For several frustrating weeks I have been trying to create a reliable Zigbee network.
I have around 200 Zigbee devices (most Philips Hue bulbs) on a single floor. 95% are main powered and 5 IKEA repeaters spread around the house. Nevertheless, commands are often not arriving.
Currently, all devices are connected to SkyConnect (on a well-shielded USB cable far away from all sources of interference, USB 2.0, in the center of the house, channel away from WiFi 2.4 channels). I have tried ZHA and Zigbee2MQTT - currently Z2M.
Other users with many devices reported that they have solved these problems by splitting the network between 2 or more coordinators. So this is my last attempt before I have to go back to my 4 Hue Bridges.
But Iām having trouble getting the different Zigbee2MQTT instances to work.
My plan is to have 4 LAN coordinators (CC2652) distributed in the house with Zigbee2MQTT and one LAN coordinator (EFR32) with ZHA for the outdoor devices.
In the first step, I installed the add-on a second time (with / at the end of the URL). So in the end I could install two Z2M Standard Add-ons and two Z2M Edge Add-ons.
Then I initially configured first the EFR32 coordinator:
data_path: /config/zigbee2mqtt_5
socat:
enabled: false
master: pty,raw,echo=0,link=/tmp/ttyZ2M,mode=777
slave: tcp-listen:8490,keepalive,nodelay,reuseaddr,keepidle=1,keepintvl=1,keepcnt=5
options: "-d -d"
log: false
mqtt: {}
serial:
port: tcp://192.168.2.195:6638
adapter: ezsp
It starts up without any problem. I then changed the Zigbee channel to 15 in the Z2M UI. 22 devices registered without any problems. All devices from both add-ons appear in the MQTT integration and can be controlled in HA - so far everything was fine.
Now the further expansion should take place and I have set up the first CC2652 LAN Coordinator in the first Z2M Edge add-on:
data_path: /config/zigbee2mqtt_3
socat:
enabled: false
master: pty,raw,echo=0,link=/tmp/ttyZ2M,mode=777
slave: tcp-listen:8493,keepalive,nodelay,reuseaddr,keepidle=1,keepintvl=1,keepcnt=5
options: "-d -d"
log: false
mqtt:
base_topic: zigbee2mqtt_3
server: mqtt://localhost:1883
serial:
port: tcp://192.168.2.193:6638
It has not started in the Info tab, and the log does not show more than the first 3 lines āStarting ā¦ā. The UI is also not available.
The main problem is that all 200 devices of the first add-on, to which all devices in the house are currently connected, have disappeared from the MQTT integration. They are still visible in the Z2M UI and can still be operated via it. I think I remember the Z2M configuration.yaml no longer has any devices.
Since we can no longer sit here in the dark, I had to import a full HA backup (takes 2 hours).
Unfortunately, I donāt understand Z2M and MQTT broker deeply enough. I suspect that this is where the various add-ons interfere. But I have changed the data_path.
Any help is very welcome. I donāt want to give up the self host approach and use the Hue Bridges again.
. There are millions of solid and performant zigbee lighting setups around the world based on Hue Hubs (and many to your scale), no reason you should not be one of them.
with your significant other and success with your home automation adventure!
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