Zigbee network problems with Skyconnect

Configuration Zigbee
1

I’m having a ton of trouble after migrating my setup ,any help or experience would be fantastic.
I’ve been using z2m with a conbee-ii and a rpi4 for years with zero issues. I live in a small apartment with every bulb and switch using ZigBee, so the network is rock solid.
I was hoping to switch to running HA in a VM on my synology NAS, just to simplify things. but at the same time I’m switching to a Skyconnect, with the dream being to move all the smart stuff over to thread in the next while.
this is where the problems start, the z2m addon crashes in a way that the watchdog doesn’t catch every 6-72 hours, so i have to notice and restart it manually. zigbee binding doesn’t work, at all, motion sensors don’t always send their events, switches sometimes misfire, new sensors don’t successfully interview, etc. its a mess.

I don’t have a full day or two to rebuild the network a bunch of times so i am hoping someone has a good guess which of these is causing all my problems:
-the fact that I’m running a VM
-I’m using a skyconnect
-I’m using a skyconnect in multiprotocol mode

I’m leaning towards multiprotocol being the most likely culprit, and i don’t have any thread devices, but support for this stick still seems to be a little spotty even in zigbee-only mode.

does anyone have a similar setup?

2

If you are using Zigbee2MQTT and not the ZHA integration then you should open a new issue with debug logs to https://github.com/Koenkk/zigbee2mqtt/issues + after consider posting link to issue for zigbee-herdsman’s EZSP developer → https://github.com/Koenkk/zigbee-herdsman/issues/319

Regardless also be sure to read and follow best practices (like using a very long USB extension cable and connecting via USB 2.0 post or hub and not USB 3.0 port), see → Guide for Zigbee interference avoidance and network range/coverage optimization

Personally, I recommend using dedicated adapters for Zigbee and suggest you buy a Texas Instruments CC2652P based adapter for Zigbee2MQTT (since Silicon Labs EZSP support in Z2M is experimental). Ex. ITead's "Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus" (model "ZBDongle-P") based on Texas Instruments CC2652P +20dBm radio SoC/MCU

Understand that not only is Silicon Labs EZSP experimental in Zigbee2MQTT but multi-protocol support is experimental in all applications, even in Home Assistant’s own ZHA integration.

Also, see related discussions in Home Assistant SkyConnect - official radio USB dongle will be compatible with both Zigbee and OpenThread (including Matter/CHIP over Thread)