But it won’t get better if problem reports are not even taken into account… I use Zigbee2MQTT for about four weeks now. Because of my problems I closely follow the github issue list, and all those problems - which very often, but not always occur with EZSP dongles - simply get no feedback.
I know that EZSP is experimental, but I had not imagined how alpha this still is.
Zigbee Dongle P + Z-Stack_3.x.0_coordinator_20221226 + ZHA is a rock solid setup.
Tried SkyConnect and other Silicon Labs EFR based dongles and some Zigbee devices would simply go to sleep requiring some sort of manual intervention to wake them up.
I hope next year we finally get a new generation of chips that can handle both Thread and Zigbee without issues…
Well, Koenkk is working regularly Z2M and the related projects. All the reports flood into Z2M even when another project would be more appropriate. TBH, I am surprised that he has not disabled issue tracking by this point. There is a lot of noise there.
Just wondering: What “other project” would be more appropriate in this case for bug reports?
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the work being done here (for free), however concerning the original post I just wanted to point out that there are also negative experiences with Z2M.
Take your pick:
I use zigbee2mqtt. I post issues under the main project, where I also find the downloads and the instructions. I don’t even know which of the many components of z2m in which of the many repos might be the reason of the problem.
This is not a very helpful answer …
Well, you did ask 
You are not buying a product, there is mostly a single person maintaining a huge project with many moving parts and several subprojects and here you are complaining about lack of “reaction” on tickets created two days ago after a weekend.
Edit: Sorry if that came over a bit harshly, but for a project as widely used as Z2M the shear number of issues (many rather poorly researched and/or worded, because the issue tracker is used as a de facto support forum by many) can be overwhelming. I am actually surprised how quickly Koenkk reacts to anything when I look at the number of daily new issues there.
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TI CC2652P, TubesZB, ZBDongle-P
@Tinkerer Can you expand on your personal experience for the statements you have made and I have quoted? I’m not sure I think your “comments/points” are helpful.
"Well… the P has some known hardware QC issues.
I’ve never seen a detailed writeup, just many complaints on multiple forums, Discords, GitHub issues, etc…
They are more stable than the CC253x chips, but that’s a pretty low bar."
and citing unproven and thinly available device with your statement:
“ideally one of the new CC2652P7 ones (newer more capable chip).”
Can you cite some first hand facts and experience?
I have been using both the TubesZB, ZBDongle-P implementation of the TI CC2652P chip set with Zigbee2MQTT using the ‘Coordinator revision 20211217’ with Zigbee network with 20 to 40 devices for 2 years with very good success.
I ran the Zigbee2MQTT using a CC253x coordinator from almost the birth of Zigbee2MQTT as well with good success.
With the complexity of these various technologies, facts and experience are what count to help folks on these forums IMHO.
Zigbee2MQTT does not scale better or worse than ZHA when using a single Zigbee Coordinator. Scaling on a single Zigbee Coordinator is all up to the specific Zigbee Coordinator adapter and firmware used as well as the Zigbee Router devices you add and their placement in your home. As mentioned, Zigbee2MQTT and ZHA has normally no control of your Zigbee network mesh as that is all done onboard the Zigbee Coordinator and handled by its firmware, so scaling on a single Zigbee Coordinator generally has nothing to do with the application level of your Zigbee Gateway host software (unless you enable ”source routing” which is normally not done on modern Zigbee Coordinator adapters with newer firmware).
Regardless of what solution you decice to do with, read and try to follow all the tips here → Zigbee networks: how to guide for avoiding interference and optimize for getting better range + coverage
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Well…
multiple forums, Discords, GitHub issues, etc…
I don’t have the time, or patience, to dig out a bunch of articles and quotes for you - largely because it feels like you’ll argue about the veracity of them anyway. Believe me, or don’t, that’s up to you.
Yes, there’s many happy Sonoff P deployments out there. Mine was not one of those until I adjusted some device reporting behaviour and staggered some commands. At that point it went from crashing at least once a fortnight (and sometimes multiple times a day) to crashing almost never.
I’ve not heard of any similar problems with other brands (which doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen, but then I can’t know what people aren’t talking about).
