Zigbee hell!

helloha · October 20, 2022, 11:37am

Hi, using the Sonoff zigbee bridge with the latest Tasmota 12.2.0 release.

Things ran fine until I did the latest updates to HASS.

Since several weeks all sensors, lights and switches started disconnecting. I reconnect, then it’s gone after a while…

I rolled back the VM to the previous state but nothing seems to help.

What should I do? How can I diagnose what is going on? This is driving me nuts!

Cheers,
K.

andregoncalvespires · October 20, 2022, 3:09pm

Replace the Sonoff zigbee bridge pro with a sonoff 3.0 dongle. Stable and powerful

helloha · October 22, 2022, 9:45am

You think this could be the culprit? Is this a known issue with the bridge?

I went for the bridge because my server is not in a central location of the house…

Thx for the advice!
K.

helloha · October 22, 2022, 10:07am

Just read this:

github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant.io

Consider removing the ITEAD Sonoff ZBBridge from ZHA integration list of hardware as EZSP over WiFi-based bridges is often not stable

opened 02:09PM - 29 Mar 21 UTC

closed 03:44PM - 29 Mar 21 UTC

Hedda

integration: zha

### Feedback Consider removing ITEAD Sonoff ZBBridge hardware from the ZHA in…tegration's list of known working Zigbee radio modules as the EZSP (EmberzNet Serial Protocol) interface is now infamous in the community for being unstable when using WiFi-based bridges. https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zha/#known-working-zigbee-radio-modules - **_[ITEAD Sonoff ZBBridge](https://www.itead.cc/smart-home/sonoff-zbbridge.html) (Note! This first have to be flashed with [Tasmota firmware and Silabs EmberZNet NCP EZSP UART Host firmware](https://www.digiblur.com/2020/07/how-to-use-sonoff-zigbee-bridge-with.html))_** To clarify; I'm not suggesting support be removed in code, I only mean that WiFi-only bridges for EZSP should not be listed as "known working" as that, in turn, could be interpreted as stable and recommended, which IMHO looks to be the opposite how it works in real-world scenarios. I think it would be unfair to go around telling all of those users to buy better WiFi hardware instead of just listing/recommending other Zigbee hardware for EZSP that does go over WiFi. The argument is that having OTEAD Sonoff ZBBridge listed at the top of the list of known working Zigbee adapters for ZHA makes it read as equivalent to recommended hardware (if not the top recommendation), is causing long-term harm to the reputation of ZHA because many first-time ZHA users seem to have a horrible experience with stability on it if they not have a 100% stable WiFi with zero packet loss as well as low latency response. Understand that a problem is that most other applications do not require a 100% stable WiFi solution so most users will not know/discover that their WiFi setup is not stable enough for Sonoff ZBBridge until after they already bought it. FYI, both ZHA and bellows readme have cryptic warnings about WiFi-based bridges/gateways but IMHO those are not enough: https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zha/#warning-about-wi-fi-based-zigbee-to-serial-bridgesgateways "**_The EZSP protocol requires a stable connection to the serial port. With ITEAD Sonoff ZBBridge connecting over the WiFi network it is expected to see `NCP entered failed state. Requesting APP controller restart` in the logs. This is a normal part of the operation and indicates there was a drop in communication between ZHA and SonOff bridge._**" https://github.com/zigpy/bellows#warning-about-zigbee-to-wifi-bridges "**_The reason Ember remote bridges over a Serial-to-IP proxy/forwarding-server is not recommended is that clients using the EZSP serial protocol requires a robust connection between the EmberZNet Zigbee stack running on EFR32 MCU and the serial port of the Zigbee radio. With solutions such as *ITEAD Sonoff ZBBridge* or a Ser2Net serial proxy connection over a WiFi network it is expected to see `NCP entered failed state. Requesting APP controller restart` in the logs. This is a normal part of the operation and indicates there was a drop in communication which caused packet loss to occurred between the zigpy radio library and the Zigbee radio. The use of serial network proxies/bridges/servers over WiFi is therefore not recommended when wanting a stable Zigbee environment with Silicon Labs Ember based Zigbee radios._**" Please do read all Sonoff Zigbee bridge stability complaints on HA's community forums -> https://community.home-assistant.io You see a lot of first time ZHA users are having a bad time with the Sonoff ZBBridge, most of which have later proven to be WiFi related. https://community.home-assistant.io/t/sonoff-zbbridge-sonoff-zigbee-bridge-from-itead/187346 https://community.home-assistant.io/t/zigbee-errors/292478/ https://community.home-assistant.io/t/sonoff-zbbridge-suddenly-appears-offline-but-is-online-and-working/274296 https://community.home-assistant.io/t/sonoff-zigbee-bridge-lost-devices-when-in-zha-mode/238511 https://community.home-assistant.io/t/moving-from-usb-stick-to-sonoff-bridge-any-issues/276656 https://community.home-assistant.io/t/zbbridge-version-of-tasmota-9-3-1-in-sonoff-zigbee-bridge/285084/ https://community.home-assistant.io/t/sonoff-zigbee-bridge-couldnt-start-ezsp/291417 https://community.home-assistant.io/t/diagnose-zigbee-network-issue/261742 https://community.home-assistant.io/t/zha-component-sometimes-falls-off-and-devices-become-unavailable-for-no-apparent-reason/270616 https://community.home-assistant.io/t/experience-with-flashing-tasmota-on-sonoff-zigbee-bridge-devices-is-it-flawless-and-how-do-those-compare-with-aqara-zigbee-sensors/230025/ https://community.home-assistant.io/t/what-is-the-best-zigbee-coordinator-to-be-used-with-zha/271742 Currently, when ZHA end-users ask for support with Sonoff ZBBridge in the forums and post that get this `NCP entered failed state. Requesting APP controller restart` error message they will generally be told that they should cut their losses and instead buy a USB stick/dongle or an Ethernet (wired) bridge/gateway version instead if wanting to achieve a stable connection over EZSP between the Zigbee coordinator adapter and ZHA/bellows/zigpy. I believe that not having it listed here would at least make some users stop pointing their fingers ZHA/bellows/zigpy developers. It might be stable enough for people who have extremely stable WiFi, but is it a product that should be advertised for as known working / recommended hardware ZHA? Maybe just list a few (wired) Ethernet bridges/gateways under compatible hardware instead? Note! Remember that this hardware recommendation is really aimed at new users and not at advanced/expert users. I think that new users are more likely to pick the cheap hardware listed at the top than do deep research about people experiences. Disclaimer: I have in the past used Sonoff ZBBridge by ITead flashed Tasmota with ZHA in Home Assistant but since switched to USB-sticks (first I moved to Elelabs USB adapter but have since moved to Electrolama's zzh, so I am currently not even using EZSP). PS: For reference; I was actually the one who originally added ITead Sonoff ZBBridge to the list via PR https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant.io/pull/14124 ### URL https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zha/ ### Version _No response_

So it could be a WiFi stability issue. But already have 2 UniFi aps so should be stable. I’ll investigate more to see what is going on.

But yes removing the bridge from the recommended devices might be a good idea cuz that’s where ingot the idea from in the first place….