Fixing my Zigbee with a network Zigbee coordinator
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- Опубліковано 26 вер 2024
- My Zigbee network became really unreliable and devices kept disconnecting from the network, making my smart home very un-smart. This is the story of the troubleshooting I did, and how I eventually fixed it.
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Improving your Zigbee network reliability (Rock Solid Zigbee): • Improve Zigbee network...
SMLight SLZB-06 Coordinator: smartlight.me/...
Okay, I'm a home automation enthusiast from Kyiv, Ukraine. I am using my Xiaomi Gateway v3 with custom firmware from alexxit and it does not always work well, that's why I came here for your experience. Little did I know, there's a multi-protocol hub from a company from Ukraine! I spilled my tea onto my keyboard when I heard it from you, crying "WHAT?!" :D
Man, I live in Mordor, and even here I've heard about this device :)
Support your country, shop local!
Your "WTF" was gold. I was exactly there a few months go.
Thank you for being fully transparent by saying you bought this with your own money. I appreciate that.
No problem! People offer to send me things every day to review on the channel, but I turn them down. I just do this as a hobby because I'm a nerd and find it fun, I have a day job that pays me enough to live on.
they have to per UA-cam rules lol
@@chimpo131😂
Sounds painful, but valuable learning and troubleshooting for us all. Thanks for sharing. When I got started with Zigbee, I used a Conbee II and had loads of reliability issues. Then, I switched to a Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Gateway, and I’ve never had a device drop offline since. Both gateways were in the same location in my house.
Sonoff make great hardware, that's a solid USB dongle, I had one of those for agest in my old house and it was flawless.
Why didn't you continue using the Sonoff?
@@StrayTechLTDExactly.
Which one? P or E dongle from Sonoff?
@@StrayTechLTD because I wanted to move my coordinator out of the basement into the center of my house
This was great for us to see. It doesn't matter how good you are at something, mistakes happen. But when they do, learning from them is the best thing.
100% agree
I had the same issue. I am running ioBroker as smarthome system on a Synology under Docker. I used the Standard Zigbee Adapter with a USB Sonoff Stick. All of this placed in the Basement with a huge Zigbee Router Backend. Everything went well, then after a few weeks Devices start to become offline.
Switching to the same SLZB-06 Coordinater placed in the first floor and using zigbee2Mqtt as Middleware solved all the issues and the Zigbee Network is now rock solid. I was also able to remove some routers that didn't had any function other than just stabilizing the Network and I do not have to play around with USB which is a mess on a Synology with docker.
Awesome to hear! Glad it's working for you!
Omg you have NO IDEA how much I needed this video!!! THANK YOU!
I'm glad you liked it!
I switched from SONOFF Dongle-E with the SMLight-SLZB-06 POE and have been extremely happy. I did do a full reset including clearing off the device but that was in part to clear out other issues.
Zigbee spring clean! 🌱
This is perfect timing! In the past weeks I have been migrating my 100+ network from ZHA with SkyConnect to Z2M on a dedicated PI with some Sonoff Dongle E's as coordinators and routers. Everything was going great until earlier this week when the cascading disconnect started exactly as you described. Tears weren't far away either...
I was considering splitting my network and running 2 instances of Z2M but this had drawbacks like pulling long USB cables as you described. This sounds muuuuch better! Thanks so much, you have made my life easier!
As you I have a lot of Aqara H1 wired switches, I read in a few places that they are notoriously bad team players on non-Aqara Zigbee networks. Hopefully this coordinator will set them straight.
So far my Aqara switches have behaved ok with my Z2M and coordinators! 🤞
It is strange that so many users are having the same problem these days, isn't there some problem with the network protocol or even with the home assistant itself?
I was watching a another youtuber (digiblue DIY) and he mentioned that Aqara's Zigbee 1.2 devices had serious problems and didn't follow the protocol properly. He then said that Aqara's Zigbee 3.0 devices were fine.
I haven't started yet, just in research phase, so maybe this isn't a thing, hopefully you can update the firmware on said devices and get them up to v3.
