Cheap contact sensor

20 is free :wink:

Why so many 2.5 GHz AP channels? Put one of those on 5GHz if you can and kill their 2.5 GHz channels if not needed on all three.

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Latest stable build :man_shrugging:t3:

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Strange. It was added in version 1.17.1 - released in February 2021.

So maybe it is a bad pairing.

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Further to this, I hadn't taken stock of my setup in a while.

  • HE Main hub= ch13
  • HE Client hub= ch20
  • Hue bridge= ch25
  • ConBee 2 on HA via ZHA= Ch15 (on MQTT it defaults to Ch11 :point_left: Penny just dropped that this might be my Aqara issue described above)
  • WiFi mesh 2.4GHz=Ch 9

Generally just keep the channels relatively separate and this will resolve most issues that are related to interference. Space is less of a concern most of the time. My hubs are inches from each other in a cabinet (I'll post some pics of that soon so you can get an idea of just how close). Maybe the one exception is how I have the ConBee 2 stick mounted, but it's also not far from the other radios.

Zigbee really has less of an issue with WiFi than most people believe. As long as both devices support Clear Channel Assessment mode, the issues are more frequently the Zigbee controller, its Zigbee stack and the driver, combined with the end device radio and firmware. No one thing is the single answer.

There are just tonns of papers written on the subject of Zigbee and WiFi interferences, but no amount of research and testing in labs, or anechoic chamber testing is going to exactly predict what you'll see in practical everyday use in a home with building materials, furniture and mirrors absorbing and reflecting signals.

Oops, yeah, I meant to say I have Home Assistant Device Bridge, and HomeBridge V2 installed on my C7, and HomeBridge installed on one of my Pi's... I was kind of just going down an inventory of what I had in place at this point. :slight_smile:

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Yeah, bad pairing or possibly some other issue too. Pairs just as fast as ZHA now and showing everything available.


Side note for anyone "testing" like me. You might just find yourself committing to it. I disabled my ZHA integration to make z2m work for me, and in doing so I have the bonus of needing to re-pair everything! All are offline now when z2m is disabled and ZHA is re-enabled. Reboot doesn't help. It must re-write the Zigbee table, or HA will only look at the new Zigbee table now, or whatever... :rage: Faster for me to re-join all the devices than to learn what happened. :roll_eyes:

Oh well. In for a penny, in for a pound. Looks like I'm migrating to Zigbee2MQTT today.. :upside_down_face:

Honestly, and I'm completely willing to eat a little crow here. MQTT with Switchbot Bluetooth contact sensors have to be my favorite out of anything I've setup this year. They're a significantly higher amount of effort to get into HA and ultimately HE where I build my primary automations, but they just keep going. No interference, no configuration conflicts, no fuss and 100% local with an ESP32. They're the first thing to come back online when my HA reboots. I'm smitten with them. I did have to do some extra simple automations on HA with the other HE -> HA integration and Virtual switches, but that's not that big of a deal to me for the two sensors I have. They are rock solid and more feature rich (really USEFUL features, not just out of wack temps or incorrect battery reporting) than any contact sensor I know of.

[Update] Initial observation. Devices are responding much faster than they did with ZHA. They were already so fast. Honestly didn’t realize (or believe perhaps :thinking:) that it could be any faster. Looks like I may be having an extra helping of crow for lunch. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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OK, just realized I'm a little confused about zigbee2mqtt vs. Home Assistant.

The setups I'm seeing talk about using zigbee2mqtt as an add-on to HA, not instead of HA. Is there a flow that brings devices into HE w/just zigbee2mqtt on a Pi w/a stick like the conbee2?

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Yes. I believe that’s what @aaiyar runs with nodeRed. So much easier to get it setup and into HE with HA and HA device bridge though.

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Yup. This is what I do. Happy to share my flows, virtual drivers, etc with you.

However, Doug is correct. It is easier with HA and HADB.

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Yep. And @danabw if you're thinking you would eliminate HE, I just want to share a few reasons I wouldn't ever consider this myself unless forced to.

  • Basic Rules and Rule Machine - There just isn't anything as easy to use and yet so very capable at the same time. Only the late Stringify was easier, but it was more limited in many ways and it's moot since Comcast bought them and ruined a good thing.

