Can’t get second Ikea Rodret paired with ZHA

[Hedda]

@Magichamster

I then factory reset the rodret and try again over and over again. Sometimes it will get a bit further and tell me it’s setup but the buttons still won’t register in HA. I have also tried pairing it directly with an Ikea bulb and it works fine!

@Magichamster

I’ll try and explain but it’s all feels a bit hit and miss at the moment.
…
One of the two which I left in a broken state just started working properly the next day.
…
The other one I’ve still not had luck with, it’s the same routine over and over again,
…
I start pairing and it usually doesn’t get past this screen

All those type of symptoms are common indicators of EMI/RMI/EMF-interference and/or poor reception.

@Magichamster

Any ideas please as I’m going mad trying to work out what’s wrong as I don’t really have much in-depth knowledge of how this stuff works and how to debug this stuff, it should just work right?

The first thing you need to know is that all Zigbee radios can be extremely sensitive to EMI/RMI/EMF-interference, and the second thing you need to know is that a Zigbee network’s range/coverage depends heavily on mesh networking by design because Zigbee radios use low-power and high-frequency radios have very week signals with poor propegation (crappy penetration of building materials). Those two combined can create the perfect storm, so you really need to take preventive actions to both avoid placing Zigbee devices too close to sources of EMI/RMI/EMI. Read and follow these best practices:

• Zigbee networks: how to guide for avoiding interference + optimizing using Zigbee Router devices (repeaters/extenders) to get best possible range and coverage

The most important preventive actions to take mentioned there is to connect the Zigbee Coordinator via a long shielded USB extension cable to a USB 2.0 port of USB 2.0 hub and keep it away from USB 3.0 devices/peripherals/cables, and also add many always-on/always-connected/always-powered mains-powered Zigbee devices at strategic locations in your home that act as “Zigbee Router” devices (sometimes also referred to as Zigbee Range Extenders or Zigbee Repeaters).

Other than that you as well need to replace batteries with fresh ones in any battery-operated devices.

If and when followed all advice try re-pairing the device again before doing any deeper troubleshooting.

Only then can you expect it to “just work”

So after if you still have problems after that then it is probably either a bug and/or a faulty device.

@Magichamster

Just for a bit more background I’m running HA on a raspberry pi and have a SONOFF Universal Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus Gateway.

Also suggest try upgrade to the latest unofficial community Zigbee (NCP) firmware build on your Zigbee Coordinator radio adapter, nothing that there are two different Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus models (“ZBDongle-E” based on Silicon Labs EFR32MG21 radio SoC and “ZBDongle-P” based on Texas Instruments CC2652P radio SoC) that uses different firmware builds:

• ITead’s “Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus V2” (model "ZBDongle-E") based on Silicon Labs EFR32MG21 +20dBm radio SoC/MCU
  • Find popular EmberZNet Zigbee NCP community builds here:
    • https://darkxst.github.io/silabs-firmware-builder/
• ITead's "Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus" (model "ZBDongle-P") based on Texas Instruments CC2652P +20dBm radio SoC/MCU
  • Find popular Z-Stack Zigbee ZNP community builds here:
    • https://github.com/Koenkk/Z-Stack-firmware/tree/master/coordinator