@affieuk good to know and a little reassuring. The issue might have come from the Sonoff Dongle E coordinator with the ezsp adapter. Ezsp is going in the trashcan and is replaced by Ember which seems to have a lot more support and momentum, Z2M has moved the Dongle E to a recommended coordinator as a result. It seems a lot of issues might have gotten resolved without needing to switch hardware and repair everything (migration from ezsp to ember only requires a firmware and setting upates) but it's still early days so I am still happy with my choice to move back to the older tried and tested hardware and zstack adapter. So far it looks solid.
Glad it worked out! Though that truly sounds like the Skyconnect was the culprit, rather than the location of the coordinator. I’ve got a Sonoff coordinator located at the extreme end of a long apartment with ~70 devices and it is solid.
It's been solid so far! But I figured it can't hurt to move the coordinator to a more central and less electromagnetic location
@@HomeAutomationGuydefinitely worth it!
@@HomeAutomationGuythough now I want one of the network coordinators for sheer nerd value and not for any practical reason. 😂
i have a usb 2652 chipset coordinator and ordering the smlight 2652. Hoping I can switch coordinators without even repairing. Thanks for the video!! You helped my decision on switching to the POE coordinator :)
Great video! In my case i'm using ZHA with the sky connect dongle and it worked unstable and once or two time per day my zigbee network became unavailable and now i changed the protocol from the experimental zigbee/thread to just zigbee protocol and now it has been working fine and stable now.
Glad to hear it's stable now!
Can you share how you did this?
This Zigbee coordinator totally saved my ZIgbee network as well! Thanks for this amazing video!
Mine too 🙏. Glad it helped you out!
Yeah I can also vouch for this. I switched to the same POE coordinator about a year back and its been solid. The neat thing about the SLZB-06 is that it can be dual powered POE + USB-C and it falls back to one or the other + you can still use it if you dont have a POE switch/injector.
I like your content.
I was excited to fix my Zigbee network with this SMlight device.
I bought one from China, received it, didn't power on.
Bought a second one. Same problem.
Unfortunately it doesn't worth to send it back from Europe, so I'm left with two piece of junk. Reminding myself to be careful with UA-cam recommendations in the future.
I'm sorry that you had a bad experience. Did you try contacting them for help?
Thanks for posting, looks like a good option for when my current coordinator sleigh dies.
It's amazing how every smart home youtuber I see pushes the usb coordinators. I didn't even know network coordinators existed until a couple of months ago
Nor did I! Which is why I wasn't pushing them 🤣
Thank you for the video! Though I imagine what you have been through, I am somehow reassured such things also happens to the gurus..
On my end, I was lucky to experience this just after the backup and transfer feature was introduced in ZHA.. No repairing needed when changing controllers.
That is a great feature, I wish I had that! Does it work when you change controller types as well?
@@HomeAutomationGuy. Yes, I switched from a sonoff usb dongle to zigstar PoE coordinator.
Excellent update. I run HA on a Proxmox cluster but the instance has to stay on a particular node due to having a USB coordinator. This has recently started having issues with devices dropping out so a network connected POE coordinator sounds like it may fix both issues and I can experiment with high availability. Had to order via Aliexpress and wait for delivery as the UK supplier is charging double.
I know the feeling when smart home stuff stops working, I had the same problem though I only have a couple of dozen devices, no where near what you have. The solution for me ended up being the angle of the antenna on my sonoff USB zigbee adaptor. For some reason about 15 degrees below horizontal works reliably, not vertical or horizontal. I realise this may mean my signal quality was marginal all along so if it happens again I will upgrade as you have explained here.
Well there you go, thanks for sharing! My SkyConnect didn't have an adjustable antenna so I never considered that.
I was using a Sonoff Zigbee and had the same unreliability issues. Was driving me nuts, as mine was in the middle of the house and I had 20 repeater devices. Ended up getting a Tubes PoE gateway, as it will allow me to power it off my switch, which had\s a UPS. In the 18 months since I changed and have not had any issues, aside from the flat battery problem we all get. Definitely recommend the Tubes ZB PoE gateway.
Thanks for sharing!
Excellent video, really interesting. I didn't realise you could get a network zigbee coordinator, so I immediately ordered one to replace my USB one.
I didn't know either until I had this problem!
Another tip if buying is to stay with the link for worldwide delivery. If you go to the local (UK in my case) supplier its £75 instead of $29!!!!! I've had three and not been hit with any extras from customs either.
Thank you for another great video, glad to see you back.
Thank you!
