I bought brand new Hubitat C8 and two sensors (Sonoff SNZB-02 and SNZB-03). When I try to pair those sensors (I was trying only one at once) via "Add Device", Hubitat finds out devices, but it stuck in "Found a Zigbee device, initializing...", after a minute or so it says "Found a Zigbee device, still initializing, please wait..." and then fails. The same issue occurs for both sensors.
In the Hubitat logs I see the following:
Zigbee Discovery Running
Initializing Zigbee Device 00124B0012345678, 4C65
Zigbee Discovery Stopped
I already tried the following:
upgrade Hubitat to latest version (it is 2.3.5.121)
reboot Zigbee radio
reboot Hubitat (also tried to unplug it from the power)
tried to switch to different Zigbee Channels
reset Zigbee radio
even sensors are brand new I tried to reset both to a factory defaults (by pressing button for 10+ seconds)
tried to take out batteries from sensors
tried to press button on sensor while pairing (I saw in one thread that this helped in some cases to keep it awake)
tried to swap antennas on Hubitat
I don't own any other gateways or sensors so unfortunately I can not test other combinations.
Do you have any suggestion what else I can try or what to do?
The only thing that I can suggest to you (besides waiting for the Hubitat team to solve all the issues with the new C-8 Zigbee chip), is to try to pair the battery-powered sensors via a Zigbee repeating device. Try pairing the sensors away from the hub, and extremely close to a mains-powered Zigbee device. You may need to make several attempts until you succeed. At least, this worked for me (I have both SNZB-02 and SNZB-03 working OK on the new C-8 ).
There is work in-progress on Zigbee issues on the C8, I'd guess we'll have a new FW update by next week that may address your issues. For now, can't offer anything beyond @kkossev's suggestions. He's smarter than your average bear.
This has been my experience as well. You want your repeating devices to be connected directly to the hub. You want your battery powered devices to be connected through repeaters. If the radio power is too high on the hub, they may try to connect directly with the hub and this might lead to issues. I dropped my radio power from 20 down to 12 and have everything running just fine.
Also, for those who might have some older HA1.2 repeating devices, or Zigbee bulbs that might not be the greatest repeaters, you might try removing them from the mesh while you are trying to pair new devices. At least in my case, the Zigbee HA 3.0 repeating devices work quite well. Then do as you said: have the battery powered device located close to a repeater during the pairing operation so it picks up it routing information from the repeater rather than the hub. That is what worked for me.
The best repeating devices by far for me on my C8 are SonOff USB Dongles, which are Zigbee 3.0 just like the C8. They out-compete/pair over all of my other repeaters, including Centralite original and new version plugs (Zigbee 1.2), Sengled plugs (Zigbee 3.0), Ikea (1.2 IIRC), etc. Does seem likely it's the matching up with Zigbee 3.0 w/the C8. On my C7 they were not nearly as active.
Same here. I wonder if it's the more accurate (seemingly at least) reporting of signal strength and incost/outcost that's the reason for the change. On the C-5, everything seemed to have an lqi of 255 unless it was really far away. Just not realistic-looking numbers.
Didn't think of that angle, but yeah, if the devices are making choices based on the reported values, the changes due to the new reporting could be significant.
My uneducated opinion is the LQI values reported by the previous hubs was/is inaccurate. Those values never matched what was reported by my XBees and XCTU. The C8's LQI's now mirror those seen in XTCU.
Since your Zigbee 3,0 repeaters are working so well, I would suggest removing any older HA 1.2 repeating devices in the mesh that are no longer needed and replacing older repeaters that are needed for other reasons with Zigbee 3.0 devices.
I got rid of my older Smartthings and Centralite HA 1.2 smart plugs a long time ago. I do not have any experience with the Ikea 11RC plug, so I cannot comment on it specifically.
