Please help with Conbee II and Synology NAS

Configuration Zigbee
1

I have home assistant running on a Synology NAS using the fredrike+hassio install on a Docker container. I installed a Zwave stick (Zooz) the other day by downloading the drivers and installing to the NAS as a manual package install (drivers found via this post - https://khaz.me/using-a-z-wave-or-zigbee-stick-on-synology-dsm-for-use-with-homeassistant-and-docker/)

I then rebooted the NAS and added this to configuration.yaml (sticks are connected via USB hub to the NAS)

# Zwave stick
zwave:
  usb_path: /dev/ttyACM0

Rebooted and Zwave worked and was able to add devices.

I got the Conbee II stick today. Plugged it into the hub. Rebooted NAS. SSHed and confirmed it was registered as ACM1 and put into configuration.yaml:

zha:
  usb_path: /dev/ttyACM1

Restarted HA and found the Zigbee in Configuration - Integrations. Went to add a Cree Bulb and then tried a LeakSmart water sensor but neither worked.

My logs show this:

Config entry for zha not ready yet. Retrying in 5 seconds.

2:54:44 PM ā€“ config_entries.py (WARNING) - message first occurred at 2:41:33 PM and shows up 13 times

Couldnā€™t start EZSP coordinator

2:54:44 PM ā€“ Zigbee Home Automation (ERROR) - message first occurred at 2:41:33 PM and shows up 13 times

Received invalid command: zha/devices

2:42:01 PM ā€“ Home Assistant WebSocket API (ERROR) - message first occurred at 2:41:59 PM and shows up 2 times

I donā€™t think I am launching HA with a docker-compose.yaml file but donā€™t actually know that.

Looking for any help/advice on setting this up correctly

Thank you!

2

Two things, is the stick connected to a usb3? Because it canā€™t handle that. A solution is to put an extension cable between the two. Another problem could be that it is too close to other usb3 devices.

The second thing is that it is better to connect to it by the hardware id instead of the device path. You can find the hardware id on the supervisor page, system tab, hardware button. It looks like /dev/serial/by-id/usb-dresden_elektronik_ingenieurtechnik_GmbH_ConBee_II_DE2193849-if00

3

Thanks for the quick reply Frits

Forgive my stupidity but the stick is connected to a 3 port powered USB hub which is then connected to the front of the Synology machine. Those 3 ports are being used by my External USB drive for backup of the Synology, the Zwave stick and the Zigbee one. No other way to do it as the Synology only has the one USB port in front. There is another in back but used for UPC status.

My hardware ID looks like this:
serial:

/dev/ttyS2
/dev/ttyS3
/dev/ttyACM1
/dev/ttyACM0
/dev/serial/by-id/usb-0658_USBDevice_ffffffd1ffffffb2ffffffdbffffffad-if00
/dev/serial/by-id/usb-dresden_elektronik_ingenieurtechnik_GmbH_ConBee_II_DE2191790-if00
/dev/ttyS1
/dev/ttyS0

So are you saying in my configuration.yaml, instead of /dev/ttyACM1 I would put in /dev/serial/by-id/usb-dresden_elektronik_ingenieurtechnik_GmbH_ConBee_II_DE2191790-if00 ?

4

Yes! And the same thing for the Z-wave stick. Because the other paths like /dev/ttyACMx might change on reboot. And you wouldnā€™t want that.

Is the USB harddrive close to the conbee stick? (like within 30cm) Because itā€™s probably a USB3 device and conbee has trouble with that. I would buy a USB extension cable of about 1 meter and put that in between the USB hub and the conbee stick, if I were you.

5

I changed config

Also moved Conbee to the back of the Synology and far away from Zwave stick

Still not working.

I see this in /config/zigbee.dp:
ā€˜utf-8ā€™ codec canā€™t decode byte 0xd5 in position 27: invalid continuation byte

Still no luck when trying to add device - search finds nothing

6

I cannot figure this out for the life of me. The Zooz Zwave stick was so easy but this Conbee Zigbee is a royal PITAā€¦

The the drivers are installed on the NAS
I ended up plugging each of the sticks directly to the NAS
SSH shows they remain as ttyACM0 and ttyACM1

I gave up on ZHA for a bit and tried DeConz by installing a docker image and was able to access the Phoscon setup page but could not get a Zigbee light or sensor to pair no matter how many resets I performed.

I then deactivated the Deconz docker image and am now trying again with ZHA but Iā€™m sure Iā€™m missing something.

