I have a bunch of aqara door sensors, and they keep going to “unavailable” state. One of them just did it about 4 hours after pairing. Then triggering the open/closed signal doesn’t revive the device, have to go into pairing.
A, trying to figure out what even makes them “unavailable”, since they’re battery sensors and should just be considered asleep until they send something… or does zigbee have a periodic signal?
B, what other solutions are out there? Is zigbee2mqtt any better? Any way to wake it up without going through pairing?
HUSBZB-1 stick. Working flawlessly with 20 zwave devices. But zigbee has been a pain. Stick is extended away from the PC.
Zigbee now set to channel 20 away from my wifi on channel 1.
Only these 5 aqara sensors, no repeaters.
I assume the range is fine because it has never missed an open/closed signal when working. And one garage door is still working for weeks while the other is unavailable a few times, sensors literally 6" from each other.
Hi,
I have almost the same issue with my Zigbee Aqara temperature sensors since update to HA 7.0 or 7.1 (not sure for 100%). I’ll try to debug it later today or this week. Before this new version all worked fine couple of months without any problem.
OP here -
To solve everything, I ended up adding a single aqara smart plug to help extend the range. I didn’t think there was any range issue because they paired right away and got signals fine while testing, even though they were at the other end of the house. But I went from a disconnection every couple days, to zero issues in 5 months after getting the plug.
But to answer your other questions too,
To get them back online, I think I went back to “include” on zha and hit the button on the sensor, it would recognize it as the same device so it would keep its automations and whatever.
You can set the channel in your main HA config file with this, in theory, although I’m not sure how to verify and couldn’t tell a difference when I tried it.
I’ll try this when i get home this evening!
Thanks for the reply.
Can distance really be an issue when the hub and device are in the same room, about 10-15feet away from each other?
I think there might be something wrong with my ZHA installation too.
I just watched a video on Youtube about adding this Zigbee stick and after the initial installation of the stick it created 2 devices for the Zigbee radia. I only got 1
I also don’t get any values for LQI and RSSI for any of the devices
I wouldn’t think range would be any problem that close… maybe it’s some quirk of battery devices working directly with the husbzb stick or something. Don’t know enough about zigbee or when/why it considers them dead. Hope the repeater helps you.
It is my understanding that the current Aqara sensors are not fully Zigbee compliant and work best when used with the Aqara hubs. I have also read that the upcoming T1 revision of these sensors will finally be Zigbee 3.0 compliant. Based on what I read, the disconnection issues requiring user intervention to reconnect are due to their non full compliance with the standard. For this reason, while very attractive, I won’t buy any of them until they are fully compliant (T1 revision). This T1 revision, for some reason, is said to only be available in China however it should expand worldwide at a later time.
I had a look with the knighthawk app to see if there was any interference on channel 15, in my area channels 12 up to 30 are all completely free, so that should be no issue.
I managed to get the sensor up and running again by adding the device again.
Hope this doesn’t happen too often. I only have 4 sensors at the moment so re-adding then again once and a while is not too much of an issue.
I have 9 aqara battery powered sensors and have no issues with any of them dropping out. And 3 of them are inside refrigerators/freezers (metal boxes).
I have 12 Aqara battery sensors, all working with no problems. In my early stages I had some problems, however after adding some “mains” it all got fully stable.
@finity@khvej8 While it is good to hear that you have not had troubles, the information I was relaying about wide spread issues is widely available. Even sites that sell the Aqara products specifically say to use it with their hubs, which you can then integrate with other platforms. My limited understanding of the issue is that they work fine until they drop off the network, and then you have to manually intervene to restore things while other devices would supposedly not require that.
Searching the (formerly known as) Zigbee Alliance for Aqara zigbee compliant devices, I did not see any of the non T1 existing devices, which in itself is a deal breaker for me. Non compliant devices will just cause trouble at some point especially if your ecosystem of non compliant devices grows too much.
T1 devices are starting to appear in the list of compliant devices:
Reddit post that references issues as being: “Apparently they’re not Zigbee 3.0 compliant and have some issues with finding new paths on the zigbee network when used with generic zigbee coordinators.”
A post from a user in China whom was able to purchase T1 versions:
I really want to buy lots of T1 sensors as the price and form factor is attractive but I can’t find any. I am just cautioning those adopting Aqara on the possible repercussions of buying into a non compliant solution.
I too am in the same boat as you; as my aqara window/door contact sensors started dropping including aqara motion sensors. They also tend to get stuck on the incorrect open and close states hence my automations are being executed incorrectly leaving lights on etc… I’m receiving an order today of Linkind window/door contact sensors because based on what I’ve read they follow zigbee 3.0 protocols. (ZHA integration).
Hi Aruffell, Im perfectly aware that most aqara devices are Zigbee 1.2. However, I do not see this as a problem at all, they are just not Zigbee 3.0. They are stable and cheap.
I have other Zigbee devices that are less good, like a special one for a 300VZ dimmer and some hue bulbs.
I also have trouble with the Aquara door sensors going offline / becoming unavailable.
The doorsensors that go unavailable, have no connection to another hub when I look into the topology.
They do work for a couple of hours (max time until ZHA considers the sensor to be unavailable (21.000 seconds or something like that).
The solution for me was to make sure with pairing that the sensor would bind with a hub. Sometimes this works by pairing the sensor to the main controller (conbee II in my case) and after that, without unparing, pair the sensor again with the closest zigbee hub to the final location of the sensor. When a sensor is connected to a hub (visible in topology) the sensor seems to stay working for a long time.
-Edit-
Come to think of it, the pairing with the conbee fails to bind the sensor with a hub. The paring with another hub makes it work. Perhaps it’s the Conbee that is at fault. But that is just a guess. The double pairing makes it work for me.
And almost all of my main connected Zigbee hubs irrespective of type or brand can bind with the aquara sensors.
Hey I have a utility trailer Aqara door sensor (inside trailer door) that I’ve been trying to use as an alarm. I’ve added a zigbee main plug on outside wall nearest trailer 20 yards away. It still keeps going unavailable… Anybody have an idea how to get better range from the contact? I know some of it maybe from the trailer enclosure itself (metal). Can one maybe make a water proof box with contact leads to the undercarriage? Is there a contact with a stronger signal strength?