I’m running an installation of home assistant on a raspberry pi that was working perfectly until I decided to add some new ZigBee devices.
I have 25+devices, mostly motion sensors and buttons, and some lights. When I added the last batch of 4 buttons, most devices stopped responding and became unavailable.
I’ve tried restoring an older backup and readding devices but the problem still appears.
The sonoff 3.0 dongle is connected through an extension cable and using ZHA. I’ve done hard reset in multiple occasions.
Not every device appears unavailable, but last night everything was working again after re-pairing and this morning 8 devices are unavailable again, yet some are still working and connected
How could I identify the cause of the problem? Any way to fix it?
I’d suggest a read of this Zigbee thread for a few ideas on the difference between Routers and End Devices, and also several nuggets of real-world experience with good and bad devices (including some that can make a mesh unreliable!):
TL;DR - some devices don’t work with others; add more mains powered devices to create routers and extend the mesh (also reduces battery drain). Use the mesh network map to look for poor (red) paths under the ZHA Visualisation tab.
ZHA seems to be going through a bad patch at the moment with less tolerance of ‘naughty devices’ like IKEA remotes (which need regular reset, and re-adding; re-interview always fails removing parts of the pairing like battery status).
I only have 2 mains powered devices, most of the devices are:
Aqara door and presence sensor
Aqara P1 motion sensor
Aqara and Xiaomi buttons
8 Lights from Ikea/Xiaomi (which should act as repeaters)
The house is around 100 square meters, all in a single level.
What can I do with the poor “red” paths? What kind of mains powered devices would you recommend just to extend the network? (In theory it should be enough with the lightbulbs??)
AS you can see in the image attached, some are not even connected at all
IKEA Zigbee kit can be “weird” with extensions to the protocol for direct control (which can be a PITA using their cheap remotes and bulbs with ZHA). The cheap TRADFRI mains switches seem to work OK with ZHA.
Only you know your physical plan for router placement. Just think in three dimensions if you have more than one floor.
At first, I was using Zigbee2MQTT add-on. Everything was working fine and none of my sonoff door sensor were disconnecting. Then I decided to try the built-in ZHA. I prefer that integration but my sonoff door sensor doesn’t stop to become unavailable randomly. I will need to go back to Zigbee2MQTT.
Not sure why these sensor become unavailable when controlled by ZHA and without any problem using Zigbee2MQTT.
