Perfect timing Lewis, my SkyConnect arrived last week. I was probably going to end up, like you had, and put off changing over for a few weeks that would have grown into months 😝. Your video however showed me how easy it is going to be, so next days off the transfer will occur. I'm going from a Conbee II (that has worked perfectly) to the SkyConnect. I have alway used ZHA. Cheers ...
Just got my SkyConnect (from YOU!) but don't have a free USB port to have both plugged in at the same time. If I use a hub, that won't work because the port changes when you remove the hub. So... I'm stumped for now. Great video and appreciate it!
The only advantage of the SkyConnect is that it will run a Thread and Zigbee radio at the same time. There is no other reason to update it. Personally, if you only want Zigbee I would suggest stay with the SonOff device. You can keep your Sonoff for Zigbee and configure the SkyConnect as a purely Thread radio if you wanted to also.
Haven't migrated yet. Using a Conbee-II today and just got my Skyconnect in the mail so plan is to migrate to Home Assistant and Skyconnect from Phoscon. Just need to find the time to setup and configure now. 😅
Got the backup transferred over and it's slowly getting there. Maybe I was ambitious in hoping that it would bring across the names of the devices! :D Going to take some time to find out what each sensor it again as they all have the same names!
I received my Sky Connect in the mail today and decided to migrate from my Conbee II stick. The process as described in this video worked flawlessly. Unfortunately, afterwards none of my 43 devices responded. After some investigation I updated the firmware on the Sky Connect, but no improvement. Ultimately, I spent the next 4 hours re-adding every single device to my network. A few are still acting flaky, but I know I need to give it a little time for the network to stabilize. BTW, my Conbee II network was ROCK solid. NEVER any issues. Here's hoping for smooth sailing from here on with Sky Connect. And, here we come Thread/Matter.
@@Dmkjr after about 2 months I was so fed up with the problems I was having with the SkyConnect (constant disconnects and inconsistent responses) that I went back to my Conbee II. Been rock solid, again, ever since.
For Deconz Conbee users: The "Devices" -> "Deconz USB" -> "..." menu reveals a "Download diagnostics" option which yields a text (json) file. Is this equivalent to the backup discussed in the video? (pertaining to ZHA)...
Unfortunately, conbee II with Z2M does not support backup and restore (no coordinator_backup.json file). Wanted to try that today - you can also read about it in the Z2M FAQ. I will probably have to relearn all zigebee devices.
I had a less than stellar experience moving from a Conbee II running ZigBee2MQTT to ZHA and Skyconnect. First, ZHA lacks some of the functionality that Z2M has for some of my devices. Second, every 3 days my ZigBee network would just die and require physically unplugging/plugging the Skyconnect before it could be restarted.
This isn't great to read. I would love to just stick with Z2M if possible. It's what I'm used to and it works really well. Why is ZHA the recommended path with Skyconnect if it lacks features that Z2M has?
@@BrendanBerg I imagine it's because ZHA and Skyconnect are developed by Home Assistant. Also, EZSP (used by Skyconnect and Sonoff ZBDongle-E) support is still experimental with Z2M.
@@felt505 did you add the line in Z2M configuration “adapter: ezsp” ? Mine works fine.. ALTHOUGH it took like 3 to 4 goes until i got z2m starting with Homeassistant… been fine since.
I've recently gotten into using HA and I'm excited to get my sky connect soon. Thank you for the videos they have been super helpful with learning how to manage my ecosystem.
The problem for me is, I have to decide which dongle/technology I want to invest in: - the ZigBee/ZWave combo dongle I have now - the ZigBee/Matter combo SkyConnect dongle I only have ZigBee devices now, so it's a matter (*drum*) of which secondary technology will become a part of my smart home
I advice you to not invest in combo dongles. From a cost perspective they seem great, but if you want to upgrade one of the protocols you're forced to do both.
nice, but the real mess will be to redo all the automations in HA, or is there any easy way to "replace" the "old MQTT devices" in an automation with the "new ZHA devices" ?
Thanks, Lewis. Really helpful. I'm using a GoControl HUSBZB-1 with both Zigbee and Z-wave radios. Do you know anyone who has migrated from this to the SkyConnect? I'd like to continue using the device I have for my Z-wave needs.
Mine has been working perfectly fine. And it's on a rpi 3. You need to use the required USB 2.0 extension with it so could be user error. I've had only one device not work but I think it's a compatibility issue. Many people have noted zha has less functionally than zgibeetomqtt so idk if that's another issue people are worried about
Thank you for the video, how many Skyconnect can you have connect at once in HA? Want to cover all house, and wonder if ccan have two or three to cover all Zigbee devices, TIA
Hi, well done. I appreciate the new migration tool from ZHA, but there is one point that gives me a headache! It concerns the renaming of the IEEE address from the new coordinator during this migration process. In order for the existing Zigbee network to function with the new coordinator, the IEEE address of the new coordinator must be renamed with the same address as the old coordinator... So far everything is ok and the Zigbee network seems working well. What bothers me, is that from then on the 2 Zigbee coordinators have the same IEEE address and this represents a big problem if you want to use the old one in the same Home Assistant instance. A second coordinator must have a different IEEE address and I don't know of any way to change the IEEE address again. This coordinator has actually become unusable for this installation!
How's the signal strength compared to the sonoff Zigbee usb? I guess range may not be a factor with repeaters. But did you notice any lags or any less noticeable performance with the sky connect?
I switched from a raspbee to a skyconnect because i wanted something more potent than my RPi. So far I have a sneaky suspicion it was a downgrade for my zigbee network
I migrated from a Conbee 2 to the Sky Connect yesterday but it did not go as smoothly as shown in the video. I had to pair every device again after waiting a few hours without anything coming back online. Luckily it was only pairing and no need to set up the entities again so it did not take all that much time.
