Xiaomi & Aqara Devices - Pairing & Keeping them connected

That sux that these relies on a custom router for them to work. I have 81 zigbee devices and 30 are routers so no way to pair the xiaomi to the hub only. There isn't a way to force them to stay connected to a specific router is there?

Actually, Zigbee Pro 3.0 (aka Zigbee Pro 2016) router should respond to "device aging timeout" request from a client. With Zigbee 3.0 router, an end device an send device aging timeout request, the router can set this time out for this specific end device. Perhaps, this is the reason why some router work well with Xiaomi. They could be Zigbee Pro 3.0 compliance.

Thanks a lot for your elaborate reply. I'm sure what you explain makes a lot of sense. However, in my case, repeaters (initially) definitely had nothing to do with those Xiaomi devices dropping off the network - because there were no mains-powered devices joined to Hubitat at that time.

All mains-powered devices - bulbs and outlets - are connected to my Hue hub and I only joined one Osram outlet to Hubitat to see if its presence would improve the situation - which it didnt't, but I'm not sure if it made things worse either.

I'm considering buying an XBee3 as a repeater. Would definitely be a good investment if it makes Xiaomi sensors work reliably, considering how expensive all the other brands are.

Some devices even if they function fine can cause interfence which can knock other devices offline. Using either of the devices I mentioned you might help you detect interference.

Just added a second Xiaomi contact sensor today. I really like those little guys. They're temperamental and I appreciate your info, that @iharyadi 's sensor works to repeat them. Good info since I still don't have an Xbee.

Strange thing though, when I added the second contact sensor, the original, which was functioning fine just minutes before, lost connection the hub. Both are Aqara. Tried the usual press the pair button once deal, which has always worked before, but this time it just wouldn't reconnect. Had to delete my first contact sensor and re-pair it. Meanwhile, the new one continued to work the entire time before and after. Odd little ducks, they are.

Just a thought but if you are going to buy mother load of Xiaomi sensors and worry about them joining bad repeaters. Buy a second Hubitat hub and you can connect up to 32 sensors directly to it. Distance issue then buy another xbee and add to it for range.

Hi I pairing my WXKG02LM first time today, so work well around one hour, after stooped to work I did again 3 times, I have on same room an Iris 3210-L repeater, any tip to fix it?

do not use Iris 3210 as a repeater for Xiaomi devices unlug it and then join your WXKG02LM to the Hub.

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I Have an 3210 because I need to my KOF works, I will unplug the 3210 and make more tests on week.

Thank you for your tip.

Since the latest update I'm finding issues with motion sensors staying paired. (This could be just coincidental BTW but just thought I would mention it).
At the moment it looks like it's only the Aqara ones. I've just re-paired one and put a new battery in in case that is the issue.
Just wondering if any one else is having issues.
Before people reply about zigbee channels etc. they have been working great for over 6 months now. I'm using channel 22 and nothing else is even close to this. My router has been changed to use channel 1 so there is no conflict there. ST hub turned off and hue bridge using ch 15.

no mine have been rock solid and I have been doing a ton of hub restore and rebooting working on other things.
what router devices are you using?
Any new zigbee devices added?

No new zigbee devices and I'm not sure what you mean by router devices.

router/repeater devices such as zigbee outlet plugs, or Xbee devices
How are the Xiaomi connecting to the hub?
directly or are they passing through router/repeater devices?
you can tell if they are going through repeaters by disconnecting/unplugging the repeater one at a time and seeing if any of the Xiaomi devices stop responding.
or get a Xbee device and scan your network

Thanks for the reply. I'm leaning to it being a battery issue as the one that would go inactive after 2 to 3 hours yesterday has been OK for 12 hours now.
We will see how it goes.

I can report the following Zigbee Routers not working as Xiaomi parent devices (I mostly have xiaomi temperature/pressure/humidity aqara sensors and two aqara motion sensors). When paired through these devices, xiaomi drop off the network for me:

  • 45857GE -- dimming wall switch
  • 45852GE -- dimming smart plug (at this point I'm expecting all GE zigbee routers to drop xiaomi)
  • Centralite 3210-L smart plug
  • Ledvance RT RGBW -- recessed color lights

But when joining through these devicese, xiaomi keeps connection

  • Sinopee [ TH1124ZB] thermostat
  • Ikea TRADFRI bulb E26 opal 1000lm
  • OSRAM/LIGHTIFY A19 RGBW -- recessed color light
  • OSRAM/LIGHTIFY RT Tunable White -- recessed tunable white light
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Oh that's interesting! I don't have that same Trådfri bulb, but I do have one I recently moved off Hubitat so I could use it for an effect this Halloween with the Hue Bridge. The timing is about right, that when I removed that bulb from Hubitat, I've also been experiencing more frequent drops from my Xiaomi devices. I'll have to move it back to HE after Halloween and see if the Xiaomi devices stabilize again.

Good to know! The CentraLite 3210-L doesn't surprise me much since I think that whole series of CentraLite plugs is reported to be problematic. I wonder if anyone has tried the new "2018" ST outlet (probably Samjin) or anything in the newer CentraLite series to see how they work. I'd love to have some ZigBee plugs to strengthen my mesh without compromising the Xiaomi devices (though most I've seen do seem to stay paired to whatever device they paired through, often the hub since I originally did these very close to the hub--anyone else notice that?). I'm using XBees and the "environment sensor" device from this forum now, but I'd really like to not have fear of any powered ZigBee device...

Very interesting! Smart bulbs in general have a poor reputation for repeating in non-ZLL meshes, so I'm surprised that these work well for Xiaomi (or anything)! My Trådfri bulbs are on Hue, but I do have an A19 Osram RGBW--I wonder if it would also work. I'd actually really like to have that on Hue too, but I live in the US and they shipped with apparently ZHA 1.2 firmware that Osram no longer officially supports "downgrading" to the older ZLL firmware--I'm hoping ST can help me out with a special hub firmware I found in a reddit thread, but we'll see. (Osram also seem to have been implying they wouldn't support ZLL because they'd support ZigBee 3.0, without actually saying that they did at that time support 3.0 or naming any such controllers that it worked with--Hue didn't yet but does now, but d they still don't pair. Grrr. But not to derail this thread. :slight_smile: ) Glad the bulbs worked for this!

@lexoid I’m so glad someone else has found this. I had this happen on ST with the Ikea TRÅDFRI GU10s (have 10 of them). Back in the day I didn’t want this to happen, as the Xiaomi stayed connected without issue, but my bulbs were on a dumb switch, where family member kept turning them off. I’ve since changed this with Hubitat.

I also have several Osram B40’s but not sure if these could do the same. They’re currently on Hue, but if they helped, I’d certainly move them to the hub.

Can I ask what your method was for their pairing? I’d really like them to use these as repeaters, but I’m not sure if I’m accomplishing this. The issue I have is most do stay connected for a while, then an Xiaomi contact will drop, the buttons and motion sensors seem to stay connected, but an odd contact (not normally the same one) will just drop off.

Cheers

Thanks for reporting on all of those repeating devices! I've added them to my opening post for this thread.

@Royski I'm actually running on homeassistant, so my experience is not applicable. In homeassistant I've just modified the code to send ZDO mgmt_permit_joinin_req request to specific device (zigbee router) so only that device is opened for joining new devices.

Supposedly the "new device" should listen to the network and pick up a parent with the strongest signal, so you could try getting Xiaomy very close to Osram B40 and maybe moving both further away from any other routers & hub

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