to work, it might be a compatibility issue (they are the oldest Hue lights I have).
First I couldn’t pair them, I needed to get them closer to the Yellow. Then when I paired they initially worked fine, but they stopped working as soon as I put them back in their original places. They get one command and then die.

They appear on the Zigbee2MQTT map, but I cannot control them. So I need help choosing the best alternative:
The “easiest” one is to connect them back to the Philips Hue Bridge, but I’d prefer to avoid using that integration.
I have an unused Sonoff Zigbee USB Dongle and also (this might be the best option) a Sonoff Zigbee Bridge Pro flashed with Tasmota, which I could place close to these lights since it works through WiFi.

I used this hub before, but I need help and recommendations on how to set it to work at the same time as the Yellow’s Zigbee radio. I know these would be two separate Zigbee networks, but as long as these devices work in Home Assistant I’m fine.

So, any recommendations (that don’t involve spending more money / don’t have a deep learning curve :stuck_out_tongue: ) are appreciated!

Thanks!
Rodrigo

See the ZHA integation troubleshooting documentation. You will need to factory reset some Philips Hue devices before pairing if they have previously been paired to a other gateway/hub/bridge.

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zha#add-philips-hue-bulbs-that-have-previously-been-added-to-another-bridge

The thing is, I’m not having this issue with the ZHA integration, it’s happening on Zigbee2MQTT.

About resetting the device, I thought that devices reset themselves when they receive a remove signal. When I delete the lights from the Hue app they blink and go to full brightness. I searched for info on how to reset these devices and didn’t find any. I followed steps on how to reset hue Bulbs (this is a lamp, not a bulb) and it doesn’t seem to to anything new.
Anyway, I don’t think they need an extra reset, because the lights work fine when paired to a coordinator that’s in the same room. They work ok, but they stop working if they are “behind” a repeater (10 meters total distance).

I’ve been testing a bit more and I found that the lights pair nicely when using the Yellow’s radio connected to ZHA, but I prefer some parameters that show up using Zigbe2MQTT, that ZHA doesn’t seem to support.

I tried setting my ZBBridge hub with the ZHA integration simultaneously with the Yellow radio with Zigbee2MQTT and it seems to work fine. I think I’ll keep it this way, with two simultaneous Zigbee networks. I’ll test things for a couple of days and will report back if I have any more issues. I’m a little bummed that I couldn’t get rid of the “external” coordinator (before it was the Hue hub, now the ZBBridge).

R.

Another things can can seriously affect pairing is interference, so regardless of Zigbee solution recommend read and follow → https://community.home-assistant.io/t/guide-for-zigbee-interference-avoidance-and-network-range-coverage-optimization/515752

FYI, Problems with Hue devices not pairing if not been properly reset applies to to all Zigbee gateways, not just ZHA, only meant that ZHA has documeented how to reset → https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zha#add-philips-hue-bulbs-that-have-previously-been-added-to-another-bridge

Hey @rsilves,
Did you find any solution here? I am experiencing the same problem with 3 Hue Blooms that I have. All three pair fine with Conbee II and the first one or two commands sent work without issue, but then no more commands work and I have to factory reset them. I have a Hue Dimmer Switch so factory reseting isn’t a problem, but I’m not quite sure how to get these three to work.

Hi @Nyctobello, after many attempts I was able to connect my Hue Blooms to the integrated Yellow radio with ZHA, I don’t know what changed.
The only device that was left out was the Hue filament bulb, which would stop working after a while and cause issues with other Zigbee devices on the same network, so I set up a separate Zigbee radio for that, a Sonoff Zigbee bridge with Tasmota and MQTT. It was tricky to integrate to HA but it ended working.

R.

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