Just connected Sky connect a few days ago. basically it seems all good. I wanted to be prepared for matter. I"m not sure if it's an issue, but I have the feeling that it has an harder job in finding my devices than it was with the previous Zigbee adapter.. I did connect the sky connect to my server using an extension cable to avoid interference. Is it just me or should I do some extra trick ?
I assume the same process works for migrating from conbee II to the built-in Home Assistant Yellow radio? Would there be any other reason why sky connect would be preferred over the HAYellow integrated coordinator since I believe that is also supposed to support thread and matter?
Hey Lewis, thanks so much for this. When I go to the ZHA integration, the "Download backup" setting is greyed out and I can't hit it. My CC2530 Zigbee stick stopped working recently and I want to migrate to a Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 dongle without having to set all the devices up again. Any ideas why that would be greyed out - would it be because the other Zigbee stick is dead? Or have they removed CC2530 from use? Any help would be greatly appreciated - I really don't want to set up 40 devices again.
...but Zigbee2MQTT has such a bigger database of supported devices...won't migrating from Z2M to ZHA cause a lot of people to suffer immediate device compatibility problems? That is the reason I switched from ZHA to Z2M in the first place. Is ZHA a requirement for simultaneously transitioning/support matter devices and network?
Follow the Home Assistant yellow migration guide I did and you should be able to use the backup procedure from this video along with that. Enjoy the yellow!
Got my SkyConnect a while back, but I haven't put it to use yet because everything I have now is Zwave. I wish there was an option like this with Zwave just as a matter of doing a high availability setup, even if it's a manual process. Eventually I'll start trying out some Zigbee/etc devices.
I use Z2M.. in your instructions you do the backup with Z2M and then upload it to ZHA? Does that mean I have to do a migration at the same time? I would actually really like to stay with Z2M, is there a way to restore the backup in Z2M?
Hello. Do you know, it is possible to restore backup to this skyconnect stick only once or more times? Because as far as I remember there is some issue on silabs chips that they allow to change IEEE only once without erase the hole chip with jtag. Can you please check it?
Good question, because this is exactly the point that's bothering me right now and giving me a headache. I just wrote a comment here where I also address this point.
Hello Does it possible to have the same How To for backup Z2M since old coordinator to new coordinator with staying into Z2M I would like to pass since Sonoff P to SLZB-06...
Do you know if you need to do this if you are moving to a different computer - but keeping the same zigbee coordinator? moving my HA instance to a new computer in a VM instead of just on an old laptop
Hi guys, when I hit the "Download Backup" in the Network Settings for my Conbee 2 stick it saves off a json file in my downloads folder on the laptop. If I open this in Notepad++ it is rather tiny, 47 lines and it doesn't mention any of my devices, 17 in total I think... Should they all be listed in this json file?
Thanks a lot, Lewis. i have a follow-up question: Is it possible to use your old sonoff zigbee dongle as a signal extender? I have a big home with a lot of concrete, so I need to extend my network Again, thanks a lot for youre videos
I don't have any zigbee devices just wifi (usually esphome), but planning to start and just received a skyConnect and a Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus. I bough both not known which is better, and I trying to run a redundant copy of HA. Can zigbee devices be connected to multiple coordinators? I haven't even installed ZHA yet, as my first zigbee device has not arrived yet.
Is there any way to easily migrate between z2m and zha? I'm on zha right now and sadly some devices are not fully supported (tuya presence sensor as ex)
Well... not sure what I did but I get the feeling I will be re-adding all of my zigbee devices lol. They just flat out refuse to do anything, even after waiting over an hour and I only have 16 devices. So, at least it's not a lot to re-add! (Edit: Yeah it was me being impatient, nothing more. Lewis isn't kidding when he says wait!)
I had so many problems with Zigbee (yesterday I had a light turning on without any command, HA didn't noticed it either) that I now hate the technology. I reduced my 2.4GHz power to see if it improves, lets see. The current experience so far is really poor.
I just migrated to new radio, the home assistant didn't show me the last config screen. The HA blocked the new radio and I had to go to Repairs and allow change. Then it proceeded to finish the setup.
1:12 can you link me to that video please? I installed new HA on a new SD card, I restored a backup but all my devices are gone, I hope I can restore them with your other video, thanks!
Hi Lewis! Help please! I have a dongle that maybe reaching the device limits, and I can change to sonoff. I am using zigbee2mqtt. In your video you explain the process to ZHA. It is possible do the same but only change the dongle, from zigbee2mqtt and mantain to zigbee2mqtt?? Now my network stop during the day and come back to work and I need to fix this problem. Thanks!!!🙏
Any idea why i get an unknown error when doing the migration? I did the full backup and then clicked migrate and when it's supposed to be resetting my old router, it instead gives me an error: "unknown error occured"
I currently have the SONOFF stick, which has a nice antenna. The Sky Connect doesn’t. Is there any range issues… just wonder if the antenna gives the sonoff better range?
I would love to know the differences between zha and z2mqtt I use the latter with a sonoff stick. Just wondering if it's better or worse to make the switch to zha
I *believe* it's just a case of swapping the coordinators on Zigbee2mqtt because the info is stored in a folder on /config/zigbee2mqtt but I would try it on a test bench first to confirm - I could be completely wrong
@@EverythingSmartHome I removed everything and added the add on again with the sonoff, everything is working better, I saw that you can’t just replace the usb stick when it’s from a conbee 2 to a sonoff
Thanks for the video. I tried everything to migrate from zigbee2mqtt usb-Silicon_Labs_slae.sh_cc2652rb_stick to my new Sky connect dongle, but whatever I try, it keeps saying that it cann't connect. What might be wrong?