Very helpful video. My zigbee network spans across 4 storeys and this solution comes in handy. It would be very helpful if you can have a video when the new setup reaches 6 months and if you made further enhancement.
Will do!
Thanks for this very informative video! I am in the US and use Z-Wave instead of Zigbee. Overall, my network seems pretty solid, but I have noticed that since I have started buying the 800 series LR devices, my network doesn't seem to act as much like a "mesh" as before. The reading that I have done about the 800 LR protocol seems to indicate backward compatibility with my 700 series USB-based hub and devices, but practical experience has shown that I **must** have the hub within about 20 ft and on the same floor as the 800 series switches in order for them not to lose connection every few days.
I ended up moving my NUC running HA along with the z-wave USB dongle (from Zooz) to my wife's 2nd-floor office, which is more centrally located than my own basement office. I access the NUC via remote control. However, I really would like to have the NUC and HA running in my server rack along with the rest of the my computers (and perhaps in the future running as a VM on a Proxmox server). I have been looking to replace the USB dongle with a network-based bridge like your Zigbee device, but haven't been able to find one as yet. I already use an Ethernet-based hub with my Phillips devices with HA, and it works great. If anyone knows of a product like this that works for z-wave, I would really appreciate hearing from you!
Another timely video! Similar story but running sonoff zigbee dongle plus via usb extension into a HomeAssistant Yellow; every 5 - 10 days devices go offline. I thought it was interference with the inbuilt zigbee device, but bought the SMLight SLZB-06 to try. I have so far not moved across due to the problem of repairing 89 devices. Guess now is the time.......
Some times you just need to take a deep breath, and do the annoying and boring job in front of you 😔
You don't have to repair anything in zigbee2mqtt, it takes all the configuration automatically
Great video! I've ordered one and migrated my zigbee devices 👍
Thanks for the video, Been having problems with various devices dropping off the network - Using a ConbeeII and have multiple routers around the place -so just ordered a SMLight POE (via Domadoo in France)
I hope it results in a stable network for you like mine is now!
I bought this early on, because I had HA installed on a HA VM and USB wasnt an option. Its amazing.
Great video. Want to set up home automation, however would like to know how losing the internet connection affects the functionality when at home. I understand when away you have no interface, but when at home your local network is still up and I would hope everything would still work along with notification on your phone via your wifi router.
As they say, "we learn more from our failures than our successes." I had a major home network failure recently and it came down to a single bit of corruption on one machine due to a power failure. I learned plenty before I got it fixed. But pairing up 100+ devices ? Yikes. I sure hope you have an uninterruptible power supply in your network closet. I do. Now. Great video.
Thank you! And yup, I've got a UPS that gives me about 20 mins before it shuts down the home server. I learned that lesson back in the days when I was a network engineer!
This is the reason im going to put shelly 1's before my important hue bulbs, as a standalone backup.
Great video as always. Would be great if you did a complete guide on setting up guide for z2m from scratch. I’m wanting to move from zha to z2m
Great solution. It seems to be THE solution
So far so good!
Thank you for great video. Have you tried the newest Ember driver for EFR32 coodinator yet? It seems to be much better than CC2652.
I made the switch a few months back before Ember support was there, so I've not tried it yet
I bought the same SMLIGHT coordinator a few weeks ago; awesome!
They're really good aren't they!
@@HomeAutomationGuy I bought two of them (ZLB-06M's) and am having an absolute nightmare with them. Cannot get Z2M to start whatever I try. Support has been slow, monosyllabic and, so far, unsuccessful (I have now been offline for 4 days). The feature set is great, the web interface is great. They just don't work.
@@MarkAlexanderBuchanan The ZLB-06M version is also considered "Experimental" with Zigbee2MQTT and is designed for use with Home Assistants ZHA integration. This is why I went with the original adapter from them.
@@HomeAutomationGuythat’s very helpful to know. Thank you. I am a bit surprised their tech support didn’t mention that.
I will see if I can return the “M” versions and swap to the original
I ended up talking to Serge at SMlight who was adamant that ZLB-06M is fully compatible with z2m and, after much experimenting, I now have both coordinators up and running. I just need to get mqtt to discover the devices connected to the coordinators. Progress all the same though
Love your honesty! Starting my jerny in HA I made the same dongle mistake, for the time being switched to ZHA back then, now getting anoyed with it missing several settings for many devices, decided do by a supported USB dongle. Had I seen your vid 1 week earlier I might also have both the eth coördinator 😅 now waiting on my SONOFF dongle P, to switch out my dongle E....
