I’ve moved to using ZHA with HA after flashing a Sonoff Zigbee Bridge with tasmota- works well. So I’ve purchased another Sonoff Zigbee bridge , flashed it etc, just in case the first one dies.
My question is (assuming its configured to the same IP address), can I simply just swap over the units and expect everything to work? Are there any configuration parameters that would need changing or are they all stored in the ZHA configuration within HA?
I think you could just exchange them. But to be sure, you have to test it.
I’m not entirely sure but I’m pretty sure the pairing info for the devices is stored on the bridge. You’ll probably have to re-pair your devices with the new zigbee controller.
I think…
Using ZHA, the pairing info is stored in zigbee.db. I’m just not sure if the coordinator info is there too. I know using Zigbee2Mqtt you can exchange sticks as long as it is the same family (CC2531/CC2530, CC26xx or Conbee, you can’t swap sticks without re-pairing if you change family)
I didn’t know that.
I thought it was the same as zwave and was stored on the controller.
Where did you find that information?
Using Zigbee2mqtt, I changed my coordinator from a CC2531 without antenna -> CC2531 with antenna -> CC2530 + ESP01 -> CC2530 + CC2591 + ESP01, all without re-pairing. And I know for ZHA, there is a zigbee.db too, but I don’t remember in which thread I read it.
Yeah, in ZHA there is a zigbee.db but I’m not sure that stores all of the paring info, tho. It might I’m just not sure one way or the other.
As a point of comparison there is also a zwave config xml file in HA as well but all of the zwave pairing info is stored on the controller. Which is why you should be able to technically pull the stick out of the machine and pair the devices by using the pairing button on the stick itself. Then the xml file should be re-created when the stick is re-inserted. Granted, it’s not always successful and not recommended by HA but the fact that it works at all tells me that the pairing info is on the stick, not in HA itself.
I just assumed ZHA worked similarly (except for the offline pairing part).
But one question tho is that if a Conbee user switches to a different (non-HA) system that supports the use of the Conbee stick will the stick and zigbee network be useless (without re-pairing everything) unless the old zigbee.db file is transferred to the new system?
I really don’t know.
Either way it’s just academic.
To the OP, once you flash the new bridge do a test and switch to it and see if it works. Then you’ll know for sure.
That is why I said he should test it. It is not because swapping sticks works with Zigbee2Mqtt that it works with ZHA too. And I can’t test it, I only have one Sonoff ZbBridge.
So I did try to test this, however my ‘fantastic’ router wont release the IP from the primary SonoffZigbeeBridge as its got 24h lease, so I cannot allocate same one to the new unit. Couldn’t find anywhere in the ZHA setting where I can reconfigure the socket://[IP]:8888 setting, anyone know if this can be done, or though a config file?
Try giving both bridges the same fixed ip-address :
IPAddress<x> Set networking IP (XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX) addresses
IPAddress1 = set device IP address
0.0.0.0 = use dynamic IP address (DHCP)
XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX = set static IP address
IPAddress2 = set gateway IP address
IPAddress3 = set subnet mask
IPAddress4 = set DNS server IP address
follow IPAddress commands with restart 1 to apply changes
Thanks for the above advice. Set the fixed IP in the new bridge to same address, but HA greys out all the zigbee device buttons in Lovelace. They also show as unavailable in entities. Swapping back to my primary bridge, back to working state. So there must be something in the configuration tying to the hub or some config stored on the hub.
Somebody mentioned trying to re-pair them after connecting new bridge, but TBH dont want to take the risk & break a working system right now.
I wouldn’t either.
At least you know what you’re in for if you existing one dies.
Good to know switching your coordinator without re-pairing does not work with ZHA.
It actually does work, just need to overwrite the EUI64 so binding table is correct on all devices.