I just got one and found it extremely annoying that there is no other documented way to update the firmware than using the browser. Firmware upgrade for Matter support failed on 4 systems so far - On the (HA) Linux server I have no browser - On my development machine (Qubes-OS) the USB access is too limited - On my MacBook the required USB driver can't be installed on macoS Monterey (not supported) - On the 32 bit Debian VM I created on the MacBook, it fails with some error that the current firmware can not be determined I'm starting to get frustrated. Why can't they just create a simple Linux command line tool that works on the machine where the dongle is used?
What about if I'm migrating to a new raspberry pi (upgrading from pi 3 to pi 4 4gb). I have a skyconnect radio and the zha integration is there in my backup and the devices seem to be there but I don't know if it's as easy as plugging the old radio into the new pi or do I need to reconfigure the radio?
For anyone wondering the answer to this question. I transfered from rpi 3 to rpi 4 and I just used the home assistant back up and just plugged the skyconnect dongle in the rpi 4 and everything worked. It took around an hour for all my zigbee devices to reconnect but I didn't have to do anything like in this video.
I tend to use IKEA devices, are they fully supported by Skyconnect or should I get the new IKEA bridge instead/as well? It will also support Matter if it doesn't already I think.
Sort of - IKEA stuff works well, but the 2023 firmware updates need new quirks files which don't arrive fully until 2023-03 (unless you look in the HASS forums and GitHub - my posts show howl
Device support is built into software like ZHA, and does not depend on the stick. The stick only affects range and such. I use a bunch of Ikea lights, switches and plugs with a Conbee II stick and ZHA, works perfectly! My Ikea bridge is disconnected and in a box on the attic.
I wish I had the warning about making sure the Coinbee firmware is up to date when I migrated mine, all the devices needed to be re-paired, and several plain refused to work even then. Took a while to get things running again!
Why migrate from good and working Z2M with a ton of devices and support to ZHA with a lot smaller device base, where even existing devices sometimes have less options to use than Z2M?
@@EverythingSmartHome I was writing this based on my own experience of houses I've worked on. And about new device support, I have no idea about ZHA, but it's easy af to add new one to Z2M on your own by creating an external converter
Are there any benefits to adding ZigBee only devices to a Thread Border Router? I've seen some reviewers state that you should keep your ZigBee only devices on your existing ZigBee controller. According to what I read, Thread performance degrades with too many ZigBee devices.
I'm about to move away from a tubes ZB ethernet based ZigBee hub to a skyconnect. Moving house so taking the opportunity to nuke everything and start fresh at the new place. I've been using ZHA, but I just wish ZHA was better with firmware updates. Tempted to use the old dongle with Z2M purely for firmware updating new devices
So say if I get a new device, like a new pi because I only have a pi 3b although I haven’t decided what to get yet. Would I need to backup and restore my zigbee network like in this video? Or would that just with the HA backup and restore? I have a SkyConnect
i have big problems adding mine to my HA. However, I have a working zigstar gw but want to switch to skyconnect. So for now it will probably have to wait as it feels like a beta product.
@@EverythingSmartHome Just in case I was not clear, I do not want to use ZHA. I want to go from a Z2M stick to the YELLOW and keep using Z2M utilizing the on board antenna on the Yellow and not have to re pair anything so yeah you know bing-bang easy right??! Probably not.. Maybe your answer is the same but just wanted to double check since I have failed so far in my attempts.
Hi Luis, Nice video, unfortunately the process is not as straight forward as it may look. Actually to migrate from zigbee2mqtt, you don't even need a backup you could just use the same radio first in ZHA with the same network, then migrate the radio. Unfortunately the entities will be different, most of them you can edit one by one and assign the same entity name they use to have, i my case for example the sonoff zbmini, zigbee2mqtt will detect hem as switches, and ZHA as lights, and because they not on the same domain you can rename them. Anyway for me was a disappointing experience, from the 50 devices, even with the backup or use the old radio, zha will only see about 18 devices, the rest have to manually be added. But the biggest disappointing is the ZHA itself, after few hours or renaming entities, adding manually the missing once, I realise the ZHA is so much inferior, for example, for my tuya TS130F blinds switch, zigbee2mqtt exposes (state, position, moving, calibration, motor_reversal, backlight, calibration_time, linkquality) but zha only exposes (state and position) how one suppose to calibrate them? Anyway, I restore from a backups and I´m back at where I was 5 hours ago, I guess that's why they say, if something is working, don't break it. I could live with it as is is, but I di need to recalibrate the blinders once a month, so for now I´m back to Zigbee2Mqtt...
@Salvamipc What you say is also my experience. Migration to SkyConnect is very straightforward. Changing the names of all the devices and entities is a nightmare! I gave up and reverted to Z2Mqtt. I have over 40 Zigbee devices and "many" automations and scripts. The migration was a worthwhile process to prove how easy it is to change co-ordinators, but it has exposed the need for renaming devices, entities, automations and scripts.
@@B-a_s-H When one host goes down, the virtual machine fails over to the other hypervisor ... at that point even if that new hypervisor has a zigbee dongle it won't work because it needs to be the same stick not a different one ...
@@SliphRahl Hmmm ,that sucks. I use HA on docker and have a spare machine running with an identical setup. I have no problems running my container on the other machine. Was under the impression that a hypervisor would be capable of the same.
@@B-a_s-H Did you have to do anything to the secondary USB dongle for the Zigbee devices to connect to it? I'm wanting to do the same thing with my vSphere setup. Currently using a SONOFF Zigbee USB on my primary node.
@@razredge68 It's been a while since I've tested that setup but nope, nothing in particular as far as I can remember. Both dongles are identical (SONOFF ZBDongle-B). I do remember that it does take a little while for the Zigbee network to be available again and that you also (obviously) can't run both simultaniously.
Can you make automation in node-red to change(modulate) the temperature of a heat pump depending on the outside temperature and the ambiental temperature? Decreasing the temperature of the heat pump when approaching target temperature.
