I have three Sengled E11-G13 zigbee bulbs in three different lamps. They've all been connected for over a year without a problem to Hubitat. Recently (in the past month or so), they all have been having the same issue. They lose connectivity and i can no longer control them. But if I hard-cycle the source power to them (even just a quick off/on switch flip), then they gain connectivity again without having to discover them. Then they work fine for about 30 minutes and lose connectivity again.
Nothing else has changed regarding the configuration. Hubitat in the same location. Bulbs in same location. No new devices. The only thing that may have changed was me updating the Hubitat firmware periodically.
I've tried swapping to fresh spare E11-G13 I had in storage -- Same issue.
I've tried resetting (switch source power on/off 10 times until they flash), re-discovering them, hitting configure afterwards -- Same issue.
I've tried a few different drivers (discover/configure each time): Sengled Element Classic (legacy), Sengled Element Color Plus, Sengled Element Plus, Sengled Element Classic, and Advanced Zigbee Bulb -- Same issue.
Any ideas what may be causing this? Or should I get some new bulbs?
A bit of a guess here, but I doubt that the bulbs are your problem, especially if nothing has changed recently. Probably their parent device has an issue that might be resolved by rebooting it (or if that fails, replacing it), if you can determine which one it is.
Sengleds are end devices (non-routers) so they'll be joined to the mesh via a parent router. Since the problem devices all having the same issue, it's likely they share the same parent device and something has gone wrong with how the status of the child devices in that router is being maintained.
Normally the parent router will 'evict' end devices from its child table that it thinks are no longer checking in within an expected interval. Likewise, child devices will attempt to rejoin the network if they think they've been orphaned (by detecting no link status with their parent). But in this case, it appears that the process is breaking down sometime after the initial join/rejoin. After some period of time, the parent device stops servicing the send/receive buffers that the Sengleds depend on for retrieving commands and sending status, yet evidently the link status to the bulbs still appears active so they aren't trying to rejoin the mesh through another (working) router.
If you have a lot of redundancy in your repeaters, you might just try experimenting unplugging/replugging one that you suspect might be the parent and see if the bulbs can be rejoined and stay connected. Or disable it permanently and see if they can rejoin through another that is in range. Of course, this may temporarily disrupt other devices in your mesh, but things should return to normal when you power the suspect repeater on again.
A search of the forums will produce perhaps a half dozen similar experiences. Some report improvement with the addition of a repeater. Others report that removing Sonoff outlets improved the situation.
I am in the group that had 10 or so suddenly misbehave at once and replaced them with Innr. I am also now removing the Sonoff outlets from my system, as a precaution.
Thank you everyone who replied. With your suggestions in mind, I decided to start by just removing all of my smart plugs. Includes: Ikea smart plug, Centralite smart plugs, an Ikea repeater, and recently discovered a Sonoff plug. I must have plugged in an old Sonoff I had lying around recently and forgot about it. That may be in line when the troubles started.
Since then (~16 hours), I haven't had any issues! And since this morning ~3 hours ago, I plugged back in the Ikea ones and still no issues. I'm incrementally adding every few hours until I see the issues. My guess is the Sonoff plug given the timing.
Another followup 9 days later. With nothing else except the Sonoff plugs removed from my network, everything has been fine for 9 days straight. So something seems to point to the Sonoff plugs, or where those plugs happen to be plugged in is messing things up.
@Hatallica re: "thers report that removing Sonoff outlets improved the situation." -- Do you know specifically why others ran into issues with them? I wasn't able to find it via search.
I think most solutions involve replacing the bulb with another brand. I guess removing the sonoff is another solution. Mine was putting all my sengled bulbs on a separate zigbee network using zigbee2mqtt. I had no problem with them after that.
Funny enough the coordinator I use for this is a sonoff.
@ymerj That solution seems to differ from the guidance in the HOWTO here:
Avoid adding Zigbee lightbulbs to your hub in combination with other Zigbee devices, since the lightbulbs will try to act as routers, but unfortunately they only perform this role properly with other lightbulbs. The exception we have found are Sengled Zigbee lightbulbs, which do not try to take on the role of repeating other Zigbee devices.