  • Lutron Smart Bridge Pro integration - I have 20 Picos in my home controlling Hue and Insteon lights. Love them and there just isn't an integration that comes close to what the Hubitat integration is capable of.

  • This community - One cannot discount the excellent contributions and the wise choice of Hubitat to choose Groovy. It's allowed such valuable contributions, from both the overall camaraderie here, to the wonderful skills that have been drawn to the platform. You kind of have to thank SmartThings for their good choices and poor decisions too. They're indirectly responsible for the birth and growth of this great hub.

  • Hue Bridge Integration - There's no denying how simple and effect it is to have this on the same hub with Rule Machine and the Lutron Picos. For me, it's the silent partner that just never lets me down.

  • Free Alexa integration - It works really well, and is super easy to configure. Virtual motion as a switch with Alexa routines are so simple to create and use. Very effective workaround for cloud only devices that are Alexa compatible (which is pretty darn near everything out there). Absolutely no better deal around.

  • Insteon integration - This community integration is the fastest and most flexible integration to keep using my excellent and fully local Insteon devices until they die (which may be long after I do. Who knows :man_shrugging:).

  • Lock code manager - Yeah it may be pretty bare bones compared to others out there, but I couldn't care less. It works and I can remote into my hub to set codes, and configure notifications for the lock users. Don't want or need more than that personally.

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@aaiyar I'm pretty impressed so far. The IKEA Trådfri signal repeater joined after just two tries and within a few seconds on the second try. :astonished: That's not something I've ever experienced before.

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Thanks...no intent at all to remove HE from the mix, that will remain the center of my smart home. :slight_smile:

Just like the flexibility of using non-stardard devices in some situations.

And...of course...it's more fun adding new stuff to the system. :wink:

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I'll likely go the HA route, then...(simple-minded me does better w/simple stuff).

I do have Node-Red up and running on one of my Pi's, but I haven't used it a lot as I've found I'm not as good w/the visual flow as I thought I might be.

If having NR already set up simplifies things greatly then maybe via NR...

Other question, for you and @SmartHomePrimer ... deciding to install HA as a service on an existing PI that is already set up and running other automations/integrations, or do I have to dedicate a Pi entirely to HA, to use it w/HE?

You will want the supervisor. If you mean installing HA core instead of HA OS that has the supervisor, then that's going to be more difficult. You can do it, but I just found stuff a lot harder to get working when I was running core, and some stuff just wasn't available to me, That was my number one motivator for switching from running HA core in a python VM on the Mac, to a dedicated RPi4. The RPi4 8GB I'm running is so capable, I don't really foresee an issue with any current or future plans.

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You could try adding 2 or 3 Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 dongles to see if that solves your problems. I believe they’re supposed to work well with Aqara devices as well and they’re easy to hide if you get a some usb extension cables. You’ll need to update the firmware, but it’s pretty straight forward. I added 6 Sonoff contact sensors and 3 dongles to my one hub a couple months ago and haven’t had a single missed event (that I’m aware of at least). It might shore up your system for devices that don’t work well with the older SmartThings outlets. I have a couple of those outlets myself along with some of the 2019 version. The newer ones are much better for whatever reason.

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@danabw

I agree with @SmartHomePrimer . However, there is another choice. Install HA Supervised mode. Then you can use the same RPi for other things that run outside of Home Assistant. Here's a comparison of HA OS v/s HA Supervised.

And HADB will work fine with HA Supervised.

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I wish that had been an option with the python VM on Mac. I probably would have stayed with that instead of the RPi. Core in the Python VM was fast. Around 5 seconds to restart HA core, and super easy to admin since I run Mac for my everyday computers too. One of the bigger problems it had was the VM had to be rebuilt and made active again, every so often. Not a big deal, it only took a few moments to do, but it was an ongoing issue.

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Winner, winner, chicken dinner!! :smiley:

I hope to start working on this tomorrow. Not too much spare time these days, but hope I can get up early and do some playing before reality starts to infringe...

Noice!

Any thoughts on the Securifi Peanut zigbee plugs on HA? Just asking because I have couple I'm not using on HE and thought they might be some of the first devices I add once I've got HA up and running.

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Don’t do it. The issue isn’t with Hubitat. It is with these plugs. I had trouble with them on a Securifi Almond 3.

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So offering to sell them to you for cheap is not going to work, is it? :wink:

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