I’m a long time home automation user who started out years ago with a Smartthings Hub, migrated to Hubitat for several years, and now considering moving to Home Assistant. I’ve created the following to test out HA:
- Raspberry Pi 5 device with SSD Card, installed latest version of HA as the OS (2025.1.2)
- Installed Sonoff 3.0 Zigbee USB Dongle (which I’ve attached to a non-USB 3.0 port using a 2 ft extension cable to avoid any interference)
- Migrated most of my Zigbee devices which includes light bulbs, wall switches, smart outlets, door sensors, water sensors, door lock
In total I have 40 devices connected to HA, scattered on two floors of my house. The mains powered devices (i.e., wall switches, smart outlets) should act as Zigbee repeaters. All of my devices seemed to worked reliably with the previous Hubitat setup, where I would not have any disconnected devices to deal with. HA is using channel 25 for Zigbee and Hubitat (which is still active) is using channel 20.
I did update the firmware on the Sonoff Zigbee Dongle to the latest version available (7.4.4.0 build 0) )which I got from the Silicon Labs Github repository. It should be the standard Zigbee only (no Multiprotocol all-on).
So far after running this system for 3 days I’ve really liked HA, however, I want to make sure the system is very stable before I fully commit to HA. I have noticed about 3 times now the Zigbee devices seem unresponsive and the only way to fix it is to reboot HA. For example, I woke up this morning and was able to turn on my office light but about one hour later none of my Zigbee devices were accessible. I had to reboot HA to get it working again.
Can anyone offer some advice on what I could check to see if I have a hardware or software problem? I suspect it might be something configured with my Sonoff Zigbee dongle (because I flashed it earlier), but I’m such a newbie I don’t know.
Thanks for any advice you can give me.
You seem to have covered your bases and followed best practices - great job!
Regarding your issues, it’s hard to say at this point. Best place to start is Settings > System > Logs if you’re using ZHA. If nothing turns up in the logs, maybe enable debug logging in ZHA config.
Also, I know it’s on a different channel and all that, but is there a way you can disable the Hubitat zigbee radio while you test stability?
Also, I know it’s on a different channel and all that, but is there a way you can disable the Hubitat zigbee radio while you test stability?
Thanks for your response. I actually disabled the Zigbee transmitter on my Hubitat hub early this morning, so we’ll see if that affects the performance. Thanks for the suggestion.
One thing I noticed is that the last time the Zigbee dongle seemed to have stopped working was when I clicked on the button in HA to update the firmware on my Zigbee moisture sensor. I just tried that again when it showed up for my other moisture sensor and the same issue popped up afterwards. So, maybe this is what’s causing the Zigbee problem? A reboot after this seems to fix the issue.
The fact it happened twice seems to suggest that’s the cause of this problem indeed. Zigbee OTA updates are known to be quite slow and the update itself could be causing congestion on your network, especially if your sensor isn’t connected directly to the coordinator or if it’s sleeping.
Here’s what I would do, in order:
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Ensure that you’re only updating one device at a time. I’ve seen frequent reports that the zigbee mesh would get congested when multiple updates are done simultaneously.
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Bring your sensor closer to the coordinator, and make sure the sensor isn’t sleeping by pressing the pairing button briefly on it (or triggering the contacts). Do this immediately before clicking the update button, as well as periodically every few minutes until the update completes. Pop in a fresh battery too, just in case.
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If you have “chatty” devices like mmwave sensors or power plugs which report power frequently, disable them temporarily. They might also be causing some congestion on your network which then gets locked up when the update data is added to the mix.
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If all else fails and only this sensor causes the crash, ask yourself whether you’re happy with its current performance and whether you really need to update it. Otherwise, just go to the device page for the mosture sensor and disable the update entity on it.
Thanks for your comments an suggestions. It seems that updating the firmware on a Zigbee device is what’s causing the Zigbee communication problem. I’ve tried updating a Third Reality Smartplug and after about 25% it stops and Zigbee stops working. I have to do a HA restart to get things working again.
As you’ve pointed out, I should probably skip these updates if the devices are working correctly.
At this point, my real concern is to make sure all of my hardware and devices are running properly under HA. I’m still in evaluation mode for this system, and I want to make sure everything is stable and HA runs reliably for my home automation. I’ve got my fingers crossed that I can switch to HA as I really like the system compared to Hubitat!
Honestly, whenever you feel the urge to upgrade any device, just refer to point 4 in my previous post.
I can count on one hand (and still have plenty of fingers left) the instances where I actually needed to update a manufacturer’s firmware. If the device works fine and I’m happy with it, I just ignore the updates.
As a fallback in case you really need to update, please do check out my third point. I suspect something very chatty is on your network, and the update is the last straw.
Another vote for ignoring firmware updates unless they add something you need. They break more than they fix most times.