Am I expecting too much from a single HE Hub?

[april.brandt]

@dwspmail

Do you know what happens if you reach the limit of directly connected Zigbee devices? Does it just automatically reroute as required?

From what I understand, your devices should attempt to touch a repeater first as long as the path is good. But if your mesh is unstable, you may get the directly connected devices more often. With repeaters, this shouldn't be an issue in a perfect world.

[dwspmail]

@april.brandt

Is there a stop gap? Couldn't you pull that with the same effect without removing to test?

Not sure what you mean by a stop gap?

However rather than removing them, could I not do a test where they are just not paired with HE, or do they still cause disturbances on the network because they are powered?

[april.brandt]

@dwspmail

Another thought was to go down the route of obtaining a MI Hub and using a rasberry PI to interface with HE. Surely that should work with all their devices.

Not a bad idea. I'd be interested in hearing about it. Maybe connect it with node red? I've not looked into the available nodes, but there are a lot of different ways to do that. But Also keep in mind that the effort will begin to outweigh the cost, but there's nothing wrong with tinkering. That's how we Hubitaters roll.

[bobbles]

@dwspmail

MI Hub and using a rasberry PI to interface with HE. Surely that should work with all their devices.

It does and I'm still running some of my Xiaomi/Aqara devices this way.
I'm gradually moving then to be directly connected to my HE hub since @markus's drivers were released and the positive feedback these have received.

Device motion (connected to Mi Home hub) -> Mi Home -> RPi -> HE Hub -> Rule evaluation -> HE Hub -> RPi -> Mi Home -> Device turn on (connected to Mi Home hub - Has to be slower than.

Device motion (connected to HE hub) -> Rule evaluation -> Device turn on (connected to HE hub.

Plus you need to make sure you get the correct hub and I did get the occasional fall off of devices on the Mi Home setup. (Not often though).

[Evilborg]

See if any of markus drivers match what you have already. If so use them for those devices then remove the devices that markus has not written a driver for... that's my best solution. You dont have to remove all your Xiaomi devices,.

Opps wrong link -- this one

markus-li/Hubitat

[dwspmail]

@Evilborg

See if any of markus drivers match what you have already. If so use them for those devices then remove the devices that markus has not written a driver for... that's my best solution.

I am currently using all of @markus drivers apart from for the powered wall switches. I believe markus has brought out a beta driver though which is compatible with these switches, so will give that a try also.

[dwspmail]

@markus

Exactly which models are these wall switches?

Just for the record, the Aqara powered wall switches I have are a mix of the neutral and no-neutral models, QBKG12LM and QBKG04LM respectively.

Is it possible to remove these from the network just by unpairing them from HE as well as remove the devices for good measure?

[MRobi]

Curiosity question here. I haven't dived into any of these cheaper xiaomi devices yet.

Would there be a benefit to moving the Xiaomi devices onto a xiaomi hub and then using mi-connector to bring them into HE? I would assume the devices would work better on their own hub.

[andydvsn]

@dwspmail

Is it possible to remove these from the network just by unpairing them from HE as well as remove the devices for good measure?

Yes, but mine continued to try rejoining the mesh for quite a while afterwards, which is inconvenient!

I was using the beta drivers with some success until I started messing with Iris V1 gear again, which blew things out of the water.

[dwspmail]

@MRobi

Would there be a benefit to moving the Xiaomi devices onto a xiaomi hub and then using mi-connector to bring them into HE? I would assume the devices would work better on their own hub.

Yes, I do plan on trying this option as a last resort as per @bobbles solution.

[dwspmail]

OK, I have now removed the powered wall switch devices from HE and deleted the drivers. Been round the house and re-paired all the devices that had fallen off the network. Fingers crossed... lets see which is first to leave the party!

[bobbles]

@dwspmail

Yes, I do plan on trying this option as a last resort as per @bobbles solution.

In case you haven't seen this.

Mi Connector and Xiaomi

Carrying on the conversation from here, regarding Xiaomi devices and the Mi Connector app. I'd been struggling to keep my Xiaomi contacts and motion sensors connected for a while now. They were always solid for me on ST, and for a long while HE too, until the past few months that is. I decided to remove them all and restart building my Zigbee mesh, throwing in 3 Xbees along the way. Even with the Xbees, they wouldn't stay connected, so I removed them for good. Then I came across @fison67's Mi C…

[gavincampbell]

@dwspmail

I have also been through the process of ensuring that there is little risk of interference from my WIFI having set my 2.4ghz network to channel 9 and my Zigbee channel to 25.

