#Starting with Zigbee sensors, pretty poor experience

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

rotund marlin
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hey, just starting with Zigbee sensors. I bought a bunch of official Sonoff and a SMLIGHT SLZB-07p dongle, set up with ZHA. the experience has been pretty poor tbf, the setup took several hours total, very flaky UI and sensors. now it's set up but I already lost sensors 3 times, having to press the button to wake them up (very annoying with IP65 ones, because you have to unscrew a lid) or even re-pair others.
the range is not amazingly far, i'm talking about a few meters at most. the dongle is on a ~1m USB extension cord, close to a wifi router though (20-30cm).
the most distant sensor is 10m through two windows.
is this normal?

shell comet
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Make sure your Zigbee and Wi-Fi channels aren't overlapping

rotund marlin
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I checked that and it's not the case

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I'm trying to understand what is the weak link here - HA / ZHA / Sonoff

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what are correct values for RSSI & LQI for Zigbee sensors?

shell comet
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how many routers (repeaters) do you have on the network, and how are they placed?

rotund marlin
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absolutely none 😄 do I need them with such small range?

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sensors are within 10m, with more or less obstacles

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the ones that became unavailable are not the most distant ones

shell comet
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Yes, routers are recommended since Zigbee is designed to be a mesh network

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also what TX power do you have set on the adapter?

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It's possible to have a situation where the coordinator is "yelling" at the devices, but the coordinator can't "hear" the devices talk back since they generally have much less transmit power

rotund marlin
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I can't find it in the ZHA tabs

shell comet
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yeah the 20 dB part is just the max transmit power that it supports. I don't use ZHA, so I'm not sure what it defaults to or how to check what it's set to

rotund marlin
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from the manufacturer specs

shell comet
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also plug the extension cable into a USB 2.0 port if possible

rotund marlin
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yes it's the case

rotund marlin
shell comet
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zigbee2mqtt

rotund marlin
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what are the pros/cons compared to ZHA?

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I mean, it lives outside HA I guess, and communicates with HA through MQTT right?

shell comet
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yeah, it's decoupled from HA but still talks to HA

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I doubt ZHA is the issue here though

rotund marlin
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okay, in your opinion it's a hardware issue?

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any feedback on the Sonoff products that might explain my issues?

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I've seen a few similar threads but doesn't seem like Sonoff was considered unreliable

shell comet
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I'd recommend adding at least one router to your network between the devices you're having connectivity issues with

rotund marlin
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well they're already so close that I might go another route if Zigbee covers such a small range

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I wouldn't want to clog my place

shell comet
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what sensors are you having trouble with?

rotund marlin
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Sonoff SNZB-02P / Sonoff SNZB-02 / Sonoff SNZB-02LD

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i think it's pretty much the same boards, but different cases (indoor / outdoor / outdoor+probe)

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would you recommend another brand?

shell comet
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Not necessarily. Any other sources of 2.4 GHz interference around?

rotund marlin
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not that I can think of. I ran a wifi scanner on my phone, nothing is emitting much more than my own 2.4Ghz

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I'll check again and compare the channels but nothing obvious

shell comet
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I'd also recommend moving it away from the Wi-Fi access point too even though you said they're not on overlapping channels

rotund marlin
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okay

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that's weird because it worked for multiple days without issues

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anything interesting I should look for in the logs?

shell comet
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Also make sure your AP isn't set to automatically "optimize" the 2.4 GHz channel

rotund marlin
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like, changing the channel dynamically?

shell comet
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yeah

rotund marlin
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okay

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thanks for the help man

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so in your opinion it's a radio thing, not ZHA nor sonoff

shell comet
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Yeah I'd say it's unlikely an issue with ZHA. I did have a bad experience with Sonoff's first generation of Zigbee products, but it wasn't related to disconnections

broken shore
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I have a 50+ device Zigbee network, very reliable, using a PoE SLZB-06 coordinator and zigbee2mqtt, and one of the few issues I have had were specifically with SONOFF motion sensors constantly dropping

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So much so they’re in a bin in my closet now 👎

tawdry tendon
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Temperature sonoff zigbee work perfectly well. Placing lights or plugs or many devices (most) ac powered will extend the range. Is it used in poe or usb?

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With z2m you have a clear map. Also remember zigbee adapts routes but it is not an immediate process. If you place a router and want immediate results, unbind and remind the problematic device.

prisma shuttle
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One thing to mention here, is that if you use ZHA and reboot your HA server then the Zigbee Mesh is taken offline whilst the server restarts. Obviously the same happens on Zigbee2Mqtt but those who run a Zigbee2Mqtt as a separate container (ie. proxmox lxc) would need to restart that container.

rotund marlin
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but honestly the dongle & the dropped sensor have a line of sight so I'd be bummed if this is an issue

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(through a window tho)

stark spoke
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i run z2m with a nabu casa dongle. mostly ikea and osram bulbs as routers. no problems with the network.
i bought a set of sonoff sensors from their company store on aliexpress. all of them have problems with the battery contacts. i have to bend the small metal bits to increase tension multiple times a year. i finally gave up and replaced them with other sensors.

rotund marlin
stark spoke
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some aqara door and temp/humidity sensors. the motion detector got replaced with a mmwave radar from apollo automation.

try getting one of your problem sensors working by increasing pressure against the battery and see if that is the problem with yours as well

rotund marlin
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yup

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since we talked, 2 more sensors down

stray saddle
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No help to you but my setup: 100 devices on ZHA. A roughly 50/50 mix of lights (mostly Ikea) and battery powered stuff: sonoff temp sensors and PIRs, Ikea water sensors, and some Aqara stuff. Not done anything particularly clever with my setup. It grew over the last 2 years. Got a combee2 on a half meter extension. I’d guess at 1 or 2 issues a month which are split between battery replacement (I don’t generally pay much notice of reported %ages as I’ve had stuff last a year on 10% etc) and genuine oddness where a sensor or very occasionally a light falls off the network and needs re-pairing. Happened to me this morning infact with a sonoff temp sensor SNZB-02P. I don’t believe any vendor is better than the other. For instance I have 4 Aqara blind motors which are fantastic, but I had nothing but trouble from their temp sensors though the motion sensor I have has been 100%.

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I’d start by moving the box running HA and the sensor to another room and see if it’s any different. And make sure you have at least one light or other router on the network in that room.

rotund marlin
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thanks for the feedback

eternal frigate
wooden osprey
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I also use a SMLIGHT SLZB-06 ZigBee router and I use Zigbee2MQTT in a network of around 30 devices, with a lot of Ikea plugs, Ikea buttons, Chinese door sensors, etc, and works flawlessly. Changing mm Wave presence detector to an Apollo when I can 🙂

rotund marlin
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believe it or not, I changed and made permanent the channel 6 on my 2.4Ghz network and the lost devices recovered on their own

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(zigbee channel is 13)

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so I guess it was a radio conflict with the wifi

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thanks!

broken shore
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Some flaky devices don’t work otherwise I think

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But if it’s working now…

rotund marlin
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yeah its working fine so I'm not gonna rip it off now but I'll keep that in mind 😂

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the channel 13 was auto btw, not chosen manually