I have an older system on a RPi3 running my flat for years which I plan to move to a Lenovo with HAOS soon. The docker images are the newest ones available for 32 bit. After power outages, which are rare but always unexpected and at inconvenient times, it comes up flawlessly again.
For testing purposes, mostly building and trying out new devices, I have a second RPi3 with the last 32 bit Raspbian 12(bookworm) and a RPi4 with 64bit Raspbian 13(trixie) and current docker images.
Both these testing services do not reconnect to Zigbee thermometers after a reboot. I have to give the device reset button a short (not long to repair) push to make them connect.
Why is that? Can it be because the full system has several mains powered routers in the mesh and the test systems haven’t any?
N.B: There is a similar thread but it doesn’t quite answer my question. Zigbee lost connections for some devices after power cut - #4 by francisp
Hi, I have no solution for your issue.
Is it your RPi / coordinator that don’t survive the power outage well or your zigbee devices.
Running a RPi can be tricky, specially with power cuts.
I have a very reliable/stable mesh and even after a few outages, I my zigbee network comes online again with all the devices.
Which zigbee integration & coordinator are you using?
Are these failing devices battery powered?
Yes, simple battery operated thermometers. They are mainly there to verify the Zigbee installation. I use standard USB sticks with CC2652, zStack3x0. On the RPi3 with Zigbee2MQTT 1.40.1 the thermometer was found after two hours, on the RPi4 with Z2M 2.8.0 nothing after four hours. It might be the stick, but both are cheap knockoffs as ist the (different) one on the reliable old system.
It gets worse. I can’t re-pair those thermometers and I can’t pair anything else either. This only happens with Zigbee2MQTT 2.8.0 on the RPi4, not on RPI3 with Z2M 1.4 and not in HAOS with ZHA. It’s not related to the stick either, I swapped them after the first time it occurred and the problem remains with the machine.
Pairing and reading values worked flawlessly in this very setup before. It’s only after turning the power off for some time and on again that it happens.
Deleting the configuration and newly onboarding Z2M again had not helped, but after googling some Github threads I found a partial solution. I have now changed the channel (from 11 to 19) and restarted Z2M. After that I can pair again. I shall again turn the Raspberry off when I go to sleep later and will see what happens tomorrow.
N.B: The RPi3 did not find its device for several hours either. A very short push of the device button fixed it. Seems the productive system is more stable because of the several routers in the mesh. If that’s all it takes I can live with it in the test systems.
Hi, you might have a look at this (if you haven’t done so yet): Zigbee network optimization: a how-to guide for avoiding radio frequency interference + adding Zigbee Router devices (repeaters/extenders) to get a stable Zigbee network mesh with best possible range and coverage by fully utilizing Zigbee mesh networking
Yes I know those rules, but that’s not it. Only one or two devices and a very short distance.
Interesting obeservation: The reconnect via a short button press only works for a short time after powering on. After that the network is dead. I just powered off and on after several hours where no reconnect was possible. Right after the restart it worked flawlessly.
I’m pretty sure this applies only to the new version (2.9.0 now). Tomorrow I shall verify that for 32 bit version 1.4.
And the proof is there. It took nearly two hours again, but the thermometer was reconnected to Zigbee2MQTT 1.4 all on its own without any intervention from me. Z2M 2.9.0 yesterday did not reconnect for four to five hours and after that was dead towards manual reconnection too. Definitely a step backwards from what was much better before.
I don’t know what did it, but both systems reconnect now. It takes a long time, more than three hours at times, but over many days now both systems reconnect on their own.
Use ZigBee channel 15, 20 or 25 and wifi on 1, 6, 11. ZigBee will be in the gaps between the wifi channels.