If you are still having problems after trying other suggestions. Try change your channel. I'm currently running on 23 with no issues. The devices use to give me issues when running on higher channels.

But only change one thing at a time when testing so you can narrow it down to what you did exactly.

[andydvsn]

Because I have such a mixed network (AlertMe / Iris V1, Salus, Tradfri and Xiaomi) my plan has morphed into finding which devices are happy with one another and which are problematic, then isolating the (hopefully single) type causing the issues onto their own HE mesh, then using Hub Link to connect the two hubs back into a 'single' system.

On their own with Tradfri repeaters (and seemingly with AlertMe SPG100 as well) the Xiaomi QBKG03LM and QBKG04LM wired switches proved themselves to be super reliable on the mesh for me. It's just other devices, including other Xiaomi devices, that they seem to cause trouble for; bumping them off at any given opportunity. First the AlertMe motion sensors would drop, then it would be a Xiaomi wireless switch needing a few presses to respond - ultimately I'd be left with the wired switches and not a lot else.

I was chasing my tail trying to work out the cause until @markus suggested removing them.

[dwspmail]

@andydvsn

I was chasing my tail trying to work out the cause until @markus suggested removing them.

So am I right in thinking that you have now removed the powered switches, leaving you with a stable mesh for all your battery powered Xiaomi devices, connected to a single HE Hub?

[dwspmail]

@dwspmail

OK, I have now removed the powered wall switch devices from HE and deleted the drivers. Been round the house and re-paired all the devices that had fallen off the network. Fingers crossed... lets see which is first to leave the party!

Ok, I have left this overnight and I would say that 10% of the Xiaomi devices have remained connected, showing 'present' as per @markus driver. This is also after having deleted the powered switch devices from my hub. Really frustrating. I'm going to start reducing the zigbee channel by 1 every day and see if I have any improvements in maintaining a connection. Is it recommended to also turn the hub off for more than 30mins to force the devices to reconnect once re-paired?

[bobbles]

I'm sure I read somewhere that the Mi Home hub uses either channels 15, 20 and 25. Unfortunately it doesn't show in the hub settings which channel is being used.
Maybe try channel 20, this is the channel I use, and see if this improves your experience.

[dwspmail]

@bobbles

Maybe try channel 20, this is the channel I use, and see if this improves your experience.

Thanks @bobbles. I'll give that a try.

[andydvsn]

@dwspmail

So am I right in thinking that you have now removed the powered switches, leaving you with a stable mesh for all your battery powered Xiaomi devices, connected to a single HE Hub?

Sorry for the delay in responding, I've been re-jigging my mesh based more realistically around the kit I already own, which is mostly AlertMe gear. But yes, even before this revamp, that's pretty much where I was at.

My mesh is now:

2x AlertMe Buttons
1x AlertMe Keyfob
1x AlertMe Lamp
8x AlertMe SPG100 Smart Plugs
1x Ikea Trådfri 400lm E16 Lightbulb
1x Xiaomi GZCGQ01LM Light Sensor
2x Xiaomi WXKG03LM Wireless Switches

Those '3LM wireless switches would drop from the mesh within 90 minutes - until I added the Trådfri lamp to the mesh. Now, though none of the Xiaomi devices have ever routed through it, they stay connected and have done for a couple of days. Remove the Trådfri lamp and they drop within 90 minutes again. Weird.

For whatever reason the GZCGQ01LM light sensor has never dropped from the mesh, even before the Trådfri lamp was added. That thing has been perfect, which gives hope for the future seeing as it's one of their new Zigbee 3.0 devices.

Because I can find no better alternative for UK light switches my plan is to acquire another hub which will run only those devices with Trådfri repeaters, which I have plenty of now that I have a working mesh that doesn't use them.

Actually, I'll probably throw one on this mesh regardless, just in case the lamps (there are more to be added) are ever powered off accidentally. Because all AlertMe repeaters have battery backup (it was designed as a security system) it's sensible my link to the Trådfri world be battery-backed as well.