I am switching my home security from QOLSYS hardware and decided to go internal hubs for cameras and door sensors and home automation.
I've got my (used) Zwave devices detected and am in the process of swapping the 12 outer door sensors to Aqara T1s I got on Amazon.
What a bitch it is to get the Zigbee contact sensors to pair!
I got seven paired yesterday in 7 hours of button pushing and swearing... And not one today in 6 hours of brutal frustration.
Set my Zigbee radio to channel to 25, power to 12 (unit?) and moved my home 2.4ghz wifi to channel 1. Have disabled/enabled Zigbee radio three times today...
Still no Bueno.
What I thought might be an interesting project is now a real cluster-coitus.
How many mains powered Zigbee devices (plugs, outlets, switches, or just plain zigbee repeaters) do you have, and where are they located in your house vis-a-vis the battery powered sensors?
Typical recommendation (IIRC) is that you should have one mains powered Zibee repeating device for every 5 or 6 batter Zigbee devices, and battery devices should be added after you've added all of your mains powered Zigbee devices.
If you're joining only battery powered Zigbee devices to your hub you're gonna have issues...
You paid $500 for a C8 hub & 12 contact sensors? Maybe you and I should talk about a bridge I have for sale...
I can personally tell you I have been through the hell of ZB pairing.
One thing to note besides repeaters, that I have always experienced, is to stay away from Ch 11 and 25.
I have devices that will NOT pair on those channels. I go to the middle and things pair just fine.
Life is grand on 15 or 20 if you have no conflicts.
Another quirk with many ZB failures to pair can be fixed by a simple power off and reboot.
I don't know why but the process gets in a snit and just stays there no matter what you do correctly.
EDIT: Bad assumption. I assume everyone knows Power off and reboot is a proper shutdown from the Settings menu.
@davefolts - Just please be sure to properly shut down the hub via the Settings Menu, before removing power for about 10 seconds. Then restore power and the hub will boot back up cleanly.
If the Hubitat Hub loses power unexpectedly, it can result in the internal database being corrupted. It is simple enough to fix by using the Advaced Options in the Reboot menu...but best to avoid if possible. Most put their hubs on a UPS to ensure maximum stability.
Just curious, but why? I've been using Oolsys stuff for about 7 years and never had a problem with it. What panel do you have? I would never use HE for home security, but there's been lots of threads on that subject so no reason to rehash that.
I've never had much trouble with pairing, it's reliability that's been a problem for me with Zigbee. I switched over to almost all Zigbee stuff when we moved about three years ago and deeply regret it. The investment was way more than $500 and I've thought more than once about scrapping it all. Zwave has always been far more reliable for me, but it's different for everyone.
In any case, have you tried increasing or decreasing the Zigbee radio's power setting? Too low can be a problem, and too high can be as well. Is your hub close to your router (or any access points if you have them)? Is your C8 centrally located in your house? Have you paired all your mains-powered Zigbee devices first, before trying to pair battery-powered ones?
And you are of course wearing sufficient garlic around your neck, right? That's the first requirement before trying to pair anything.
20 is not generally recommended as a first choice on C8 hubs... Many people are fine on it, but staff has found that enough issues have been resolved by changing from 20 to another channel, that they don't recommend 20 on the C8 hubs, 15 or 25 would be preferred.
I'm on 20 so far with no issues. I was on 11, horrible as some older ST devices would never join, joined instantly once I left 11.
The "Scan Channels", however inaccurate, showed only 20 free and clear.
15 has a -65 using it; too strong for my liking.
I have lots on 25 with my hydro meter using it all through the neighbourhood.
I have Qolsys and the window sensors are all on bands that are better than 2.4. Don't see any reason to change from any working security system certified stuff. It's usually going be better than zigbee.
You do know you can integrate Qolsys with Hubitat, HA and obviously Control4, yes?
Is it that you don't want the monthly monitoring fee?
You got it...
Expensive PROPRIETARY QOL smoke and CO sensors that last three years, $80 monthly cloud service charge for slow balky cameras( 2 min response time?) constant failure of tamper sensors on the door contact switches... I could go on and ON.
As well as the local security systems support model that enables some dude to run his business from the golf course and charge me high prices for obsolete sensors and a super slow cloud service.
Since I've had the QOLSYS hardware since May 2018, it was effectively at end of life anyway. The panel is held together with tape now.
$4500 ADT- installed system replaced by:
$800 Eufy camera systems with local hub (amazing find at Home Depot) ,
$100 Hubatat and
$140 of Aqara door sensors = Home Safety Management
~ $100-200 of misc hardware and other OPEN SYSTEM sensors to monitor the pool pump, pool house humidity, and etc (indoor pool)
Amazon Alexa/ Apple Home as a software integration layer for my wifes Siri obsession...
That's the point...
The DOOR sensors were at EOL, the panel is taped together, the cameras were failing and were difficult to find replacements for, and the cloud service was abysmal.
All for the prestige of an ADT system that was never reliable
I'll be purchasing a repeater for the pool house so the three external doors there have effective Zigbee signal strength.
The QOLSYS sensors on those doors never had good hub connection unless the batteries were new.
I also saw a post regarding a disable/ enable of the Zigbee system in the C8 to restart the Zigbee software stack.
That helped a couple of times yesterday.
I also note that I had better luck with the web UI than the "app" on the phone...
Seems the app may not update properly during the Zigbee pairing process..
For anyone else reading this, you do not need to use Qolsys sensors on a qolsys panel. Several brand across several bands are supported. It also may surprise you that you can actually use zigbee window sensors on IQ4 when using a zigbee card.
Now to get a Zigbee repeater for the pool house... Signal strength is marginal....
Can't do much about sensors on cold door frames affecting battery output.... But we're in winter now here in CO and temps in the teens for the next 4 months are the norm.