I mean, other than the spec sheet that shows that the P7 is newer and more capable than the P2?
Yes, it’s new, that’s why there’s less real world experience of them out there. However both Zig-Star and Tube have released models based on this and both have had positive feedback.
@Larx Zigbee2MQTT is ”free and open-source” software project (with many parts) being developed by unpaid volenteers as a hobby in their spare time, and is primarly developed by a single person. There is no company with paid workers behind that ”product”. Do not take for granted that you get fast or professionell help.
I think that should respect that as you are not paying for his time so make an effort to research and troubleshoot stuff yourself to the best if your knowledge, and then maybe consider being a little humble when asking for help by volenteers.
Highly recommend you reading this how-to article written for users like yourself that might not have experince with the right etiquette to use when asking for help with such free and open-source projects → How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
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IMHO the only reason why there are some “I have changed from A to B and now it is sooo much better” is simply because everything was paired from scratch, some small optimization here and there. Therefore it may happen that somebody has exactly the opposite experience like “I have changed from B to A and now it is sooo much better” - and both are right in their own way. Only prob is: The “all my problems are only caused by A” is just convenient and regardless if you switch to B or continue complaining about A, it won’t help in the long run.
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I posted negative experiences with Z2M because there was a question about that, I said that others have thees problems, too, and that seemingly nobody is working to fix them. That’s my personal experience, you cannot deny me that.
I also stated clearly that I know and appreciate work done for free like Z2M. But this does not mean that I am not allowed to post negative experiences about free software IMHO if somebody asks.
As I’ve been doing stuff with OSS software for decades, without being a programmer, I’d prefer not to be treated like a schoolboy. End of discussion from my side.
Guess that you did not bother reading the introduction which pretty much sums up this exchange (and really ends the discussion) → http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html (nor the section that covers not whining about the experience → http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html#not_losing )
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Indeed, Zigbee can at the beginning be very finicky and demanding if not set up optimally for your specific environment, so for starters, I always suggest being sure to add a few good Zigbee Router devices (as having many good Zigbee Router devices being available at all time is the main key to a stable Zigbee network mesh), and taking some basic actions to avoid interference is important too → Zigbee networks: how to guide for avoiding interference and optimize for getting better range + coverage
Using newer Zigbee Coordinator adapters with later firmware can also resolve or hide many issues, though they may also introduce new bugs, so it can be a gamble when choosing to use more mature firmware or the latest cutting-edge firmware. Here experimenting it really the only option as it will depend on what exact devices you have and how well the firmware on those devices work with different Zigbee Coordinator firmware.
Anyway, for better or worse, a great Zigbee network mesh set up does initially require some excessive care, precision, and attentive effort for optimal operation in the long run. However once you have those basics in place, then it should just work automagically, (unless you add some rouge device with buggy firmware to your Zigbee network mesh that do not pass along all messages from its neighbour devices).
You may notice that even in this forum there are some current topics dealing with connectivity issues using Z2M, so there might be the possibility that this is not only me stupid user whining but some real problem under certain conditions.
Obviously you need test cases to investigate the reasons for this, but I’m my case, as Z2M itself does not seem to recognize the problem at all, e.g. if some device is suddenly no longer in its list, I’m also at a loss how to get more information which could help a developer.
For me it is a completely fresh set up of a previously working Deconz setup, with all the usual best practices for ZigBee networks taken into account.
The only point I tried to make is that Z2M ist not reliable for every user. I’m just not sure if I like to re-pair everything again with ZHA…
For anybody having the same problems, this bug report (Devices stop communicating randomly · Issue #19747 · Koenkk/zigbee2mqtt · GitHub) seems to indicate that a downgrade to Z2M 1.33.0 makes the network stable again.
Hi TheBelgarion,
I am having troubles to make my ZBDongle-E USB Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus bvisible from the QNAP.
In windows it shows the CH9102 chipset, but when I plug on the qnap nothing shows up as an available USB
I also installed the USB serial drivers from Myqnap repository… without succes…
Some ligth will be more than wellcome!
Just for reference, I solved this following this video:
this video
I had to add
adapter: ezsp
in the configuration of zigbee2mqtt