Hello all! Might be a dumb question, but hear me out please (quite new to all this). Here’s the setup:
HA on a Pi4 with the Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 dongle as the coordinator.
Aqara non-powered light switches (no neutral) and various sensors.
Couple of Tradfri wall plugs to act as repeaters.
Basically, things were working fine via the Aqara app, but the whole “getting things into HA via homekit” thing was really getting on my nerves, so I tried switching to the ConBee II but that was terrible so I tried the Sonoff and it seemed to work fine.
My issue is the following: I can easily pair Aqara devices that are near the Sonoff coordinator (at the very end of the house). The Tradfri plugs are distributed evenly across the ground floor and already have some third party AliExpress stuff connecting through them with no issues. However, if I try to pair one of the Aqara devices that are far from the Sonoff, they never get discovered. I would have assumed that “pairing packets” for the lack of a better term should be also relayed by the repeaters, but this does not seem to be the case.
What am I doing wrong? Would buying another bunch of Sonoff coordinators and reflashing them as routers work? Or would they act the same as the Ikea plugs?
Also, if you all are ever so kind, what would be the best way to carry over the work to the first floor (we build everything in concrete and cinderblock here so signal between floors is an issue). The Aqara setup had two E1 USB hubs but those coordinate among each other nicely so that was not a problem.
Would greatly appreciate the help or direction to other existing articles / topics that can help me better understand this. Thanks!!
If you’re using ZHA, it should be as simple as going to the device page of the nearest Tradfri wall plug, click 3 dots next to reconfigure, then Add devices via this device
We build that way too and I got around it by using smart bulbs for the stairway between floors to route the signal.
There are other options you could try if this is not desirable, such as smart sockets at the ends of each stairway, assuming you have sockets available.
Otherwise if all else fails, you could run a separate instance of zigbee (you’d have to use Z2MQTT for that) using a separate coordinator. You’ll end up with a zigbee mesh per floor, but that’s not really an issue with HA.
Thanks loads for the quick reply! I just tried to do that (there’s a light switch right next to the Tradfri plug) but it is just not seeing it. You think it could be because Aqara switches do not connect to the Tradfri? But that would not make sense if they can connect to a generic coordinator like the Sonoff one. I’m just confused!
Well, hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I seem to recall there’s a few posts regarding routing issues between Ikea routers & Aqara end devices. (EDIT: ran a search and didn’t come up with anything, so I could be imagining things)
Have a search through the forum to see if you can dig up anything, including any potential resolutions. I’d suggest to start here
Aqara is unfortunately junk and this is a known issue. “Supposedly” it’s been fixed on “newer” devices but when I was setting up Home Assistant pre-covid this was just an accepted fact (that I learned after I had already bought a bunch of Aqara stuff from AliExpress). They won’t pair with anything but the coordinator and they won’t change routes if you pair them first and then move them. They’re not fully zigbee compliant and I would recommend using them as you can and going with a different brand next time. Not worth the headache unless tackling problems like that is your jam.
Also not exactly on this topic, but I personally recommend Hue lighting and keeping those all on a separate mesh. Light bulbs don’t make good repeaters in a generic mesh for some reason in the best scenario. If you also consider that people will shut them off via switches sometimes, that is also a problem for a zigbee mesh. Finally, you probably don’t want all of your lights to stop working if you need to rework your coordinator or something breaks in a Z2M upgrade or something. I run 3x Phillips Hue meshes for my lighting and light switches. I run a separate mesh for everything else. It’s been working flawlessly. Well, the Hue meshes have. I’m about to repair everything on my other mesh for the 3rd time. 55 devices. Upgrading from cheap zigbee stick to SLZB-06 has not been nearly as easy or smooth as I was led to believe. Super glad I can have my Zigbee mesh down for a couple days without it being a huge inconvenience to everyone.
Can’t say I have any issues with the former. I have about 40 Aqara devices and they all work just fine (I also have about 20 IKEA devices in the network).
The latter is true to some extend: they won’t change routes initially, but at some point they do. May take quite some time so it’s usually easier to re-pair the device though.
Again, no issues with light bulbs (IKEA, INNR) in my network, they form the backbone of my mesh.
Obviously removing power from them will cause issues with your Zigbee mesh, but that’s how Zigbee works. The easiest way around that is to make sure they can’t be powered off
Do you mind helping me figure out how to achieve this? My current tentative plan is to replace some light switches with Sonff Zbmini / Zbmini Extreme, but I’m not in love with the idea (seems like a bit of a waste of money considering they’ll almost never be used). Do you put on the paddle switches then put a cover over the existing switch? How do you make sure they can’t be powered off?
Also, which Aqara devices have you had good luck with? I don’t have any bias against them and would like them to work, the price is great and the design is better than alternatives.
Most of my lights are in a separate lamp fixture that plugs into a socket, so it’s unswitched. The lamp fixtures do have an on-off switch, but that’s just always on (since our lights are managed by HA based on presence and Zigbee remotes there’s no need to turn them off manually).
Some lights are switched, but I either just tape over the switch so it can’t be switched off, or I bypass the switch entirely.
I also have some dedicated (IKEA) repeaters, which also serve as USB power supplies (always useful), and some smart switches and plugs.
As for Aqara devices that work, I have about 40 of them: PIR, contact, water leak, light, temperature/humidity/pressure.
