Issues with zigbee soil sensors

Questions & Help
1

I have a Homey 2026 that was migrated from a 2023 model. So far everything is working fine, about 30 zigbee devices, including some Third Reality smart plugs and presence sensors.

I just recently got a couple of their gen1 soil moisture sensors Amazon.com: THIRDREALITY Smart Soil Moisture Sensor 2Pack,Zigbee hub Needed,Capacitive Probe,Moisture/Temperature Meter for Garden Planting,Compatible with Homey,Hubitat, SmartThings,Home Assistant : Appliances

They add perfectly fine, the tile shows up, and the basic parameters are visible, though with no actual data right away. And 10 seconds later they drop off the zigbee network - clicking the tile says “The device left the Zigbee network”. Then they go back into pairing mode - blue LED blinking.

When Repairing/re-adding them, it sometimes says “Unable to connect. Zigbee is busy. Please wait a minute and try again.” So perhaps the local zigbee network is … wonky ? This is a Unifi environment - I have the 2.4GHz band set for 20MHz width and channels 9/10 blocked off. Zigbee/Homey has channel 25. So it should all be clear …

I returned them for replacement, and the replacements do exactly the same thing. I’ve been in contact with Third Reality, and they can’t figure it out (yet) - it works for them in their test env.

I also picked up a Haozee soil moisture sensor Amazon.com: Haozee Smart Zigbee Soil Moisture Sensor, Requires TUYA HUB,Support Zigbee2mqtt Home Assistant,Moisture Meter for Plants with Real-Time Detection, Historical Record, Soil Meter for Garden : Patio, Lawn & Garden

This does the exact SAME damn thing. Pairs fine, tile shows up, falls off network after 10-15 seconds with no actual data.

Yet I was able to pair a Third Reality zigbee Smart Plug gen1 just now perfectly fine. So I don’t think it’s the local zigbee network - everything else works as expected.

For both the Third Reality and the Haozee sensors I was able to hit the exact right timing window in Homey Developer Tools to interview the devices and capture the json.

Any ideas ? How can I debug this ?

2

I’m experiencing similar issues with new Zigbee devices after migrating from my Homey Pro (early 2023) to my Homey Pro (2026).
In my personal opinion, the problem isn’t with the Zigbee devices themselves, but rather with Homey or the migration process.

I’ve already had a discussion with an Athom employee on Slack. After trying various troubleshooting steps without resolving the issues, the Athom employee’s final recommendation was to reset the Zigbee network. According to him, all devices will remain, and you’ll just need to repair them after the reset. However, I haven’t tried it yet.

These are the discussions on Slack:
Homey Pro v12.13.0-rc.4 has been released to the beta channel.
Homey Pro v12.13.0-rc.6 has been released to the beta channel.

3

That is correct. I have performed this procedure when I migrated from a Homey Pro 2023 to a 2026-model by restoring a back-up. After a Zigbee reset, you can repair (so not re-pair) your Zigbee devices via the ‘Try to repair’-option in the device’s Settings > Maintenance menu.

Depending on the number and types of Zigbee devices, and where they are located in your house, this can either be a relatively quick of lengthy process. Check this post/topic for my experience, experience of others and background info (including further elaborations by Athom).

4

Hrm, odd. When I did the migration, it went perfectly. All devices came over cleanly. Since then adding new zigbee devices has been fine too. It’s just these soil moisture sensors that are giving fits … I was even able to add a new Third Reality smart plug the other day (after having troubles with the soil sensors).

I recall reading a bit about a zigbee network reset - didn’t dig into it as the migration seemed to have worked. Reset AC-powered devices first to enable/extend the mesh, then battery ones was the main thing I think.

I’ll check out the slack messages and the other post/topic too. Thanks for the pointers :slight_smile:

5

I’ve also been having various issues since the migration.
I was able to add a SONOFF SNZB-02D temperature and humidity sensor without any problems, and it’s been working fine for months.
I was able to add an Aqara Opple Switch without any problems, but it didn’t work at all.
I couldn’t add a Shelly Flood Gen4 at all.

Thanks @SunBeech for the confirmation. I’ll reset my Zigbee network in the next few days.