Hey all, I currently have somewhere between 30 - 40 Zigbee Xfinity Security Door/Window sensors (XHS2-UE) installed around the house. There are a few in particular that keep going offline. Originally I thought the batteries were just dying and decided to replace them. However, the same sensors keep going offline after about a day and a half.
I test the 3V CR2450 batteries with a voltage meter and they are reporting back 2.99 and definitely aren’t dead. Yet, the same sensors keep going offline.
I’ve tried taking out the batteries for a few to reboot. Also factory resetting them and re-pairing with HASS. However, they still die.
Do you think I should just replace them with new sensors? Would they just be bad? Originally I was thinking it was the cold on the windows, but there’s like atleast twenty other sensors that do not have this issue on plenty of other windows and doors.
There’s five other sensors in the room that don’t have this issue with the same distance away from the central location of the Zwave/Zigbee router (USB). Another one that’s on the other side of the house mixed between a couple others that don’t have this issue.
The thought crossed my mind, but would the device just give up and not report anymore?
There are a few Hue lights nearby that report as routers, the Zigbee visualization is definitely a bit all over the place to discern between.
You could be hitting a limit for the directly connected devices, if you have any unused routers (plugs, bulbs etc) I would start by adding those to the network. How many routers do you have in total? What coordinator are you using?
I have a bunch of Hue lights acting as routers around according to the topology. If there was a limit, it wouldn’t probably connect in the first place no?
Before you do that, swap one of them with a reliable sensor from elsewhere in the house. That will tell you whether the problem is the device or its position (ie not enough routers nearby).
I am not sure how it will act when / if you reach a limit. To me it sounds like either you have hit some sort of a limit or that the coverage is not good enough. “A few Hue bulbs” and “a bunch of Hue lights” doesn’t really give us any insight into how many routers you have.
This almost always indicates a range issue with those sensors.
Agreed need details on how many powered routing devices you have and how far they are from both the coordinator and the device. Agree with prior advice. Add more routers close to the sensors that are going offline then see what happens.
Thanks for all the input. I’ll keep playing around with what I have and potentially take the coordinator/device offline to hopefully re-configure the topology of the network (from what I read this could help?)
Fwiw, if a Hue Light is indeed classified as a “Router” which is indicated as such on the Topology in HA. I probably have:
Read up on the term and concept ‘Add via’ a router for your given Zigbee system. Explore using this with your battery powered end devices. Take a screen shot of your Zigbee map before and after each change. And at other points in time. Unfortunately Zigbee (of any kind) does not have good reasonably costed tools to monitor a Zigbee mesh network over time.
For example, I used these Xiaomi battery powered vibration sensors to indicate when the mailperson is delivering or picking up (also detects crows pooping on mailbox ). They are rather far away, however I have a Zigbee router device in the garages, where these vibrations are ‘added via’ and are routing back to the coordinator via the garage routers.
Picture of a Zigbee map below showing that your battery powered end devices should be connected to the mesh via routers, few connected directly to the coordinator often.
Okay so full transparency here, every-time I’ve ever added a Zigbee device I’ve gone to:
Settings → Integration → ZHA → Add device
Instead of through a nearby device (hue light / router).
I manually reset the problematic sensors last night and did “Add Device” through a nearby Hue Light (Router) instead that has consistent power and isn’t much more than 10 - 20 feet away from another local light/router. About 20 hours later, 3 of the sensors just went to unavailable again about 20 minutes apart from eachother. Still waiting to see if the other ones pop up.
Looking at the visualization, even though I manually added two of the window sensors to this same lamp they ended up being connected through an even closer hue light / router that I didn’t instruct it to though. Odd?
It honestly doesn’t matter - Zigbee has it’s own ideas of how to get back to the coordinator. Just because you add it via a router, it does not mean it will stay attached to the router you added it via. It will find it’s own path back.
Stupid question perhaps, but you are using an extension cable on the coordinator, yes?
Yeah, if by an extension cable: I’m using a USB extension cable off my server running to a wall plate USB since the server is in it’s own closet. The Zigbee/Zwave stick basically plugs into the outside wall of the server closet.
It’s possible you have wifi interference in that area. I would download a Wi-Fi signal apps and check it at the location. Maybe your neighbor just added a router or such. What zigbee channel and wifi are you on.
I have over 15 MCT-340 contact sensors and they use the smaller cr2032. Any mesh issue or interference will kill them within a day.
One thing I usually do before changing the dead battery is to put HA in pairing mode and change the dead battery. This will give the sensor a higher chance of connecting to the best router close to it.
The other thing is channel 18 or 20 seem to be the best for my zigbee.
It sounds like from your history, these problem devices where not problems at some point?
When you say they are ‘offline’, do they still send a message even though they are offline?
I would not have expected that ‘route change’ behavior with a Hue bulb router. Unfortunately, I do not have experience with your end device sensor. And it takes both of these parties to make a ‘good’ route in the mesh, from my experience.
I would not bank on a voltage measure with some of these coin cells. There is a large performance difference with different brands and price points. I’ve never found a really good measure for coin cells, other than ‘either it works in a given device or not’ and ‘compare and contrast’.
If all your other sensors seems to be working correctly, I would highly doubt you any issues with noise, bandwidth or anything else 2.4 GHz related.
Any firmware differences in the sensors, or in the Hue bulbs?
Back to your original question, yes perhaps they are just some ‘bad eggs’. If read your link correctly, at price point of under a Lincoln each, you may have spend more in batteries and gray hair that just replacing.
Hey all thanks for everyone’s input. This has been on the back of my mind now for weeks since January. I originally put off looking into it further for a little while. The other week however, I decided to grab a new CR2450 battery from an extra pack that I had. This time however, I decided to do one at a time rather than stuff all of the 5 that were dying at the same time.
I did not have an issue with the slider door resetting like I saw after a day and a half. So a few days later I tried another, then another, and then had two left and just replaced the last two together with new batteries from the new pack.
Have not seen them drop off since.
I suspect I had a bad pack of CR2450s or something? This will be good to know in the future.
I checked my frequency against zigbee and my wifi and the channels are not overlapping (i.e. are set to 15 and the 2.4ghz are set to non overlapping channels). So must have been some bad batteries?
). They are rather far away, however I have a Zigbee router device in the garages, where these vibrations are ‘added via’ and are routing back to the coordinator via the garage routers.
