Xiaomi door/window sensors have been quite reliable for me, plus they’re cheap as well.
Ok, asking my question here since my seperate thread didn’t get any reply so far. I have HA running in a container (not hass.io) and also the deconz container from hub.docker.com. In the past I used just the standard ports, due to other apps I want to run on the same machine I changed the ports. After that I had to add
deconz:
host: 192.168.0.xxx
port: 1234
in the configuration.yaml. After that I was able to add the integration again. But now everything shows up as not available. Any idea?
Hi All
Weird thing happening. Using deconz/hassio.
Light below is being imported via deconz, but has been deleted via phoscon app. I think its an orphan. How do I remove it?
Can you share the run command or docker-compose stanza that you are using to run the container? You may be missing a required env variable.
not so stable for me for some reason - have 3 sensors - 2 of them already stopped responding within the hour after adding 
Zigbee and stability
My observations.
I am a radio engineer by profession. Keeping the Conbee away from ANY box that produces RF noise is essential. Maybe you can get away with Conbee in the USB port of a Raspberry if it is in a good metal enclosure and the metal enclosure well grounded. The latter is not trivial. We are talking 2.4 GHz. 20 mm of wire is a large coil at that frequency. So best is to use a USB extension cable so you can get the Conbee away from the Computer. I have a NUC in metal base. And I use an extension for both my Conbee and my Aeotec Zwave stick. Think about the Conbee as an antenna that needs to have best line of sight to as many devices as possible. Do not rely on the communication between your Conbee and all devices to be relayed through a light bulb near the computer.
These are the mixed experiences I have with Philips hue Hub and Conbee/Deconz
- Philips bulbs are rock solid stable on both hubs. They always turn on and off and I never loose them in the network.
- IKEA bulbs on the hue Network work most of the time. They occasionally miss a message. And one of my IKEA bulbs would hang and require that I power cycle the bulb to get it alive again. Since I moved to Deconz I have not yet seen that problem.
- IKEA power sockets hang often. I have 4. And when they hang - they all hang. Something triggers them to hang - clearly a firmware bug. Unplug and replug and they wake up again. I never plugged these to the Philips Hue so I do not know if they would have done the same with that.
- Osram power sockets are always “unavailable” on Philips Hue hub. But they work. They can occasionally get lost but very rare. They work fine on Deconz.
- Xiaomi Aqara window/door sensors work rock solid on Deconz. I have been through huge problems with Z-wave Aeotec sensors and gave up on them. Since I put the Aqara sensors I have not had a single event where I missed a open or close and they never disconnected. Xiaomi has two series. Mine are the small Aqara. I love them. Small and cheap. Their temperature sensor is not accurate but I never cared. Temperature on a Window is useless anyway.
- Philips remotes (4 button) are not reliable on Philips Hue. I made a lot of noise to Philips 2 years ago about it and they finally admitted to me that there is a known problem in their firmware so they are bad at keeping the correct route to the router. You often see a red light and have to wake them up by pressing all 4 buttons till it flashes red/green and then they normally work again. Sometimes you have to repair. On Deconz you get this problem when you pair it first time and carry it to the other room. But since I have not had red lights. I have 17 of them so it is something I notice.
- IKEA remotes work great on Deconz. They often appear as unavailable but the minute you press a button they work. Both the 5 button and the 2 buttons work. I could not pair these with Philips Hue.
Philips Hue has no feature for backing up all your configs and devices. If the Hub dies you start from scratch. Deconz can be backed up easily in the Phoscon app. That has saved me twice where I experimented and lost the database. Always back up Phoscon when you add or remove devices or change groups. And only then.
All in all I am impressed with Conbee and Deconz. But the combo needs Home Assistant to get all the advanced automation features. It is the combo that is magic.
5 Likes
Well I had the same issue before, but with the release month ago everything works like a charm.
My Setup are several Xiaomi door, temperature, Motion sensors, Osram lights and Plugs, Hue lights, Dimmer switches and Outdoor Motion sensors and ikea motion sensors.
Please have a Look on what i posted sometime ago.
Thanks Yan,
I just came home and all sensors were responding - so I will leave it for now.
If I see unresponsive sensors again, I will reset them and try the way of you described on how to add them.
Don‘t reset them (neither via software or long press). Just search for new lights and click on the button of the sensor!
I have exactly the same problem with the Xiaomi Aquara Door/Window sensors what @DieterClaeys described in post 644. When I setup the network everything is okay. I also agree with @KennethLavrsen’s post 662 that the Xiaomi Aqara window/door sensors are rock solid on Deconz once they are setup. However if at a later stage (eg few weeks later) I add more sensors to the network, they start to fall off the network one after another and I have to re-add all of them. Then the network works like charm again until the next inclusion.
I also suggest to use a quality USB extension cable (1.5m / 5 feet) and route the Deconz stick and Aeon Z-wave stick away from the Raspberry / PC, whatever. It helped me to get rid of connection problems and devices falling off the network randomly.
Here is my docker-compose.yaml:
version: "2"
services:
deconz:
image: marthoc/deconz
container_name: deconz
ports:
- 8090:8090
- 8443:8433
- 5900:5900
restart: unless-stopped
volumes:
- /opt/deconz:/root/.local/share/dresden-elektronik/deCONZ
devices:
- /dev/ttyUSB0
environment:
- DECONZ_WEB_PORT=8090
- DECONZ_WS_PORT=8443
- DECONZ_UPNP=0
- DECONZ_VNC_MODE=1
- DECONZ_VNC_PORT=5900
- DECONZ_VNC_PASSWORD=some_password
- TZ=Europe/Berlin
Looks like you have a typo in ports… 8443 is mapped to 8433. That’s the websocket port so makes sense that everything shows unavailable as the integration can’t connect to it.
Thank you! In Germany we say: Sometime you can’t see the forest because of all the trees. 
I don’t have Ikea lights and also no remotes, but I use also the Xiaomi door sensors and also the Xiaomi mulitsenors (temperature, humidity and air pressure). I had some problems adding new Xiaomi sensor to phoscon with an older version of deconz. But when they are added they are rock solid. And what is the biggest advantage for me: I have several ZigBee light link wall switches from Busch Jäger. To add them via the phoscon app worked like charm. The software walked you through to whole steps and they are integrated in the UI. Try to do that with the Hue gateway. It is just simply not possible! And even pairing the wall switch with a light was for me not possible …
Btw: is it possible to run the container with a different IP address than the host? How would the docker-compose.yaml then look like?
ok, i have bought some ikea outlet switches, firmware on it 2.0.0.19
in the VNC GUI, ota section i see a new firmware 2.0.0.22
so i select the outlet, select the OTA file, the click on “update”
the i see the queued message? and now what? when is the firmware going to be installed?
i tried restarting deconz, didnt help 
maybe offtopic , but can we also use deconz WITHOUT home assistant?
in phoscon app, you can indeed make scenes and link remotes witth lights, thats interesting
but is there also an APP for android/iphone to control lighs/switches?
There is no app but the web front end is good enough for simple operation.
Is it mobile friendly?
Yes, even it disables configurations on small screens. But nothing compared to home assistant.