Problem: my aqara contact sensor is connected to the zigbee2mqtt coordinator that’s super far with very weak signal (LQI <5). I want it to connect to the much closer Aqara smart plower plug which is visible in my zigbee2mqtt network and has incredibly powerful connection to the coordinator.
Context
both the contact sensor and the smart plug are paired with HA via zigbee2mqtt
I’ve tried removing the contact sensor from the Z2M and then entering pair mode after permitting to join only via the smart plug but it refuses to pair.
I’ve successfully and easily re-paired it with the Coordinator (I do need to have it extremely close to it).
I’ve tried removing the battery on the sensor and keep the reset button clicked while inserting it but it’s made no difference
I’m pretty lost. I have other contact sensor which are paired to smart plugs from like a year ago but for some reason any new aqara sensor refuses to pair to smart plugs. I had the same issue with a vibrating sensor.
I’ve also tried the sonoff lite s31 (?) power plug with the same issue.
Pretty lost. I wonder if it’s some kind of semi recent Zigbee2MQTT changes maybe…
Have you tried powering off the unwanted router during pairing? Maybe there is a working alternative you did not consider. In my experience it is next to i possible to predict which path is best based on location alone.
Z2M has a special feature that can put individual routers in pairing mode only, not all of them. I can force only the one i want to work. I know this because I can no longer pair the sensor to the coordinator
I know it’s not the case anyway because it’s not like the sensor is pairing to anything else
In general, I would agree but with these ultra low-power battery aqara devices they are extremely sticky and do not look for bettter routes (prob to conserve power dunno).
They will stay paired forever to whatever they got paired with originally.
I also normally would agree to leave them alone but I’m experiencing occasional failure to detect the open window this sensor is on, which is what caused me to look at the connection strength in the first place.
BTW Z2M has a fantastic network visualization tool as well, it’s very good to show you the health of your network and exactly how things are connected. I’ve found the map to be very stable upon multiple generations.
So ya, I kind of need to solve this problem because it IS a problem :).
Which version of the Aqara sensor are you using? I’ve found the old versions you get from AliExpress don’t like to be paired to some routers and will disconnect after a while and connect to the main coordinater even though it’s a weaker signal. The newer T1 sensors don’t seem to have the same issue though, at least in my case. And when they have a weak connection, the battery drains really fast.
What I typically do is put z2m and the sensor in pairing mode, but don’t remove it from z2m. This always fixes the issue of the sensor sticking to a particular router as it’s forced to find a better one.
FWIW, I only have to do this after major changes to my network, like replacing or moving a router device.
I have 12 MCCGQ11LM’s (same firmware as yours) and never have any issues with them other than for the aforementioned reason.
This is what I tried first (ie no explicit removal from Z2M) and it didn’t work.
It’s really odd because I have identical model/firmware contact sensors successfully paired to other aqara smart plug in other rooms (identical model/firmware), but for certain contact sensors pairing them to certain smart plugs doesn’t work.
Ok the ONLY thing I hadn’t attempted is factory resetting and re-adding to Z2M the aqara smart plug itself. After doing it, the contact sensor is able to pair with it easily.
Perhaps it had gotten in a weird state, not sure but all good now. This was an ordeal
