The first post of this thread is quite comprehensive in explaining the potential reasons for the dropped connections of Xiaomi / Aqara devices:
From what you're describing, I would point to exploring the last reason of the above list, incompatible Zigbee repeater devices.
Zigbee repeater devices are generally any Zigbee device that is not battery-powered (with the notable exception of some Zigbee smart bulbs, such as Sengled brand smart bulbs).
What Zigbee devices do you have that are plugged into the wall (i.e., mains-powered)?
I have no powered repeaters. I have door contacts and some z-wave. I am about 10 ft from my HE and no devices between us. I have moved the he to within 1 foot and I still get the same issue after some time. Just at a loss why it drops after an hour or so.
How many total Zigbee devices do you have? Hubitat can only handle 32 directly connected devices, so if you have more than that, they'll usually fail to pair at all, but I'm not sure what Xiaomi devices would do. In any case, adding repeaters would be the solution. (They have their limits for child devices, too, usually far less, but those children don't count against the hub limit.)
How are you pairing them? I usually press the button for 10 seconds or whatever it is to reset, then press once quickly again after that...and keep pressing every few seconds thereafter, though I'm not sure if that is totally necessary. Pairing in place is also best (staff has said if it doesn't pair in place, it probably won't work in place, either, secure Z-Wave devices like locks excepted).
Beyond that, it's pretty much got to be one of the reasons veeceeoh mentioned above.
How long did it take for them to initialize? I had no problem with my Xiaomi door sensors or motion detectors pairing up and only had one hiccup on initializing.
But I can't get the water sensors to initialize at all. They do pair pretty easily after figuring out that you have to do the reset cycle twice to actually reset the water sensor.
I was only 5 feet from my hub, and only have 4 other zigbee devices -- all xiaomi -- hooked up to my hub. No repeater devices.
So to find out if the newest Sylvania smart+ bulbs are any better with Xiaomi devices I setup a test.
I used a new smart+ bulb (new bulbs have a different zigbee chip indicated by "FCC ID DZO-AETHER") I connected the bulb to my ST hub and then joined the aqara flood sensor through the bulb. Both of these devices are in my old "coal cellar" with 12" concrete walls and foil insulation. The water sensor has stayed connected since 5/9/19.
I know it's not an HE hub, but I couldn't risk trashing my main mesh used for security.
I'm confident enough to start moving things to HE and hope to see the same stability.
Interesting you've had luck with bulbs as repeaters. Proceed with caution. The Trådfri outlets or the XBee are thoroughly tested as repeaters for Xiaomi and do an outstanding job. I simply don't even have to treat Xiaomi devices differently than any other now. They're just stable. Just ordered another Aqara motion sensor and going to add one of the dedicated Trådfri repeaters in my basement tonight to compliment my two Trådfri outlets.
I see the "SmartThings Zigbee Outlet" is on the list of known-incompatible repeaters, but there are several generations of this device. I'm assuming the Centralite 3-series one (similar to the Iris, if not identical on the Zigbee side) is not compatible. However, I have a the "2018" SmartThings Outlet (model GP-U999SJVLDAA) and seem to have paired a Xiaomi Aqara motion sensor through it, which has successfully stayed online for a couple days now. Has anyone else tried this as a repeater?
I am unfortunately unable to verify whether it is still routing through the ST 2018 outlet, as neither of my Xbees with XCTU nor my hub's "getChildAndRouteInfo" page shows this device--no matter how long I wait (or refresh). I did show there right after paring. And I've never seen a Xiaomi device switch routes (I've stated a few times that that all of mine prefer to drop off the network rather than find a new one), so I'm inclined to believe it's still there. (And in related news, if anyone has seen this behavior and has any ideas, let me know.)
So, tl;dr, I can't verify this anymore since it's not showing up in any of my map/route info (nor are many of my devices...), but I paired a Xiaomi Aqara motion sensor through a ST 2018 outlet and it's stayed online for a couple days now. Maybe it's a compatible repeater?
PS - While the Trådfri outlets are cheap and known to work, these are a bit prettier (albeit a bit more costly but discounted if you by mulitple direct from Samsung, an experience in itself but I digress). They also seem to have a stronger signal than the Trådfri outlets (which are reported to be on the weaker side).
So, it was still hard to tell how the Xiaomi sensor was routing since it wasn't showing up in XCTU or Hubitat's child and route into page, but it's been working fine, so I did an experiment: I unplugged the 2018 ST outlet. As I suspected, the Xiaomi device stopped working. It worked again when I plugged the outlet back in (only had it out for a few minutes to test whether it would send an "active" event successfully). To me, this means it almost certainly was routing through the ST outlet (as I know it was when I paired it, the last time I could see it on a list). Of course, could also have been routing through something else that was routing through the outlet, but Hubitat lists all my repeaters as connecting directly to the hub (XCTU does show dashed lines between many), so that seems unlikely.
So: my conclusion is that the 2018 ST outlet works fine with Xiaomi devices. I've only tested it with the Aqara motion sensor and only one ST outlet, and as I said it's been hard to identify its route in Hubitat or XCTU, but I think all the clues I can put together indicate it works for me. More people testing more Xiaomi devices would make me more confident, though.
Several months ago, I set up my half dozen Xiaomi devices (5 'original' round buttons and a Cube) so they were repeating through one of Iharyadi's environment sensors; they have been working perfectly since. I like the device driver for the sensor since it shows the current count of child devices on its settings page. This was a help when I initially paired the devices, as the child count incremented with each successful addition.
Back in early March, I happened to look at the sensor's driver settings and noticed that the child device count had changed from 6 to 3. Strange, since all my Xiaomi's were still online and working perfectly. I dug out my Xstick and mapped the mesh to discover that 3 of the sensors had silently jumped ship from the environment sensor and chose Cree Connected bulbs as their new parents (I use a couple of Crees with circa 2016 firmware in my basement; one of these was parent of two Xiaomi's and another bulb repeated for one).
Out of curiosity I verified today (after another 3 months of trouble free operation) that these Xiaomi's are still repeating through the same Cree bulbs. Stranger still, when the Xiaomi's chose the Crees as their new parent, they did so in preference to several closer Iris V2 outlets (which in my experience normally grab new or orphaned Zigbee devices like a magnet-- but won't play well for long with Xiaomi's. I had to make sure these were powered down when I did my initial pairing).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
I'll pretty much try anything now, including hoping on one foot and barking like a dog.
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.
