Dear all,
I am on Yellow ZHA and experiencing real trouble with some of my Hue motion sensors (SML003 / SML004): After a while (typically a day or two) they become unavailable.
I tried many of the things proposed in various forums (here, Reddit, etc.) already without success. I am close to becoming really desperate and giving up. But before I want to try to find some help here.
Let me quickly wrap up from where I am coming and what I tried already.
Background
I am a Philips Hue user with 66 lights (many E27 bulbs + various GU10 lights), 14 motion sensors (all SML003/SML004), 8 dimmers (all RWL021). For multiple years, I had two Philips Hue bridges: One on the ground floor, one upper floor. The balance between these two zigbee networks was approx. 50% to 50%. This setup was working quite well with the Hue integration in Home Assistant. No problems with network coverage or any connection issues of devices.
In December 2024 I integrated a Zigbee RFID Keypad panel (Frient KEPZB-110). And because this was not possible with the Hue bridges, I activated ZHA in my Home Assistant Yellow.
Since that time - and that could be only a correlation and must not be the cause - I experience, that some of my SML003 and one SML004 motion sensors falling off their Hue bridge.
In January 2025 I consolidated all Zigbee devices on HA Yellow/ZHA and turned the Hue bridges off, because I feared that three Zigbee networks would be a bit two much and that interference could come into play.
Problem summary: Having now all Zigbee devices on HA Yellow/ZHA I experience still the problem, that the state of multiple motion sensors turn to āUnavailableā after some time - typically after a day or two after I have included them in the network.
My solution is then to remove them from the ZHA integration/network and re-add them as new devices. Which is really PITA.
Surrounding
Five Unify access points sending out 2,4GHz and 5GHz WiFi networks
One Z-Wave bridge (Thinka) with 16 main and battery powered devices
Netatmo Weather Station (internally) with three sensors (externally)
21 Meross WiFi power outlets to switching and measuring power consumption
Remark: In this surrounding all Zigbee devices were working fine on the two Hue bridges until I took HA Yellow/ZHA for the Frient keypad into operation.
Actions already taken
Consolidated all Zigbee devices on HA Yellow/ZHA: Problem still exists
Providing affected motion sensors with fresh batteries: Problem still exists
Fixed 2,4 GHz WiFi on channel 1 to avoid overlap with my ZHA Zigbee channel 20: Problem still exists
Installed three Zigbee extenders (Aeotec AEOZZGA001) across the house in areas, where motion sensors typically become unavailable: Problem still exists
The only solution I currently see is to completely rollback and reactivate the two Hue bridges, move away from HA Yellow/ZHA and deactivate the Frient keypad. This of course I want to avoid.
So, big question: Do you, does anybody have an idea what I can do?
How are the battery levels in the affected sensors? Iāve noticed with mine that they can sometimes become erratic when the batteries are < 30%, while other devices continue for longer.
I also think I read a post somewhere here about an electricity smart meter interfering with Zigbee.
Since not all motions sensors are affected, you might try swapping the problem ones with sensors from elsewhere in the house - just to establish whether the issue is with the location or the device.
Not much help, Iām afraid - the only things I can think of.
Thanks Jack.
Low battery state is something I thought about already and ruled out as the root cause: All respective sensors received fresh batteries and the problem still occurred.
Changing the affected sensors with non-affected (from other places in the house) seems like an idea, but honestly: What is the probability that four sensors (bought at different times, i.e. most likely not the same batch) start at the very same time to cause trouble because of a sensor intrinsic reason?
Anyhow, thanks for your thoughts! Any suggestion helps.
BTW: I am thinking, if ZHA could have problems with Hue motion as devices. But I am unsure how to narrow down the problem. I do not want to let debug logging activated for multiple days to capture the event when a device falls off the cliff.
Update
In the meanwhile I have undertaken the following measures:
Deactivated three Meross WiFi power outlets, which I activated in the same timeframe when the HUE Motion issues started.
Moved two of the ZigBee extenders closer to HUE motion sensors.
Re-added motion sensors to the ZigBee network at the places where they are really located rather than close to the HA Yellow (recommended as ZigBee best practice).
Result: The issue still persists.
Next (and maybe last) attempt, I will deactivate the Frient keypad, while I will leave all other ZigBee devices on HA Yellow/ZHA to see if this makes any difference, because the time of activating the Frient keypad was the time when the issues with HUE motion started.
Does anybody have further ideas about the potential root cause?
