As a newcomer to hubitat I have a few items working, I have a hue hub that has 2 hue motion sensors, 3 hue bulbs and 1 innr bulb paired to the hue hub. And I am using the hue hub integration app and have successfully got a few motion lighting apps running which are far better than the hue ones.
But I have now got some sonoff SNZB03 sensors that I am having problems pairing to my hubitat hub, I have read that my mesh may not be solid enough and that I need to add some repeaters such as zigbe power sockets or mains powered zigbe devices to make my mesh more solid.
Would I be right in my assumptions and that the weakness of my mesh is maybe why I cannot get my sensors to pair.
A weak mesh is the most likely cause, but the easiest way to test that theory is to temporarily move the hub near the sensor, or the sensor near the hub, and try to pair.
I had a feeling I'd seen something about Sonoff sensors lately. If you put "sonoff SNZB03" into the search bar there seem to be a few things you can try
You'll find a lot of information about including zigbee bulbs in a multipurpose zigbee network. Many bulbs, particularly bulbs that are not zigbee 3.0 compliant, try to act as repeaters when they join a zigbee network. They make LOUSY repeaters - especially when someone shuts off the fixture they're in using a switch to kill the power! There are a couple of exceptions (Sengled for instance) but many of us solve the problem by relegating smart bulbs to their own network, in my case a Hue hub. They can still be fully controlled via HE but without the messy mesh issues.
There are also other things that will interfere with the operation of a good zigbee mesh, most notably wifi. That can be emeliorated by the location of the hub relative to your router or AP, and by careful attention to zigbee channel selection. If you take a look at the chart below, you'll notice that some zigbee channels work a LOT better than others alongside wifi.
In addition, there are two articles that HE publishes that will help a lot as you build out your zigbee and zwave networks. It's worth reading them before you go much farther.
Hi Brad5,
Thanks for info will have a good look, at present I am on virginmedia with a superhub giving 200mbs, that every time you turn it on it sets its own channel to give the best wifi so I never know what channel it is on.
My hubitat hub is on channel 20, all my bulbs and sensors are on the hue hub.
My hubitat hub is only 4 feet from my wifi hub, so will start by getting it further away.
As a point of interest I tried pairing the sonoff sensor while it was sitting on top of the hubitat hub and it still would not pair .
If you go into the Hue app and select Settings tab, then Bridge Settings, you could see what channel Hue is using. Make sure is far from 20. Hue usually picks high number channel so that it limits Wi-Fi interference, but is worth checking to make sure is not near Hubitat hub.
I'm on VM as well.
You can set it to a specific channel. That is what I have done.
In your VM hub go to........
Advanced Settings.
Wireless Signal.
Here you can select 'Manual' and then select which channel you wish to use.
Here is a screenshot of mine.
These also repeat and may be a better option if you are looking to replace your sockets.
Single and double are available.
I have 2 single ones installed.
like the look of the tradfri will have to get some of those. Thanks for info, at present Hue hub on channel 20 hubitat hub on channel 15 and virginmedia hub on 2.4GHZ channel 7 and 5GHZ channel 48.
Tried to pair sensor but no joy. I am assuming that about 2 seconds after the sonoff sensor has flashed red 3 times, it flashes red once and then once again about 10 seconds later that is the information having been sent to the hubitat hub.
Tomorrow I will move the hubitat hub further from the VM wifi hub and Hue hub about 12 feet and hope that will remedy my problem, cant at present as she who must be obeyed says no as hubitat is running 3 storeys of hall lighting and it is well dark here.
Thanking you all for your help, will let you know how it goes.
So I have now moved my hubitat hub to about 15 feet from the VM wifi hub and Hue hub. I tried to pair the sonoff sensor by using the Find Device type and then Find by brand method and I still got the message
Looks like you’re having trouble pairing your device. Please perform a factory reset before attempting to pair the device again. If device still won’t pair after factory reset, please review best practices for building solid Zigbee mesh.
So tried the manuall method to add zigbe which seemed to work OK so did this twice to ensure all info was transfered, I read that I now have to wait a while to let things take place.
How long should I wait before assuming it has not paired successfully???
Lets see if I can explain this. About 15 minutes after the pairing of the sonoff sensor, I noticed that a light I had put in a test app to work with the sonoff sensor had come on.
So I have done a couple more tests, there is no log activity shown on the logs to show sensor activity or the light coming on which goes off after 2 minutes 15 seconds but I do get the message
dev:652022-04-06 08:55:37.358 errororg.codehaus.groovy.runtime.metaclass.MissingMethodExceptionNoStack: No signature of method: GenericZigbeeMotionSensor.checkEventInterval() is applicable for argument types: () values: [] (method checkEventInterval)
So I have the sensor turning my light on and off which is a success, at at present using the Generic zigbe motion sensor App.
Will try the marcus app now things are working, plus the time issue.
All I have to do is now improve my mesh, I do have a sonoff ZBMINI which is mains powered I can link to work with the motion sensor assuming the ZBMINI will act as a repeater that is.
Switched to the marcus driver all still OK, so moving the hubitat hub away from the wifi hub was the thing to do. I do get a sort of activity on the logs
Device 65 being the motion sensor, I have noticed though that the time I set in the test app for the light is in real time 1 minute longer than the time set, think I read that the sonoff is set to a minimum 1 minute so it looks like it adds a minute to the set time, that I can live with.
So thank you all very much for your assistance you have been a great help to a novice and hope these posts help anyone else having troubles and will of course update as to my progress
