I can send you a new one. I would like to take the one you have. It is important for me to find out if anything is damage during shipping.
It is eventually important for me to use component that is robust to ship.
Lets assume for now that it is what happen.
I just thought I would mention that one very common theme I see a lot in this forum is trouble pairing SOME zigbee devices when in the higher channels. While others work great. It happened to me and had me confused for awhile.
It might at least be worth a shot on lower channels.
Edit. Just read a bit further up and saw the ST hub is not picking up as well...
Hi Iman, sorry for all the headache..
I did return sensor via tracked mail to your address. You should have it with a day or 2.
Please reuse my packaging to ship replacement so we can rule out shipping and handling as causing issue.
Thank You,
Rich
I will do that. I will let you know what I find with the module that you sent back.
Thanks.
Iman
@Rxich, I got the module back. First thing I did is to pair it with my hubitat without attempting to repair anything. I just straight plug it in to the USB power. I also change my hubitat zigbee channel to match yours to 25 just to make sure I have as close as configuration as yours.
The module pair with hubitat effortlessly. This is not a news that I like. I am hoping that it is a broken hardware.
I do have another variant that I can have you try. At the same time, I just want to give you a head up. It is unlikely a hardware issue. It is more of an environment issue. I really cannot speculate what exactly be the root cause at this point. I also try pair with smartthings hub without any issue. Lets hope for the best on the new module. I just want to rule out at this point that it is a hardware issue.
I am preparing to send the replacement back. It is either tomorrow or Saturday.
Thanks
Iman
Thank you Iman, I appreciate your testing the module and sending replacement. Please let me know if I should reimburse your postage., I'll be happy to.
Question, do you have xbee repeaters in your mesh? And what voltage &erage did your power the sensor with?
I think I will shutdown everything in my home, cordless phones, xbees, in addition to WiFi and leave only hubitat powered on and hope for the best. I already have a very good mesh and over 20 xiaomi devices, which usually are a challenge for zigbee.
Thanks,
Rich
Don't worry about it.
I can set one up. Is there anything you would like me to check with xbee? I actually have plenty of xbee. They are just used for end devices.
It is hard to guess from my end on what is going on pairing issues. When I got the module back, I was curious. Lets just power it on and try to pair it. It paired with my hubitat hub. Then, I removed it. Next, I paired it to ST hub. I have no issue.
Do you have other repeaters in the network?
I looked around the community in regard trouble with pairing. Some people perform Zigbee heal. If you shutdown your coordinator (and or router), when the power up they may reform their internal table which may give a better result. You do need to keep the hub down for some minutes. I am guessing the goal is to flush the current internal setting (or tables). The hope is when it power up, it rebuild the table with better entries. Therefore, it will give you better mesh. This is just an idea.
I do have 2 xbees, both as routers and I can see my LQI is very good through my home and mesh is strong I noticed many devices prefer to join to Xbee, even over hub, maybe that is my issue.
I would be curious if adding XBee to your mesh would affect sensor pairing.
I will follow your advice and completely shutdown for 15 minutes and allow table to rebuild, although don't understand how that would help with pairing, and would suspect that would help more with device drops and weak mesh.
Thank you for your help with this, I'll let you know how it goes.
Rich
Iman, I've been thinking about how to create a remote temperature probe for barbecue that I would be able to set target temps and trigger TTS announcements, send notifications and adjust temp with a fan if needed. I have the original sensor from you and I know you said the expansion of an external probe requires a firmware update. There's not way for me to flash this is there? Sorry if I asked you this already. I think I asked, but can't recall if I was specific about possibly doing it myself.
What is the max temp range of your device?
Sorry, it is not easy to flash it at this point.
If you have the expandable version, you can use the following.
I am not sure about the max temp of the device. It is design for ambient setting of indoor room. I would not exposed it to extreme heat. With thermocouple probe, you should be able to isolate the module away from the heat sources.
I have learnt a new issue with the battery backup module. I want to share what I have learnt with the community.
I did get some PM from community members that they have hard time pairing the modules. This is very unusual. I have seen some difficulties with pairing at much rarer instance. I ask the module back to investigate. I do not have any issue with the modules that comeback to me once I got it back. I also test the module before I ship them out. I know that the modules that I ship should be fine.
By share of luck in the past week, we experience a couple storm which knock down power in Washington. During this power down time, my Zigbee mesh was down. I had a generator that I use to power the hub and a new battery powered module. I was curious what would happen running one hub with one of my module only. With one on one setting between the hub and the module, it had hard time pairing.
The module can pair. However, the performance of the radio is much lower than I expected. This is an extreme test (running one hub and one repeater). However, the radio performance is differ so much with the older board without battery backup. I consider this as an issue.
Once I have power back, I cannot reproduce the issue anymore. If you have a dense Zigbee network in your house, I have been testing in such mesh. I have not seen any issue. I have a few GE bulbs throughout my house. When It power up, all my modules connect just fine. If you manage to get one module connected, the second, thirds modules can connect just fine. Once in the network, the module repeat and functions just fine. It can repeat other battery backup modules just fine.
I am not giving up on the battery backup module. I have started looking at the designing different way to do battery backup. I can probably do exchange with you at that time if you have any issue with the current one.