Update
I have deactivate the Frient keypad while keeping all other ZigBee devices on HA Yellow/ZHA.
Result: The issue still persists. Three HUE motion sensors have become unavailable again since this change, i.e. if the activation of the combination of HA Yellow/ZHA and Frient is the cause for the issue with the HUE motion sensors, then it is obviously not Frient, but HA Yellow/ZHA itselfā¦?
The only way to find out, if the integrated ZigBee radio of HA Yellow, respectively ZHA is the cause of the issue is to rollback to the HUE bridges and deactivate the ZigBee radio in HA Yellow.
Since I do not want to spend the remaining year with troubleshooting this issue I am now looking for time in my calendar to move back 80+ ZigBee devices from HA Yellow to Philips HUE.
OMG: I just had a final thought before giving up. Could this all be caused by ābadā batteries? I remember I have refreshed batteries in some of the HUE motion sensors around the timeframe when switching over from the HUE bridges to HA Yellow.
I just read on some forums / Reddit, that people experienced connectivity issues after replacing batteries and they could fix the issue with replacing them with a different battery brand.
Does anybody experienced issues with HUE motion sensors after inserting a fresh set of batteries?
Iāve also have the same issue. I have 3 Motions sensors, they worked fine. After moving away from the Hue Hub, because i bougth other Zigbee devices, and the batteries dying on the sensors they are very āunstableā i need to reset them every few days, then they work for a random time andd become unavailable in HA.
Before the battery changes all worked like a charmā¦ still have no clue why this is happening.
After I was checking battery voltage of my motion sensors I suspect that really bad batteries could be the cause. Fortunately, HA shows the battery voltage as an attribute of the battery entity. By that I could see, that the voltage is sometimes around 2.6V, which is quite low considering that it should be 3V.
These are Amazon Basic batteries. I assume they are too bad, i.e. that they do not keep the to-be voltage of 3V long enough and that the sensor disconnects when voltage falls below a certain threshold (e.g. 2.5V). My assumption ist, that this happens already after some days.
Until I have validated my assumption this is pure speculation. So, I have ordered now alkaline batteries and hope that I can confirm my hypothesis.
Update
I put fresh batteries in my motion sensors which tend to loose ZigBee network most (four SML003 and one SML004). The SML004 already felt off HA Yellow/ZHA less than 24 hours later. The SML003 are still connected. If only one drops off within the next couple of days, I will prepare to rollback onto Philips HUE bridge.
My Batteries just arrived, i bought rechargables so needed a charge. So far everything looks fine!
I had to remove them from the config and did a full reconfigure.
Both are SML001 sensors, i hope this helps, i will never go back to Philips Hue, and next time i buy a sensor it wonāt be a battery powered one
Yep, that looks definitely not good.
But you should consider that rechargeable batteries have a different voltage characteristics than non-rechargeable batteries. Rechargeable batteries have typically a Vmax of between 2,7V and 2,9Vā¦. So that could be the effect you see hereā¦
However, you will most likely find out how long the batteries last and decide from there if you want to continue with rechargeables.
What 2.4GHz WiFi channels and channel widths are these UniFi Access Points using? Best to manually configure the 2.4GHz WiFi channel and channel width for each AP, instead of allowing UniFi to automatically select this.
What Zigbee channel is your HA Yellowās onboard Zigbee radio using?
The best practice for Zigbee is for your 2.4GHz WiFi APs to only use channels 1, 6, and 11 with a 20MHz channel width. By doing so, this will create a few relatively clear 2.4GHz RF spaces that Zigbee can operate in without interference. Zigbee channels 15, 20, and 25 are typically the best choices.
I doubt it is a interference problem as all my other devices work just fine, also they worked fine with the original Philips battery, even on the new zigbee stick. only after the original battery died the problems occur!
My findings so farā¦
I got one sensor back up for about 4 days ( It just became unavailable again )
But i noticed the āmotion sensorā did not change itās state, it was always clear. The only sensor updating was the Occupancy sensorā¦
Although the battery usage was extreme ~9% per day it never reached below 70%
the other 2 sensors i cannot get workingā¦ they give their first status, then nothing anymoreā¦ they just become unavailable after X hours / minutes ā¦
I just came across a very interesting article on Mastodon about ZHA Source Routing:
The existence of this option is totally new to me. I have no clue if this could fix my issue or āsimplyā improves packet delivery while my core issue with sensors becoming unavailable remains.
Since I didnāt yet roll back on Hue bridges, I will give it a try and will report.