Sorry about the poor timing 🤣 I hope your network sorts itself out now and is stable!
@@HomeAutomationGuy no worries! Getting everything ready for a big addon build to our house and other vids of you helped selecting the right switches! Aqaras are on there way. Btw, might have found an intresting router dimmer from EcoDim! They dont require a neutral and are also able to be set up with a hard wired dual switch setup! Availeble in multple configurations. Could be intresting for other european based HomeAutomation enthousiasts...
@@BergkampPhotography Thank you for sharing!
Hi Alan great video as we come to expect, what device do you use for energy monitoring on plugs
I was going through the pain of a unstable ZHA/SkyConnect zigbee network as well some weeks ago. It got me for the last half year. I found out there were some unstable router devices not paired very well. Unpairing and repairing has fixed stability for me. I found out about them in the automation traces that some entities didnt get changed when i run the automations. Especially scenes and light groups that timeout when a single device is unreachable. Rock solid now thankfully!
Glad to hear it!
It’s so true. My smart home still gives me grief. As a matter of fact, I’m writing this in the dark because my smart lights don’t think I’m here 😪
Can you ask Ke to turn them back on?
@@HomeAutomationGuy unfortunately she has a mind of her own now and stopped listening #skynet
Brilliant! Exactly what I needed. I replaced my Sonoff (which were better than a Conbee) with the SLZB-06, and mine has also been rock solid. I have since added another two in Router mode to cover a Shed and Garden Room..... I'm confused as to whether they need a similar yaml entry? When I try, I get duplicate errors thrown up. The manual only covers multiple co-ordinators. Anyone else tried similar?
I'm not sure sorry, I've never tried them in router mode. Try emailing them, they're pretty responsive in my experience
Hey Alan! Thank you for the video. I just ordered also the same item since I was having also some issues regarding with slow response. How are you managing also the two/three ways switches? Dont tell me you also put zigbee bulbs :D
Yep, pulled my skyconnect as I was having the same problem. Back to my prior Conbee II stick and problem solved. Still have 1 motion sensor that keeps disconnecting but it is an ancient one so most likely it is the problem there.
It works so well with ZHA though!
Your videos are the best - thank you !
Glad you like them!
Great video as always, ive just recieved mine. im only just starting off and a complete noob, I've just installed HA on an old Dell 3050M, I've just bought this zigbee coordinator and some plugs, buttons, sensors, bulbs and Blind motors. I'm going to start setting up some automations this weekend and I have 1 question, is there a way to have a button on the dashboard to Turn on an Away/Vacation mode that will turn on and off selected lights/lamps at set times, Open close blinds at certain times. This would be a great help and would make a great video for noobs like me.
That is all quite possible - check out some of my other videos for tips on how to get it working.
For now never had any problem wirh my first model sonoff dongle. Important to have the latest firmware instaled on this dongle as well
Sonoff dongles are great!
Hello Alan, I had this problem too.
The coordinator (conbee 2) is on my office in basement and, even if I have a lot of devices that act as router (lights, switches, etc) the signal was poor or unstable around the house (concrete walls and 2 floors + basement). I solved with a couple of signal repeater from Ikea, are cheap (around 9 euros) and works very well.
I placed one per floor almost in line above the coordinator this to reduce the signal loss caused by the concrete slab, and it works.
Anyway, these zigbee network adapters are interesting, I think I will buy one to place it below the roof to spread the signal on the whole house (hope)
I hope it works out! But if your network is working fine now I'd just leave it how it is. If it ain't broke don't fix it
@@HomeAutomationGuy I have to inform about but - I think - that those devices will act even as repeater. if so I don't have to do nothing on (pairing etc)
What signal repeaters from IKEA have you been using?
@@gabrielzalisz I posted the link of the ikea website but it was deleted, they only sell one, it is a signal repeater with an usb for charging
@@crc-error-7968 Thanks for letting me know! I was unable to find this repeater in Czech IKEA, seems like they don't sell it at all, that is very uncommon for IKEA. I was however able to find it on Polish IKEA. Maybe I'll order it from there :-)
Great video. Based on your recommendation I got the same device. What is the difference between the core update and the zigbee update. Which one should I use? Cant seem to find any info.
