Brand new install RP5 Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB plus not recognised

Installation
1

Hello, probably a stupid…

I had HA running upon a tiny 4 inch square Windows PC with the above Zigbee adaptor but the tiny PC died probably 9 months ago. With a little spare time and an RP5 sitting in a box I thought I’d start afresh. If I were lucky I’d install HA on the Pi and the two or tree sensors paired with the Sonoff would still be paired - fingers crossed.

I created a brand new SD from the Raspberry imager on a Win PC, slotted into the New RP5, great all very quick and easy, powered up and went through the initial config, no problem.

I then plugged in the Sonoff Zigbee stick, new device detected and went to configure and rcvd “failed to probe the USB device” within HA.

On the RP HDMI output I can see “cp210x ttyUSB0: failed set request 0x12 status: -110”

Went back to a raspi OS and updated the firmware as the Pi is one year old but never used.

Re-wrote the HA SD card.

Plugged in the Sonoff Zigbee before power up this time, and ran through the initial setup, on going to devices the Sonoff Zigbee is not there and the HDMI output of the PI has the same USB error. So it was found at intial startup and failed then.

Tried all the USB ports, rewritten and verified the SD. Just can’t use my Zigbee dongle that itself was working up to the original host dying.

Any suggestions gladly rcvd

Thanks

Mike

2

You’ll probably need to set up Zigbee from scratch and point your coordinator to use the serial device by-id

3

Nope does not sound stupid. I am currently having the same issue “Failed to probe usb device” when connecting a sonoff zigbee usb 3.0 plus adapter to my raspberry 5. My guess is it may be some weird bug with the rpi5 and HA OS.

What I have tried .

I have tried flashing the firmware on the adapter.
I have tried restarting the os.
I have checked for updates
I have tryed to add the device by searching for the zeebee integration. It sees the device and name and port. I have tried using all of the baud rates. When choosing the device.

I have rpi4 sitting around i may go ahead and install it on there are see what it does.

SYSTEM Specifications

Hardware
Manufacturer:Raspberry pi
Model:Rpi5
Ram:8 Gb
Storage :64 Gb

Software

Core
2024.12.5
Supervisor
2024.12.0
Operating System
14.1
Frontend
20241127.8

4

@Bigc6432 Thanks for the reply, for me an almost identical setup, just the SD smaller.

Rpi 5
Ram 8gb
SD card 32 gb

Core 2024.12.5
Supervisor 2024.12.0
Operating System 14.1
Frontend 20241127.8

If I start the Pi without the Sonoff plugged in, HA finds it quite quickly once inserted into the Pi’s USB.

zigscreen

If I then ask HA to ADD the Sonoff device, it reports…

… well I never! I’ve just retraced my steps to type this message and it has installed the device and found the two sensors it had been setup with 9 months ago. The only difference is I plugged in the Sonoff device and was called away for a coupe of hours before I could ask HA to add it.

For now the mystery is over!

5

Hey there,

I have exaktly the same problem, and no solution so far.

Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 P stick, brand new. Brand new Pi5, HA OS with the latest version.

When HA is running and i plug in the stick, HA immediately recognizes it. But when i start config it hangs for half a minute and then comes back with: failed to probe the USB device

Also, when the Stick is plugged in while the Pi boots, HA will never boot.

My setup is, besides the SD size, the same as mentioned by the OP.

I have no idea what could possibly be wrong. Any help would be much appreciated.

Edit: no docker, no containers. Pure HA OS running on the PI.

Thx in advance

6

Use a USB extension cable.

7

Yeah, already ordered one - will try over the weekend.

It does sound too simple, though, given the symptoms. Are you sure thats the solution?

Best regards

8

No :man_shrugging:t3:

1 Like
9

Yeah… i figured that :wink:

I was already searching for the issue, but most people seem to encounter that problem when using docker and having issues with permissions on the USB ports or forwarding it properly between VMs. Since im on a clean and new direct install of HA OS in the pi, that cant be the issue.

So still happy for any other suggestions, but will definitely try the extension cable on the weekend.

Thx

10

USB 3 ports are notorious sources for Zigbee interference, which is why extension cables are almost mandatory to prevent issues.

1 Like
11

So yeah, the extension cable did the trick - i was able to properly setup the Sonoff Zigbe stick!
3m USB cable … seems to be enough.

I was also able to pair one of my Tuja temp & humidity sensors. It worked, for about 5min. After that the sensor wasnt sending any updates anymore, while i was still able to pair 2 more sensors - which pretty much only paired but never send a single signal.

So while the stick now basically works, none of the sensors does.

I tried different positions of sensors as well as the stick, but nothing changed.

Man … this was my first experience with ZigBee… got to say: im pretty underwhelmed. Seems to be a pretty shitty and unrealiable standard if you ask me. Gets interference from god knows what, buggy as hell - no fun at all.

Maybe i was doing something wrong, but this is pretty much the worst experience i ever had with any home automation equipment.

12

And yet, thousands of people have perfectly fine working Zigbee networks :man_shrugging:t3:

But Zigbee networks are fundamentally different from WiFi networks, which is what a lot of people without Zigbee experience seem to compare it with.

First: don’t expect battery-powered devices to have a range of more than a few meters.

Second: start by adding a few router devices to extend the range of your mesh.

Third: pair devices at the location you intend to use them. Don’t pair them next to the coordinator/dongle, then move them.

Fourth: don’t expect very cheap devices to work properly. They usually do, but it’s not a given.

13

@S.laughter I had lots of trouble getting HA (in docker) to interface with the dongle on a newish RPi5. My solution was to reflash the firmware on the dongle using Sonoff’s utility on the web here.