Why do certain lights go unavailable when other lights and switches/sensors are fine?

Configuration Zigbee
#1

OK so the title needs more context. I have a few devices which are notorious for going offline, seemingly randomly.

In the kids bedroom we have a pendant light (branded innr) which is stable whilst a Hue Bloom in the same room, feet from the pendant light, goes offline regularly and seemingly randomly.

In the bathoom I have 5 GU10 bulbs in a group and one or more bulbs randomly go unavailable and then will reappear when they feel like it.

On the same floor we also have a landing with a Ikea Tradri bulb and in the master bedroom another Innr branded bulb - so I don’t think the issue is coverage - all rooms have other Zigbee devices in them (i.e. the kids bedroom has a zigbee battery powered switch and the bathroom has multiple devices, switches, sensors etc.) further adding to the conclusion range/coverage isn’t a problem.

I’m running the latest version of HA and “rocking” a SkyConnect stick (which I think is the root of the issue as frankly it’s been rubbish since I migrated my network from z2m with a Sonoff ZB stick to ZHA and SkyConnect).

Just wondered if there’s anything I can do other than ditching the SkyConnect and/or ZHA altogether and returning to z2m.

My bathroom dashboard - all devices are Zigbee, one bulb doesn’t want to play…

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Similar story in the kids bedroom…

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#2

Interference, as well Zigbee channel choice, can still be a problem, but you also need to understand that Zigbee compatibility between different manufacturers/brands is not always that great which is why I personally recommend getting a few dedicated “know good” Zigbee Router devices. Read and follow:

https://community.home-assistant.io/t/guide-for-zigbee-interference-avoidance-and-network-range-coverage-optimization/515752

A tip is to buy a few known good dedicated Zigbee Router products and place them strategically as Zigbee repeaters. Personally, I suggest buying and adding at least three such devices to your network.

For example, the “IKEA Tradfri Signal Repeater” works very well out-of-the-box, while a more powerful alternative is to make yourself some semi-DIY variant by flashing the correct Zigbee Router firmware to Zigbee Coordinator USB dongles and then using them as stand-alone Zigbee Signal Repeater devices in USB-chargers for power, like for example the Sonoff ZBDongle-E (EFR32MG21 based) or the Sonoff ZBDongle-P (CC2652P) work great as dedicated stand-alone Zigbee Signal Repeaters with recommended firmware.

Here are also some ZHA integration documentation sections directly and indirectly related to this topic:

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zha#best-practices-to-avoid-pairingconnection-difficulties

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zha#zigbee-interference-avoidance-and-network-rangecoverage-optimization

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zha#defining-zigbee-channel-to-use

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zha#knowing-which-devices-are-supported

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zha#zha-exception-and-deviation-handling

#3

I can only tell you that I see this periodically in my system and it is not a coverage issue as I one bulb out of 7 on the same track will disappear. My experience is that some bulbs are just not super-reliably. I have about 70 IKEA bulbs and every two or three months 2-3 of them lose their ability to find the network. Re-adding them fixes it, though.

#4

Went into the bathroom today to find the bulb which was not working last night is now happily playing whilst another in the same room isn’t - it’s really frustrating.

#5

I get the argument that different brands may not play well together, but this doesn’t ring true to me when we’re talking about a cluster of 5 bulbs from the same manufacturer (Ikea) when 3 are rock solid and 2 take turns in annoying me :smiley:

#6

Sorry I should have said “thanks” for the links - I’ll take a look as it’s bugging me how unstable it seems to be.

Regarding channel - mine is at the default 15 but I have 3 WiFi APs around my house which my UniFi router auto assigns channels to an invariably they are overlapping - but again given the issue is isolated to a small number of bulbs which are all in proximity of other bulbs which are unaffected I’m sceptical if it’s interference but happy to try mitigating it.

#7

You can set a static WiFi channel on each Unifi ap → ZigBee and Wi-Fi Coexistence | MetaGeek