Homey Pro 2023 Zigbee Issues

Questions & Help
84

I agree, it will be interesting to see how this develops as I agree with Robert in the post above, this clearly started immediately after 10.3.0 was released and Thread was enabled. Athom claimed a fix was released in 10.3.1 yet this doesn’t seem to have helped and they’ve now formally acknowledge in the latest release notes that they have an issue that is being investigated.

What’s odd is they still seem to be trying other things, I had Daphne contact me several times, 1st time to accept remote access to ‘reflash the firmware as they believe this solves most issues like this’ - it didn’t, it made absolutely no difference, if anything it was worse and I now have twice daily reboots to keep Aqara Curtain and Blind controllers active.

However, they have now contacted me again and want me to connect via USB and reflash firmware again locally - seems to me they are clutching at straws with this and it’s nothing to do with a bad write of the firmware, more a case of a bug or conflict in the new firmware. I’ve held back from doing this for now as I cannot see it changing anything.

1 Like
85

@RJUK, would mind updating the topic title to describe better the discussion going on here. This would help others having similar issues to find helpful information also from here.

1 Like
86

Sure, will have a look at this now. :+1:

1 Like
87

How many zigbee devices do you have?
How many are end-devices?
How many are powered devices?
How many thread devices do you have?
How many are end-devices?
How many are powered devices?

Also check out this thread : I haven’t read the whole thread but (other than the random person talking about his 2019) it seems to be the same issue.

3 Likes
88

Okay…small update, after I moved my HP23 to another spot in the house, away from my computer/screens/GoogleTV and other devices, it’s running like HP19 used to handle my Zigbee devices. So, since everything is wireless and there for invisible, it might be worth a try to move the HP to another location. Also check your Zigbee channel and your Wifi channels, as explained by other members in this topic.

1 Like
89

And do not place homey on a signal blocking/reflecting surface like metal, the antennas are on the bottom and this could affect the wireless signal also.

1 Like
92

Thanks for the tip, Glenn. The Homey is on a glass surface, is that good or bad? Seems like a bit of a design flaw to place the antennas on the bottom.

That said, I don’t think that’s the issue, as the outages affect all Zigbee devices at once. They all work, then suddenly don’t. If it was a signal issue I’d expect it to just never work, or only work for devices nearer the Homey.

Once restarting the Homey they all work fine for a while, then suddenly all cut out again a few days later.

93

Thanks Andres, I’ll give it a try. :+1:

1 Like
94

Hopefully the ZigBee issue that Homey are trying to fix clears up your issues, however, I keep wondering whether the old cheaper ZigBee hub you had is still switched on and coordinating another network of devices that you haven’t yet added to Homey?
I recently migrated from a Homey 2016 to a 2023 (z-wave & 433) and moved my ZigBee network which was running on a Smart things hub, onto it too.
The ZigBee network includes routers (plugs) around all four corners of the house and three battery devices (incl. An Aqara button) and it is all working flawlessly.
If you haven’t already, I can only suggest that you delete all your ZigBee devices from both hubs, reset the network and add them all into Homey.
If your Homey isn’t defective, starting from ground zero and building a stable network with plenty of mains powered routers just worked for me. Hope it does for you too!

1 Like
95

Thanks Davilan,

And you’re right, I’ve not migrated everything across yet, so the old Zigbee hub controls some things and the Homey others. Moat of my Zigbee stuff is Zigbee power strips with 4 sockets and two USB ports, which can all be controlled separately. The Zigbee hub just “found” them and adds the power strip as a whole strip, seeing the individual sockets all separately (and displaying a visual image of the strip in the app).

Homey sees them differently and sees each individual socket in the power strip as a separate Zigbee device, which isn’t ideal and makes adding a power strip more time consuming, as it’s like adding 5 devices, rather than one.

In all honesty, with two young kids and precious little time, I haven’t yet gotten around to adding everything. Adding the first strip was so time consuming that I just hadn’t gotten around to doing the rest. It also didn’t fix the issue that I’d hoped to address with the Homey, which is that the battery-powered Zigbee 4 way switches seem to “bounce” when controlling the power strips, meaning that pushing the button that controls a socket with a lamp plugged into it causes that lamp to come on for the split second, then immediately switch back off.

Controlling the same lamp via Alexa works flawlessly, so it seems to be an issue with the switch, but initially the switches worked fine, then one day some.of them developed this issue. I’m still not sure why.

I have another switch further from the Zigbee hub and that seems to work fine, although I think it had the bounce issue for a short time also, IIRC.

I prefer Zigbee products for their low power use, but as a consumer can’t help but wish that they all worked more flawlessly. I would never attempt to install any of these smart home products at my parents’ house, as you can almost guarantee something won’t work in fairly short order, resulting in complaints and a need to visit to provide IT support.

Hopefully things will improve in future with more standardisation etc.

For now I’ll try to get rid of the old Zigbee hub and rebuild everything on the Homey to see if that helps.

What do you recommend for mains powered routers? I have a Zigbee light switch that I plan to install in one room, that would extend stronger coverage upstairs.

96

I use the smart sockets from innr (Dutch company) they have a British version as well as the Euro one.
As I mentioned, I do use Aqara but I wouldn’t buy any non-mainstream brand from Alibaba or the like, I stick to official Homey apps and supported devices whenever possible.
Good luck and I hope you stick with Homey!
David

2 Likes
97

Ah, OK, I have a couple of Innr sockets also, so they will act as repeaters? That’s good as I already have one upstairs. I can’t remember where the other one is.

I also try to stick to quality brands, but the Chinese power strips are an exception, purely because I’ve been unable to find another Zigbee power strip that allows you to individually control all the sockets. There only seems to be the one type online, everything else is WiFi-based.

If you know of a quality Zigbee power strip with individually controllable sockets and USB then I’m definitely open to it. It’s quite perplexing why none of the higher quality brands have thought to market one yet. You’d have thought there would be more options available, but most just seem to offer a WiFi option.

98

You’re right about the power strips. I use the Meross wi-fi ones for which there is a Homey community app and they are reliable.

99

Not sure if my post is helpful, but i encountered the same. I had some sensors in the shed. And lately after installing new releases they didnt work.

Some things that helped.

  1. If you need to repair a Zigbee device always use full batteries. Saves alot of time.

2 take the battery out for 30 mins

3 i added some Zigbee (ikea) switches along the path to the shed and it seems to work well. It made the Zigbee network stonger.

Still i am suffering from rc3 but it seems to work again due to option 2