#Zigbee contact sensor not working on gate outside - any tips?

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

earnest wadi
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I've stuck an Aqara contact sensor on my garden gate, but I'm not reliably getting signal to/from it. I know external walls aren't ideal for even 2.4GHz signals but with the short distances I hoped I'd get away with it

The gate is attached directly to the house, through one timber (stud) wall with a layer of some form of concrete-like render over it. The sensor is mounted near the top of the gate so closer to an upstairs socket than a downstairs one, I think

I've got an IKEA Tretakt smart plug (connected via Zigbee) in an upstairs socket on the other side of the wall to act as a signal repeater. This has good (140-150) signal to the coordinator and slightly better (170-180) to another device, but the gate sensor doesn't seem to be finding it

The distance between the gate and plug is around 1.3m total (vertical distance about 30cm, horizontally the distance of the gate and one wall), and I think that's about the closest point indoors I can possibly plug something i

I'm wondering if I maybe try a different device in that location to see if the IKEA plug just doesn't work well as a repeater - I noticed the gate has actually connected to two cheapo Tuya sirens occasionally.

Any tips or thoughts on what else I could try?

deep totem
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Try pairing the sensor directly with the socket

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If that doesn't work from where the sensor is, check your wifi congestion and adjust your ZigBee band to the least used realm

earnest wadi
# deep totem Try pairing the sensor directly with the socket

How does that work?

WiFi congestion is definitely fine, houses are pretty far apart here - there's one neighbour on an overlapping channel with my Zigbee network (I use the lowest channel for maximum range/wall penetration) but they're fairly far away and barely detectable from that side of my house

deep totem
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You can start the pairing mode from a routing capable node

earnest wadi
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Ah I think I've found what you mean - "Add devices via this device" in the menu?

earnest wadi
deep totem
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It should but it's been a while since I looked into it.

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There should be a 'add device via this device'

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At least with zha, z2m may do it differently

Screenshot_20250506_215846_Home_Assistant.jpg
earnest wadi
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I'll give it a go tomorrow, thanks - worth a shot either way

I think after that my only option I can think of is probably to find a Zigbee router small enough to fit in my outdoor socket and hope that it's powerful enough to get a signal through the wall, so any other suggestions are welcome

deep totem
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(first option in the three button menu)

earnest wadi
deep totem
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Good luck

earnest wadi
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@deep totem Just coming back to this, I finally got it setup and in the end I got a USB Zigbee repeater and put it in the outdoor socket. It connects just fine to a smart plug on the opposite side of the same wall (basically adjacent sockets, just one indoor one outdoor with a wall in between them)

The gate had actually been mostly working okay after a few days (maybe it just had to "learn" which devices to connect to?) but since adding the repeater it's been rock solid. Thanks again for all the help

hoary jungle
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Just to toss my 2c I , I've found that sometimes, battery-powered zigbee devices have quite a bit less range than their mains-powered equivalents. So your end solution doesn't really surprise me in the least. I had a similar situation with a zigbee smart button in my kid's room on the completely opposite side of the house. Threw a zigbee smart plug in her bedroom, and no more issues since.