Xiaomi & Aqara Devices - Pairing & Keeping them connected

That's great the Xiaomi's have remained connected. The more I play with those things, the more I realize there is nothing predictable about them. I had a bunch of them finding their way to Cree's but I'd lose them after a day or so. I put the Cree's on a Hue bridge, got rid of anything else that would repeat, and replaced them with XBees and Ikea plugs. Been solid ever since. I wish you continued success.

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Thanks. I didn't intend to have any bulbs acting as repeaters except for an outdoor fixture light that I use with my mailbox sensor (Iris contact sensor about 70 feet away; that works very well) and I was surprised it remained stable. It's not like the Cree Connected is suffering from wimpy processor hardware (it uses an Atmel Cortex M0+ which is par for a lot of smart devices) but I suspect it's antenna setup just isn't the greatest.

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Just to say, my Xiaomi cube stays connected very nicely. I keep expecting trouble with it based on various comments above about these devices, but it's solid thus far, after about a week. And so cheap for what it is. Happy with it.

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I haven't had any issues with my cubes either, since day one, which was in January. I did have issues with my Xiaomi buttons in the beginning but was able to resolve it. I thought, through changing channels. Unfortunately, seemingly since the last update(not blaming it) my buttons will not stay connected again after many months of working perfectly. I'll have to check the routing as @Tony mentioned his had hopped repeaters out of nowhere.

Hello all,

So 1st post and new to HA. I'm based in Australia as well. No previous experience with ST (or Vera or anything else) but still decided to jump in and try the HE system regardless of the learning curve. Possibly not the smartest move but that's normal for me..

So the only Zigbee devices I have are a few Xiaomi sensors (3 x temp\hum, 1 x Door), newly acquired to see what they are like before getting more. I read all the issues and then eventually mostly success as @veeceeoh's drivers were improved and the inclusion of Tradfri gear to get stability. And then thought yep, lets get these to start They are small, look okay, relatively cheap.

So they've arrived and........ I cannot for the life of me get any of them to pair\be discovered.

I've loaded the drivers.
Reset the sensors (long button press, 3 flashs)
Started discovery and nothing. Nothing showing as initialising. Sensors are anywhere from touching the radio to 2 meters away.
Checked Zigbee logs (nothing except a poll approx every 5mins)
I've removed the batteries for a few minutes. I've replaced 1 battery in 1 of the sensors.
I've changed Zigbee channels (haven't gone through every channel yet but tried 13, 20, 21, 25, 26, maybe others, it's all starting to blur and I didn't write it down) and modified the 2.4G channel on the router to not interfere.
Reset the Zigbee stick\radio, no Zigbee devices paired so no issues for me doing that.
I've disabled and enabled the radio...
I've rebooted the HE. I've shut it down, and swapped USB ports, twice.
I am now fairly over watching the 60 sec discovery timer go down again and again and long pressing to get 3 short flashes and then pressing again after a longer flash. Or not and just waiting for a bit and starting discovery again.

So I'm pretty much out of ideas until I head to Ikea tomorrow and get a couple of Tradfri bulbs and see if I can pair them and then start again..

So, any suggestions? Did I miss something really simple?

Welcome fellow Aussie,

When I pair Xiaomi, I press that little button in like a jackhammer until it pairs with the HE. I think i start with a long press, then once the light lights up, keep pressing quickly.

Keep going, and keep the light flashing on the contact sensor/temp sensor (whatever) until is pairs, or the HE picks it up.

Thanks @mike. Okay, can't say I've just kept pressing so let me try that. :slight_smile:
I'll pretty much try anything now, including hoping on one foot and barking like a dog.

Nope.
So behaviour is:

  • 3 short flashes after long 'reset' press (Long reset press is 5 seconds; then 3 short flashes occur)
  • Once button released a short flash occurs. (have held long press for 1 min+ or released immediately after 3rd short flash; result= no difference a short flash occurs when button released)
  • 5 secs after short flash, a long flash occurs.
    If button not pressed again - no further flash, probably goes dormant
    If button pressed after long flash, short flash occurs then nothing for another 5 seconds then a long flash occurs. Repeatedly pressing button between short flash and long flash (in the 5 secs) nothing occurs. After the long flash (so 5 secs) the next button press results in a short flash. The 5 sec delay until a long flash.

