Hello, Hopefully this is the right channel for help. I just setup home assistant. So very new to every thing. I’ve been following a guide to get it setup. In the video it shows to add any zigbee devices using the conbee 2 stick, you just add it with add integrations and add zigbee device. In my research i saw / bought a aqara motion sensor. I tried to pair it that way but it wouldn’t come up. I’ve found older videos that show i need to use deCONZ with aqara. in the video they just add it. but in the new version when adding deCONZ its asking for a name and port before I can add the software. And nothing i type seems to work. I’m also going without a aqara hub as from what I read, my pi is the hub. Any help would be appreciated.
Hi, welcome to the forum.
Is your conbee working ATM?
Which zigbee integration did you install?
What is your HA installation type? (Under System → Repairs → 3 dots → System information)
Hi nick, To make it easier I’ve recorded my screen.
Video
Youtube guide
The second guide I was looking at
Hi David, first thing to do is make your Conbee stick (coordinator) work.
You have to decide which of the 3 integrations (ZHA, deCONZ, zigbee2mqtt) you will use, and this can be a little difficult because all of them have pros and cons.
Some devices (sensors, lights) work with one but not with the other and same goes for the stick (coordinator).
I have used a Conbee with deCONZ but it was installed on another system because at that time when I started with zigbee, I couldn’t get the coordinator to work.
Since a few months I switched to a Sonoff coordinator with zigbee2mqtt (z2m is the most technical challenging one)
So you are using a RPi (Raspberry Pi): did you plug the coordinator directly into a port from the RPi?
If so, this is to avoid since the radios from the RPi will affect your zigbee stability.
You need to use a USB2 extension cable and plug that in a USB2 port.
I strongly advice you to read this topic: Guide for Zigbee interference avoidance and network range/coverage optimization
Under Settings → System → Hardware → All Hardware you should see the Conbee.
Also check your logs to see if there is anything regarding the device.
You also will have issues by installing/configuring 2 different integrations for zigbee.
Also this: the Conbee is strongly linked to deCONZ (same company) but depending on the firmware version it can work with other software.
Don’t update the FW to soon!
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Personally, I recommend going with either the ZHA integration or Zigbee2MQTT over deCONZ/Phoscon, but the best is to first try to learn about all of those as well as read up on the differences between them:
https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zha
https://www.phoscon.de/en/conbee2/software#deconz
If decide to use ZHA or Zigbee2MQTT and not deCONZ then recommend “Sonoff ZBDongle-P” instead:
Note that there “Sonoff ZBDongle-E” variant that still only has experimental support in Zigbee2MQTT:
Only thing not yet supported with ConBee in ZHA and Zigbee2MQTT is joining devices via install code:
If however you want the option to use deCONZ then your only option is to buy a ConBee II (2) dongle.
While that might hold true for future firmware updates I believe that the latest versions of ZHA, Zigbee2MQTT, and deCONZ all fully support latest firmware release of the deconz firmware.
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Hi Hedda, thanks for adding your knowledge to this!
My personal preference is also zigbee2mqtt since I have discovered/installed it.
Using deCONZ with a Conbee II was not that bad but I had to order some things and ordered a sonoff P dongle as well since it’s not that expensive.
I wanted to move my coordinator to my HA system anyway and to be able to do this process gradually, I chose this path (another coordinator & integration)
David already owns a Conbee II and I have seen that z2m doesn’t work with newer FW.
On top of that I think that z2m is the most challenging for HA starters but maybe I’m wrong.
Given all this, I would recommend ZHA over deCONZ for him.
@CaptainFlynn; be aware that switching integrations can be done of course but paring/configuring the devices and creating automations has to follow after that.
Automations can be reused so that part is the least effort.
It’s all a learning process but I have seen a lot of frustrations about things not going well from the first time.
Hello Thanks for everyones help. Sorry for the delay. Work was a bit crazy the past few weeks.
So taking a look at what everyone said. I’m still stuck at the same place as my same post.
I already have ZHA installed. I guess it was part of the set of the Pi. But when i try to do pairing mode of my sensors. It cant find it.
I try to install deCONZ, and it still asked me for a host name or number and a port number. Which I don’t know what info it wants.
All of that can be seen in my video.
So after posting my last message. I tried moving the USB to a different port, and then tried the USB cable. Both didn’t work. I didn’t think it was an issue as the stick was basically touching the sensors in pairing mode. After looking at articles and videos some more from other posts. I decided to delete the ZHA, and re install it. and it worked once reinstalled. No idea what changed or made it work.
I did have a lot of errors after. Where any new tab or menu would fail to load. I did a hard reboot and that seemed to fix it.
So for now my set up seems to be working. thanks for everyone’s help.
If any have recommendations on videos to set up automation. post them here. I saw one clip while back that made it node based. I think its node red from a quick google
That USB extension cord is necessary, not just to test.
You didn’t seem to have read the info behind the link I posted, did you?