These bulbs have worked for years and now I have 3 that have stopped responding at the same time (will not turn on/off from the device page). I can turn them on individually (from the lamp switch) but they don't work from the hub or from Apple Home (via Homebridge). I have other Sengled zigbee bulbs that appear to work fine, so I'm not sure what is going on. The bulbs so show up in the "Neighbors" map (Zigbee Map app) but do not show in the "routing" map.
Any suggestions on what I can/should do? Thanks for your help.
I have a lot of these bulbs going back years.
I have always found them finicky after any sort of reboot.
As a beta tester I can say that there are few instances when I test a new beta, which can be often, and all the Sengled lights come back fully functional.
Many times it's just an Off, wait, On. If the bulb comes on and then goes off by itself that's a good sign. If the bulb stays on I sometime have to put them in pair mode and rediscover.
Overall, without rebooting all the time, they tend to work fine.
You are not imagining this, the same here the ones in the basement have been rock sold and some in individual rooms have been experiencing the same issue you have seen. What I found out is that. Of the list of bulbs I have and the key was the "Generic Zigbee Bulb" seemed to be the driver that didn't have the issue. Where the ones that had the issue used the "Sengled Element Classic" driver.
But I noticed something in the latest firmware:
"I am now testing the Sengled Element Classic (legacy)" and they have been rock solid since I made the change to the driver on Friday.
I would say there has been some changes in the Sengled drivers by Hubitat that is causing this with the legacy bulbs, someone realized it and pushed out the "Legacy" version of the driver.
I may be wrong on this but I think the Sengled Element Classic (Legacy) driver has been there for a long time. Seems like I remember seeing it a year and half or so ago when installing some bulbs, but like I said I may be wrong there.
I use several Sengled Element Classic bulbs and I am using the Advanced Zigbee Bulb driver with them and have zero issues with them. If the switch in the drivers you are trying doesn't work I would give that one a shot.
I have had issues with Sengled Zigbee bulbs for years. The candelabra base bulbs were always the worst. I think I finally have them sorted out, though.
The only thing that has really changed over time is adding more and more repeaters. Those bulbs are very finicky about having a very solid Zigbee mesh. It's like they are not happy unless they have multiple paths back to the hub.
I'm at about 30% repeater devices now to end devices, and I have had none of the usual Sengled bulb issues for quite a while.
You may be on to something there as I am at a very similar percentage of repeaters to end devices. Not on purpose it just kind of happened but similar.
Well this prompted me to look at what I'm using for these Sengled E11-N1G bulbs and I see I have both the Sengled Element Classic driver AND the Advanced Zigbee Bulb driver employed.
Waiting for someone's conclusive determination of which driver we should be using. Haven't noticed any significant problem with either but I believe I have a pretty good Zigbee mesh enveloping all of these.
I have one Sengled E1F-N9G candelabra bulb also on Sengled Element Classic driver which seemed to be a bit less responsive at first.
I haven't had to mess with them for awhile, but it looks like I stayed with the Sengled Element Classic driver for the standard bulbs, and the Advance Zigbee bulb for my candelabra base bulbs.
I think that is just where I ended up back when I was having issues with the bulbs, I can't say exactly why that is what I ended up using.
Currently I have 5 standard bulbs and one candelabra. I replaced a few of the candelabra bulb lamps with dimmer outlets when I was having issues with the Sengled candelabra bulbs.
I have a strong zigbee mesh as well and honestly, I think that could be a much bigger part than the drivers themselves. Seems like they play better with a lot of repeaters.
As for the driver mine always paired with the Sengled Element Classic driver and I always changed them to the Advanced Zigbee Bulb as I got better results for on off transition times. The Advanced Zigbee Bulb driver let them perform better for me for the quick on and off like a standard bulb and switch. Really just whatever you prefer.
I agree with some of the comments here. #1 we really need to know which Sengled or Generic driver to use per Sengled product type. So far we have a mix of trial and it works but it would be good to have a official association table.
Second good mesh, since Sengled bulbs aren't repeaters a good mesh is mandatory. When I first set up years ago I had 8 bulbs in my basement direction connected to the Hub. As I expanded to the first floor had a plan to put repeating devices in each room such as a Enbrighten Zigbee outlet or Peanut plugs. Since then that is still my approach and it has built a very strong mesh but the Peanuts have been replaced with THIRDREALITY plugs.
Does anyone know what the difference with the "(legacy)" driver is?
I have 2 Element Touch that are turned on and off every day for evening lighting (and when the lum goes low). I don't recall them ever failing to operate. The 2 Element Classic I have are in the same pole lamp, and I always turn them on/off together. They also never fail to operate. They've all been really reliable!
This is what has me so baffled - there have been changes to the devices (adds/removes) etc. for quite a while and so nothing should have changed. Firmware is 2.4.3.176 and that was probably the last change (t was a while back).
The same bulbs have been working on the "classic" driver. I checked all my zigbee bulbs and all of them were the same. I've switched to the "legacy" driver and waiting to see what happens (so far, it's looking like it is working, but that's not to say that if I switched back things would go in the crapper again )
I have those (3) as well as some IKEA repeaters (3), Sonoff ZB Mini (3 - but they may not be routers?), a couple of Jasco dual plugs, 1 Samsung Zigbee plug - I'm sure I'm forgetting a few!
Use ever which driver will turn the bulbs on and off in whichever manner that fits your needs. I understand the theory of wanting HE staff to say use this driver but these devices are no different than others. There are many devices that work with HE without an "officially " recommended driver. Multiple drivers will work obviously and they have different features. I strongly doubt a driver is what is causing these issues.
Did you change anything else in your 2.4 environment? Any router setting changes? Did you get a new router? Introduce a thread boarder router and thread devices? I ask these questions because it could possibly be an outside factor unrelated to HE that is causing some mesh issues.
Have you tried putting them in pairing mode and rejoin them to HE WITHOUT removing them? If not try this.
Will the three bulbs work correctly at times and at times not? If so have you noticed any pattern to the times they malfunction? I ask this because I had issues with several bulbs, plugs, and other devices to where they would become unresponsive to The HE hub commands and then would be fine later to have the same issue again. What I found was a Third Reality Vibration Sensor I had on my dryer was wrecking a number of my devices when it was reporting active. When the dryer stopped and it became inactive everything returned to normal.
I use a 50/50 mix of these 2 driver and they both do the funk on a reboot from time to time.
I never remove my bulbs. I just put them in pairing mode with HE and rejoin them.
We were out of town for a few days and I came back to these bulbs not working. There was no one at home and there was no power outage or surge (we have solar+battery in any case).
I'm going to see if the driver switch resolves the issue. If not, then the next step is to exclude/re-pair. It's a pain as they are in a lamp and the 10 on/off drives me up a wall! - I will have to bring them down and plug them in to a switched outlet.
