Zigbee2mqtt: getting rid of your proprietary Zigbee bridges (Xiaomi, Hue, TRADFRI)

Whould you share a link of the devices you bought?

I was able to rejoin the tradfri dimmer removing it from the configuration.yaml, restarting zigbee2mqtt daemon, enabling discovering of new devices and make a first pairing resetting the dimmer.
Now it works great and the new stick firmware now shows the dimmer battery level. Great!

But I wasnā€™t able to rejoin the tradfri light bulb LED1623G12. I made the same process as the dimmer but nothing happened.
Was someone able to rejoin the LED1623G12?
Thanks!

Hello, Iā€™m experiencing two problems. I hope somebody can provide some guidance or has experienced this before.

  1. I have an OSRAM ledstrip paired and working with z2m. It is fantastic. Iā€™ve noticed that recently that it stops responding to HA buttons: ie, I command for it to switch off, the button reacts but it then goes back to the previous state without the light reacting at all. I see error messages in the console. Today for example, The light refused to switch off but a simple z2m restart, solved the issue.
    This is what the log says:

zigbee2mqtt:error 2019-2-7 12:57:20 Zigbee publish to '0x8418260000caa3af', genOnOff - on - {} - {"manufSpec":0,"disDefaultRsp":0} - null failed with error Error: AF data request fails, status code: 183. APS no ack.

  1. I use node-red for my automations. Iā€™ve noticed that, at least with this same device, node-red automations do trigger the light switch on/off just fine, but I donā€™t see the updated state correctly reflected in HA frontend. So, the light may have been successfully switched on, yet in HA it will still be displayed as off. This is annoying, but also prevents further automation from switching it off, as I believe the system thinks it is off already.

Weird stuff I know. Anybody? Iā€™m still running Z2M version 1.0.1.

Thanks

Same behaviour just right now. Light on switched earlier today via z2m, HA interface displaying it however as off, entities view displaying it as off, yet the light was right there completely on.

I just tried to switch it off via the frontend but it slided back on and immediatelly back off. I went to Services view and send a turn_off command on the entity, and it got switched off. Iā€™m under the impression that should the frontend was in sync with the state, I would be able to switch it off, after seeing that I managed to switch it off using the Services view.

Thoughts?

At the third time resetting Ikea bulb, it finally connected!
I didnā€™t removed it in the configuration. I activated the discovery, resetting.

Oh, sure:

Itā€™s apparently unavailable now, but it was about $30 when I got it. You can get it cheaper straight from China:

ā€¦ but it will take a while to get there! Depending on where you are, of course.

If you want a bigger antenna than the one that comes with the kit, just look for a 2.4 GHz antenna with an RP-SMA connection. (the ā€œRPā€ is ā€œreverse polarity,ā€ and itā€™s important.) Itā€™s the same kind of antenna youā€™ll see on many WiFi access points and routers.

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Hi, there is a new instruction on flashing coordinator without re-pairing: https://koenkk.github.io/zigbee2mqtt/information/flashing_without_re-pairing.html. There is a statement in there: ā€œOnce you are outside the network range you can flash the coordinator with the new firmware and start zigbee2mqttā€. Should I keep cc2531 outside of the network while I am flashing it? Or just when I plug it into the server and start zigbee2mqtt?

is the flashing process the same?

Hey talondnb, your offer to flash cc2531 still good? Iā€™m in Perth & looking to get the USB sniffer. Would be great if I didnā€™t need to buy the debugger etc.

found the info

Interested too!! Iā€™m using a several months old firmware. Do newer versions contain any important feature or fix?

I am at Abu Dhabi, UAE. I am also interested to know if talondnb offer is still valid :slight_smile:

I offer modded and flashed cc2531 with antenna and a 3d printed case. You can PM me if interested. I do have cc2530 too.

This is how my devices look.

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How much did the reception of your zigbee usb adapter was improved with this modification?

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A couple of quick questions from a new user:

What advantages or disadvantages are there in moving my Hue bulbs from the Hue hub to the Z2M stick? Here are the benefits I see, but are there others?

  • Gain additional routers for endpoint devices on Z2M network
  • Ability to use new group feature (however, is this any different from Hue ā€œroomsā€)

Can devices belong to more than one group? For example, could I create a group that consists of three bulbs which are all one physical light fixture, and larger group that includes all bulbs in a room (including those in the fixture group)?