That guidance makes it seem as if it is better to use Sonoff because they don't repeat.
What I was referring to is when someone get problems with sengled bulbs dropping off the network, the majority off solutions people resorted to on this site was to replace them with some other brand. That doesn't negate the fact it is better to get non repeating bulbs for the reasons mentions in the link.
I did not want to do that, so this is why I went with the separate zigbee network for them.
No, I am only aware of the anecdotal reports. Your reporting of removing this one variable is quite helpful, though. I may look for some new applications for the pile of Sengled bulbs in my garage.
This advice might require some clarification. I am not qualified to dive into the technical details, but this may specifically refer to ZLL (Zigbee Light Link) bulbs.
Innr bulbs are Zigbee 3.0 which is interoperable with legacy ZLL and HA devices. About 70% of my Zigbee network routes through Innr bulbs. There is still a legitimate concern that the mesh can misbehave if the bulbs may have power physically switched off, but that is not an issue in my applications.
I have 6 of the Sengled and a lot of other Zigbee devices. I had issues years ago but put a Zigbee plug in the room having the most problems to act as a repeater and they have been rock solid ever since.
dealing with this same sengled color plus bulb issue since switching to a new c8 hub. bulb distances vary from within 3' to 10' of the hub itself with one sonoff temperature and humidity sensor in the same room. i heard mention of sonoff plugs and other devices that act as repeaters, but not sonoff end devices like the temperature and humidity sensors.
these bulbs are powered off overnight so i hesitate to go with a device that acts as a repeater (innr). i also have at least 6 more sengled color plus bulbs around the house and (as far as i can tell) am no seeing the same issues since the hub migration.
in my case, i'm thinking of purchasing the sengled smart hub - anyone have luck going that route?
i hear ya - problem is only these 6 have the issue and the others don't, yet all are off overnight (or on overnight and off during the day) and none have had issues until just recently.
changed to the latest driver and the devices are no longer color dancing at turn on... instead, a few of the 6 are turning on and shutting off immediately (never the same ones each time). long story short, the wife had enough and for few days while the hubitat hub was off, the bulbs worked flawlessly. debating removing them from the hub permanently. anyone else experiencing any of the above?
Not sure what you mean by "...color dancing at turn on..." - if that's something you had configured in a rule, or an odd behavior you had been seeing.
Important info on using the Advanced Zigbee bulb drivers (below). If you changed to using them, you have to make the driver change and save, and then before you do anything w/the bulb, hit the "Configure" button at the top of the bulbs Device page. The bulb will flash through a few colors and then stop. Then turn it on and off to confirm normal functioning.
If you don't do that then things will be wonky.
I have three Sengled bulbs currently installed, one color and two extra bright 1500 lumen whites. I had removed them from my C8 hub due to continued unexplained drop-offs (that actually started w/my C7 weeks before C8 release).
I added those three Sengled bulbs back on a week or so ago and they have been solid since then. I'm running on c8, 2.3.5.121.
Thank you so much for your reply - nice to know that i'm not the only one!
This "dancing" is the bulb flashing through a few colors (RGB i believe) at power on and then stop. I did all of the above except remove and rejoin to the hub. I found they had removed themselves and when searched for zigbee devices, they were "found" and reconnected by the hub, but that's when the random turn off behavior at power on started. Long story short, I'll remove and rejoin as you mentioned. Thanks!
By chance, are you using the Advanced Zigbee RGBW, Sengled or Legacy Sengled driver?
Originally I used the advanced Zigbee drivers with all my Sengled bulbs.
I didn't actually plan it that way but when I rejoined them they all defaulted to the stock Sengled drivers. I've left them like that (lazy) and that should make no difference for connectivity of the bulb. It does change some of the features and potentially some of the performance of the bulb. Before in my testing I had the best results using the advanced Zigbee drivers with the bulbs. In the settings I would set the transition time to ASAP IIRC.
debating removing them from the hub permanently. anyone else experiencing any of the above?