Because of issues I heard other people having, I started my Zigbee network with that ethernet-Zigbee coordinator 🤣 It also avoids the USB 3.0 port interference issues that can mess with Zigbee.
No complaints after year 1! It goes to a UDM SE connected to a UPS, so 100% uptime thus far (except when I unplugged it once by mistake)
Glad to hear it!
Another important thing to mention is that with this coordinator, it's easy to expand the network to remote locations using the built-in WireGuard.
I've never found a solid use case for that, but it's a cool feature!
@@HomeAutomationGuy In my case, a certain number of devices located in different cities (my apartment and my parents' house) are centrally controlled by a single server. Of course, everything stops working on the side where there is no server if the internet goes down, but there is a backup channel for this, so overall the solution seems to work.
Hi Alan, glad you figured it all out after all. And thanks for the valuable insights (as always). In hindsight, do you venture to speculate that replacing your skyconnect dongle with an ITead Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus (for example) would have cured your ills?..
It is likely that would have fixed it. I used that exact USB dongle in my previous house without any problems!
I thought this was a great excuse to try a network dongle which I could place anywhere in my house other than the basement, which is why I didn't switch back to it
I went through all of this using a combo HUBZ stick. I moved to the Skyconnect (I'm on ZHA). But one thing I noticed along the way. The zigbee got real bad when I moved offices. Apparetnyl in that process one of the light bulbs that was playing router was turned off in my office and I was no longer there to notice. Use the visualizer to look for routers showing offline.
Thanks for the tip!
Great bit of heads up info, thanks
You're welcome!
Hello, good video, I did not have to reconfigure anything after migrating from a Sonoff dongle to this one, it takes everything automatically, now I do not want to disappoint you but I am having problems with random loss of devices, I keep testing to see if the problem persists. Greetings from Argentina.
All the best!
Hey I literally did the same thing. I replaced my skyconnect with the poe and I no longer get the message my zigbee network is 98% full. And I only have about 25-30 zigbee devices in total. And I got a very long usb extension and found that to help very little. Now zigbee is solid with no more warnings.
Thanks for this, I'm looking to do the same. Hopefully, it will be a 'massive release' as you had said at 9:33. :)
"Massive Release" is the subject of my OnlyFans
Had the same problem which increased when I decided on four Zigbee networks, the house, the office (50m away), the machinery shed (150m away) and the front gate / letterbox (350m away). I had a main Intel Nuc HA and then Pi HA Remote units all with zigbee USB dongles trying all the main brands. Then SD card failure on the house Pi HA ! In the end I used the UZG-01 Ethernet Zigbee gateway x 4 and got rid of the HA remote Pi's and now a plan to connect the front gate. I used the Zigbee2MQTT hack to install three instances of Zigbee2MQTT on the one HA server along with ZHA. The front gate was harder requiring a WiFi connection, in the end I used two GL-AR3300M mini routers with external antennas 3-4m away. It's been five weeks and so far no more stress or disconnections. I wish I found your video's before I started this journey.
That sounds like a frustrating journey! I always worry that more Zigbee networks means more interference, but yours sounds quite physically separated so maybe it works ok
@@HomeAutomationGuy Yes distance made me give it a go, located in a rural, country area with no crazy wireless noise across the spectrum makes it easy.
I recommend getting the "p7" version. It's the same chip with more memory. I moved from a 2652p usband didn't have to repair anything
P7 is new and has not been tested as extensively as the regular CC2652P chip. CC2652P is the chip that you can run and forget about it.
Great video full of lots of useful information, but why are you not using ZHA?
The devices I have in my home are better supported by Zigbee2mqtt.
Alan, are you using z2m Groups or HA groups? cheers
Both, depending on the use case
Beautiful content. Thank you.
Thank you!
Informative. I'm currently duplicating my server as a fallback. It and the coordinator are single point failure items that I feel need to be replicated in the event one of them dies. Glad you sorted it out.
I've often thought of duplicating my setup somehow. It might make for a good video...
@@HomeAutomationGuy yes please do. I'm using two i5 Lenovo Thinkcentres for servers with Virtual box VM. Not sure how to make this as painless as possible.