Zigbee 3.0 smartplugs are inexpensive. I was using eWeLink technology 10 amp smartplugs such as the CMARS, but after a couple of them were damaged by a power outage during a recent ice storm, I had switched over to the 15 amp Third Reality plugs. You can get 4 of the regular plugs for $31. For only a few dollars more you can get the new version with power reporting. I have both. However, be careful with power reporting plugs as they can overwhelm the hub if you send updates too often. They should only be used where they are serving a useful purpose.
I hope my issue will be fixed in the next release. Otherwise C8 looks like an expensive brick in my case. I can try with a repeating devices, but I don't own any currently and for now didn't plan to buy any. It's my first experience with Zigbee in general and not so promising so far...
I think if I replace my existing Zbee 1.2 stuff it would be w/the Sengled plugs. They have been very reliable, do power reporting, have a quality build, and are reasonably sized. I would just like more info about what's repeating through what before I remove any existing stuff, since I can't really see a full picture of my Zigbee mesh. Especially because Aqara contact sensors (very small = high WAF, long battery life = happy me) and Aqara buttons are looking like they may finally be stable on my mesh, don't want to upset that part of my apple cart. So for now, nothing is going to change, do you hear me, NOTHING!
The problems on the C8 are very particular to this new release, so it's unfortunate your first experience w/Zigbee has been in that context. I'm confident that HE will work this stuff out, they have shown the tenacity and brains in the past to crack other tough nuts. Zigbee was always the part of my HA that I never had to worry about or had to futz with, I hope (and assume) that's where we'll end up again on the C8. Should be another release soon w/more improvements, hopefully changes that help w/your issues.
I've updated HE to latest version 2.3.5.123 today, did couple of tests, changed channels, reset Zigbee radio and similar... I even tried to click after first timeout "pair in a legacy mode" and no luck... Tested with both SNZB-02 and SNZB-03 and both still stuck in intialization mode.
Is there a way to see more specific logs or similar (via. UI I see only Running, Initializing, Stopped,...).
Obviously, the latest platform update has not fixed all of the Zigbee pairing issues with all different type of devices, specifically when the pairing is directly to the hub (without any repeaters in between).
There are no detailed logs of what happens during the pairing process. The only additional info can be seen if you go to Setting-> Zigbee Details-> Zigbee logs (or similar). There you can monitor some Zigbee traffic that may not be seen in the devices live logs otherwise. Check whether you see any unknown devices there, identified by the short NWK address. Though, these observations will not help to successfully finish the pairing…
The ONLY reason I got rid of my older Smartthings and Centralite HA 1.2 plugs is that I could never get a stable connection to an Aqara leak sensor and an Aqara vibration sensor with them in the network. Once I replaced the HA 1/2 repeater plugs with Zigbee 3.0 certified plugs, everything worked.
However, after migrating to C8, I could not get the Aqara sensors to work. I replaced both with a Tuya Zigbee 3.0 devices which work well. I kept the Aqara sensors with the hope that they might work once C8 firmware updates have stabilized the Zigbee stacks.
If your Aqara devices are trying to connect through the older HA1.2 plugs, I am not surprised that your mesh is unstable. If it does stabilize for even a short time, consider yourself fortunate.
My Zigbee mesh is stable on the C8 (and also was on the C7)...it's working for both my "normal" Zigbee devices as well as the Aqara contacts/buttons. The issues I had moving from C7 to C8 included two Hue outdoor sensors that wouldn't stay connected (a problem affecting many users, fixed for me/most as of .118/.121) and some Iris v2/v3 motion sensors that fell off and needed to be re-joined. Overall the transition C7-C8 transition has been easy for me and my mesh was solid before and after. Happy camper here.
Channel 20, power 16 (default was shipped). Ranch style home, ~2500sqft. Using an extra Sonoff USB dongle antenna I had laying around. And as noted above three SonOff USB Dongle "P" repeaters, one Tuya tiny USB repeater, and the Centralite, Sengled plugs, etc.
I hope my issue will be fixed in the next release. Otherwise C8 looks like an expensive brick in my case. I can try with a repeating devices, but I don't own any currently and for now didn't plan to buy any. It's my first experience with Zigbee in general and not so promising so far... 
