ConBee II with HA on Synology DSM 7.0 (Virtual Machine)

dlan · October 31, 2022, 1:10am

Adding another post here since I was able to dig into this further and found a good solution for my setup.

So it looks like the USB extension cord was not the issue after all. Prepare for quite the read below:

I plugged my Conbee2 into the front of my DS920+ and it was found in DSM and worked. I tried to set up my sensors and switches again but the range on the Conbee2 was not able to make connection to some sensors I had about 5 feet from my Synology. This is because it’s directly plugged into the Synology and is around all of my other devices.

I then found a 4-port usb hub. This usb hub lights up blue when I connect it to a usb slot. So I connected it to the front of my Synology and inserted my Conbee2 into it. Blue light on the usb hub turned on and Synology found the Conbee2 device (in VM settings and in /dev as ttyACM0 – note: it use to be ttyAMA0 before this issue happened).

I then connected my usb hub into my extension cord I originally was using before my Conbee2 stopped registering. It lit up blue, so I plugged my Conbee2 into my usb extension cord that was connected to the usb extender. Then it worked again (hurray!). It was now found in DSM (in VM settings and in /dev) and had a good signal to connect to my sensors since it was far away from my Synology and other devices.

When I plug my Conbee2 into the usb extension cord (without a usb hub) it does not work anymore. super odd - and a weird fix - but I hope this helps someone that is in the same situation as I was.

Mr_Holle · November 1, 2022, 5:23pm

@dlan Thank you for your detailed description. This afternoon I had again a failure of Conbee II in VMM of Synology in combination with Home Assistant. The root cause was obviously a reboot of my DS1819+. After that I spent again an hour to fix it. Now my Conbee is plugged into the USB hub with an USB extension. We’ll see how long it takes for that to stop working again. Too bad, because this worked for me for a few years without any problems.

If this happens more often, I think I will buy a Raspberry Pi 4, so that this finally runs maintenance-free. No I joke, that would be a waste, because my Synology runs 24/7.

wout1976 · December 2, 2022, 9:29pm

Pair with the CONZ
Unlock your deCONZ gateway to register with Home Assistant.

Go to deCONZ system settings (Settings → Gateway → Advanced)
Press the “Unlock Gateway” button.

After that: Unable to link to the gateway.

lambu76 · December 13, 2022, 3:44pm

not getting what you are suggesting.

can you please add some additional comments ?

sajid2310 · March 23, 2023, 11:55am

I have DSM 7 on 921. I have a conbee ii connected to the Synology using a USB extension cable. I have home assistant installed in virtual manager. I had the adapter disappearing in the vm config after a HASS restart. I would then have to manually go select it in the GUI, This was pre upgrade to DSM 7, post upgrade this is very stable…Looks like the upgrade helped

thanks

Xeevis · January 11, 2024, 7:58pm

Was having problems with ConBee II dismounting from VM with restarts or when Z2M addon updated. If you are using Z2M and having these problems, solution is actually pretty simple without need to make any modifications to DSM. Just don’t mount it and use ser2net.

In DSM7 Task Schleduler create script to be run at boot as root

/sbin/modprobe cdc-acm

Create file to be mounted in docker (eg /volume1/docker/ser2net/ser2net.yaml)

connection: &con01
  accepter: tcp,20108
  connector: serialdev,/dev/ttyACM0,115200n81,nobreak,local
  options:
    kickolduser: true

Run ser2net in docker container

version: '3.8'
services:
  ser2net:
    container_name: ser2net
    image: ghcr.io/jippi/docker-ser2net
    restart: unless-stopped
    network_mode: host
    ports:
      - 20108:20108
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/ser2net/ser2net.yaml:/etc/ser2net/ser2net.yaml:ro
    devices:
      - /dev/ttyACM0

Set Zigbee2MQTT addon to use this connection

serial:
    port: tcp://<your nas IP>:20108

Or you can ditch ConBee II and use SMLIGHT SLZB-06 which has LAN/PoE connectivity.

Witteveen · February 1, 2024, 9:07pm

Having a Synology DSM 7.2.1-69057 Update 3 on a DS920+ with an ConBee II Zigbee USB dongle (Dresden Elektronik). On this Synology nas i’m running Home Assistant in the Virtual Machine manager package: 2.6.5-12202.

This virtual machine manager on which the Zigbee dongle is configured, run the HAOS virtual machine with version Core 2024.1.6, Supervisor 2023.12.1, Operating System 11.4 en Frontend 20240104.0 and Zigbee2MQTT 1.35.2-1

At random intervals (around once every 2/3 days) the Zigbee device stops working and the path /dev/serial/by-id/usb-dresden_elektronik_ingenieurtechnik_GmbH_ConBee_II_DE2288768-if00 is gone, after which (ofcourse) my zigbee devices stop working.

I currently get it working by going to the Synolgy Virtual Machine Manager, on which i remove the usb-dongle, press “ok”, add the usb-dongle and again press “ok”. I then enter Home Assistant and go to the Zigbee2MQTT addon and start it.

