cool, ill give that a try, ive actually moved back to 6.11.1 since 6.10.0 did not make things better
Yes
I know that many are happy that Deconz can be installed as an Addon. But when I look at this thread - we constantly see people having all sorts of problems with the Deconz software not starting up, broken releases, IP addresses that change, problems connecting to the device etc etc
I really recommend installing Deconz on its own device. A Raspberry Pi cost so little. It is the price of a couple of Hue bulbs. Even an Raspberry Pi 3 is good enough to run Deconz.
If you run Deconz on its own little box, then you have control of its IP address, you decide when to upgrade it and do not have to wait for the Addon to be updated, and you have much easier access to putting over the air upgrade files on the file system. It is also much easier to upgrade the firmware on the device. Everything becomes so convoluted in Docker. If you are not already a Docker expert, it becomes an extra layer of knowledge you have to learn and maintain.
My advice is - avoid Addons except for those directly related to Home Assistant. Visual Studio Code Addon, SSH addons and those are great.
I personally have an Intel NUC i5 machine on which I run a Debian Mate (current Long Term Service LTS release) and on that I have installed Deconz, Unifi, and Mosquitto from plain and simple debian repositories using apt.
You add the the repos for Unifi and for Deconz once and for all. And then apt install deconz and apt install unifi. Mosquitto is standard in Debian. And from then on, it is just a matter of apt update and apt upgrade to maintain it. The Debian machine has a fixed IP address so I never have to worry about that. Since I made this move, everything has been so much more stable for me.
Recently I installed ZwaveJS2MQTT on the NUC as well (with Docker as there is no easy debian apt way to install it). I think I will advice people to use the Addon way to install ZwaveJS2MQTT because the Docker thing is something I have to look up in my notes each time I want to upgrade. I hate Docker.
My Home Assistant runs on a HA Blue box and minds its own business.
TL;DR - I advice to run Deconz on its own hardware on a Debian or Ubuntu distro installed with apt.
Things are getting worse and it starts annoying me .
Situation yesterday morning: Everything was stable exept that I could not add new sensors to deConz, neither aquara nor hue. Due to the known instable connections, I decided to wait with the update until the next stable release and live with some sensors laying around here.
Then I tried to update to HA x.12.8 which failed due to another bug in another component and I had to rollback to 2021.11.5. After checking the status I detected that some aquara (and only aquara) sensors lost connection but with a button press I could reestablish all of them.
During the night, exactly these devices lost connection again. 3 motion sensors and one of two water sensors. And now it is exacly like it is when trying to add new sensors. The light flashes 3 times short, directly after that one time short again and after a few more seconds it flashes one time long. The connect fails.
So now, I’m not only able to add new sensors, I lost in addition 4 more sensors.
When I’m not able to update (which anyway gives no guarantee that the pairing will work) what option do I have to resestablish my aquara sensors again?
PS: I run deConz with a Conbee2 and HA blue with extension cable.
Hi Kenneth,
you often promoted installing deConz on a separated device in the past
And now I begin to be convinced. to follow your recommendation.
And since I have a PI3 laying around here (former HA), it becomes more logical to use that exactly for the deConz installation.
When I install deConz on that PI, do I have to pair all lights again or can I simply load the latest backup from Phoscon?
Is there an installation manual available?
PS: I found this installation guide: How to set up deCONZ and Phoscon on a Raspberry Pi and control all your ZigBee devices - Flemming’s Blog (flemmingss.com)
Thinking about that, when I import a backup into the new instance, is it possible that I import the issues as well and have the same situation then before?
I run Pi 4B with conbee 2 on a usb extension. With 6.11.1 everything was chaotic and like below things could not be paired, went offline etc etc. Had to roll back to 6.10 and re-pair some if not most devices till the mesh network stabilized…
Do you run deConz as addon in HA or dedicated on that PI?
Ah ok. So it might be indeed a good idea, to move deConz to a dedicated PI. But I’m not really sure, that it changes the basic situation. In the end, the software stays the same. The problem seem to be Phoscon and not the interface between HA and deConz. But I’m not a specialist. Maybe Kenneth can help clearing the fog.
A pi 4 b with 8 GB is a very powerful and should be the sole hardware and the brains of the smart home.
I had all my 150+ zigbee devices (conbee2) + dozens of wifi devices + whatever on Pi3B and my only limitation was the memory (1GB) .
Hass IO + conbee addon is a very clean way to run all this.
There is clearly a software issue in 6.11.1 or possible the upgrade process from 6.10 to 6.11.1 and that is what needs to be addressed.
I also moved my deconz to a separate PI; do use a PI3 and not a PI4, the USB3.0 is known to cause interference. Personally I run docker, there is guidance available on https://github.com/deconz-community/deconz-docker
You can make a back up and load this from the user interface; that should avoid repairing issues; when reloading on a new device though it may take a while to stabilize the mesh network, especially routers and end points on the edges of your mesh will take a while and may need to be “re-awoken”.
Also, when installing deconz, be mindful to use the stable version and not latest (which includes beta releases). I am on 2.13.04 which is the current stable.
Another thing to check is the firmware on your usb stick; updating this to (again the latest stable) may also improve stability - for conbee ii this is currently 26720700
I’m still running on 6.10 with 2021.12.1 on a HA Blue and have zero issues.
To me running Deconz on a separate device defeats the whole purpose of an all in one solution HA provides. So i’m with you on this. The problems several are facing are annoying but shouldn’t force us using another device. Instead the solution should be provided with the addon.
I also have the conbee 2 in an USB2 + extension cable to the PI 4
There is may be another solution, instead of deconz on another device is to try with zigbee2mqtt
The steps to move Deconz are
On current installation open the Phoscon application in the browser and create a backup. Download this backup up.
On new machine, install Deconz with the Conbee stick you moved over. Do not reset any devices and do not pair any
Now open Phoscon on the new Deconz machine and upload the backup you saved earlier. You may need to restart the machine after this.
Now you should be able to see all your old devices in Phoscon. The battery devices may need to be woken up. Not reset. Just wake them up. Remotes by clicking buttons. Sensors by activating them or short pressing their reset buttons.
Finally on the old HA machine reinstall the HA integration. You should not need to remove the integration. Just install again and because the new Deconz is a restored backup it should have same unique ID but just different IP address.
Let’s keep this thread to discussions revolving using deconz and not migrating from it.
I’ve done nearly the same, rolling back deCONZ to 6.10.0 and eventually restoring a prior core version in a futile attempt to get my network back to normal. At present, even on 6.10.0, I have devices gradually dropping from my previously stable +100 device network. No matter what I try, devices will not re-pair once dropped. Likewise, new devices will not pair. Incredibly frustrating.
I’m guessing there is a firmware issue thus going back to 6.10.0 will not work with the new firmware
I never updated to 6.11.x and have the same issue. I’m wondering, if it could help to import an old backup in order to regain the possibility to add new devices or reconnect existing ones.
I too had an issue where I was unable to add new devices. I was a firmware issue behind so I removed the conbee ii stick and flashed the new firmware via a Windows machine and I’m able to add devices again.
I’ve had this issue before and flashing the firmware fixed it then too.
I would suspect reflashing would the same version might also solve it.