I had my fist bulk disconnect few days ago. Thanks to your video I realised I have experimental ITead Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus V2 model "ZBDongle-E". I did purchased SMLIGHT SLZB-07p7 Zigbee USB CC2652P7 adapter immediately. I hope, it will be stable. Thanks!!
I hope so too!
Just purchased two. Always keep a spare. I shall follow your lead thanks.
I also bought two, for the same reason 🙈
Hi! I saw your blog post about using smart switches with smart bulbs and you mentioned that Aqara switches have a 'decoupled' mode. Is there a similar function/alternative for the Candeo dimmers? Looking to do the same thing. Thank you!
The Candeo's unfortunately do not have a concept of a decoupled mode
I’m about to start with Home Assistant, need to buy a Zigbee coordinator (and decide between ZHA and Z2M), but the setup for a network coordinator seems a touch involved for someone who doesn’t know the HA basics yet. BUT I see it mentions being USB also.
**Does that mean I can buy this and first set it up as a plug-and-plug USB coordinator**, then down the line switch to network if that makes sense for my home? Once I’ve learned more?
Yes. This coordinator supports USB so you should be able to do exactly what you describe
I haven't found anything yet, but lets say we now have 2 Zigbee coordinators in the network, not necessarily to have 2 separate networks, but to fully cover a house from the basement, ground floor, and upper floors to the attic. If one of the coordinators fails, the other would take over everything. The routers and end devices that are furthest away might have slower response times, and the entire Zigbee network might be generally slower, but it would still work. Is something like this possible? Even if it requires writing something in, for example, Node-RED to reroute from one coordinator to the other. I'm open to suggestions. By the way, I'm planning to completely switch my HA to Proxmox clustering with 3 PCs.
Best regards,
Per
It's been 5 months now.. still happy? I just got my smlight and because I'm using ZHA I guess I need to do the full repairing too. My main issue is some Aqara door/window sensors going unavailable very quickly
Also saw the slzb-06 supports thread/matter
It hasn't missed a beat!
@@HomeAutomationGuy Then it has received the wife certificate of approval!
@HomeAutomationGuy the article link is not correct I think?
Also, a link to smlight site would be great.
Thanks for the video, good content!
Whoops! Thanks for letting me know! I've fixed it now 🙏
Thanks
Thank you so much for your support 🙏
thank you very much , can this ethernet zigbee router be used as a zigbee repeater also?
Yes, you have to install the firmware that transforms it into a router, it is very easy to do
Thanks for this! Position is key I think. I have the SkyConnect with Z2M at the center of my house, stable af for more than a year. Also the skyconnect is connected to a Synology that runs my VM with HA, again super stable! But this poe one is very interesting! Did you notice any difference in terms of latency compared to the usb one?
Nope. It's just as quick as the USB version from what I can tell
@@HomeAutomationGuy Grand!
I am in the process of research and purchase for the things i need to uplift my home. This was perfect. But i have yo ask about the repairing. That sounds so painful! Is there a way to save the paired state and then upload to a new device?
You don't have to repair anything in zigbee2mqtt, it takes all the configuration automatically
It depends what coordinator you're moving from->to. There are instructions and guides on the Zigbee2MQTT website that show you which coordinators can be switched out without needing to re-pair.
My z2m install grenaded itself on an upgrade. Just spent the weekend reinstalling and redoing my scenes, automations and dashboards.
Ouuuuuch
Appreciate the video, thanks
You're welcome!
Did you tried updating the adapter firmware? The Silabs is not marked as experimental anymore so I wonder if it should perform well now with latest firmware. SLZB-06 developer also recommends the SLZB-06M (Silabs)
I did update the firmware when I first bought it, but have not needed to since then. The process worked well though
Nope, the Smlight coordinator is not open source. I also bought it because I thought it was, but turns out that only the initial firmware 0.9.9 is open. The new one 2+ which you show in your video is closed. Feels fishy
I didn't know that 🤔
@jackbolder5734 So, if you want open-source, you can use that one open-source or another one based on ESPHome (it's even available on their manual). I've had one running on 0.9.1 (not even the latest open-source version) for the past year and a half. If you need something more, use another option.
For the Zigbee Ethernet adapter itself, any firmware works great in terms of stability. Newer versions might look a bit nicer, but that doesn't affect stability. There is no problem, it is a choice, but not fishy.