Is there a way to get my enviroment stable?
Or maybe some hints on how to debug this issue?
If i really should buy other hardware i also would like to know

The earlier suggested fix by installing an docker for forwarding the serial communication to network on the Synology sounds strange to me. Why would docker work and the virtual machine manager is giving met problems.

sholofly · February 2, 2024, 8:21pm

As far as I could understand this setup is not fixable in a reliable way. I switched with my Conbee to a seperate RPI with Z2M.

Xeevis · February 4, 2024, 8:19am

DSM 7 doesn’t officially support non-storage USB devices. ZigBee dongles are a legacy feature. Have you tried with /dev/ttyACM0 instead of /dev/serial/by-id?

Ser2Net is alternative route and is necessary when dongle unmounts from VM and has to be remounted manually, but may help with other mounting issues as well and is rock stable.

As far as Synology is concerned and you don’t want to deal with mounting issues, your best bet is to ditch legacy USB and switch over to LAN gateway. You can place it anywhere, doesn’t suffer from USB interference, has better antennas, OTA firmware updates and useful web UI. If you don’t need thread and stability is preferred, get CC2652P over EFR32.

https://smlight.tech/product/slzb-06/

skymarc · February 4, 2024, 1:11pm

I have HA running in a VM on a Syno NAS with DSM 7.x
exaclty the same issue, after rebooting HA (after oine of the regular updates)
I alwasy have to manually mount the Conbee Stick to my HA VM again.
But that happens, AFAIK, only when I reboot my VM or the NAS itself.

Did anyone solve that issue?

I also do’nt see the Conbee USVB stikc under /dev/ttyX
nothing nada.
Only with lsbusb I can see it,
so moving to a seperate container with Zigbee2MQTT probably also no option in moment…

Any hints, tips?

Cheers
Marcel

Xeevis · February 4, 2024, 1:25pm

skymarc · February 4, 2024, 3:36pm

Thanks for that suggestion.
But maybe I understand it wrongm,
but when I do:

sudo /sbin/modprobe cdc-acm

I stil dont see the Conbee USB adapter under:
/dev/ttyACM0

so thats why I dont understand how thta should help?
M
Marcel

skymarc · February 4, 2024, 3:38pm

For the people who have problenms with loosing the Conbeen even without Reboot
of NAS or VM, it could be connected with the Conbee Firnmware, see this thread:

[Conbee II firmware upgrade, zigbee devices offline - #2 by VDRainer)

Xeevis · February 4, 2024, 4:20pm

Might be a cdc_acm driver issue? No idea why it wouldn’t work, but I’ve seen people having different issues using DSM7 on different units. Try running it at boot as root user (not the sudoer) from Task Scheduler, that’s how it works for me.

skymarc · February 4, 2024, 5:07pm

Hey,
I tried that out,
to laod that module via Task scheduler and user root.
Still the same result, no ttyACME device
under /dev

Is the cdc_acm module driver included inn the Synology SW, or do I need to install it?
The task manager shows status interuppted, which is probaly also not correct?

Xeevis · February 4, 2024, 5:12pm

Yeah it should be Normal (0). Try to setup output log as stated in the note, it may tell us more.

skymarc · February 5, 2024, 7:51am

Morning,
stupid question, in the Synology help for setting user scripts, Synology suggest,
to provide the shell before the actuall script.
Is this in that case needed to?
I mean to setup in the task manager like this:

bash /sbin/modprobe cdc-acm

Sorry what such stupid question.

skymarc · February 5, 2024, 8:21am

I tried it out and answere my question by myself.
Correct way is like you wrote:

/sbin/modprobe cdc-acm

no bash before.
Task scheduler runs it now.

And I have now the device in /dev:

nas01:~$ ls -la /dev/ttyAC*
crw------- 1 root root 166, 0 Feb  5 10:12 /dev/ttyACM0

Hurray!
One more step close.
Now I will add Zigbee2MQTT container.
Another stupid question, its possible to have multiple zigbee2MQTT instances?
Im asking because I have in a rmeote location a Zigbee2MQTT container running on a Vyos router, which works great, so locally I can add without any problem another Zigbee2MQTT instance?

Thanks
Marcel

Witteveen · February 10, 2024, 8:01am

No, they are both gone

Ealier i was using the hue-bridge of philps, since they are a working with required cloud login i no longer want to use this. This sollution was stable and worked fine for my family.

I no longer have a stable system en from what i read, i can best get myselve an network-attachted-zigbee device like the by @Xeevis suggested SLZB-06 Zigbee Ethernet PoE LAN USB WiFi Adapter CC2652P | Zigbee2MQTT | Home Assistant | SMLIGHT | SMLIGHT Official Homepage device.

Hope that i can easily migrate the devices later.

faniskou · March 2, 2024, 7:18pm

So, i dont know why, but i have problems only if i connect the usb stick in a rear port of the synology . May you can try your luck with the front usb port.