How to debug weird device issues?

Dear fellow HA users.

Since about two months I’m running my first HA installation, and while I generally like HA very much and still believe it’s exactly what I need, I’m more and more frustrated with Zigbee “runtime issues” I’m unable to debug myself, simply because I’m a novice and don’t know how exactly to tackle it. :frowning:

I’m using the latest HA Core 2025.1.4, running under Ubuntu Server 24.04.1 LTS in a “Home Assistant Supervised” setup on an old Dell Latitude D630 laptop with a Intel Core2 Duo CPU T7250 @ 2.00GHz (usually >90% idle) and 3 GB of RAM (only 1 GB used by processes). As a Zigbee gateway I’m using an SMlight SLZB-06M (core firmware version: v2.7.1 (latest stable), Zigbee coordinator firmware Revision: 20241127 (latest)) connected via ethernet, running on Zigbee channel 25.

The issues I’m having are the following (in order of decreasing priority):

  • A particular Osram Smart+ plug (mfr/model OSRAM Plug 01) is acting up in that it very briefly “flicks on and off” for a fraction of a second every 10-30 mins or so (nothing in the logbook about it). This is annoying, as it causes the lamp connected to it to “flash” briefly, which on the long term may be a threat to the lamp itself, but also to the plug.
  • Several Zigbee devices (not just end-devices, but also routers) often drop off of the network for several hours, until they eventually come back. This is very surprising, as I have many repeaters deployed all over my house, so it’s very hard to imagine there is any area with a “weak” Zigbee network. (I have 4 floors, cellar, ground floor/basement, 1st floor, roof, and on every floor I have multiple repeaters all across the place, namely OSRAM Smart+ switches, Sercomm/Samsung SmartThings sirens, and Tuya TS011F plugs)
  • One samjin.multi2 (SmartThings multi-purpose sensor GP-U999SJVLAEA) doesn’t update it’s temperature reading (but LQI and RSSI are continuously being updated!)
  • One Aqara humidity/pressure/temp sensor (mfr/model LUMI lumi.weather) reports just a single sensor value (pressure, in a continuous way!), and the others are shown as “unknown” (see this post of mine for more details)

I would be extremely grateful if someone could direct me how to approach these problems. Pointing me at certain HA documentation pages is fine, but please make it specific enough and don’t just say “read the docs.”

I’m happy that I made the move away from SmartThings after so many years and don’t want to go back – please help me stay.

Thank you in advance.

Best,

Ralf

I do not use Zigbee but our Community Guides have some information that may help. Have a look here at the Zigbee Section: The Home Assistant Cookbook - Index

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@MaxK Hi Mark, many thanks for your response.

This is a great collection of valuable resources, so it took me quite a while to “digest” everything. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really help me with any of my above mentioned problems. :frowning:

I’ve done my own research meanwhile, and regarding the “flickering” or “flashing” Osram Smart+ plug (mfr/model OSRAM Plug 01) I’ve made a little bit of progress. I’ve found out that every time the relay clicks I can see an event like this in the ZHA debug log. So the plug is “joining” the network again – no idea why that happens?! And due to that joining it seems to briefly “flash” its relay on and off again… :frowning:

Sorry that the resources didn’t help. And I’m sorry that I can’t help with the debug log you provided. I would suggest either following the Zigbee integration Troubleshooting steps, contacting the device manufacturer, and/or, logging an issue on GitHub.

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These types of issue sound like there might be some dodgy router(s) on your network as they are widespread. Look for a pattern in terms of where these devices are connected to routers. Its hard because sometimes they connect to a router that is farther away than you might think. It could be that a whole brand is causing trouble or it could be a single device.

I had a router that was buggy but I never quite worked out an efficient way to trace it. All I know is that its no longer on my network and its the most stable it has even been ! It took me a few days to become suspicious of this router but I didnt have accurate data.

My symptoms were kinda similar - temperature sensors stopping sending updates etc.

Oh and some of my smart plugs are routers (which I would love to be able to configure off) so could be related.

No worries, I appreciate your willingness to help, and thanks for the link to the “troubleshooting” section. Will definitely check it out!