I keep looking back at the directions given here - https://khaz.me/using-a-z-wave-or-zigbee-stick-on-synology-dsm-for-use-with-homeassistant-and-docker/

However, with the install I have (Hassio in Docker) I cannot find either a docker-compose.yaml or a way to set up a run command to make sure the sticks are mapped correctly. But if the Zwave stick works, I figured the Zigbee should tooā€¦

Iā€™m hoping someone can guide me as the alternative is returning the sticks and going with SmartThings which was ridiculously easy as far as quickly pairing all Zwave and Zigbee devices. But then it went offline in the first 48 hours of ownershipā€¦

7

@eoren1 Iā€™m running a similar setup as you, Synology, fredrike package and Conbee ll.
Iā€™m not going to be much help here but can say it does work. I plugged my Conbee in, didnā€™t add anything to the config, rebooted NAS, set it all on the front end with ZHA and it just worked.

As mentioned earlier in the thread Iā€™m also linking to hardware id: /dev/serial/by-id/usb-dresden_elektronik_ingenieurtechnik_GmbH_ConBee_II_DE2152702-if00

For what itā€™s worth I have not setup docker-compose.yaml

9

Dammit - that might be more frustrating :wink:

Alright. Step by step.

  1. Plugged in exactly where/how?
  2. Did you install any drivers? Maybe Iā€™ll delete that package of driversā€¦
  3. Did you add the zha line in configuration.yaml?

Thanks!

10
  1. USB extension cable going into the back USB port on the NAS with Conbee the other end, Iā€™ve placed the Conbee away from the NAS and about a meter off the ground to prevent interference from router etc.
  2. No drivers installed, in fact no config at all at this point. I do NOT have the zha line in configuration.yaml
  3. reboot NAS (I did no config/changes of any kind on the NAS, other than plugging USB into slot :slight_smile: )
  4. Went into Supervisor > System > Hardware and Conbee had been picked up automatically as : /dev/serial/by-id/usb-dresden_elektronik_ingenieurtechnik_GmbH_ConBee_II_DE2152702-if00
  5. I ā€˜thinkā€™ at this point it was a case of Configuration > Integrations > Add ZHA (I think it only asked me for hardware address where I added the /dev/serial path from above)

Done.

I have found connecting Zigbee devices can be fun. It might take a half dozen attempts for it to be found, and each device has a different way of putting and keeping it in pairing mode. That said Iā€™m running a mix of Hue, Xiaomi, Yale and the Ikea range with about 20 devices in all. All working without issue.

1 Like
11

Thanks. Appreciate it.

I deleted the package for installing drivers and removed ZHA from configuration.yaml.

Shut down NAS and put Zwave in front and Conbee in back. Unfortunately the only USB extension I have is a USB3 hub so couldnā€™t extend outā€¦

Restarted and tried adding via Configuration - Integrations - Add ZHA
The two entries are USB device path which I copied from Supervisor (I think same as yours)
And then it asks Radio Type. The default is ezsp but I got a ā€˜unable to connect to ZHA deviceā€™. Tried with all other radio types - deconz, ti_cc, xbee and zigate but got same. Tried once more with /dev/ttyACM1 but no go eitherā€¦

I canā€™t imagine the extension cord would be the problem at this stage of just integrating with the NAS

12

Fairly sure I used deconz for radio type.

Iā€™ve not tried without a USB extension cable, but I think that could be the problem. The main Conbee site recommends using an extension cable and Iā€™ve seen multiple posts in this forum saying itā€™s required (as for why that would be the caseā€¦).

13

I think all is related to just one thing, USB3. It clearly states that on the manufacturers website and so many have suffered from this before. Solve that before putting more effort in it, because I donā€™t think anything else is your problem. The conbee is a remarkable reliable and easy to use controller. So I canā€™t imagine it being anything else besides the USB3 issue.

14

So the USB3 is out of the picture.

The conbee 2 stick is now plugged into the back of the NAS on a short (13") extension USB2 cable - found one I was using for something else.

Still no luck. Not sure if a longer cable would help but would have to order one and wait at this point. Just trying to figure out if that will really solve the issue or if Iā€™m missing something else.

15

I think there is a deeper problem. I installed the docker app marthoc/deconz and can then access the Phoscon web app but it does not show a connection between the zigbee stick and the deconz serverā€¦

Iā€™ve tried everything I can think of so far including running these:
SSH into your Synology, then:

sudo insmod /lib/modules/usbserial.ko
sudo insmod /lib/modules/ftdi_sio.ko

Running a long backup that I canā€™t interrupt so canā€™t reboot the NAS but open to other thoughts in meantime

16

Gave up. Got Phoscon to work and succeeded in adding a Cree bulb but not the LeakSmart sensor or valve.

