Issue with Sonoff ZBMINI-L (No Neutral) dropping

I also have these problems! I am very curious if you will find a solution. Please let us know if you received any response / solution from Sonoff!

So I’ve temporarily removed the ZBMINI-L and put an extreme in its place, and so far so good. I don’t particularly want to change the devices when it seems to be a “them problem”.

The extreme (zbmini-l2) is a much smaller, nicer unit but also pricier. It’s so far got an uptime over 6 days which is longer than the ZBMINI-L would do at all.

1 Like

So I’ve pointed Sonoff to this thread again, i didn’t realise amazon had been stripping the links from our conversation after messages had sent.

Theyr’e asking me to check that i’m on the latest firmware, and asked for behaviour of the unit when it stops responding. From memory the LED was solid red in that instance but it’s been a while since I bothered opening up the switch to look again. I don’t have one wired in currently so need to put one back in for further testing.

If you can answer the firmware version / any LEDs on question i’ll relay it if they don’t respond here.

I did the same thing @Matt_2k34 and replaced with the new model and it has been working fine for 2 weeks.

Thanks for confirming :slight_smile: it’s a shame, I don’t want to have to replace the zbmini-L I feel like they should be able to get this working.(especially with the extremes being more expensive)

1 Like

Ugh, I wish I’d seen this thread before buying the ZBMINI-L.

Any updates since this thread? Has everyone converted to the new switches? Do they remain connected?

What I find curious is that the Zigbee light goes off when I turn off the light. I then have to turn on the switch to reconnect it. :frowning:

Just a thought: Maybe it’ll be interesting to connect it to a heavier load. Maybe it could then draw parasitic power more easily so it might maintain it’s connection? Or would this not be any possibility at all?

Anyone that has found a solution here? Mine worked for about a month or some, and then suddenly started to drop off every few days. It doesn’t reconnect when I flip the light switch, I have to reset it by pushing the button on the ZBMINI-L itself for at least 5 seconds or more. Then it will reconnect again. The problem is that I have to remove the light switch plating before I can get access with a screw driver to push the switch on the device to reset the connection. This is really a bad product……., anyone knowing an alternative solution of roughly the same dimensions?

The extreme version is smaller and is reliable, at least in my usage.

Were not saying reset it using the light switch. We’re saying turn off the mains breaker to ‘reboot’ the device is the quickest recovery without disassembling.

Makes no difference regardless of load

This sounds more like it’s wired wrong and you’re cutting the power to the unit when you turn off the light. If I’m understanding your description correctly.

Annoyingly I’ve spent so long trying to get them sorted - and across different properties, I believe I’ve misplaced at least one unit. Annoying as Sonoff has said I can return them. :frowning:

Nope, I checked that.

Elsewhere I see the first version doesn’t work, so I have bought some of the latest version.

I appear to be having the same kind of problem.
The Zbmini-L’s I have (3) are leave the zigbee network about 40 seconds after they got discovered, sometimes they rejoin again and repeat the process for some time.
The green light keeps blinking when the Zigbee coordinator tells me the device is ready for usage.

I also just bought 5 ZBMini-L2 extreme device and 3 out of 5 show the same behaviour. One of the two correctly functioning switches also had the incorrect behaviour but somehow started behaving as expected…

I wired them correctly and even made a test setup to be able to create an environment where the devices are within 3 meters of the controller, but the same behaviour happens there…

The normal ZBMini’s I have do function correctly…

I have the same problem with zbmini-L2, after a period Of Time (1 por 2 days), the devices getting disconnected Of HA, anyone could recomend a better zigbee device that I don’t have to reconfigure in a large period Of time?

I don’t know any other Zigbee switches that don’t need a neutral wire.
There probably is something wrong in the functionality for joining a Zigbee network, but somehow it appears to be possible to get around this (hence 2 of the 5 ZBMini-L2 devices working for me) Unfortunately I don’t know what happened that those 2 do function correctly…

So an update from me:
The ZBMINI Extreme (L2’s) have been perfect for me. My long standing discussion with Sonoff has resulted in them sending me 5 replacement extremes for my 5 ZBMINI-L’s at no additional cost.

For those struggling with the extremes:

  • Do you have them with a high enough wattage on? (e.g. adding a bypass might help your situation)
  • Does the device lose power and stop responding (e.g. if you open the switch and press the button, does the relay activate?)
  • Does the device connect to your coordinator or does it connect via another
  • Are firmware on your coordinator, and sonoff devices up to date, and running latest Zigbee2Mqtt/ZHA? - There’s another thread around the devices falling off network here → Sonoff ZigBee devices always falling off the network - what can I do? - #35 by Marcel1

Although I don’t know of other zigbee devices, I also dropped in a Shelly with a neutral bypass and that works perfectly.

What I would say though with the extremes is be very delicate with the button on the unit. they’re held in basically with 2 very, very small solder contact points and my test unit that i’ve moved around between circuits - I’ve managed to rip the switch off the board which looks like it’ll be an absolute mission to re-solder.

edit: to be clear I’ve had an extreme in for over a month (about 6/7 weeks?) with no issues whatsoever, where a regular zbmini couldn’t do 7 days.

Having broken a switch on one, i’d pop the top off the extreme (pry in the sides, they’re just clipped on) and check the switch. Before my switch failed/fell off I was getting intermittent power to the device.

Mine just started to disconnect every 2 days. It had been working fine for a year. I think it’s just “too old”, gonna throw it in trash…

Has this been fixed somehow? I have mine do the same thing… keep disconnecting.