Great video. Unfortunately, it's different for me. Moving from ZHA to ZHA, as soon as I have selected the new stick (skyconnect) I am asked for the radio type (EZSP for skyconnect), but I always get error messages afterwards. Anyone here feel the same? Or does someone have a solution for this?
@@EverythingSmartHome i running HA OS with the newest Version. I tried many things, i even completely de-energized the rpi. Dont know what else to do. Dont know if the problem was, that when i plugged in the skyconnect, it automatically installed the multiprotocol?
Has anyone tried to do this when enabling multi-pan. My experience did not go well and I had to go back to my old coordinator. It only ever worked for a short amount of time when I flashed the skyconnect to the zigbee only firmware
@@EverythingSmartHome multi protocol is what I meant. So I guess what I should ask first is what firmware comes on the device when shipped? They have the zigbee only and the RCP Multi-Pan. I am assuming it ships with Zigbee only and you have to changed the firmware to support matter and zigbee but I am not 100% clear. I only got mine to work when I flashed the zigbee only firmware. It worked for a few days then I had issues and moved back to my old coordinator.
Can this process be used to migrate to an HA Yellow if I set it up using a backup, then plug the old USB Zigbee radio into the Yellow, then go through the Migrate Radio process?
@@Ludeatude Sorry. As I've edited my post already. It just doesn't work with a Conbee stick as coordinator. Gues it doesn't have anything to do with the HA Core.
@@EverythingSmartHome Correct. The configuration.yaml, database.db and states.json. As far as I know the backup function is only shpportes by the "Texas Instruments..." based sticks.
@@EverythingSmartHome I have the same problem. Backing up on ConBee2/RaspBee2 only creates configuration.yaml, database.db, devices.yaml, groups.yaml and state.json. ConBee2/RaspBee2 unfortunately does not support the creation of coordinator_backup.json. Looks like I have to repair all my devices.
I'm glad to hear that Zigbee is running smoothly for you and probably many others, but at the same time there are many users really frustrated over Zigbee experience and ZHA implementation in particular. Recent HA updates make things even worse. And yes, I'm using recommended coordinator and it is even plugged with use of USB extension cable to minimize interference, and network is not congested with only a handful of devices. I understand that we are talking about thousands of different hardware/software configurations and their own niuances but I see way too often that devs just won't admit that there are some well known issues that need to be addressed.
Haven't personally ran into any issues and I have around 80 devices or so. I know someone else with over 200 devices running without problems too - difficult for me to comment
Just got my SkyConnect on the mail. Searched how to migrate and found this video, posted 4 minutes ago! Absolute perfect timing! Thanks!
Love to hear it! 🙌🏻
Perfect timing Lewis, my SkyConnect arrived last week. I was probably going to end up, like you had, and put off changing over for a few weeks that would have grown into months 😝. Your video however showed me how easy it is going to be, so next days off the transfer will occur. I'm going from a Conbee II (that has worked perfectly) to the SkyConnect. I have alway used ZHA. Cheers ...
Nice one, enjoy! 🙌🏻
I'm in the same camp - I hope it works well for you!
Just got my SkyConnect (from YOU!) but don't have a free USB port to have both plugged in at the same time. If I use a hub, that won't work because the port changes when you remove the hub. So... I'm stumped for now. Great video and appreciate it!
I just ordered a SkyConnect. I'm currently using a ConBee II and ZHA. Great video as always, thanks
I am missing the part where you do the shift in Z2M 🙂
Thanks Lewis! Other than having Matter and Thread support, are there any other advantages for the SkyConnect over using the Sonoff 3.0?
The only advantage of the SkyConnect is that it will run a Thread and Zigbee radio at the same time. There is no other reason to update it. Personally, if you only want Zigbee I would suggest stay with the SonOff device. You can keep your Sonoff for Zigbee and configure the SkyConnect as a purely Thread radio if you wanted to also.
They will both perform the same from a pure ZigBee point of view, either should be great for ZigBee only
cheers for that, short and useful. Still on Conbee II for now
Amazing, I was wondering what to do when I received the dongle. Received yesterday and migrated thanks to your video. Thanks!
Haven't migrated yet. Using a Conbee-II today and just got my Skyconnect in the mail so plan is to migrate to Home Assistant and Skyconnect from Phoscon. Just need to find the time to setup and configure now. 😅
Got the backup transferred over and it's slowly getting there. Maybe I was ambitious in hoping that it would bring across the names of the devices! :D Going to take some time to find out what each sensor it again as they all have the same names!
I received my Sky Connect in the mail today and decided to migrate from my Conbee II stick. The process as described in this video worked flawlessly. Unfortunately, afterwards none of my 43 devices responded. After some investigation I updated the firmware on the Sky Connect, but no improvement. Ultimately, I spent the next 4 hours re-adding every single device to my network. A few are still acting flaky, but I know I need to give it a little time for the network to stabilize. BTW, my Conbee II network was ROCK solid. NEVER any issues. Here's hoping for smooth sailing from here on with Sky Connect. And, here we come Thread/Matter.
After 5 months… how is it? Looking at replacing my ZB and ZW hub with the SkyConnect (received today)
@@Dmkjr after about 2 months I was so fed up with the problems I was having with the SkyConnect (constant disconnects and inconsistent responses) that I went back to my Conbee II. Been rock solid, again, ever since.
@@MrBfish eh, that’s disappointing to hear. I’m going to give it a good ol’ boy try. But won’t deal with it being lackluster very long.
For Deconz Conbee users:
The "Devices" -> "Deconz USB" -> "..." menu reveals a "Download diagnostics" option which yields a text (json) file. Is this equivalent to the backup discussed in the video? (pertaining to ZHA)...
Would like to know this too. Currently on deconz with conbee ii stick as well
+1 but i don’t think so 😢
Unfortunately, conbee II with Z2M does not support backup and restore (no coordinator_backup.json file). Wanted to try that today - you can also read about it in the Z2M FAQ. I will probably have to relearn all zigebee devices.
