Zigbee Devices Not Available or dropping off the network

Configuration Zigbee
1

I’m tearing my hair out trying to troubleshoot devices dropping off the network. The devices dropping off seem to be primarily Aqara door and motion sensors. I have no idea what to try next. Here’s my system:

Home Assistant running on a VM in Unraid.

Running ZHA on a Skyconnect. The Skyconnect is on a USB 2.0 port with a 36" USB extension cable. I tried using a USB 3.0 port and it doesn’t seem to matter. I also tried a Sonoff 3.0 USB Dongle Plus–ZBDongle-E.

ZHA is set to Channel 15. My Wifi Router 2.4GHz band is set to Channel 6 and my two range extenders are set to Channel 11.

My Zigbee network has 72 devices. 39 of these are battery powered. I have a mix of Aqara, Sonoff, Ikea, Philips, Sengled, and Third Reality devices.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

2

Maybe try channel 11

82ccb020-c270-45fc-995c-f837ada4f9c3
82ccb020-c270-45fc-995c-f837ada4f9c31664×567 122 KB

and although not for HA, this is good reading:

3

Thanks. The Hubitat info was good reading. I’ve been reluctant to change my Zigbee channel for fear that I would have to repair all my devices, but maybe that’s what I need to do.

4

you can perform an energy scan in ZHA by navigating to Settings → Devices → SkyConnect (or whichever ZHA device) → ⋮ menu → Download diagnostics

Scroll down i the file to see the current utilization in % for each channel to see how busy/noisy they are.

that is a short snapshot however so you should repeat that at different times to get a better picture

5

I tried this but couldn’t find the relevant info in the file. I searched for “utilization” and “%”, but neither of these terms were found. I also tried searching for “15” (my Zigbee channel) and found several entries for “depth:”.

There are 45 diagnostic entities that are not enabled. Might one of those provide helpful info to solve the problem?

7

I just looked at this as I began to migrate from a conbee to sonoff and found this in the json file.
“energy_scan”: {
“11”: 88.70042934643088,
“12”: 91.05606689948522,
“13”: 92.95959997754716,
“14”: 98.62178092672917,
“15”: 98.43344238842926,
“16”: 84.164247274957,
“17”: 88.70042934643088,
“18”: 85.82097888710312,
“19”: 75.96022321405563,
“20”: 17.086630587133605,
“21”: 33.860880820104335,
“22”: 49.512515447068886,
“23”: 97.97769123383605,
“24”: 62.257682586134884,
“25”: 65.26028270288712,
“26”: 96.19660508390695

8

Ok. I found the scan. Here are the results:

“energy_scan”: {
“11”: 7.659755505061292,
“12”: 21.09014924761344,
“13”: 33.860880820104335,
“14”: 13.711043742539033,
“15”: 82.35373987514762,
“16”: 99.27573563839312,
“17”: 98.62178092672917,
“18”: 99.363464769115,
“19”: 97.04162534718327,
“20”: 59.15797905332195,
“21”: 33.860880820104335,
“22”: 55.9836862725909,
“23”: 62.257682586134884,
“24”: 19.00785284282869,
“25”: 8.631361812931262,
“26”: 28.30261646762903

If I move from channel 15 to 11, wouldn’t that just make 11 a higher utilization?

Also, if I move to Channel 11 do I have to re-pair all my devices, or will they automatically connect to the new channel?

9

Changing channel means re-pairing. Some devices will find the new channel themselves, but certainly not all.

10

@klkohl start by trying to follow all these tips as they contain most best practices → Zigbee networks: how to guide for avoiding interference + optimizing using Zigbee Router devices (repeaters/extenders) to get best possible range and coverage

If using latest ZHA integration then normally it is only Zigbee end devices (usually just battery-powered products) that will need to be re-paired, as normal is that all always-on Zigbee Router devices (usually mains-powered products) that have permanent power and are connected will automatically change channel → https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zha#defining-zigbee-channel-to-use

Zigbee2MQTT developers have recently begun working on initial support for the same feature for zigbee-herdsman → Base support for channel switching without re-pairing by Nerivec · Pull Request #977 · Koenkk/zigbee-herdsman · GitHub

Regardless, if possible begin by setting non-conflicting static Wi-Fi channel(s) on your Wi-Fi devices (Wi-Fi router and WiFi access points, etc.) as that is usually much easier than changing Zigbee channel.

1 Like
11

Yes I have close to 80 devices and all reconnect on a Chanel change. Im running into the same issue, 1 or 2 bulbs will drop off every day or 2, I have no battery powered routers, I think my channel is just congested.

“energy_scan”: {
“11”: 70.89933442360993,
“12”: 85.82097888710312,
“13”: 85.82097888710312,
“14”: 70.89933442360993,
“15”: 49.512515447068886,
“16”: 36.830390267097734,
“17”: 85.82097888710312,
“18”: 82.35373987514762,
“19”: 33.860880820104335,
“20”: 75.96022321405563,
“21”: 80.38447947821754,
“22”: 70.89933442360993,
“23”: 70.89933442360993,
“24”: 68.14622793558128,
“25”: 85.82097888710312,
“26”: 52.75969252664325

I’m using 25 now but doesn’t matter, I think I just have too many devices, zigbee isn’t meant for that I suppose. As you can see every channel is congested. Could switch to 15 but then 15 would be where 25 is now. Can’t win with 2.4ghz congestion :wink: I didn’t have this issue with Hubitat BUT I was using 2 hubitat hubs, 1 just for bulbs and 1 for switches and battery devices, which seemed to work a lot better.