Xiaomi & Aqara Devices - Pairing & Keeping them connected

That's possible, but since the hub was only offline for a brief time I don't think it should have been long enough for it to try to start searching for another parent. But since Xiaomi has its own unique profile, who knows.... the documented stuff is hard enough to keep track of let alone Xiaomi's quirks (Silicon Labs has a bunch of good Zigbee documentation. Here's a helpful overview document; there are other architecture specs that provide more detail:

I also found that plowing through section 3.6.1.4 of this http://www.zigbee.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/docs-05-3474-20-0csg-zigbee-specification.pdf gave me a little bit of understanding of what happens in the join process. But it's like trying to take a sip from a firehose...

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was searching the web and found reference on an arduino forum to this unit that they say is always on and can output and charge at the same time but I have not tried it myself.

raspberrypi forums are using this one

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Really good info here! It's eye-opening to see the complexity and amount of communication in a "simple" network. Thank you.

Thanks for the links. I'll check them out.
In the little bit of research I've been able to do, I've seen it mentioned several times that if you can get something with true pass-through circuitry, you'd be better off. That will help avoid heat issues. Unfortunately, those few items I've found have been too big or too expensive for my use case. I may just get another $25 APC UPS, but I'm still looking for alternatives.

Where is the thread (or documentation or whatever findings) that reports the 72922-A Sylvania Smart+ Plug doesn't work as a router (with Xiaomi devices or without)?

I did some digging and the LEDVANCE team was extremely helpful. SO helpful in fact that I'm voluntarily trying to help them clear the bad rap the "-A" model has gotten. You might find parts of this message copied and pasted around different spots on the interwebs. They provided information and assurances that both models are repeaters. The "-A" model is supposed to be an improvement in every way over the first model.

They also said they would do some testing with the Xiaomi Zigbee devices to see if their device has any fault in not repeating those signals. They are not doing anything that would cause some devices's signals not to repeat. They said they would work on posting some official documentation on their product page but in the meantime feel free to contact them.

I think what has happened is that it isn't repeating for a handful of Xiaomi devices and people have summarized incorrectly that it doesn't repeat for any device.

I don’t believe anyone said they were not repeaters, they just don’t repeat reliably for the Xiaomi devices. It’s not the Sylvania plug’s fault. In my testing, Iris plugs, Cree bulbs, Osram bulbs weren’t reliable repeaters for the Xiaomis either.
Regardless, this should get you started.
https://community.smartthings.com/t/sylvania-smart-plug-is-it-a-repeater/130149
Edit: Well, I feel foolish linking a thread that you already commented in. Sorry

Testing by users here as well as ST community suggest to avoid the A version.

Yeah, that post says the non "-A" version works but it doesn't talk about the "-A" version not working. I couldn't find somebody that actually found the "-A" version was not working. I didn't find anything over at the ST forum either except a thread that said they weren't repeaters at all. They are definitely repeaters. The fact that somebody, some place, somewhere said that they don't repeat Xiaomi's weird, cheap, grey market, non-certified Zigbee devices seems to have snowballed a bunch misinformation about them.

I'm looking specifically for the thread(s) that shows "-A" doesn't work and what the test setup looked like. I want to forward it to the LEDVANCE team so they can reproduce it in case there is anything they can do about it.

I don't have direct experience with it, but @gavincampbell and @NoWon do. This thread is about Xiaomi devices, so I thought that's what you wanted them for.

The A version apparently do not repeat Xiaomi devices, which do not not comply with Zigbee standards. Several of us (me included if mine ever arrives) have purchased Xbee to audit our Zigbee networks and repeat Xiaomi devices. Although I will tell you from personal experience, if you have Xiaomi devices in close range (around 30 feet or less) of the hub, you should not need a repeater. I currently don't have any and they work fine. No drops, except for twice after unexpected power outages, but then I just press the pair button once on any that are no longer reporting, and they've been fine from there on.

I bought Xbee for the ability to map my Zigbee network and experiment/test with. Here's a thread dedicated to Xbee.

I don't think anyone is claiming that the -A version does not repeat (certainly not in this thread or anywhere I've seen on this forum; if people misread and are now saying elsewhere that they don't repeat at all, that is a different story). People are just saying that, like with most other ZigBee repeaters, Xiaomi devices do not work well with them. Furthermore, the Xiaomi devices use a custom ZigBee profile--they take a lot of work to get paired and sometimes stay paired with both ST and Hubitat, which of course use the standard HA profile, and both had to make firmware changes (guessing ST's may have even been accidental) before the devices actually "worked" on their platforms. Being non-standard, it's no surprise that some repeaters might have problems with them as well.

