deConz and trådfri not playing well together

Configuration Zigbee
1

I’m a new HA user since about a week. I’ve hade Ikea trådfri gateway, remotes and lights at home for a few years and thought that removing the gateway and connecting all the devices/entities to a a conbee II usb stick would be a good idea. It was a lot of hassle getting it all set up. When I thought I had succeeded then the devices lost connections and needed to be reconfigured. After a few days I was annoyed and reverted back to the trådfri gateway and also removed the conbee stick and ZHA integration.

I now have lots of questions going forward. Is it wise to use the stick for other zigbee devices? Will it work side by side with trådfri or will they interfere with each other? Is zigbee itself error prone or is the integration with trådfri problematic? Or maybe my conbee stick / HA integration was misconfigured.

I’m planning on replacing wall switches with dimmers and adding some switches so I can control outlets. Any suggestions for products (I’m in Sweden) that work well with a conbee II?

2

I used a conbee stick with deconz for a long time with no issues.

A couple of things to try:

  • Use a USB extender cable with the conbee stick (doesn’t have to be long, between 30cm and 1m).
  • Make sure you pair the bulbs before any battery powered devices.
  • Plan your WiFi and Zigbee channels so they don’t interfere with eachother - here is a good article on the subject: ZigBee and Wi-Fi Coexistence | MetaGeek.

As far as running them together - that shouldn’t be an issue as long as they aren’t on the same zigbee channel. I would suggest pairing a couple of bulbs to your conbee (the ones closest to the controller) and giving that a go and then slowly moving more over.

1 Like
3

Thanks. The trådfri integration has been working fine so I think I’ll just keep the trådfri gateway for the Ikea stuff and use the conbee for new, non-ikea devices. Looking to add stuff like this:

Anyone with experience with these?

4

Hi Robert,
like apmillen I use a Conbee and Deconz for a long time with almost no issues. Actually I had more problems with the trådfri gateway, so I sold it as soon the first bulbs have been paired with the Conbee.

My problem have been interfering channels (bulbs lost connections every two weeks or so) which even an extender cable (of course) didn’t solve.
I followed the hints in the link provided and by now running it on its own Raspberry without an extender cable, I’m able to pair devices in my office at the first floor while the Conbee is at the second floor opposite side of the house. Means the signal has to go 10m through one wall and a floor.

In total I cover three floors each 70m² without a problem, mainly with trådfri bulbs and seven motion sensors (more to come next week :wink: ) but also eMylo water leak sensors and Aqara thermometers.

1 Like