A month or two back, I noticed a "Generic ZigBee RGBW Light" in my Device List that I didn't recall adding. It wasn't responding to any commands, so I assumed it was an older bulb that I had physically replaced and was no longer using but somehow deleted whatever I'd named it instead of removing the device from Hubitat. So I removed the device and didn't think anything more of it.
But I was adding a new Zigbee sensor yesterday, the scan picked up not only my sensor but this Generic ZigBee RGBW Light again. It still doesn't seem to respond to any commands, so I'm wondering what it might actually be.
Did I accidentally pick up a neighbor's bulb? If so, it would've had to have coincidentally been in pairing mode on two occasions at least a month apart from one another.
Is one of my other bulbs producing a second signal? Or is there any way a normal signal might be echoing so Hubitat thinks it's a second signal?
Could this be an intentional way of hacking into my (or anyone else's) network? By keeping a false device deliberately in a continual pairing mode, hoping to catch anyone randomly scanning for Zigbee devices?
I've removed the device from my network out of obvious security concerns, but I'm curious what it might actually be. None of the possibilities I've listed above strike me as likely, so I'm at a loss on where this signal might be coming from.
That’s very odd - a device needs to be in pairing mode in order to be found. Maybe a defective device stuck in pairing mode? Never seen that before, but who knows!
If your neighbor has a zigbee bulb that is not paired to any coordinator (for eg. they kept a GE Link bulb but tossed out their Wink hub), it will ultimately reset itself and pair with a new coordinator.
How do I know? Because I have experienced this a few times.
Yup. GE Links that I had given a neighbor along with a Wink hub. They ditched the hub a few years ago, but kept the bulbs. Occasionally, when I put my hub into pairing mode, one of those bulbs pairs to it.
OK, that makes sense. I was having trouble figuring out why someone might buy a smart bulb but not use it as one. You wouldn't just accidentally buy a bulb that costs twice as much, I don't think. But if it was gifted from someone who was replacing their own smart bulbs and you didn't actually care about that, that explain why you might leave it unpaired.