This is my procedure and it works for me.
Long press of button for 10 seconds to reset device.
Go into HE UI.
Select devices.
Select discover devices.
Select zigbee.
Press button on device.
Keep pressing until it appears in discovered devices.
Sometimes it stays in initialising state if so I do the process again.
Good luck. :wink:

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Same here. I short press it once per second after initiating the pairing process until it pairs.

Thanks @bobbles.
I've done all that with no success. At probably around 100 presses in the 60 secs of 'countdown' pairing my concern is now - absolutely nothing shows in any logs\screen of any progress towards success.
So nothing in the Zigbee logs, and nothing in the discovery page.
I don't even know what to expect to see on the discovery page as I've only ever seen a countdown occur from 60 to 0 seconds remaining.
I'm assuming that a line will show up saying "Device found" or "Device discovered" or maybe "Initializing found device"?
Is that what should occur?

At 4 Zigbee devices with the same result, I'm wondering if something else is at play. But they are all the same manufacturer so.... Until I pick up some other Zigbee device (e.g. Tradfri bulb) I can't rule out that either: the radio could be 'suspect' or all the sensors are suspect.
Or I'm just unlucky and something else is causing issue.
Sigh...
I think I'm getting a blister on my finger from all the button presses! :smiley:
Anyway, thank you for your process.

Maybe I'll take the batteries out again......

Have you tried rebooting the HE hub and trying again after reboot?

I've had a few times where things got hung up in the pairing process that a reboot cleared up.

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Have you enabled zigbee ? on the zigbee settings page?

Have you plugged in the zigbee usb stick?

@JasonJoel, have but can't hurt trying again.....

So another reboot in between a battery removal (and loading up the SBS page to check in on the TDF) and.......... OMG it's found something...

I don't know why a reboot now.. 8 hours after the last one, has made things change. or maybe after.... nope. no going to think further after trying to pair sensors for the last 12+ hours, yelling, screaming, crying, laughing, sleeping, and starting it all again...

Hey what's one more reboot right..

Maybe a reboot after a channel change is needed? I didn't reboot between the last 5 channel changes....

Don't care.. Let's see what I get out of the next sensors to pair...

@mike - yes mate - i swapped USB ports for the stick and disabled and re-enable the radio. I think I did the disable/re-enable after the shutdown (probably the 2pm entry..)

Update on the nest sensors...

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Nest was actually next...
Anyway - All 4 sensors paired.

Just 1 more reboot right.... Yay.

Thank you @mike; @JasonJoel; @bobbles - appreciate your help..

So does

  • a Zigbee Channel change require a 'reboot' (wouldn't have thought so)
  • a Zigbee radio enable\disable require a reboot
  • a Zigbee radio usb swap (with the HE device 'shutdown') require an actual reboot. Power was removed after shutdown to restart but is their a difference between shutdown vs reboot. I know there can be for winblows with fast boot settings enabled...

Anyway, onto configuring stuff now. Thanks again guys and HE community.
And thank you @veeceeoh for the drivers..

I hope as I get more familiar and confident I can also contribute back.
:smiley:

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Iā€™d also add - keep in mind the wireless range.
I find that these tiny little battery powered sensors are good for about 3 rooms away from the Hub. And more and they drop off as battery power drops, with out repeaters.

Just a suggestion - don't get the Tradfri bulbs. Get the Tradfri outlets instead - they're great zigbee repeaters for Xiaomi sensors.

Thanks @aaiyar.
As yet I don't think the Tradfri outlets are available in Australia from what I can tell.
I actually have some old LED strip light drivers (about 3 years old) from Ikea which now come in a Tradfri flavour... I'm toying with the idea of replacing the old with the new...but more money.
From what I understand the drivers are repeaters.
I though the Tradfri bulbs were basically repeaters as well?
Did I have that wrong and they are just an end point?

Thanks @njanda.
That's the next challenge. Building out the mesh.
Which I'll assume I'll end up re-pairing\re-joining the sensors as it is expanded.

I've had win though. Sensors connected and reporting back. And the drivers auto detected perfectly. So thank you again @veeceeoh.

HE - From extreme lows (12+ hours of zero success) to the highs (temp and humidity being reported back from multiple points - oh the simple things for all you experienced HA people..:wink: )

As a note - the batteries the sensors came with are certainly towards the end of their life. The 2 temp sensors which I haven't replaced the batteries for report a 30-40% range, and the one that i put a new battery is responding with 100%. They still paired though... after whatever change and the umpteenth reboot.

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They may be. In general, bulbs that repeat can destabilize a zigbee network if power is (accidentally) cut off to them.