Xiaomi Aqara Sensor not reporting

[danabw]

I don't really follow the status of these types of devices very much, but IIRC there are some Tuya sensors temp/humidity that one of our members @kkossev has written drivers for that appear to work well. One w/display below:

[RELEASE] Tuya Temperature Humidity Illuminance LCD Display with a Clock (w/ healthStatus)

Vote for the Linptech Human Presence Sensor with 24G mmWave Radar in the Product of the Year Elevated by Hubitat in 2023 ! This driver can be installed from Hubitat Package Manager, search for "Tuya Temperature Humidity Illuminance LCD Display with a Clock" or by Tag 'Zigbee'. The latest stable version code is here: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kkossev/Hubitat/main/Drivers/Tuya%20Temperature%20Humidity%20Illuminance%20LCD%20Display%20with%20a%20Clock/Tuya_Temperature_Humidity_Illuminanc…

And Centralite sensors are usually very solid and supported by built-in drivers:

https://www.amazon.com/Freezing-Holidays-Temperature-Notified-Tempurature/dp/B07BSXX5TD

[TArman]

I have a Zooz ZSE40 4-in-1 Motion Sensor that does Temperature and Humidity.

• deviceId: 8449
• deviceModel: ZSE40
• deviceType: 8225
• firmwareVersion: 16.09

[jasonbalsor]

I use sonoff and they have been solid for me, and cheap

[TArman]

A pack of these will make your Zigbee mesh stronger.
https://www.amazon.com/SONOFF-Lite-Zigbee-Certified-SmartThings/dp/B09XMH3X3G

[bblater]

@TArman are those plugs actually extenders also?

Right now this Aqara sensor is like less than 10 ft from the Hubitat. So an extender is probably not needed. But as other sensors are added, I can see needing an extender.

[bblater]

It looks like the removal of the sensor and adding it back to the Hubitat has it working better. It is now communicating with the Hubitat every 10 mins like it should.

Thanks for the help and suggestions. Now on to the next problem.

[TArman]

Yes, and it is noted that Aqara sensors and other devices work best through a repeater/extender, and not directly connected to the hub.

[Navat604]

@bblater

Mine is the same.

I just removed it and added it again to see if that makes a difference.

Do you have to run an Aqara Smart Hub?

You will run into trouble again. There is no ZigBee 3 temp/humid sensor from Aqara right now.
I have tons of the same sensors and work flawlessly with the Aqara hub but not so well directly pair to Hubitat or Home Assistant Zigbee2Mqtt.

[Rxich]

Hi Tom, Thanks for the suggestion. I'll share what some others have commented, which is that the Sonoff lite Zigbee plugs don't have the strongest signal. Please search the forums and you'll see

[aaiyar]

@Rxich

which is that the Sonoff lite Zigbee plugs don't have the strongest signal.

Can confirm.

[TArman]

I think you will find that the problem was with the S31 plugs. I have found the S40 plugs to be extremely reliable and have good coverage.
Once paired with the S40 plug, none of my Aqara devices drop off the mesh.

[Navat604]

@Rxich

Hi Tom, Thanks for the suggestion. I'll share what some others have commented, which is that the Sonoff lite Zigbee plugs don't have the strongest signal. Please search the forums and you'll see

It's not the strongest so go with Sonoff 3 dongle. I have 3 Aqara temp/humid sensors around 100 feet away without issue for over a year. This is at my brother's house running Home assistant where you can pick router to pair the device to with Zigbee2MQTT.

[kkossev]

@Navat604

running Home assistant where you can pick router to pair the device to with Zigbee2MQTT

I have always wondered how this works on Z2M and whether it works always or not…

Has anyone looked at Z2M code or sniffed how a Zigbee device can be forced to join the network via specific router?

FYI @Tony @dandanache @garyjmilne

[garyjmilne]

I’ve had good luck simply bringing the device really close to the repeater I want it to use and rejoining. Worked for me. The rejoined devices will mark the repeater as their parent device. These relationships are visible with the Zigbee Monitor Driver.

[Navat604]

@kkossev

I have always wondered how this works on Z2M and whether it works always or not…

Has anyone looked at Z2M code or sniffed how a Zigbee device can be forced to join the network via specific router?

I don't know about the code but there's a dropdown menu where you select which router you want to pair a device to. 99% success rate for me.

[bblater]

Ok, I have some questions about these so called gateways or extenders and more specifically these Sonoff 3 Dongle Plus devices.

1. To use these do I just need to plug them into a USB adapter that is plugged into the wall?
2. I take it then that I will need to get software for these Sonoff devices?
3. Then in the Sonoff software I pair the Zigbee sensors etc to these gateways?
4. Then I need to add these gateways to the Hubitat C8?
5. Do I need to add something more to the Hubitat (an app or something) for these Sonoff gateways? I keep seeing mention of the Zigbee2MQTT. Is this something already part of the Hubitat or something I need to add?

Sorry for all the questions. Just trying to wrap my head around this whole thing. Most of my home automation has been stuff tied to Alexa, which might be easy, but not as powerful.

[danabw]

SonOff USB Dongle questions answered here...once prepared and joined to Hubitat, the dongle is like any other Zigbee repeater in Hubitat.

How to: Flash SonOff USB Dongle to be a Zigbee Repeater/Router & Set Transmit Power

I wanted to flash a SonOff USB Zigbee dongle to use it as a repeater (SonOff refers to this as flashing it to be a "router") on HE. These things are great Zigbee repeaters! After flashing them just plug them into any USB power supply that provides at least 0.5A at 5V. Most phone chargers will work fine. [image] These things especially like the C8 - they can repeat for a lot of devices...example from my setup: [image] ![2023-04-29 08_26_51-|690x148] Flash from Pi/Linux or from Windows You …

By the way, you're not a Ravenous Bug Blatter Beast of Traal, are you? If so, I'm both frightened and honored by your presence.

[bblater]

LOL

I've never heard of that ever. But hey if it works in my favor, I can go with it.

Thanks for the reference on the SonOff devices. I'll read up on that while my amazon shipment is on the way.

[Tony]

Interesting.. handy capability to have. I'm not familiar with Zgibee2MQTT but from googling it looks like parent forcing is done by via the 'permit join' ZDO command; it takes a device ID as a parameter and can enable network joins on a specific router node.

I found this; it's an old link though, Evidently a couple of years ago they added support for this feature.

Allow to change parent of a device and force parent during joining · Issue #2888 · Koenkk/zigbee2mqtt · GitHub

[dandanache]

@kkossev

how a Zigbee device can be forced to join the network via specific router?

I played with this and I actually succeeded to force pairing with a specific device. I tested it with IKEA devices that need to pair only the Hub in order to function properly. This functionality is now baked in version 3.7.0 of the ikea-zigbee-drivers package.

Thanks for tagging me!