If you managed to pair, I would suggest to stay put. It is fully functional module. There is no firmware issue that I can see during this investigation. I personally are comfortable running the battery backup modules at my house.
I have very limited count of non battery backup modules. If you really need one as replacement, please let me know in PM.
I am sorry to bear such unfortunate new. My goal is to build a very good module for all of use. I have to take some risk in providing new features. Hiccup like this can happen.
I have learnt something very valuable here that allow me to build a better modules for all of us. With all the sensors, It gives major information of what you need in a room. It is a repeater that you can build your Zigbee mesh. Eventually, we will get a a module with proper battery backup.
I hope everyone have a good holiday season. Happy holiday and Happy new year.
Thanks
Iman
Hi Iman, I have the new sensor and observe the same behavior. I shut down ST hub, shutdown wifi and 2.4 GHz cordless phone. With sensor inches from hubitat hub, it will not pair. Next I shutdown all xbee repeaters (3) and try to pair again. Even with reset of sensor it never makes attempt to join, and I don't see any activity in zigbee logs.
When pairing other devices I must put them in pairing mode first, so I wonder how does your sensor go into pairing mode? Am I supposed to push reset button to initiate pairing? I did try that and no luck. Is there a certain number of clicks to get sensor in pairing mode?
Which repeaters are you using? I can try to hook those up and see if that changes anything, although the xbees are usually excellent routers/repeaters.
Happy Holidays to you and thank you for your help
Yes, I have verified it using sniffer during the power down. The sensor does send out beacon request. The hub does send back beacon response. With one on one (no other devices powered), it is clear now that the module does not get the beacon response from the hub even the response is seen in the sniffer. I verified that the module does go to pairing mode automatically when they are unpaired. I verified this is not a firmware issue.
I have a GE bulb at home. When the power back up, under the debugger, I see that the module start receiving beacon response. Then the pair proceed successfully
NO, the button is just for factory reset. There is also an issue with device getting stolen by other hub as you observe. This is why it is good idea to do factory reset in this case. If you run a single hub, you do not typically need to factory reset.
No, just hold the button for 3 to 4 seconds and release. That is it.
I happen to notice hunting down which repeater that make the module start paring. When my GE bulb start to power up, I am able to reliably start to pair.
Is that the GE Link bulb?
Also, I had a thought. I fired up my iris hub and try to pair sensor to iris only, same failure, no response in over 7 minutes. The sensor was about 8 inches from the hub
I have an update for those who experience the pairing issue on the battery backup version.
Let me re-iterate what issue we are talking about. I can reproduce an issue where the module have difficulties paring. By share of luck, I can reliably reproduce the issue especially when there is no other repeater around. This issue may not show up in house with enough repeaters.
I tracked down the issue to a bad batch of linear voltage regulator. It is due to bad Linear Voltage Regulator.
I have tested replacing a couple of the modules. I can pair with hubitat hub with no other repeater around.
Here is what we can do. If you would like to send your module back to me, I can replace the voltage regulator. Please PM me if you like to do this.
This part can be replaced easily if you are handy with soldering iron. This is the part MCP1702. You can get them for $0.40 shipped free overnight from arrow electronics.
This has been very frustrating for me and perhaps everyone who got these modules. However, a bad batch of electronic parts do happen from time to time. In addition, the issue is not just a dead module which I can take care of it before shipping out. They do work when you have enough of certain repeaters in the house.
I apologize for the inconvenience. I hope it is one of small hiccup toward building the best modules for everyone. In perspective, when we are over this hump, you will have a module that can help you monitor your room, help repeating your Xiaomi devices and have very high up time. This is unique as far as a Zigbee sensor available to all of us.
Thanks
Iman
I do not recall the name exactly. I purchase 3 Zigbee GE hubs which I install through out the house. When they back up, it help with the pairing.
Hi Iman, I went an got a CREE bulb(ge BULB WAS 59.OO usd), the sensor paired immediately but constantly falls off, and is not reporting any data. Hubitat says status unknown, and each time I start pairing it reconfigures the sensor, which falls off again, and sensor will only connect through bulb, never any other repeater.
PS- i posted in other thread, sorry
PPS- I am so amazed that Arrow will ship a 47 cent part, overnight for free. A stamp costs more than 47 cents. I will try my best to solder, good thing I just got a tiny digital soldering iron, the part is so very small
Hmm, I bought mine a few years back at target. I do not remember that I pay that much. They should be $9 ish. I am guessing that this bulb is probably my best investment so far.
Here a video tip on soldering the SOT23 component. My slight differences is that I tin the pad with a very thin layer of solder. I put the component and heat the leg.
I don’t think the GE Link Bulbs are still being made. Also, the GE Link and Cree bulbs are considered poor Zigbee repeaters. You’re much better off using something like the Lowe’s Iris 3210-L (or L2) plug in outlet, the Peanut Plug, or similar.
I general smart bulbs are poor repeaters and can actually mess up your Zigbee mesh network. I have been replacing all of my Zigbee bulbs with Sengled bulbs, as they are not Zigbee repeaters by design.
Download the Hubitat app