The biggest problem with Xiaomi devices seems to be with end-device timeout settings. The ZHA specs recommend checking in with the controller once every 60 seconds. It appears the Xiaomi devices only do this about once every 50-60 minutes (though note that the 60 seconds interval isn't a requirement, and many devices--especially sensors that don't usually receive information from the controller, don't check in every minute). There are additional issues with the Xiaomi devices in that if the controller/repeater's timeout is exceeded--which shouldn't really be a problem because the end device can request to rejoin--the Xiaomi devices also exhibit nonstandard behavior and don't complete the rejoin.

When people set up an XBee as a repeater, they are sure to set the end-device timeout (or "child device timeout" as XBee calls it) to a value greater than 60 minutes/360 seconds. I have no idea how Sylvania makes or configures their hardware, but a reasonable guess would be that their end-device timeout is set to less than 60 minutes, which causes it to think Xiaomi devices have dropped (and they won't successfully rejoin due to nonstandard behavior on the Xiaomi device itself, so keeping it joined is better). Sylvania wouldn't have to intentionally do anything to "drop" or "not repeat" Xiaomi devices--this is obviously not a problem unique to them, as most off-the-shelf ZHA devices also suffer the same problem (the earlier revision of their hardware being the rare exception, probably due to sheer chance of how they decided to set the timeout).

Of course, there could be other reasons, but Hubitat and Home Assistant/bellows users have, I think, both found the timeout to be the issue with their ZHA controllers (and Xbee users report it works well with homemade XBee repeaters--myself included), so it's a likely guess. They can read this thread or a couple others linked to here or in the ST Community forum for a wealth of information of what people have discovered about these devices.

@SmartHomePrimer and @bertabcd1234, excellent information. I especially appreciate the breakdown of what your guess of what the problem is. I would have to agree that is very likely what is happening (the time out on the device check in and the inability to rejoin).

And, yeah, unfortunately, the information about them not being able to repeat for Xiaomi devices has propagated and morphed into the "-A" device not repeating at all. Sadly, one of the biggest indicators of whether or not somebody buys a product are the Amazon reviews. The most helpful answer to a repeater question on Amazon about this device states it doesn't repeat. I hate Amazon reviews. So many reviews being bought and so much bad information in general. User sourced information is a double-edged sword.

Anyway, thank you both for your responses. I'll refer them to this thread.

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Are there any plans of supporting Xiaomi smart bulb and outlet as I have few of them? Would be nice to be able to use with my Hubitat which arrived yesterday.

Officially, no Xioami devices are supported and probably never will be because of their non-standard Zigbee protocol and temperament toward weak signal and tendency to drop off in such cases. The support added is via custom driver by @veeceeoh.

P.S. Your username is funny. Trying to out-smart us all are you? :wink:

All Xiaomi smart bulbs are wifi-based as far as I know, so I won't be making any device driver for them, sorry to say.

As for the outlet, if it's the ZigBee one, the SmartThings device handler could be adapted, but I don't have any way to test it as I don't own one and have no plans to purchase one.

Would you do it if you received one as a gift? :wink:

I'm in the U.S., and since all variants of their wifi or zigbee outlets are rated for 180-220V output, I don't see how I could properly test it.

But thanks for the offer (?)

I have actually found these on Amazon which are 110V - 240V . Would you be able to do it if you found one in your mailbox.
https://www.amazon.com/Original-Detection-Overload-Protection-Control/dp/B0779B8GXS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1537509062&sr=8-1&keywords=xiaomi+plug
https://www.amazon.com/Original-Detection-Overload-Protection-Control/dp/B0779B8GXS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1537509084&sr=8-2&keywords=xiaomi+socket

These are wifi not zigbee.

They would connect to the xiaomi cloud. You would need a smart app to then pull data from xiaomi's cloud.

I believe someone has written one over at ST.

Ohhh. I didn't notice that. I own the ZigBee version.
Actually, there is a good news. I just copied Smarthings drivers as is and Hubitat found the Outlet. The only thing is the power consumption does not work though.

For me, Xiaomi sensors have proven very unreliable with Hubitat. The very same setup worked fine for 1.5 years with SmartThings.

With Hubitat, Xiaomi and Aqara door/window sensors, Xiaomi buttons and Xiaomi motion sensors are dropped off the network on a daily basis. Putting the hub into discovery mode and pushing the connect button a few times usually restores connectivity - until it's gone again.

  • I recently changed the ZigBee channel to one where interference with WiFi networks should be minimal (there are only ~ 10 WiFi network here anyway).
  • I added a ZigBee plug that should work as a repeater

Doesn't change anything.

On the other hand, my Hue motion sensors are staying connected.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Jan