[Help Needed] Aqara Sensors Unreachable with Sonoff Zigbee USB 3.0 Stick

[bitter umbra]

Hi everyone,

I've been using Home Assistant for a couple of years on a Raspberry Pi 3 with a Conbee II Zigbee stick without major issues. My Zigbee setup consists of:

2 Aqara click buttons

2 Aqara door sensors

2 Aqara temperature/humidity sensors

Recently, I switched to a Sonoff Zigbee USB 3.0 stick because I was hoping for better range due to its larger antenna. To ensure a clean start, I completely reinstalled Home Assistant from scratch.

The problem I'm facing now is that all Aqara sensors, switches, and buttons become unreachable within hours after pairing and break my automations. This was never an issue with my Conbee II stick.

I'm wondering:

Is the Sonoff stick actually worse than the Conbee II in terms of stability?

Could there be something I missed in the setup process?

Has anyone else experienced similar problems with this stick and Aqara devices?

Any tips or insights would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

[wind grove]

I had some issues with that stick , but never did I have an issue where literally all of my aqara devices we came unavailable after a few hours.

When you pair the devices, do you pair them in the spot they're going to be? If you don't, delete them completely from zha and pair them while standing at the location they are going to be

If there's a router type device nearby, go to that device's page and click the button that says something like "add Zigbee device through this device"

I'm not really sure why you didn't a complete reinstall of HA just because you swapped sticks though 😅

[bitter umbra]

I've tried pairing to the stick or a ikea plug router which is about 5 feet closer to most of the sensors. They both become unavailable after a little bit.

And yes, I add them from where they will be used.

I am lost on this issue..

[bitter umbra]

And I did do a complete reinstall, shouldn't I have?

[wind grove]

you just dont really need to. shouldnt hurt its just a waste of time

[wind grove]

have you deleted the devices completely out of home assistant and then tried re-adding them?

[bitter umbra]

Not sure I did that, let me try that and I'll report back.

[bitter umbra]

Alright, did that and it became unreachable again after a couple of hours..

I'm at a loss here.

[wind grove]

Is it 1 device or many

[bitter umbra]

All my Aqara devices.

[bitter umbra]

2 buttons, 2 temp sensors and 2 door sensors.

Gone, unreachable.

[wind grove]

What happens if you tap the pairing button on this device onc3

also do all the device become unavailable at the exact same time or?

[bitter umbra]

Alright, tapped the button. Light on the device flashed 1 time. Nothing in Zha

[bitter umbra]

I dont know where I can find the time it became unavailable.

[wind grove]

Click on any unavailable entity it should tell you

[bitter umbra]

Nope, different times.

19 hours, 11 hours, 10 hours..

I'm thinking switching back to the Conbee stick.,

[wind grove]

If you go to ZHA -> configure -> visualization, it should show you what device everything is connected through and it should also have a colored line and the number on that line

Make sure the lines are yellow or green.

You can trace them back from endpoint devices (circles) to routers (ovals) do the aqara devices you're having trouble with seem to be connected to the same routers? Aqara devices are known to be picky with their routers

Check out this thread
https://community.hubitat.com/t/xiaomi-aqara-devices-pairing-keeping-them-connected/623

[bitter umbra]

Like this?

[wind grove]

yeah, it looks like at least 1 device is connected rn

connect the other 2 and see how it goes

the other thing you cantry doing is changing your zigbee channel, ZHA has an auto mode, but some devices may need repairing afterwards. that would help though if youre getting interference from other nearby wireless connections (especially like in apartments and stuff)

but read that thread, it has helpful info on aqara devices