B-but support Ukraine bro...
Excellent video. Had a few issues myself.
I am currently using the silicon labs sky connect USB stick with Home assistant predominantly for Z2MQTT on a Win 11 machine with Virtual Box environment. When I start the Home assistant on Virtual Box I find the USB stick is not picked up so I either need to remove the stick and scan for hardware changes in device manager or physically remove and add the stick back, which is not ideal.
So the questions.
1 If this stick is a network enabled stick does it not have the same issue as a USB stick if connected with network POE connection etc?. Will it pick it up without any issues?
2 Have you found any other way of migrating current devices instead of re-pairing devices.....?
1. Yup. It should be picked up once the network connects.
2. Sadly not. I had to re-pair everything
Super interesting product. I think my only fear would be taking down my zigbee network during network downtime... But it is certianly an edge case and something that can (usually) be accounted for. Will need to keep this in mind for the future!
Also, I found that your method of pairing all routers from the closest to the farthest drastically improved my zigbee network reliability, and I also decided to not always let Z2M choose the router new devices would pair to... I occasionally had devices paired to others half way across the house and it accounted for some serious issues
Fair point, luckily my network hasn't been down except when I do a firmware update, which I normally do when everyone else is in bed.
I've only recently started choosing which router to pair through and it was the only way I could pair one of my Aqara temperature sensors. Oddly the rest of them paired fine with the default Allow Join
@@HomeAutomationGuy as much as i love aqara features and price, I've been turned off of them recently due to stuff like this. I'm having excessive battery drain on some of my aqara devices and obscure issues relating to which router they're paired to. Probably just gonna use alternatives, which is a shame because on paper they're fantastic products.
I'm considering the same, currently have a USB. Am concerned about creating a point of failure with having an up and running network
I don't think I'll ever use a USB dongle again in a house like mine. Maybe in a smaller apartment or something it would be more than fine.
Have you tried running multiple Zigbee coordinators? Might need to run multiple copies of Zigbee2MQTT but that shouldn't be too difficult.
How do you join devices to your network? Do you do a Join All or do you specify the repeater for different devices? I don't recall you mentioning this in your Zigbee video. I struggle to get my devices to join unless I bring them close to my coordinator so feel like I am doing it wrong.
The problem with running multiple coordinators and different instances of Zigbee2MQTT is that this creates even more 2.4Ghz radio interference and can actually end up harming your network more than it helps.
I usually do a Join All, but if I find a device isn't joining properly (Like my Aqara Temperature Sensors) I specify the closest router to where I am eventually going to keep that device and try that.
WTF i felt that in my soul
It was a dark time in the Home Automation Guy household.
Especially when your spouse feel the pain when showering in the dark by a damn light not coming back online 😅😂
Hi there, why not HA SkyConnect?
Thank you for this video. Actually, I learned a lot from your channel. But I have a question. I am using Home Assistant Yellow with MQTT. So, if i switch off the coordinator comes with HA yellow and use this instead would it help in resolving my issue? specially I am facing the same exact issue lots of connection drops I even switch off the 2.4 GHz wifi and still same issue.
Yes, it should work the same way as mine then
great video
Thank you! 🙏
I don't know which version of Z2M but late 2 (since 1.35) they are very unstable, specially the last one which has some changes in the drivers (not limited to skyconnect) under the hood. Could be the reason
This issue started last year and I fixed it in February 2024, so I don't think it was related to the latest driver change.
for 3 story house how many coordinator is best and all with Coordinator mode or Router.
One coordinator and routers wherever you need them. It's not so much the size of the house, but how well the signals travel through the building materials.
Wow! That's interesting
The SMLight SLZB-06 might be only $30 in the US but in the UK it is £64-75 GBP or $80-$94. I have a similar symptoms to problem you describe but I'm using the Sonoff ZBDongle-E co-ordinator . However I only have 45 devices. I installed a couple of Ikea signal repeaters and a few powered routing lights and this improved the stabilty but not completely. I did wonder if there is diagnostic data available within Zigbee2MQTT that might be useful for example LQI or whether there are any automations that monitor the network health.
the sonoff E runs the same chipset as the skyconnect and recommended for ZHA. if you want Zigbee2mqtt then get the sonoff plus instead
There's zigstar/lilyzig which is a very similar if not as capable a device. Probably can get it cheaper.
aliexpress ~£35
Do you think the positioning actually mattered then, since it seems like the main problem was the sky connect support for mqtt
It's difficult to say, but because the SMLight is so portable it makes sense to keep it in the middle of my house away from the basement.
