I picked ch20 as I read somewhere that the Mi Home hubs use either 15, 20 or 25. So I figured pick a channel that the devices would use if connected to their native device.
BTW the 2 motion sensors are still working well on my C3. May just use this hub for Xiaomi/Aqara devices and 'Hub Mesh' them.
I was keeping it as a backup hub should my C5 or C7 fail.
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My c7 is on channel 20 and not really had any issues with any of my zigbee devices that weren't resolved after a repair.
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Do you do this by powering your C7 down for some length of time, or just turning the zigbee radio off for that length of time?
I fumbled that. I meant that re-pairing the individual device has always resolved any issues. They then have stayed connected. I do have several Ikea and Smartthings outlets strategically dotted around the house to maintain my mesh.
Anytime I have something drop I just disable the zigbee radio for 15 mins. I have never powered down the entire hub.
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I can confirm this for the Zigbee 3.0 ones as well, I'm afraid.
I had so many problems with the earlier ones (over 18 months of trying) that I sold the lot and replaced with Aqara D1 (Zigbee 3.0) variants. They're much better behaved, but still fall off the mesh if you introduce a repeater they don't like. My latest has been the AOne Aurora range of dimmer modules, which cause battery-powered button devices (such as the WXKG07LM and WXKG11LM) to drop despite being Zigbee 3.0 themselves.
And it is a firmware issue. No driver has ever improved these issues on my mesh, even @markus's which have a mode which attempts recovery.
I've also tried multiple Zigbee channels (11, 15, 20, 25) with no appreciable difference in behaviour. IMHO people swapping channels are sidestepping local RF interference issues rather than anything inherent to the devices.
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That's a real shame.
That's seems way more logical (and likely) than voodoo "magic" channels! That being said, some devices are restricted to a subset of channels. For instance, Konke sensors only work on channels 15, 20, and 25.
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I agree about RF interference, hence my comment about the environment.
Although on a wifi analyzer you see wifi only. It not like you are getting a spread spectrum analysis of the true noise in your location.
Channel 20 should have been clear for me based on local wifi networks but I was having drops.
And now I am back on channel 20 with my C5 and three Aqara devices and it’s working for over a week now. Go figure.
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I just had a melt-down of the Zigbee devices in my master bedroom. All of them (two Iris v2 contact sensors, two Visonic motion sensors) stopped reporting. Prevoius to completely failing, the automations they were a part of did work, but had started to behave inconsistently. When originally set up the automations and devices had worked flawlessly.
A couple weeks back I had added the Aqara button into the bedroom, coincidentally directly in the middle of the space where the four sensors lived. This morning I had removed the button from the bedroom when I discovered that all the automations had failed, and my wife wanted the bathroom "back to normal" using the normal wall switch to control the bulb (which the button and a motion automation had been controlling).
I'm wondering if I became victim of the "Aqara Zigbee curse"...this is the first time I've ever had issues w/my Zigbee mesh/devices. I had to exclude and re-include all four of the devices to get them to work again. Never seen anything like it w/Zigbee. I've pulled the battery on the button, and feel like I may not try to use it again. I don't have an "Aqara-friendly" mesh, only Centralite and Iris 3210-L plug repeaters for Zigbee.
None of the other Zigbee devices in the house have had any issues. Just the four zigbee devices close to the button in the master bedroom were affected. Does my suspicion that the Aqara button was the cause sound reasonable?
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Could be a coincidence; however, technically I guess a misbehaving zigbee end-device could affect other zigbee end-devices that use the same router.
I do know that I had a large number of Aqara devices that led to missing events from my non-Aqara devices on the same Hubitat. All my Aqara devices are on their own zigbee network now.
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Thanks. The Aqara button is the only change in the room in weeks, and the room is the only place things cratered, so the details seem to point a large finger at the button.
So you join them on a separate HE hub, or have them on an Aqara gateway and integrate that to HE?
I did this for a little while, and then late last week, I moved all my Xiaomi gear to zigbee2mqtt. Just wrote a description of the move earlier today:
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Wow...that's quite a post you put up, impressive details and looks like a great setup.
Since I only have a few of the Aqara devices (the button and two contact sensors) I think I'm just going to stay away from Aqara for now. Really love the form-factor on the contact sensors, but not worth the additional work to integrate them at this time. If and when their Zigbee 3.0 contact sensor devices are available, and if they are similar in size and fully certified for Zigbee 3.0, I may reconsider.
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That would be a smart decision!
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I do realize I am replying to a three day old post but my wife uttered a very similar phrase just a few weeks ago. That was just after I moved all my Zooz from Brian’s drivers to Jeff new drivers. I tested the on each type of Zooz that I had first and then just deployed the rest. I am certain I hit configure on every one but two switches didn’t take, so no scene actions. I tested a bunch of switches after the change but I missed two evidently. It has seemed to blow over. Lol.
Ok. Aqara. I have two temp/humidity and one motion (a second motion still in BNIB)
The motion came first then the two temp sensor, then things started dropping.
I have over a dozen Sonoff basic zbr3 and I did have three SmartThings plug ins. The ST are on the bad list for Aqara but things seemed to be ok initially. I have 40-50 zigbee devices total connected to my C7 on channel 25. Three of my Sonoff’s dropped off multiple times. I have never had issues like this before. I even swapped a couple of them with new ones that I have on my shelf. Btw only one one of my Aqara temps ever dropped and then I realized the motion had gone two weeks without any events. I’m not actually using it yet. I have two motions on my desk and two more in my stairwell that are not driving automations yet.
So for the last few weeks I moved all three Aqara to my C5 on channel 20. My C5 is in the basement with the network stuff - not on the main floor with the C7 & wifi. I even put one upstairs and it was ok without any repeating device. So three weeks ok on their own zigbee network. Zero drops.
A week ago I replaced the three ST plugs with Sonoff., so no more Aqara unfriendly repeaters on my C7. Three days ago I added five Sonoff temp/humidity (a five pack off AliExpress) and just yesterday I move my two Aqara temps back to the C7. I am going to wait a least a week before moving the motion back. First sign of disturbance and they will go back on the C5.
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No, that's fine, my wife "re-utters" the phrase repeatedly around the house so I hear it almost daily. With a few exceptions she barely puts up w/my home automation hobby...luckily we've been married over 30 years and I think she realizes it would be a lot more work for her to train a new husband than to put up w/my pecularities. 
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If you take away your spouses physical control, you can expect their ire when things don’t work.
Couple of take-away points:
•Physical switches are good for a marriage
•Directly paired Zigbee switches to a Hue Bridge and a smart bulb is an acceptable alternative to a physical switch
•Pico and Hue bulbs (via the Hue Bridge Integration) are a damn reliable connection via HE, even though there’s no paired or physical link between the Pico and the bulb.
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Ha. 30 years for me this may. My wife say the same !!
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Agree 100%...all good advice, and my normal approach. I have a rule (that I've only violated on my IBlinds automations, heaven help me) that everything MUST WORK if the hub is down/missing/expoded into 1000 tiny plastic bits. So every "on/off" automated device in the house has to be set up to work regardless of the hub being on or off. No 'hub only' controlled devices.
Same in this case. The original dumb light switch was still in place/usable, she was just not in any mood to have anything around the bathroom "not normal" that day due to the horrendous food poisoning she was experiencing (so bad we took her for Covid testing the next day on doctor's advice, she was negative). One of those perfect-storm moments. The fact that the original dumb switch was still there and usable did not pacify her that morning, she wanted "that dumb little button" (Aqara) removed and automations shut off! "Yes mam!" 
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This is the way. She has spoken.
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