Hey Lewis, i currently have a conbee 2 and deconz. What is the best path to running sky connect over zha?
I had a less than stellar experience moving from a Conbee II running ZigBee2MQTT to ZHA and Skyconnect. First, ZHA lacks some of the functionality that Z2M has for some of my devices. Second, every 3 days my ZigBee network would just die and require physically unplugging/plugging the Skyconnect before it could be restarted.
Is it better now?
This isn't great to read. I would love to just stick with Z2M if possible. It's what I'm used to and it works really well. Why is ZHA the recommended path with Skyconnect if it lacks features that Z2M has?
@@EverythingSmartHome Yes! Everything works great now that I switched back. 😆
@@BrendanBerg I imagine it's because ZHA and Skyconnect are developed by Home Assistant. Also, EZSP (used by Skyconnect and Sonoff ZBDongle-E) support is still experimental with Z2M.
@@felt505 did you add the line in Z2M configuration “adapter: ezsp” ? Mine works fine.. ALTHOUGH it took like 3 to 4 goes until i got z2m starting with Homeassistant… been fine since.
Is there a procedure for Deconz too?
I would like to migrate from Deconz to ZHA, but I don't know if that's even possible...
I'm not sure sorry I don't use Deconz at all - I don't think there is but could be wrong
I've recently gotten into using HA and I'm excited to get my sky connect soon. Thank you for the videos they have been super helpful with learning how to manage my ecosystem.
Amazing, enjoy!
The problem for me is, I have to decide which dongle/technology I want to invest in:
- the ZigBee/ZWave combo dongle I have now
- the ZigBee/Matter combo SkyConnect dongle
I only have ZigBee devices now, so it's a matter (*drum*) of which secondary technology will become a part of my smart home
I advice you to not invest in combo dongles. From a cost perspective they seem great, but if you want to upgrade one of the protocols you're forced to do both.
nice, but the real mess will be to redo all the automations in HA, or is there any easy way to "replace" the "old MQTT devices" in an automation with the "new ZHA devices" ?
Thanks, Lewis. Really helpful. I'm using a GoControl HUSBZB-1 with both Zigbee and Z-wave radios. Do you know anyone who has migrated from this to the SkyConnect? I'd like to continue using the device I have for my Z-wave needs.
I would love to hear your thoughts on how well the skyconnect is performing for Zigbee. I've heard some not great things.
Mine has been working perfectly fine. And it's on a rpi 3. You need to use the required USB 2.0 extension with it so could be user error. I've had only one device not work but I think it's a compatibility issue. Many people have noted zha has less functionally than zgibeetomqtt so idk if that's another issue people are worried about
Thank you for the video, how many Skyconnect can you have connect at once in HA? Want to cover all house, and wonder if ccan have two or three to cover all Zigbee devices, TIA
Hi, well done.
I appreciate the new migration tool from ZHA, but there is one point that gives me a headache!
It concerns the renaming of the IEEE address from the new coordinator during this migration process.
In order for the existing Zigbee network to function with the new coordinator, the IEEE address of the new coordinator must be renamed with the same address as the old coordinator... So far everything is ok and the Zigbee network seems working well.
What bothers me, is that from then on the 2 Zigbee coordinators have the same IEEE address and this represents a big problem if you want to use the old one in the same Home Assistant instance. A second coordinator must have a different IEEE address and I don't know of any way to change the IEEE address again.
This coordinator has actually become unusable for this installation!
How's the signal strength compared to the sonoff Zigbee usb? I guess range may not be a factor with repeaters. But did you notice any lags or any less noticeable performance with the sky connect?
It reports a higher LQI for me but my devices go unavailable even when right next to it so...
Can't wait for mine to get here and migrate over. It's also nice that it lists as being able to update firmware without unplugging it and all that.
technically you can. its just that all of it needs to be done via ssh.
Enjoy once it arrives! 🙏🏻
does a zigbee netwok cost the same as a normal boardband wifi?
Perfect timing ... just about to move from ConbeeII over to a Sonoff :D
Just wondering why? Curious about what advantages there are of the Sonoff over Conbee II?
I am using conbee 2 and not planning to change it… but this is great to know that there is an easy way to do so if required… thanks !
I switched from a raspbee to a skyconnect because i wanted something more potent than my RPi. So far I have a sneaky suspicion it was a downgrade for my zigbee network
I migrated from a Conbee 2 to the Sky Connect yesterday but it did not go as smoothly as shown in the video. I had to pair every device again after waiting a few hours without anything coming back online. Luckily it was only pairing and no need to set up the entities again so it did not take all that much time.
@@jjaldenhow did you migrate , how did you take the backup of the conbee in deconz
@@jjalden 😮
Just connected Sky connect a few days ago. basically it seems all good. I wanted to be prepared for matter. I"m not sure if it's an issue, but I have the feeling that it has an harder job in finding my devices than it was with the previous Zigbee adapter.. I did connect the sky connect to my server using an extension cable to avoid interference. Is it just me or should I do some extra trick ?
Would you recommend sky connect over other devices?
I assume the same process works for migrating from conbee II to the built-in Home Assistant Yellow radio? Would there be any other reason why sky connect would be preferred over the HAYellow integrated coordinator since I believe that is also supposed to support thread and matter?
Hey Lewis, thanks so much for this. When I go to the ZHA integration, the "Download backup" setting is greyed out and I can't hit it. My CC2530 Zigbee stick stopped working recently and I want to migrate to a Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 dongle without having to set all the devices up again. Any ideas why that would be greyed out - would it be because the other Zigbee stick is dead? Or have they removed CC2530 from use? Any help would be greatly appreciated - I really don't want to set up 40 devices again.
