Problem:
I am a novice user upgrading BGE SmartHome to Home Assistant and cannot pair ZigBee sensors to HA.
Background:
I have BGE SmartHome which has been (mostly) working since 2020 with 19 devices including smart plugs, smart bulbs, motion sensors, temperature/humidity sensors and a ZigBee gateway. The gateway is Remote Solution Co., Ltd. Smart Home Ethernet Gateway ES50A. The software is Presence from presencepro.com.
I now have Home Assistant Green with a SkyConnect. The software is Home Assistant 2023.9.2 and Operating System 10.5. I was able to manually pair the smart plugs and smart lights but not the motion and temperature/humidity sensors. The Presence app lists the sensors under the gateway so I assume the gateway is needed for them to work. I tried to connect the gateway to HA, however to do that the gateway’s instructions say to use the gateway’s QR code. Unfortunately, the QR code is no longer valid perhaps because the gateway was originally released in 2014. (https://fccid.io/TX4ES50A)
I removed the gateway and restarted the system thinking maybe the SkyConnect would automatically sense the devices but it did not.
Desired Outcome:
Use existing motion, temperature/humidity sensors with HA. If this is not possible I am open to suggestions.
@Lowell What computer/appliance are you running Home Assistant on and how exactly are you physically connecting the Home Assistant SkyConnect dongle to it? And what Zigbee gateway solution are you using with the Home Assistant SkyConnect dongle, the built-in ZHA integration or Zigbee2MQTT?
Regardless, you need to be aware Zigbee is extremely sensitive to EMF/EMI/RMI and the two most infamous sources of interference comes from Wi-Fi radios and USB 3.x ports/devices/cables so make sure you are connecting the Zigbee Coordinator via long USB extension cable and connect it to a USB 2.0 port and not a USB 3.x or USB 4.x port (so connect it via a powered USB 2.0 hub if your computer/appliance that runs Home Assistant only have USB 3.x ports).
It is quite common that a compatible Zigbee device will not pair/join due to EMF/EMI/RMI interference.
+1 to all of that, and take note that some but not all Zigbee devices will reset themself when you are entering them into pairing/joining mode if they have previously been paired/joined to an other Zigbee gateway, so do try to follow the manufacturers instructions manually factory reset that specific Zigbee device or at the very least remove it from the previous Zigbee gateway that it can connected to before (which will hopefully reset the device) before trying to pair/join it to a new Zigbee gateway.
Unclear what you meant there but you can not connect one Zigbee gateway to a other Zigbee gateway.
FYI, Zigbee devices can not be connected to two Zigbee gateways, only one, and the Home Assistant SkyConnect combined with a Zigbee gateway implementation like the ZHA integration is a gateway.
Thanks to both of you for responding! I greatly appreciate it. This is all very new to me. My initial foray into home automation in 2020 was a plug-and-play solution that did not require much thought or understanding and consequently provided only limited functionality and flexibility. I now realize there are many things to consider and you have each given me information that is helpful in my learning journey.
I have searched the web using the FCC IDs located on the sensors and found helpful information. I think the motion sensors are a lost cause; they don’t have a pairing button and specifically require the old software for pairing. The entry and temp/humidity sensors have pairing buttons but even following the directions I have not been able to get them to pair. They had lost some functionality with the old software and I am thinking it may not be worth the effort to get them to work with HA. I will look for newer sensors that are compatible with HA.
I am using the newly released Home Assistant Green with the built-in ZHA integration. The SkyConnect came with an extension cable which I am using.
Thanks for the heads-up about interference.
Thanks for that explanation. I was not sure if it was a gateway or not.
Thanks again to both of you! Before deciding to take the plunge with HA I had read that there was a strong HA community. Your responses have shown that to be very true. I hope as I learn more that I will be able to contribute something to the community.
Hedda wasn’t kidding about RF interference. There’s a video demonstration on the HA YouTube site if you’re ever bored that shows exactly how fast and aggregious the problem can get.
Theres tons of people to help on all kinds of tech.
As yo those sensors. Yeah sounds like they were proprietary-ish. I’d bet with your setup you look at zigbee sensors. Remember zigbee is a mesh network but newbies forget only line powered nodes are repeaters. So when you do those sensors… If they’re farther from your Green than say 30’ (~8m) you’ll also want to consider some devices that repeat… Oh darn, more switches.
FYI, unfortunately, there is no standard method/process for factory resetting a Zigbee device nor a standard method/process for putting a Zigbee device into pairing/joining mode. Many manufacturers have their own unique way, and not all devices have buttons (some for example require you to power them off and on a specific number of times in a precise and timed manor, and some others will simply always go into pairing/joining mode for a few seconds every time you manually power-cycle them as in removing the battery), and many manufacturers even differ in their methods/processes from model to model of devices. You really need to read and follow the manufacturer instructions for every device or try to find someone online that have posted how to do it for that specific device model (you can seach on the device name and model here, on Discord, or Reddit).
My advice for getting started with the best experince is to buy a few dedicated Zigbee Router devices like the IKEA Trådfri Signal Repeater to act as the (stable) backbone of your Zigbee network mesh.