Factory resetting Hue bulbs seems difficult as I donā€™t have a Hue remote. If I manage to get my bulbs reset and paired with Z2M, what is the process to unpair them and add them back to the Hue hub? Would they need to be factory reset with a Hue remote again? I assume this will be useful for future firmware updates or other situations.

Are there any consideration about zigbee channel regarding what mode bulbs run in? I read on some Smartthings forum post about how channel 11 is ZLL protocol, while 14 is a ZHA or something like that. If using Hue & Xiaomi sensors together, is the default channel 11 optimal?

How smooth is dimming or dim-on/off with Z2M vs Hue hub?

Thanks!

@nfh I did not measure it exactly, so this is not a scientific answer, but I can tell you that the link quality rised from around 10 to arround 35 for both of my routers.
Also I have a ikea dimmer that did not work reliable before, after adding the antenna it works fine now. So Iā€™m quite sure that this isnā€™t a ā€œplaceboā€. It helped me network to get more reliable.

@hoffsta
I think you could add the following to the advantage list. Recently it is possible to ā€œbindā€ devices. I did not try this yet, but what it basically does, is linking two devices directly to each other. This comes in handy if you use a dimmer with a bulb. This way they communicate directly with each other (without the bridge, faster, more reliable).
Personally I donā€™t have hue bulbs in my zigbee2mqtt network because of two reasons, keep ability to update those bulbs.
And Ambilight+Hue (Thatā€™s the main reason).
However if i did not have that feature in my tv I would also add the bulbs to zigbee2mqtt (more routers in network).
Adding only those that are not connected to the Tv is no option for me (all or nothing)

Advantages of zigbee2mqtt:

  • cheaper (doesnā€™t apply to you, since youā€™ve already bought the hue hub)
  • one hub for multiple ecosystems like Hue, Xiaomi, Sengled, Sylvania, IKEA, etc (if you only use Hue, this doesnā€™t apply)
  • no hub that will likely call China/Google/Philips/The Illuminati
  • ability to use all zigbee routers in the same network (for moar bigger network muahahah)
  • Sometimes better (than the manufacturer) support for some devices
  • Support for some devices that are otherwise unsupported

Me, personally, I use whatā€™s best for the application. I donā€™t have hub-phobia, either, so YMMV.

  • I have a Hue hub. My Hue lights are on it because I like the bulb upgrades. I also like the formulas and routines. With this, I save having to create these things in HASS. I donā€™t add Hue dimmers to the Hue Hub though, because I lose some control. They go elsewhere.
  • I have a Xiaomi Hub. Support is simple. Pairing is simple. I use this for buttons, temperature sensors, and motion sensors.
  • I have a HUSBZB-1. Sengled lights donā€™t work very well on zigbee2mqtt. But they work flawlessly on ZHA/HUSBZB-1. I also add my Sylvania lights here. They work fine with zigbee2mqtt, but I need them as routers to reach my sengled bulbs. I also use this for Hue Dimmers. I would use zigbee2mqtt, but I canā€™t seem to get them to pair. They pair instantly with ZHA.
  • I have zigbee2mqtt. I use this for Xiaomi cubes (because they provide more data than the Xiaomi hub does). Iā€™m also investigating using it for Xiaomi VIbration sensors, since the HASS/Xiaomi implementation for this device is quite poor. I havenā€™t worked out all the kinks yet.

I could easily get rid of the Xiaomi Hub and use just zigbee2mqtt. It works flawlessly for every Xiaomi device Iā€™ve ever tested. But as it stands now, it works just fine with the Xiaomi hub, I enjoy using the hub as a status light and general notification speaker, and thereā€™s no reason to fix something that isnā€™t broken. I could probably also get rid of the hue hub. The few extra things I use from the hub are something I could easily duplicate in HASS. But, it works for now.

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Iā€™d love to move all my Hue/Ikea/Xiaomi devices to Z2M, but having to re-pair all my devices after a firmware update on the CC2531 puts me off going higher than the current ~25 devices currently on there. :frowning:

Thanks for the input! Anyone know if Z2M allows bulbs to belong to multiple or nested groups? The reason I ask is that Hue doesnā€™t support the ability to group several bulbs as a single fixture (so they dim on/off together), while also belonging to a room (so they all dim on/off together).

If Z2M can do that, it would be worth transitioning to! If not, I donā€™t see the benefit for my personal setup.

I think the latest version now supports groups (link below takes you to the 1.1.0 release notes):