You get whatever was sent
Yes
Yes, for a single attribute read command, it's no big deal since the length byte is ignored and the remaining payload is returned.
It's likely on the order of a few hundred ms, so its not the end of the world.
I simply point this out to highlight the importance of standandards complience.
I agree standards compliance is important, in principle if nothing else.
But where non-conformance doesn't really cause a big issue, why are we making it one on our end? At that point it is just an annoyance? Seems like the impact of the non-conformance is blown out of proportions sometimes.
As my boss often says - do you want to be RIGHT, or do you want to be EFFECTIVE? In a perfect world you are both, but when you have to choose only one technical people choose being RIGHT over EFFECTIVE way too often...
That isn't a comment aimed towards anyone in particular - nor Hubitat developers at all. You guys are erring on the side of being effective. You could easily say "heck with it" and break support, hiding behind the banner of being right from a standard compliance standpoint. You aren't doing that, so kudos.
In any case I have my Xiaomi hub ordered. I'm not as well versed on LAN connected apps/drivers, but I'll make a stab at an integration after it gets here. If the OTHER hubs can do it (and already have done it) , it should be technically possible on HE too, right?
The thought of yet another hub (and maybe a pi or other in the middle) isn't very appealing. But if it gets me to 100% supported, without having to worry about HE side zigbee changes in the future, it may be worth it.
I’ve seen how this issue of standards and compliance works out several times in my industry and it never works out well for those who want to fall on a sword over compliance.
Some young hungry upstart shows up and they fail to dot ever i and cross every t. The old farts in the establishment bump into these upstarts and you can see where this goes in the short term.
In the long term these young hungry startups become super successful and the old farts, well they die.
All you must do is look at what’s out there in the way of sensors and look at esthetics, price, and performance and you can see where things are going.
Look at the size and feel of the latest Samsung devices. They are headed in the right direction. If all you look at is price then Ikea looks good but from a size and esthetics viewpoint, they are not getting it. But then look at the Xiaomi stuff.
Price 
Esthetics
Performance on Hubitat for the past month using specific repeaters and the right driver
Based on my experience it makes sense to embrace Xiaomi while continuing to push forward with your own wise thinking around local control.
I have really wanted to buy Xiaomi devices based on the prices and esthetics, but I decided not too because of the problems I read that folks have sometimes.
IMHO standards and conformity are very important, when one player doesn’t play by the standard then interoperability becomes a long term problem. I don’t think the others players are not going to completely conform to Xiaomi just because they flood the market with cheap devices.
Look at how in the past (and now) Microsoft refused to follow RFCs and other standards. It wasn’t that long ago that they didn’t follow the IANA port recommendations, but now that they do it has simplified things. I think FreeBSD is the only one that doesn’t still. I have also noticed that some Amazon products use dynamic ports below the standard and it can cause issues.
Does the standards that Xiaomi does not follow actually improve anything in terms of performance over other options?
Honestly, for me and many others, that Trådfri plug-in outlet in the lower right 
of the picture above, has solved the stability issues. I recently had a few devices drop off, but I was messing with alpha code that locked up the hub too. Probably related.
Zigbee 3.0 Xiaomi would be nice. Hopefully they'll get there, but I'm very satisfied with the current product for the price I paid. Had I paid $30-60 a sensor, I wouldn't be happy having them drop off (which as I mentioned is very rare now). At an average of $10-12 per sensor, I'm not so quick to complain.
@mpoole32 in your picture devices 1, 2, and 3 are Xiaomi correct?
They all work pretty well for you?
Are you using the IKEA plug for repeating/routing?
Can you provide the specific model numbers? On Amazon it seems hard to narrow down which ones to buy because the sellers screw with the names and info.
I have a pile of the temp/humidity sensors (the newer square style - #1 in the pic). Only repeating zigbee devices I have are the Ikea Tradfri outlets.
My sensors have been 100% rock solid. I haven't seen any of them not report in within 2 hours (have an alert on that). I also use a number of the temperature readings in automation, so I would notice quickly if not working.
By chance do you know if an Xbee also does a decent job with the Xiaomi?
Sorry, don’t want to dig through those threads right now.
The temp and humidity sensors are attractive based solely on price. I could use a few more for my basement. I will be adding an Xbee soon, but may also add that new IKEA USB plug.
I've bought mine from the company that uses the slow boat for delivery.
These are each Xiaomi and the key was using nothing but Tradfris for repeaters. The minute I paired and placed one of the Iris 3210-Ls close to these devices that was when they began to drop off.
I've bought all my sensors from banggood, gearbest, or alibaba.... Typically receive them in 10 days or so.
Have averaged $12/ea including shipping - I try to look for sales/discounts when possible. Hard to beat.
Xbee is the best repeater for the Xiaomi and many other Zigbee devices. Trådfri is a good option to Xbee at a lower cost when you just need the repeater and are not interested in viewing a network map.
Off-topic, but is there an XBee that actually has a housing around it? My cats love to chew on PCB - I don't know why. They are bengals, so are insane by nature I guess. A raw XBee wouldn't last a week in my house.
DIY is all I have seen so far. Maybe I saw an official case, but can't recall where. Someone with a 3D printer is a good option too.
This Xstick has worked for me. The only thing I've not been able to figure out is how to make it behave as an end device so that other devices don't jump off to it when trying to map the mesh. From what I've read it does not repeat quite as strong as the xbees.
Also not sure if the Xstick would work doing the USB hub written about in another thread where you want it to repeat without having it plugged into a computer.
Let me go ahead and pile on here. The while the invalid length messages have a work around, the broken leave and rejoin process is a non starter for me. You have to be very careful about what routers you join these devices to for the very reason that they do not conform to this requirement.
I also think that is the biggest issue with the devices. Although not a non-starter for me as I was able to be careful with what routing devices I have installed.
Obviously that isn't a solution for everyone, and not something an average user should even have to think about/consider...
The full range of Zigbee 3.0 compliant Xiaomi devices should be out in the next 6 months. I guess we'll see where we are at then.
And the reason these particular devices will not make it to the officially supported devices list.
I'd suggest @chuck.schwer this is just how things work. You have to be careful what type of gas you run in an older car. You have to pay attention to your furnace filter is you have bad allergies and the same is true for what you eat if you have food allergies.
Of course nobody is going to make you pay attention to these details but if you are not careful how you create your platform you will wind up with the very closed environment you see Wink and Iris have\had.
Perfectly understandable position to take, in my opinion.
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