Going back to using SmartThings where I was able to pair all of my Zwave/Zigbee devices in less than 20 minutes as well as set up an automation to close the valve if a leak detected. The sticks will go backā€¦

17

hi eoren1,
sad to hear you gave up, maybe this will help you or others.

Iā€™m using a DS218+ and had to do following to get it to work;

sudo vi /usr/local/etc/rc.d/startup.sh
#!/bin/bash
insmod /lib/modules/usbserial.ko
insmod /lib/modules/ftdi_sio.ko
ESC:qs!
chmod 755 / usr/local/etc/rc.d/startup.sh

If you donā€™t put those commands in a startup file they wonā€™t survive a reboot of the NAS.

Besides that I just copied the full id to the serial path for the USB stick, that way it will never fail if the ports are changed, that is /dev/serial/by-id/usb-dresden_elektronik_ingenieurtechnik_GmbH_ConBee_II_DE2191790-if00

This Synology only has USB3 ports and it works just fine with ZHA. One more thing you do need to use a long cable for the stick, directly plugging it in was not working eg not connecting to ZHA.

18

Thanks for the info GH2user

Zwave was super easy and stable but Zigbee just seemed so ā€˜needyā€™ (canā€™t think of a better term) that I lots faith in it as my one link to prevent any potential flood in the house.

With Phoscon/Deconz failing to connect to the LeakSmart Valve or Sensor, I also wasnā€™t sure if ZHA would be successful.

I still canā€™t decide if the Zigbee stick needs a long USB2 extension or just any USB2 extension to overcome the limitation of being plugged in the Synologyā€™s USB 3 port. If the makers of Conbee had any sense, they would include an appropriately sized cable with the device.

19

@eoren1
the above code is as follows;
command : sudo ā€¦ will start the texteditor on the synology (called vi) and open the file startup.sh
now you will be in the text editor and you type the next lines
#ā€¦ is a remark to tell you what it is
insmod are the commands to perform on startup
then you have to exit the editor by pressing the ESC key
then you quit and save the file by typing :qs! folowed by ENTER key

finally you have to set the premissions on this file by typing hte chmod command.

so I put the ESC part a bit unclear and you just typed that but it is the Escape key.
let us know if that works now.

20

Thanks for the info and for guiding me through this GH2user

Sorry to be an idiot (again) but here is where I am at (stuck again)

Iā€™m on a Mac using Terminal to SSH into the DS918+
Open Terminal and type ssh user@IP
PW - entered
user@synology:/$ sudo -I
PW - entered
root@synology:~# sudo vi /usr/local/etc/rc.d/startup.sh

Once I do that, the above lines move up and I have a screen with ~ running vertically on the left side
At the bottom it says ā€œ/usr/local/etc/rc.d/startup.shā€ [New File]

Now, if I start typing #, I get at the bottom:
E348: No string under cursor and on right side of that warning I see 0,0-1 and then All

And if I then click any keys I get a dull ding sound and nothing happens.
I randomly clicked f, then d and saw them at bottom and then s and bottom text changed from error to:
ā€“ INSERT ā€“ then 1,1 All

I then copy/paste the next three lines:
#!/bin/bash
insmod /lib/modules/usbserial.ko
insmod /lib/modules/ftdi_sio.ko

But then when I click the escape key and then :qs! I get another error:
E492: Not an editor command: qs!

Not sure if this is because I am using Terminal on a Mac but imagine the commands should be the same.

I Googled and found :q alone might be the answer?
I tried that and got:
E37: No write since last change (add ! to override)

So is it :q! alone on Mac Terminal?

Thanks again for the help and any further guidance you can offer.

21

I never used vi either and had to look on the turorials in the internet.
You might indeed have to start with the letter i to go into insert mode once the new file is created.

saving
It seems the command is :wq! for saving (write) and quit without complaining we add the !

sorry for this

VI Editing commands

  • i - Insert at cursor (goes into insert mode)

  • a - Write after cursor (goes into insert mode)

  • A - Write at the end of line (goes into insert mode)

  • ESC - Terminate insert mode

  • u - Undo last change

  • U - Undo all changes to the entire line

  • o - Open a new line (goes into insert mode)

  • x - Delete character at the cursor

  • Shift+zz - Save the file and quit

  • :w - Save the file but keep it open

  • :q - Quit without saving

  • :wq - Save the file and quit