Zigbee2mqtt Failed to interview

1

I’m using Hass forever on a Pi as my home server, where I had a Rasbee and deconz.
Now I switched to a Synology NAS with a Sonoff Zigbee USB Dongle. I set everything up but I expierience where weird behavior that I dont understand.

I can pair devices, but for some I get errors recognizing them:

Error 2024-08-25 09:03:33zh:controller: Interview failed for '0xf0d1b8be240a4982 with error 'Error: Interview failed because can not get node descriptor ('0xf0d1b8be240a4982')'
Error 2024-08-25 09:03:33z2m: Failed to interview '0xf0d1b8be240a4982', device has not successfully been paired

The issue vanishes sometimes if I get closer to the antenna, but this Solution is weird to me as well. With the Pi, using the RaspBee Module, that is living in a Box without any antenna, I can easily pair any device in seconds without any issue. Using the Module with antenna, I can find devices but the Interview fails, when the distance to the Sensor is greater than about a Meter. I have lights in a Distance of 4m without anything between the light and the antenna and the interview fails.
For These lights as well as all my aqara window window Sensors, it’s hard to go closer to the antenna, as they are well installed. Using the pi next to the synology I can pair everything easy.

Am I doing something wrong?

2

Kind of. Read this.

TLDR: USB 3 interference causes issues with zigbee. Plug your dongle into a usb 2 port and use a usb extension cable.

3

It has two USB 3.2 Gen 1-Port only

1 Like
4

Then put a usb 2 hub between the stick and the port. If it’s USB2 (cannot be a USB3 hub) it will filter the 3ghz interference out of the line (which is actually what the problem is)

1 Like
5

Okay I ordered an USB 2.0 Hub and will come back. Thank you so far.

Innas wondering why a USB Stick with antenna has more issues than I Chip on the Pi, without antenna, but if USB 3 is the bottleneck, I’m not wondered.

6

There’s a great video on Homeassistants YouTube channel where they show exactly how bad usb3/SSD 3ghz interference can be its quite eye opening. It’s like a light switch. Turn on device. Poof no signal.