There is a lack of details regarding your installation/migration process in your post so I’ll address a few points…
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Was the dongle connected via USB 2.0 or 3.0?
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The quality /integrity of a ZigBee mesh relies on the actual strength of the additional routers within the mesh. It’s not simply how far can the main coordinator broadcasts a signal.
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The mesh will continually look to improve signal strength between devices and adjusts routes to eliminate weak signals. The number of routers vs end devices plays a crucial role when evaluating mesh connectivity issues.
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You post doesn’t relay the number of devices in your mesh, current firmware on the coordinators, proximity to WIFI routers, current ZigBee channel, etc…
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I own both the Sonoff P and E as well as 4 different SMLIGHT coordinators. (To be clear, multiple coordinators are NOT necessary and were simply purchased for testing within the HA environment. )
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The SMLIGHTs are incredibly reliable in my opinion, but my decision to migrate to SMLIGHT was to take advantage of their Ethernet enable devices.
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I wouldn’t expect much improvement changing manufacturers when both devices are installed via USB.
In my opinion, this points to underlying interference issues within your Mesh setup vs your focus on unreliable Ukraine and China manufactured devices.
The SMLIGHT has no control over what integration installed on your HA system so I’d lean towards user initiated installation.
To many variable in this statement.
Yes, you can migrate from some Sonoff Dongles (the P) to SMLight, but the loss of installed devices can occur if the migration isn’t executed correctly.
This is extremely difficult to brick a Sonoff from my experience. Are you getting any lights on the dongle?
Research:
Search this forum for Hedda’s ZigBee related posts like this one. His posts are extensive and very informative.
A good link as well!