What do you mean with “not recognized”? Even with the ConBee in use with ZHA, your Pi should at least see the Sonoff. Check Configuration > Add-Ons, Backup, & Supervisor > System > Host > “…” menu > Hardware if that’s not where you were looking for something that looks like it’s the Sonoff. It will probably show up as tty<something>, like ttyUSB1, and you should be able to use the “/dev/serial/by-id” text below it to guess that it’s the Sonoff (except I think there was something weird with early versions of these where that was set to something odd; newer ones should be better, but you can always see what this list looks like with the Sonoff plugged in vs. unplugged to see what changes — the one that appears only when plugged in should be it).
If that doesn’t happen, you probably have some other problem. If you have another computer you can try the stick with, maybe just do that to see if it’s not completely dead. If it does work … I’ve never migrated Zigbee coordinators on HASS, so maybe someone else will have tips.
Sorry, you right, not sure why I didn’t check here but yes /dev/serial/by-id/usb-ITead_Sonoff_Zigbee_3.0_USB_Dongle_Plus_5sdf5sd5f5sdf8sd8fsd8f5s5dfc6278-ff00-port0
Every time I give myself a deadline to delete my existing ZHA integration and start over, every time I postpone… I’ll should do that today !
I just could not see how I could re-pair everything in one day, especially as a small test migration was leading to pairing problems (believe it was related to a lot of zigbee noice, as all the devices was trying to find the old coordinator).
Hence, I decided to make a test zigbee2mqtt installation, using my new sonoff 3.0 dongle Just for the fun of it.
One step at a time, i ended moving all 70 devices. Being really happy with Z2M, not planing to move back to,ZHA.
There are 3 reasons. All subjective, not with any real proff, just my feeling.
Stability. I seems my mesh have become more stable. Did have a good stable zigbee network, however with some of the know problems, like if having a HA group of lights, then sometimes it would not turn on/off all of them. Having to fire “scenes” with many bulbs twice. There are a number of treads on these subjects. If this is ZHA or Conbee related I do not know, and it might also be solved already. Further the pairing process did not always work, having to try 3-4 times.
Support for devices. My problem was my Tuya 004F switches. ZHA did not support the scene mode for a long time (It was solved in 2204). Others mention Z2M are faster in supporting devices
The look and fell when working with Z2M
Nothing comes without problems. My DB have grown, which is due to Z2M using MQTT and storing all attributes on any change. This is not optimal and leads to large DB, compared to the ZHA way of storing the state changes.
Note: I have never tried Z2M with a conbee. Only with the Sonoff 3.0 dongle
FYI, if you are already using ZHA then there is an experimental method for migrating Zigbee network between ConBee or RaspBee and Texas Instruments or Silicon Labs Zigbee Coordinator adapters:
Stability is technically no differece between ZHA and Z2M as it depends on the Zigbee Coordinator application firmware which is what is maintaining the Zigbee network mesh, and not ZHA or Z2M.
So when comparing apples to apples, the Sonoff dongle will be just as stable in ZHA and Z2M if using same firmware and placed in the exact same location. Same goes if comparing ConBee in those two.
That is not subjective but a fact how the Zigbee technology works.
Agreed, though understand that reason for that is Z2M is an older project so had time to mature and grow a larger community of advanced Zigbee users which assist the project by contributing custom converters/quirks which work to translate Zigbee devices that deviate from the standard Zigbee specifcations, (which matters because if Zigbee manufacturers did not deviate from the standard Zigbee specifications then a device does not need tp be translated with a custom converter/quirk). Hopefully ZHA will also continue to gain more developers and more advanced Zigbee users to assist by contributing custom converters/quirks.
I agree that Z2M currently still have a more flexible and much more advanced interface however it is designed to be a stand-alone gateway/hub, while ZHA on the other hand is only a Zigbee solution which is natively inside Home Assistant and as such has better native integration than Z2M in Home Assistant. Hopefully ZHA will continue to gain more developers as the project grows (and hopefully being nativly integrated into Home Assistant will help speed up that growth).
PS: Again, your choice of Zigbee Coordinator also play a huge part in the experince and here it makes also a big difference in compatibility if you continiously upgrade your Zigbee Coordinato firmware or not.
Hi Hedda,
I fully agree with you, Zigbee stability is the same, controlled by HW.
Actual use of the Zigbee devices are a combination between the coordiantor and software (ZHA or Z2M), and this brings in some differences.
Like this post
and pairing process where many users report they need 2/3 tries to make it work.
Based on my experiences this works better with Z2M.
Just FYI, my experience has been that I was getting a lot of battery powered sensors dropping out using ZHA. At least two or three times a week I would have to repair one of my battery powered devices. I have since switched to z2m and I rarely have a dropout all the while using a sonoff plus stick. YMMV.
