Hello, I’m having an issue with Homey Pro and some flows. In my house I have 15 or so Philips Hue lights, and I created different flows using mostly some Aqara sensors (P1 and P2 light and motion sensors).
Everything works seamlessly after the first setup, then some time passes (one day or two) and the automation starts to work.
If I check the lights from Hue app, I can turn on and off all the lights, but the flow simply don’t work anymore, so I guess it could be an issue with the Aqara sensors. I check in Homey and the sensors looks regularly connected: I don’t see any errors (but I don’t know if errors are visible actually).
How do I fix this? Usually I reboot Homey Pro and everything works again. It’s quite annoying because the point of that system is to always be on.
Please, notice that:
all Aqara sensors have fresh batteries
Hue Bridge is connected via ethernet and powered by a UPS, it’s impossible that it will shut down
Homey Pro is connected via WiFi and powered by a UPS, same situation
no blackout happened in the house from the moment everything worked, to the moment that flows started to “die” (usually all together, I mean that when the flow with Hue + Aqara P1 stop working in the bathroom, also the flow with Hue Corridor + Aqara P1 in the corridor stops)
no network interruption happened
I have a flow with Philips Hue light and a Fibaro motion sensor (Z-Wave). That’s the only flow that never stopped working in more than a year
The flows themselves probably don’t stop working.
Aqara sensors with Homey zigbee can get ‘silent’ silently. This is because they can’t work together with f.i. certain router devices like Ikea lights.
This is not the case with Aqara and ZHA, or zigbee2mqtt.
You could consider moving all Homey zigbee devices to zigbee2mqtt, and enjoy how well it can work and be managed (huge difference…)
Combined with HA you can use the Home Assistant Community app, and / or the Zigbee2mqtt app to connect to those zigbee devices again.
A zigbee network is not (at all) plug, play and forget, it needs to be designed and run with care.
For example: Any Wifi 2.4GHz signals on the wrong channel can interfere
Here’s a script to check on zigbee devices last update status:
Hello Peter and thanks for your reply. I’ve read the guide you posted but I have a couple of questions if you could help:
guide says that orders matter. To fix that, it’s enough if I remove all zigbee sensors from Homey Pro and start add them in the correct order from the further end battery device to the nearest?
since I have 2 zigbee powered device, would be useful to create a better zigbee network if I physically place them in a middle point between the most far zigbee battery end device and homey pro?
All the light are Philips hue managed by their bridge, as I understand from the answers in the topic, this shouldn’t interfere with the zigbee network created and managed by homey pro
I’m attaching an image from developer tools, I see that the network is on channel 15, I do I change the channel and is it true that I should change it to 11?
if it’s a matter of optimising the zigbee network, why does rebooting solve the issue? Shouldn’t the issue be still there when I reboot?
I’m not 100% sure that I understood. You’re saying that flows will not work after I restart Homey Pro (and consequentially Homey’s zigbee network?). And what do you mean by relearn them? Because it looks to me that restarting homey pro is enough for the system to reconnect to the forgotten zigbee devices
Hmm, zigbee does what it feels like, so removing/adding devices is of no use (to me).
The order they refer to, probably is
add and pair router devices, the first one(s) near Homey, the other ones should be paired at, or near to their final position.
add and pair end devices, keep them at, or near to their final position.
Note: Osram router devices aren’t the most reliable. It’s also model dependent I guess.
Yes, the more the better, to cover all corners of the house. Zigbee has a safe usable indoor range of, say, 3 to 4 meters. So start with a router device A a few meters from Homey, next, router device B a few meters from router A and so on, until the farthest sensor is in reach of a router device.
Hue and Homey are separate zigbee controllers, unaware of eachother’s presence. Their networks sure can interfere however, check if they’re not using the same channel, or ‘neighbour’ channels.
It’s pretty easy to change the Hue zigbee channel, it’s best to turn all Hue devices on, before proceeding.
Be careful with changing Homey zigbee channel (in worst case, you have to re-add some of your devices).
Maybe it’s easier to fix your 2.4GHz wifi channel to preferably channel 1, 6 or 11;
the best choice for the wifi 2.4GHz channel is channel 11 in your case
as you can see, zigbee and wifi channel numbers differ, and are not in the same band.
It’s not exact science, lots of things depend on your specific situation (for example interference of other devices (close neighbours’ wifi!) and the design of your mesh network)
So one knows. A fact is that a Homey reboot fixes the weirdest issues. Only Athom can tell you why.
Note: Osram router devices aren’t the most reliable. It’s also model dependent I guess.
they are both ledvance osram zigbee smart plugs. Can you advice a smart plug zigbee that acts as a reliable router?3.
The order they refer to, probably is
add and pair router devices, the first one(s) near Homey, the other ones should be paired at, or near to their final position.
add and pair end devices, keep them at, or near to their final position.
Done, now zigbee is set on channel 20.
Maybe it’s easier to fix your 2.4GHz wifi channel to preferably channel 1, 6 or 11;
the best choice for the wifi 2.4GHz channel is channel 11 in your case
For the Wifi I cannot change it, I think, because my WiFi network is an Eero based one (Eero 6 Pro, 6+ and 6) and I can’t find how to setup the channel, but I’ll try to search. Unfortunately the Eeero Mesh system has few configuration capabilities.
A fact is that a Homey reboot fixes the weirdest issues. Only Athom can tell you why.
Sorry 4 delay.
I use and can recommend Ikea and Lidl plugs. I use Tuya as well, but those can be “a challenge” sometimes, I do not recommend them for a plug&play care-free zigbee mesh.
Oh, and these “best buy” ones should work as well (seems logical right? ):
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