Not if it’s working! If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it… 
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That’s fair, I get a warning every now and then that I’m in the low 90% utilisation of my network, its a concern but not a problem
So this raises another interesting point. I brought this up with the ZHA team but they had no explanation.
When I try to download the diagnostics I get an error:
When I click on the file I get
At the same time I also get a error in HA that an attempt to log in failed. That issue only happens when the devices are offline (at the very beginning this problem was more intermittent and I could download the diagnostics when everything was running fine (of course!) - but not when it was failing.
(I can’t find anything in the log )
Maybe this is related?
Also 4m = 4 metres 
Yes… On planet Zigbee that’s still quite a long way.
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I experienced this when I tried flashing my sonoff zigbee dongle with new firmware; unable to control them but they reported their state promptly when toggling state using the buttons on the plugs. Have you changed the firmware from the original? I fixed it by reverting to the original version and it came back to life.
How is the dongle connected to the Pi? (and what version Pi?)
Pi 4, 8gb, dongle connected via 1.5 m shielded USB cable. Mounted to ensure antenna orientation doesn’t change.
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I have not changed it. So it is the same version that they worked with for several months. ZHA is supposed to offer ota firmware updating capability but zha can neither find the devices firmware levels, nor the current level offered by the manufacturer.
Just curious- what other Zigbee devices does your network have and are they working just fine?
Hi
I’ve copied the table from above. This is all my zigbee devices
The motion sensors work fine. As far as I know the smoke detectors work fine (I haven’t had a fire but they do report status regularly)
There are also two battery devices - a moisture sensor for my lawn and a 4 button hand held switch. These aren’t in use over the winter so they continued to send signals or be (presumably) functional until their batteries died last fall. Any device that just sends me signals/status continues to work fine
As I understand the Zigbee protocol, devices dynamically switch between channels during communication to find the clearest channel. You are just selecting the starting channel.
Mine reliably reports when my wife is frying dinner. But never when the chimney flue is closed.
I apologize for asking you to repeat the data in post #4. I do agree with @Stiltjack in that if some devices are working through the dongle, then the dongle is unlikely to be the problem.
It just occurred to me, do you have OTA firmware updates turned on in your configuration.yaml?
I have no experience with this component, but I am wondering if during the long time unattended, automatic updates may have gotten out of sync?
Can your on-site friend take a couple of the Zigbee plugs to their Home Assistant installation to test and update them?
Not sure about this. Devices in a Zigbee network change their connections with one another dynamically, but the channel is selected in the integration. I don’t think ZHA changes channel automatically (like some wi-fi routers, say).
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That’s incorrect. The Zigbee channel is constant (much like a WiFi channel on an access point). It only changes when someone changes it on the coordinator. Otherwise, it’s a static value. Devices can choose different routers (parents) in a mesh depending on various traffic conditions (and other criteria) within the mesh. But even that is largely static as long as the router topology doesn’t change very much.
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I have also had random nightmare issues with my zigbee network but narrowed it down to interference. Moved my 2.4GHz WiFi channels to one end of the spectrum and the zigbee down to the other end (including Philips Hue). All necessary due to installing a Wiser heating system that also uses a private zigbee setup (but has no method for changing channel).
I also reduced the power of the 2.4GHz WiFi to the minimum to keep WiFi IOT devices online.
We are fortunate that we live in a relatively unpopulated area with minor WiFi interference from neighbours but I can imagine in more densely populated situations, a neighbour could have installed something new that forced your own WiFi to move to different channels that are then causing problems with your zigbee signals.
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The initial post was about finding instructions for transitioning to a new radio. While there might be underlying factors contributing to the problem, such as Wi-Fi channel conflicts, it appears that there’s been no significant change in the situation for @kenwiens and the fact that he cannot access the logs adds to the complexity. In my opinion, considering the possibility of hardware failure and the relatively low cost of this type of diagnostics and especially being somewhat remote, it seems like a reasonable course of action. At worst, it might confirm that there was no issue with the ZigBee module, leaving him with an extra one! n
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Thank you. I did enjoy watching this thread go down a variety of different directions, and did enjoy learning a few new things. In the mean time, I have ordered the replacement dongle and it should arrive by the end of the week. As you say, at worst case I have a spare.
Any thoughts on my original question as to what is involved in putting a new dongle in? Will the network need to be rebuilt or is there some magic behind that “migrate radio” button that does it all for me?
thanks,
Ken
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I have wondered about this, but less since it happened to both TR and Sengled devices. However I would like to confirm the firmware.
It’s interesting what you say about OTA and ZHA and the config.yaml entries. No where did I see any reference to this before, and even in extensive discussions with the ZHA team, they never pointed this out. How did you know about this? How did you know to even look for this?
I thought I had read everything there was about the ZHA integration - but obviously not.
I assume this is just for automatic updating though? The fact that ZHA seems unable to a) get the firmware version on the device and b) get the current firmware version level from the manufacturer - is still a different issue?
Zigbee Home Automation - Home Assistant (home-assistant.io)
I was researching to see if Zigbee updates were automated. With the intent of making sure it was NOT enabled on my system. I do not encourage auto-updates in Home Assistant. The chances of a breaking change automatically installing is too much risk for me.
I agree, especially when one is remote! At first glance I thought these lines in configuration.yaml were necessary for zha to even find the firmware version, then I reread and saw it was for auto update. Given ha can’t seem to send any commands to these devices, I couldn’t expect it to do it’s firmware upgrades.
So, forget the detour into the weeds. What about asking your on-site friend to take a couple of the Zigbee plugs to their Home Assistant installation to test and update them?