...but Zigbee2MQTT has such a bigger database of supported devices...won't migrating from Z2M to ZHA cause a lot of people to suffer immediate device compatibility problems? That is the reason I switched from ZHA to Z2M in the first place. Is ZHA a requirement for simultaneously transitioning/support matter devices and network?
Very informative. I will shortly be moving from a NUC/Conbee platform over to a Yellow. Would the procedure be the same? Thanks.
Follow the Home Assistant yellow migration guide I did and you should be able to use the backup procedure from this video along with that.
Enjoy the yellow!
Got my SkyConnect a while back, but I haven't put it to use yet because everything I have now is Zwave. I wish there was an option like this with Zwave just as a matter of doing a high availability setup, even if it's a manual process. Eventually I'll start trying out some Zigbee/etc devices.
I use Z2M.. in your instructions you do the backup with Z2M and then upload it to ZHA? Does that mean I have to do a migration at the same time? I would actually really like to stay with Z2M, is there a way to restore the backup in Z2M?
Will this process work if I am changing to a SMLIGHT SLZB-06? Going from USB to Wifi?
Hello. Do you know, it is possible to restore backup to this skyconnect stick only once or more times? Because as far as I remember there is some issue on silabs chips that they allow to change IEEE only once without erase the hole chip with jtag. Can you please check it?
Good question, because this is exactly the point that's bothering me right now and giving me a headache. I just wrote a comment here where I also address this point.
Hello
Does it possible to have the same How To for backup Z2M since old coordinator to new coordinator with staying into Z2M
I would like to pass since Sonoff P to SLZB-06...
Thanks man!! just what i was looking for, My new coordinator is on its way :D
Nice one 🙌🏻
I know this is old video. Is there any reason you have not used sky connect recommended USB extension cable in your demo/setup?
Do you know if you need to do this if you are moving to a different computer - but keeping the same zigbee coordinator? moving my HA instance to a new computer in a VM instead of just on an old laptop
Hi guys, when I hit the "Download Backup" in the Network Settings for my Conbee 2 stick it saves off a json file in my downloads folder on the laptop. If I open this in Notepad++ it is rather tiny, 47 lines and it doesn't mention any of my devices, 17 in total I think... Should they all be listed in this json file?
Thanks a lot, Lewis. i have a follow-up question: Is it possible to use your old sonoff zigbee dongle as a signal extender? I have a big home with a lot of concrete, so I need to extend my network
Again, thanks a lot for youre videos
You can. There is a firmware you can flash to the Sonoff stick to enable that functionality (just do a websearch for 'sonoff stick signal repeater').
@@B-a_s-H thanks a lot!!!
Hello do you think it will work migrate from Conbee 2 to Conbee 3 in ZHA?
I don't have any zigbee devices just wifi (usually esphome), but planning to start and just received a skyConnect and a Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus. I bough both not known which is better, and I trying to run a redundant copy of HA. Can zigbee devices be connected to multiple coordinators? I haven't even installed ZHA yet, as my first zigbee device has not arrived yet.
Thanks very useful and easy with such a good guide
Is there any way to easily migrate between z2m and zha?
I'm on zha right now and sadly some devices are not fully supported (tuya presence sensor as ex)
Well... not sure what I did but I get the feeling I will be re-adding all of my zigbee devices lol. They just flat out refuse to do anything, even after waiting over an hour and I only have 16 devices. So, at least it's not a lot to re-add! (Edit: Yeah it was me being impatient, nothing more. Lewis isn't kidding when he says wait!)
Haha glad to hear they came back eventually!! It's a bit worrying when nothing is happening for so long 😆
I had so many problems with Zigbee (yesterday I had a light turning on without any command, HA didn't noticed it either) that I now hate the technology. I reduced my 2.4GHz power to see if it improves, lets see. The current experience so far is really poor.
😬
I just migrated to new radio, the home assistant didn't show me the last config screen. The HA blocked the new radio and I had to go to Repairs and allow change. Then it proceeded to finish the setup.
1:12 can you link me to that video please? I installed new HA on a new SD card, I restored a backup but all my devices are gone, I hope I can restore them with your other video, thanks!
Hi Lewis! Help please! I have a dongle that maybe reaching the device limits, and I can change to sonoff. I am using zigbee2mqtt. In your video you explain the process to ZHA. It is possible do the same but only change the dongle, from zigbee2mqtt and mantain to zigbee2mqtt?? Now my network stop during the day and come back to work and I need to fix this problem. Thanks!!!🙏
Any idea why i get an unknown error when doing the migration? I did the full backup and then clicked migrate and when it's supposed to be resetting my old router, it instead gives me an error: "unknown error occured"
How its it's possible to fix devices not working properly on Jason with ZHA?
Thanks
I currently have the SONOFF stick, which has a nice antenna. The Sky Connect doesn’t. Is there any range issues… just wonder if the antenna gives the sonoff better range?
I don't imagine you'll have issues since the cool thing about ZigBee is its mesh functionality but I'm not an antenna expert either
I would love to know the differences between zha and z2mqtt I use the latter with a sonoff stick. Just wondering if it's better or worse to make the switch to zha
Best to check device compatibility with both and see which one is better for you
And how about Zigbee2MQTT old stick to Zigbee2MQTT new stick? I want to replace my old ConBee II with a sonoff one, thanks!
So the backup function doesn't work at all when migrating to a new coordinator?
I *believe* it's just a case of swapping the coordinators on Zigbee2mqtt because the info is stored in a folder on /config/zigbee2mqtt but I would try it on a test bench first to confirm - I could be completely wrong
Curious why you want to do this? What's the advantage of using the Sonoff over Conbee II?
