HASSIO and Xbee S2C - Why so hard to configure?

Why is it so difficult to configure Xbee S2C with HASS.IO ?

Spent days in an attempt to get the module to work. Hours of research and trial/error with various configurations. The biggest notice was the true lack of support for Zigbee configurations.

I know my XCTU settings are correct as it see my test network device. (Via desktop).
But when connecting to HA (and seen as /dev/ttyUSB0) it still throws errors and tells me check my ZHA configuration, which I have done dozen or more times.

Z-Wave is working flawlessly. Zigbee is a nightmare.


Hass.io 0.78.0
Ubuntu 18.0.4.x


*** Note sure why the 2 spaces are not inserting for the indentions.

[quote=“WedHumpDay, post:1, topic:69463, full:true”]
Why is it so difficult to configure Xbee S2C with HASS.IO ?

Spent days in an attempt to get the module to work. Hours of research and trial/error with various configurations. The biggest notice was the true lack of support for Zigbee configurations.

I know my XCTU settings are correct as it see my test network device. (Via desktop).
But when connecting to HA (and seen as /dev/ttyUSB0) it still throws errors and tells me check my ZHA configuration, which I have done dozen or more times.

Z-Wave is working flawlessly. Zigbee is a nightmare.


Hass.io 0.78.0
Ubuntu 18.0.4.x



Error during setup of component zha

Traceback (most recent call last):

File “/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/homeassistant/setup.py”, line 145, in _async_setup_component
hass, processed_config)
File “/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/homeassistant/components/zha/init.py”, line 104, in async_setup
APPLICATION_CONTROLLER = ControllerApplication(radio, database)
File “/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/zigpy_xbee/zigbee/application.py”, line 15, in init
super().init(database_file=database_file)
File “/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/zigpy/application.py”, line 23, in init
self._dblistener = zigpy.appdb.PersistingListener(database_file, self)
File “/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/zigpy/appdb.py”, line 30, in init
detect_types=sqlite3.PARSE_DECLTYPES)
sqlite3.OperationalError: unable to open database file


Did a fresh install of everything and still not able to get Zigbee to work. (Time for other than HASS.IO?)

Yes, this is rant… But the goal is to put the truth in prospective. See lots forums asking for support but no one responds, threads closed, and when responding, its half baked response.

HA preaches about in-house automation control, but how can this be achieved if one cannot get things working.
Its almost as if a separate hub (Wink, ST, etc) has to be used to get devices managed. This falls short of the in-house automation.

Your setup is never going to work with asterisks where there should be spaces. To post your config properly please see the top of the page.

You don’t show any logs or error messages.

Perhaps leave out baudrate and leave it sort itself out.

Lastly, choice of zigbee integrations seems to generate an almost religious fervour, but zigbee2mqtt seems to be working for a lot of people.

PS I noticed this

I’ve updated my original post… Not sure why the ** were there, but I cleaned it up.

Its good to know ZHA is broken and others are seeing it as well. Neither the less, poor development and QA.

One would assume ZHA is a critical part of HA and without it, a 3rd party hub, aka: Wink/Smartthings/ect, would have to be leveraged. Which, again, is not localized as these 3rd party hubs required accounts.

Lastly, Mqtt2zigbee is not a real option here. Limited to how many devices can be added. Also, have to purchase a specific module and reprogrammed. ZHA already supports XBEE, hence the reason I went this route.

I wouldn’t say critical, not everyone uses zigbee, and there are a number of alternatives. But anyway why not contribute and report an issue on github.

So if I want to do zigbee with HASS what USB dongle should I get? I currently have zero zigbee gear but I’m thinking about picking up some lights and xiaomi stuff.

Is xbee broken? Should I cross it off the list?