Zigbee batterydevices offline every few weeks

Configuration Zigbee
1

Hi,

I have fairly decent understanding of the foundations of a Zigbee Mesh network. But have started to get some issues recently after I had to rebuild my entire zigbee network when the Conbee stick suddenly died.
I went with the Home Assistant Skyconnect as a new Zigbee stick and connected it using the extension cord, to a USB 2 port, to my server that is running HA on a Virtual Machine.

This is the same way the Conbee Zigbee Stick was connected and ran flawlessly for several years, before the stick itself died.

So my House is fairly large and has 2 floors. However, I have perhaps 100 light bulbs that should act as Zigbee Routers, at least a few bulbs in every room.
Most of them are Philips Hue E27 or E14, but also A few Ikea Trådfri.
Several Philips Hue original ceiling lights that has their own built in LED and Spots as well, all connected to Mains powers and detected as routers within the HA Zigbee map.

Also my Skyconnect stick is set to “Smart” and picked Channel 20, not interfering with my Unifi Accesspoints for Wifi noir my Philips Hue Hub (still need to use that for couple things).

Now to the problem:
I have several Philips Hue dimmer switches as well as a few Philips Hue Motion Detectors.
These are the same I had for several years, without any issues on my previous Conbee Stick.
However with the Skyconnect, they consistently become Offline and stop working with about 2-3 weeks in between. I am forced to Remove them from HA and re-add them again through the ZHA plugin. And they will work again for couple of weeks.

I always pair them in the spot where they are to be used. I have also tried pairing them directly to a Mains connected Zigbee Device in the same room. Always the same issue eventually.

Again these all worked without issues on the Conbee Device, and I do have many many Zigbee Routers around the house, so I don’t feel that this should be the issue.

It does feel like the biggest issue is upstairs though and I could invest in some kind of a Zigbee Extender or excellent router for the upper stairs if someone can recommend one, perhaps one that also acts as a Wall light Switch so I can control lights in upper floor and have it connected to Mains for best Zigbee Extension mode.

Thank you all for your help!

2

I’m assuming you’re not using dumb switches and cutting off power to the hue bulbs here. Correct me if I’m wrong.

Remove the “Smart” setting and fix it to channel 20 yourself. Check your Wifi APs to ensure they’re also not set to automatically change channels based on signal strengths. Read this for more info.

Any mains-powered zigbee device which does not explicitly state “neutral optional” should be a zigbee router. If you’re intending on using it to directly control smart lights, search these forums for “decoupled mode”.

3

I’m assuming you’re not using dumb switches and cutting off power to the hue bulbs here. Correct me if I’m wrong.

Correct - all my Zigbee lightbulbs are directly connected to Mains electricity at all times. There are no dumb switches involved anywhere in my house.

Remove the “Smart” setting and fix it to channel 20 yourself. Check your Wifi APs to ensure they’re also not set to automatically change channels based on signal strengths. Read this for more info.

I did read through this guide before making my post. The way I understood it was that “Smart” picks a Radio one time, and then sticks to it. So this would mean that it is static to Radio Channel 20 already and removing the Smart should not make a difference.
Please correct me if I’m wrong.

Also my Unifi Accesspoints are static to there designated channels either all below channel 16, or above channel 40 or so. So non interfere with 20.

Any mains-powered zigbee device which does not explicitly state “neutral optional” should be a zigbee router. If you’re intending on using it to directly control smart lights, search these forums for “decoupled mode”.

Right but is there not devices specifically made for these purposes that are better than others? Either more stabile Zigbee Routers or just Extenders.
I’ll check the decouple mode also.

I just re-added my Hue Motion Sensor on the upper floor yesterday and now it became unavailable today again, just 24 hours after I added it. However last time it held up for like 3 weeks.
It’s so annoying when I know there is a huge Philips Hue Surimu just 1.5 meter from the device.

4

I stand corrected - you are right:
“This does not configure ZHA to automatically change channels in the future, it only changes the channel a single time.”

Yes there are, but you specifically mentioned Wall light switches so I wanted to point out which type you need. Eg. As much as I love them, avoid any recent Aqara switch models which say “neutral optional”. Despite being wired with Neutral, they are still end devices.

If you want a dedicated extender, I heard good things about the dedicated Ikea Zigbee router (this one), though I’m not sure if it’s still available for sale.
Otherwise I’d recommend to get a cheap zigbee coordinator & flash it with router firmware. Aim for something with an external antenna - the Sonoff Dongle Plus or the Dongle lite should do and don’t cost much.

Ouch, that sucks. Assuming it’s not low on battery and you paired it via the Surimu, then it doesn’t seem to be an issue with the device itself. Any chance you can grab hold of a longer USB extension cable and move your Skyconnect to a more elevated position, further away from other devices?

5

Hi, which virtualisation software are you using?
Nothing on that end which could turn your zigbee coordinator offline?

6

Hey,

thank you for your reply.

I did purchase the sonoff dongle plus to connect to my upper floor as a repeater/router. We’ll see if that solves the issue or or at least eliminate the possibility of range issues for the end devices on the upper floor.

7

Hi,

Using ESXi VmWare.

This is the same setup I ran for years with my previous conbee stick without any issues - until the stick broke down and I had to create a totally new Zigbee network from scratch using the SkyConnect stick.

Nothing turns the zigbee coordinator offline, if it would have been the issue I would have found far more issues in my home system than just a endpoint here and there that fails. Everything in my home runs on Zigbee basically which is basically a 100 lights at least + end devices.

Thanks

8

I had the same issues as you and switched from Conbee II to a similar Silicon Labs coordinator. If it’s mainly the Hue devices that drop off, it could be a known ZHA issue. The fix is to adjust your ZHA settings in your configuration.yaml:


zha:
  zigpy_config:
    source_routing: true
    ezsp_policies:
      TRUST_CENTER_POLICY: 0x0002

The theory is that older Hue battery devices have a habit of disconnecting from the network. Changing to Trust Center Policy 2 allows these devices to reconnect to the network without needing a full re-pair. I also suggest turning on source routing if you are using more than 75 devices.

Technically this is “insecure” and opens a “back door” into your network for previously authorized devices.

In my experience these settings (especially with source routing ON) eliminate the issues I’ve been having with Hue devices. You might want to try and see if those settings fix your issues.