@@EverythingSmartHome Thanks! Will probably try that soon :)
@@EverythingSmartHome I removed everything and added the add on again with the sonoff, everything is working better, I saw that you can’t just replace the usb stick when it’s from a conbee 2 to a sonoff
Thanks for the video. I tried everything to migrate from zigbee2mqtt usb-Silicon_Labs_slae.sh_cc2652rb_stick to my new Sky connect dongle, but whatever I try, it keeps saying that it cann't connect. What might be wrong?
I just got one and found it extremely annoying that there is no other documented way to update the firmware than using the browser.
Firmware upgrade for Matter support failed on 4 systems so far
- On the (HA) Linux server I have no browser
- On my development machine (Qubes-OS) the USB access is too limited
- On my MacBook the required USB driver can't be installed on macoS Monterey (not supported)
- On the 32 bit Debian VM I created on the MacBook, it fails with some error that the current firmware can not be determined
I'm starting to get frustrated. Why can't they just create a simple Linux command line tool that works on the machine where the dongle is used?
What about if I'm migrating to a new raspberry pi (upgrading from pi 3 to pi 4 4gb). I have a skyconnect radio and the zha integration is there in my backup and the devices seem to be there but I don't know if it's as easy as plugging the old radio into the new pi or do I need to reconfigure the radio?
For anyone wondering the answer to this question. I transfered from rpi 3 to rpi 4 and I just used the home assistant back up and just plugged the skyconnect dongle in the rpi 4 and everything worked. It took around an hour for all my zigbee devices to reconnect but I didn't have to do anything like in this video.
I tend to use IKEA devices, are they fully supported by Skyconnect or should I get the new IKEA bridge instead/as well? It will also support Matter if it doesn't already I think.
Sort of - IKEA stuff works well, but the 2023 firmware updates need new quirks files which don't arrive fully until 2023-03 (unless you look in the HASS forums and GitHub - my posts show howl
Device support is built into software like ZHA, and does not depend on the stick. The stick only affects range and such.
I use a bunch of Ikea lights, switches and plugs with a Conbee II stick and ZHA, works perfectly! My Ikea bridge is disconnected and in a box on the attic.
Yes as above it's software dependant not hardware
5:18 are you rewinding? ;)
I wish I had the warning about making sure the Coinbee firmware is up to date when I migrated mine, all the devices needed to be re-paired, and several plain refused to work even then. Took a while to get things running again!
Ughhh can imagine that wouldn't be the best situation to find yourself in!
Why migrate from good and working Z2M with a ton of devices and support to ZHA with a lot smaller device base, where even existing devices sometimes have less options to use than Z2M?
That's a very generalised sweeping and incorrect statement. Often Z2M has support for devices quicker yes, but not EVERY time.
@@EverythingSmartHome I was writing this based on my own experience of houses I've worked on. And about new device support, I have no idea about ZHA, but it's easy af to add new one to Z2M on your own by creating an external converter
Are there any benefits to adding ZigBee only devices to a Thread Border Router?
I've seen some reviewers state that you should keep your ZigBee only devices on your existing ZigBee controller. According to what I read, Thread performance degrades with too many ZigBee devices.
I'm not sure I follow what you're asking sorry
I'm about to move away from a tubes ZB ethernet based ZigBee hub to a skyconnect. Moving house so taking the opportunity to nuke everything and start fresh at the new place.
I've been using ZHA, but I just wish ZHA was better with firmware updates. Tempted to use the old dongle with Z2M purely for firmware updating new devices
So say if I get a new device, like a new pi because I only have a pi 3b although I haven’t decided what to get yet. Would I need to backup and restore my zigbee network like in this video? Or would that just with the HA backup and restore? I have a SkyConnect
Most ZigBee settings are backed-up or on the coordinator, but this works best ZHA -> ZHA, and not with ZigBee2Mqtt or conbee.
@@jamesderrick8201 thanks! I’ve got a SkyConnect on ZHA, just wondered what would happen when I change to a new pi or something else
i have big problems adding mine to my HA. However, I have a working zigstar gw but want to switch to skyconnect. So for now it will probably have to wait as it feels like a beta product.
What problems?
I gets Failed to probe the usb device every time I try to add it
How about a how to explaining the most painless way to migrate a Z2M dongle to the onboard chip on the Yellow W/O needing to re pair everything!
Should be the same process!
@@EverythingSmartHome Just in case I was not clear, I do not want to use ZHA. I want to go from a Z2M stick to the YELLOW and keep using Z2M utilizing the on board antenna on the Yellow and not have to re pair anything so yeah you know bing-bang easy right??! Probably not.. Maybe your answer is the same but just wanted to double check since I have failed so far in my attempts.
Sorry but there is no coordinator.json file in the backup ???
"Written Article:" just links to the website?
Will get it up in a couple days
Hi Luis, Nice video, unfortunately the process is not as straight forward as it may look. Actually to migrate from zigbee2mqtt, you don't even need a backup you could just use the same radio first in ZHA with the same network, then migrate the radio. Unfortunately the entities will be different, most of them you can edit one by one and assign the same entity name they use to have, i my case for example the sonoff zbmini, zigbee2mqtt will detect hem as switches, and ZHA as lights, and because they not on the same domain you can rename them.
Anyway for me was a disappointing experience, from the 50 devices, even with the backup or use the old radio, zha will only see about 18 devices, the rest have to manually be added. But the biggest disappointing is the ZHA itself, after few hours or renaming entities, adding manually the missing once, I realise the ZHA is so much inferior, for example, for my tuya TS130F blinds switch, zigbee2mqtt exposes (state, position, moving, calibration, motor_reversal, backlight, calibration_time, linkquality) but zha only exposes (state and position) how one suppose to calibrate them?
Anyway, I restore from a backups and I´m back at where I was 5 hours ago, I guess that's why they say, if something is working, don't break it. I could live with it as is is, but I di need to recalibrate the blinders once a month, so for now I´m back to Zigbee2Mqtt...
