Zigbee Unreliable

[weary spindle]

Well, I think I am at the point I want to troubleshoot this annoyance. I think I have "One of the most unreliable ZigBee networks on the planet"
The biggest issues seem to be the The sonoff SNZB-03 motion sensors. These are the ones that seem to fail.
Every now and then, Z2M doesn't get the message they have been triggered. I have one literally 12 inches from the coordinator, and at times it doesn't work ( can see it flash to show it has detected motion) but the trigger doesn't go off (Light doesn't turn on) It doesn't happen often. Its likely less then 2% of the time it doesn't work, and it can not work one time, and then work again in 5 min.. Or on occasion it just stops working and I just re-pair it days later to get it working again. I have others that are 10 feet away withing nothing in between. Others about 15 feet away with a floor in the way, and all of them, just work most of the time, but not always.
I understand you likely do not have enough information with this post to troubleshoot but I don't know what I don't know. So please, instead of passing this post up as "Doesn't contain enough information" please tell me what you would like to know. I honestly don't know what I should provide.
And please be patient. These issues are so intermittent, it may take days for something to stop working to collect information you need from it.
Update I moved this post as suggested, and I have an update. I have checked the logs under setting after a failed motion sensor (I walked though an area) and noticed the logs showed an occupancy: false, but not a beforehand occupancy: true. This means that the report f Occupancy: true didn't come in at all (I am guessing, as there was no true reading before hand)
There is also a sensor that completely refuses to report anything. I know from past experience that re-pairing it fixes this issue, but I will refrain from that for now in case someone has a suggestion of something to check before re-pairing.

[hollow urchin]

Just checking, are you talking about these? If so, I remember having tons of issues with those...tons of false positives, sometimes not working at all. I got rid of them and got other motion sensors (although I don't use many these days).

What other devices are you having trouble with?

[weary spindle]

Those are the ones. I am surprised they are causing issues, I was under the impression the sonoff stuff was the cats ass.
Basically, I think, thats it. I have some other motion sensors, but can't confirm if they are an issue at all or not. Everything else seems to work fine, it just a motion sensor issue.

[weary spindle]

Well, I have had some of these laying around:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008501306049.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.37.83771802pr3EN6
And now I am having the same issue with one of them. So yea, it seems to be "Motion sensors in general" that have an issue.
Is there any way to say to a sensor "When you report something, check to be sure the coordinator received it. If it didn't receive it in X time, send it again, maybe send it with a little more power this time" Or is there something else I am completely missing?

[hollow urchin]

there is not unfortunately. the Zigbee protocol has the concept of retries if a message isn't ACKed, but it's not terribly surprising that you'd be having trouble with a tuya zigbee device

[weary spindle]

Hmm.. Thats unfortunate. Did someone make a list somewhere of "Devices that work really good but are still cheap" for zigbee? Or can someone reccomend a zigbee motion sensor that works well and is low cost?

[vivid depot]

Hi, Ikea is. Their stuff is great and cheap. I use the ZigBee motion sensors and works perfect in my case. Just remember to use their AAA rechargeable battery, with others may pose problems

[weary spindle]

I think I had heard that, Ikea stuff I mean. I have only avoided it because I don't live anywhere close to an Ikea and like most people these days, avoid places where I need to pay for shipping.
You said to use there rechargeable batteries. I usually use disposable ones, so I wanted to check if your opinion was to use ikea rechargeable if you use rechargeable, or if it is to only use the rechargeable ones from Ikea, not disposable ones either.

[hollow urchin]

i hate to break it to you, but you're always paying for shipping whether it's separated out or not

[vivid depot]

You need to use their Ikea AAA rechargeable ones, due to technical specs 🤷‍♂️

At least in Spain, Ikea charges for the shipping are very cheap also

[hollow urchin]

you don't need to

they just suggest it

[vivid depot]

I don't think so. I've read a lot of problems

[hollow urchin]

Batteries are sold separately. IKEA **recommends **LADDA rechargeable battery HR03 AAA 1.2V. 1 piece required.

[vivid depot]

Problems solved using their batteries... maybe it's that way by design 🤷‍♂️

Their batteries seems to be of low voltage

By the way, their batteries are cheap 😉

[hollow urchin]

NiMH rechargeable batteries are generally 1.2V

not just Ikea's

[vivid depot]

Yes, but is what I've read. A lot. And the problem is that other batteries create false alerts

[hollow urchin]

But yeah, in the US at least, shipping for orders with small items is """free""" for any orders over 50 USD

with a free Ikea Family membership

and yes, Ikea's AA and AAA rechargeables are pretty cheap and high capacity

[vivid depot]

I think in Spain is about 10 euros with Ikea Family

[weary spindle]

Well, I am in Canada, and I don't think they offer free shipping here (Pointless to get a membership, it will be a 1 time order) I will get there batteries to go with it for the small extra cost. I have some MMwave motion sensors coming in from Aliexpress I wanna test out first.

Oh, and thank you both for all the input.

[vivid depot]

Mili wave are a different kind of sensor, if it can be adjusted well, it's far better, but you have to be lucky with that

[weary spindle]

Luckey how?

[vivid depot]

With the tuning of the mili wave sensor. It's not install it and works fine

[weary spindle]

Well, we will see how it goes 🙂 Apparently it is a motion sensor, not an occupancy sensor. We will see how goes when they arrive.

[vivid depot]

Mili wave is for occupancy sensors, AFAIK 🙂

[weary spindle]

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009516091106.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.5.666318027qXJiQ
Maybe it will do occupancy. For that price, well, would be very nice if they worked well.

[placid marsh]

I've been using the Aqara P1 which seems great as a motion sensor. Installed 2 years ago and never changed battery yet. Probably lucky. Mind you ZHA as opposed to Z2M.

Also using a Sonoff SNZB-03P in the same location (i'm a belt and suspenders guy, or why use one when you can have two). Also great battery life and reliable. I say reliable as motion turns on my entrance light. And its always come on.

[weary spindle]

I have heard great things about the Aqara ones, but they are like 2.5x the price of the cheapy ones (There have to be some cheapy ones that work well) and 2x the price of the Ikea ones. Thanks for reminding me of them. If I get to the point I totally give up trying to be cheap, those are the ones I will bite the bullet for I think.

[vivid depot]

Remember that motion sensor is not the same as presence sensors 🙂

Presence usually goes with power attached, no batteries, and you can buy cheap ones, as of 15€ in Amazon, as the ones that I have, but the configuration is a pain in the a**...😅