Very new to home assistant, got my first install running just the other day in fact. Would really appreciate some advice on this problem I’m having that I can’t seem to resolve.
The issue I’m having is that zigbee temperature / humidity sensors paired via my Conbee 2 seem to be really unreliable.
Noted behavior:
Going from sayting ‘updated X seconds ago’ (good) to 30+ minutes - sometimes recovers
Same as above but never recovers, sticks on the same reading indefinitely (or for hours at least)
State changes to ‘unavailable’ and must be removed + re-added
Hardware
Rpi 3 b with a USB SSD
Conbee stick 2 (simply plugged into the pi on HA install boot and started working from the outset)
SONOFF SNZB-02
Aqara Temperature and Humidity Sensor (just connected this - after working initially it is now not updating already!)
Hue hub is active on the network for my hue bulbs (3 in total). It works with HA.
Software
HA 2022.10.4
I do not have deconz or anything funky installed currently on HA. I did try this and it seemed to make everything worse so I uninstalled it. I will go back to this later, it was probably that I’d missed configuration stuff.
HACS is installed. Using an integration for Tapo plugs which works nicely.
What I have tried to resolve
A number of power cycles of the sensor, remove + re-add device, restart HA
Validated that the Conbee 2 is seemingly working - I have paired a zigbee LED strip with the Conbee and it always responds to my commands
Looked into flashing the firmware of the conbee stick after having these problems, the flash command refused to run seemingly due to some nonsense on the deconz side.
I do not have the 3rd party manufacturer hubs for the sensors because my understanding of the Conbee is to sidestep the need for hubs?
Is this generally the same experience that most people have with these type of sensors? I have seen people discussing wifi sensors being more reliable. If this is the case then I’m really left wondering what the point of using a Conbee / Zigbee is if everything is going to be like this.
I have 6 of the devices and all function reliably without any issue.
Do we know the temp is actually changing? The device only reports when the temp changes, and seems to have a threshhold where some fluctuations (something a good bit less than 1 degree) are not necessarily updated.
But that doesn’t address the unavailability issues.
Have you checked the basics of Zigbee WiFi coexistance, using a extension, etc? Those tips are abundant on the forum, so won’t repeat them here (for now at least).
Some Aqara devices do not play nicely with certain routers. If the sensor is connecting via a router, try forcing a direct connection to the coordinator as a test.
Do we know the temp is actually changing? The device only reports when the temp changes
Usually whenever I check the last update was a seconds or minutes ago, so for things like temp and humidity to not change for hours seems quite unlikely, but perhaps this is something I need to consider.
My next port of call is to totally relocate the Pi / Conbee and I’ve ordered a long ‘extra shielded’ USB extension cable. Failing that I suppose more investigation into wireless channels as you’ve mentioned.
If this has fixed the issue, it could have been due to the following:
Close proximity of Pi/Conbee to wifi router
Close proximity of Pi/Conbee to hue hub
Conbee stick was being used with USB extension lead not marketed as ‘shielded’
Mixture of the above
The new setup now means that the SSD is ~90CM away from the Conbee, and with a ‘shielded’ lead.
The conbee is about ~5M away from the humidity sensor, which actually isn’t much different to before. Hopefully it will still work well with other devices that are much further away. Only time will tell