@Salvamipc What you say is also my experience. Migration to SkyConnect is very straightforward. Changing the names of all the devices and entities is a nightmare! I gave up and reverted to Z2Mqtt.
I have over 40 Zigbee devices and "many" automations and scripts. The migration was a worthwhile process to prove how easy it is to change co-ordinators, but it has exposed the need for renaming devices, entities, automations and scripts.
What about if HomeAssistant is running on a hypervisor ... any idea how to move to a different stick when migrating to a different host?
What hypervisor are you running? (it should be fairly simple on most of them, though).
@@B-a_s-H When one host goes down, the virtual machine fails over to the other hypervisor ... at that point even if that new hypervisor has a zigbee dongle it won't work because it needs to be the same stick not a different one ...
@@SliphRahl Hmmm ,that sucks. I use HA on docker and have a spare machine running with an identical setup. I have no problems running my container on the other machine. Was under the impression that a hypervisor would be capable of the same.
@@B-a_s-H Did you have to do anything to the secondary USB dongle for the Zigbee devices to connect to it? I'm wanting to do the same thing with my vSphere setup. Currently using a SONOFF Zigbee USB on my primary node.
@@razredge68 It's been a while since I've tested that setup but nope, nothing in particular as far as I can remember. Both dongles are identical (SONOFF ZBDongle-B). I do remember that it does take a little while for the Zigbee network to be available again and that you also (obviously) can't run both simultaniously.
Can you make automation in node-red to change(modulate) the temperature of a heat pump depending on the outside temperature and the ambiental temperature? Decreasing the temperature of the heat pump when approaching target temperature.
I don't use NodeRed sorry
Yes you can, you can use the HA integration in Node Red if you use ZHA. Or you can just subscribe and publish MQTT messages if you use Z2M
@@dan-nutu can you do it?
@@pabll0 I can't tell if you're joking or trolling. Yes, I actually use Node Red to interact with Zigbee devices, it's easy.
@@dan-nutu i'm very serious about this. I am using a heat pump connected to WiFi. I will be very grateful if you can help.
Great video. Unfortunately, it's different for me. Moving from ZHA to ZHA, as soon as I have selected the new stick (skyconnect) I am asked for the radio type (EZSP for skyconnect), but I always get error messages afterwards. Anyone here feel the same? Or does someone have a solution for this?
What HA version are you on? Did you try rebooting the whole server (not just HA)?
@@EverythingSmartHome i running HA OS with the newest Version. I tried many things, i even completely de-energized the rpi. Dont know what else to do.
Dont know if the problem was, that when i plugged in the skyconnect, it automatically installed the multiprotocol?
Has anyone tried to do this when enabling multi-pan. My experience did not go well and I had to go back to my old coordinator. It only ever worked for a short amount of time when I flashed the skyconnect to the zigbee only firmware
Not sure what you mean sorry, enabling multi pan before the backup?
@@EverythingSmartHome multi protocol is what I meant. So I guess what I should ask first is what firmware comes on the device when shipped? They have the zigbee only and the RCP Multi-Pan. I am assuming it ships with Zigbee only and you have to changed the firmware to support matter and zigbee but I am not 100% clear. I only got mine to work when I flashed the zigbee only firmware. It worked for a few days then I had issues and moved back to my old coordinator.
Is there a router firmware for SkyConnect?
Not sure yet sorry
Can this process be used to migrate to an HA Yellow if I set it up using a backup, then plug the old USB Zigbee radio into the Yellow, then go through the Migrate Radio process?
Sort of - search for my Yellow migration post on the HASS form.
You should be able to, get the old coordinator working first then do the migration done like in this video
Great!
This does NOT work if you are using a Conbee2 Stick as ccordinator like i do! There is no "coordinator_backup.json" inside the .zip folder.
Oh no. I run HA Core too.
@@Ludeatude Sorry. As I've edited my post already. It just doesn't work with a Conbee stick as coordinator. Gues it doesn't have anything to do with the HA Core.
Your talking about zigbee2mqtt? What files do you have?
@@EverythingSmartHome Correct. The configuration.yaml, database.db and states.json.
As far as I know the backup function is only shpportes by the "Texas Instruments..." based sticks.
@@EverythingSmartHome I have the same problem. Backing up on ConBee2/RaspBee2 only creates configuration.yaml, database.db, devices.yaml, groups.yaml and state.json. ConBee2/RaspBee2 unfortunately does not support the creation of coordinator_backup.json. Looks like I have to repair all my devices.
I'm glad to hear that Zigbee is running smoothly for you and probably many others, but at the same time there are many users really frustrated over Zigbee experience and ZHA implementation in particular. Recent HA updates make things even worse. And yes, I'm using recommended coordinator and it is even plugged with use of USB extension cable to minimize interference, and network is not congested with only a handful of devices.
I understand that we are talking about thousands of different hardware/software configurations and their own niuances but I see way too often that devs just won't admit that there are some well known issues that need to be addressed.
Haven't personally ran into any issues and I have around 80 devices or so. I know someone else with over 200 devices running without problems too - difficult for me to comment
I have a top secret special release Zigbee stick. You wouldn't know about it.
Damn, you got access to that? I'm jealous...
@@EverythingSmartHome yeah, I'm not surprised. Only the most talented and dedicated smart home aficionados got them.
Thx!
Thank you!
damn, I need to migrate from deconz :/
Don't touch it when it works... (and there is no benefit over on the new solution)
Funny how everyone dont want to show how to migrate the conbee sticks just any other 🤔🤔
I said several times you can use it for any other stick?
@@EverythingSmartHome with conbee you need to update the firmware first if you got old firmware on it
First
🍪
Ha 2023.2 broke my ZHA compatibility with my stick. So far for a "stable ecosystem".
What do you mean by compatibility? As in, it removed compatible devices?
Why doesn't this or anyone cover any way to backup and restore on Zigbee2MQTT and not ZHA?