Well that's a coincidence... I too love Zigbee, and think it's way more reliable than Z-wave, WiFi, Bluetooth or any other wireless protocol. However, today my Zigbee network failed too.
Honestly, absolutely nothing beats hardwired connections.
That's true!
That’s the reason I switch more and more devices to z-wave. My z-wave network is stable for years, as where Zigbee is always keep having trouble. I have tried many different coordinators.
Perhaps I should try this one. Thanks for sharing.
I've heard good things about Z-Wave but there are so few devices compared to how many exist with Zigbee. Thanks for the comment!
@@HomeAutomationGuy True. Although I see more devices coming. I think the license is holding many companies back.
my Sonoff Dongle-E is in the experimental list and often was causing issues, restarting Z2M fixed the issue, so I set up a restart add-on automation, my Zigbee network has never been as stable as now.
Ah, gotta love the old "scheduled reboot" method 😁
Hello!!! What a great video!!! Im using the sonoff zigbee, but i have the same problem that you had with the old donggle, and need to move it to another location, because my concrete house doesn't help with signal strength. Can i use this device with ZHA over ethernet?
Yes you can!
@@HomeAutomationGuy do you recommend me to make the switch? I have less than 40 devices
@@felipegilhiriart If you have ethernet where you want to locate the device, it will be a good potential solution.
Z Wave imho is significantly better. Much further range and bullet proof. I have had rock steady Z Wave for about 6 years. The downside is everything is a bit more expensive.
Z-Wave is solid, but it has less devices to choose from. The upside is that all the devices are guaranteed to work together
@@HomeAutomationGuy True I run an M2 hub in the bedroom for blinds and curtain openers as nothing z wave is comparable. Though have just ordered one of the network zigbee adapters to try. I found the Home Assistant one shocking to use!
That WTF sent me. the most relatable thing
It's hard keeping up with all the things! Especially when you make assumptions like I did
It's hard keeping up with all the things! Especially when you make assumptions like I did
I’m in a completely different position. I’ve got 100+ devices which were previously paired with a Sonoff USB Zignee adapter plugged in via extension cord to my rack on the loft. This set up was working fine for years, but the AQI was quite bad and sometimes individual devices were not communicating properly. About 6 months ago o have moved to SMLight SLZB06 and that’s when a nightmare has started. Every 12-48h my Zigbee mesh was going completely down with Z2M crashing and requiring a restart of both Z2M *and* power cycle of SMlight adapter at same time. After a few weeks I have replaced the SLZB with another one thinking it’s faulty, unfortunately nothing has changed. After another few weeks of trying to troubleshoot my Zigbee mesh, I have replaced the adapter once more this time with SLZB06M and changed Z2M drive r to ezsp (and now ember). This has slightly changed the erroneous behaviour but also made it less predictable. With 06M Z2M just randomly stops communicating with nodes after a few hours without any crash and again requires full Z2M restart to start working properly again.
Oh, that sounds very frustrating - I'm sorry to hear that!
@@HomeAutomationGuy yeah it is. The biggest frustatration is that i dont know what else i can do to troubleshoot it or even pinpoint it to one of the elements (for example SLZB clearly works fine for you, but i have tried three different (incl. M version) ones and the issue persists on all three of them. Anyhow i am waiting for a ZigStar adapter now, once i test it i should know more.
Just a quick update - I’ve got a Zigstar UZG-01 since last week, and so far it is rock stable
@@dinth Glad to hear it!!
Great vid - what setup are you using to run Home Assistant? I am using a HA yellow and my devices are connected by Zigbe2mqtt - not sure what radio HA yellow has built in / should i consider switching it out to your recommendation - any thoughts?
I use Proxmox to run Home Assistant (you can find a video about my home server on my channel)
The yellow uses a similar chip to the SkyConnect, but I wouldn't recommend you change anything in your setup if it's working properly!
@@HomeAutomationGuy thanks for the reply. I will stay as is for now as my systems is been really stable so far 👍
7:05 they sure know how to thumbnail.
They also make good tech!