So far I’ve installed 4 out of my 20 switches, and the only one I’ve successfully paired is the one that’s less than 3 feet away from the Coordinator. The one in the next room over will not connect, either directly to the coordinator or by trying to pair it through the existing paired switch.
Disappointed, to say the least, one of my main goals in getting these switches was general network expansion as I’ve had some connection issues with sensors at farther ends of my house.
The concept of Zigbee switches seemed great, but now I’m wondering if I would have been better off just getting WiFi switches since there never seems to be any trouble with my general WiFi connectivity…
Have you posted a thread where we can walk through steps already to check?
Things to include -
Home Assistant hardware?
Home Assistant coordinator (the dongle)?
Are you using an extension cable?
ZHA or Z2M?
Zigbee Channel?
Wifi Channel?
Any other Zigbee devices on the network already?
Is there any update on how to resolve the signal quality issues? It seems like all troubleshooting feedback was slowed down when the separate threads were consolidated here.
It seems like all we have on the forums so far is beta users with no problems with signal and production run users with consistent problems across multiple platforms.
Are there any production run installs with good results? If we can see the difference between properly performing systems, maybe we can isolate the problem.
From a manufacturing perspective I’d be looking at questions like these:
Were there any component or layout changes in the signal path between the production run and the beta?
Is the manufacturer of the antenna the same? Did you change to ROHS compliant solder on the assembly of the antennas?
Do you have a QA process that samples the production run antenna performance? If so, is there a histogram of the measured rssi that could extrapolate a portion of the run into the marginal performance region?
Did handling testing reveal sensitivity to impact or environmental conditions like moisture and temperature?
Is there a single source for all the assembled components and did you verify that these components are not counterfeit?
I’m not looking for answers to these questions, but they are good places to look for a problem that seems this common.
For what it’s worth I added a prod switch a couple days ago (need time to get more set up) but am experiencing exactly the same good/working behavior in that switch that I experience with the beta switch and at least personally am planning on monitoring it extensively as I continue to swap in more Blues as I have time.
Installed my first Blue last night, confident that by following best practices I’d avoid the issues reported by others. Wrong! I’m in the same boat, with an underperforming switch. Details-
zigbee ch 25
wifi on ch 1
z2m v1.28 using a Sonoff dongle P with latest (0928) firmware
dongle on an extension cable
switch installed 5 feet from the dongle, 1 wall in the way (drywall, not brick)
lqi values range between 18 and 21
all other directly connected routers on my mesh have lqi values between 100 and 200, depending on distance and obstacles. Some are > 70 ft away with 3 or 4 walls in the way (I count changing floors in the house as a wall)
I’ve seen the lqi reported for my Blue drop to 0 on occasion. One time I had to physically press a button to get it back on the mesh, but the other two times it responded to a zigbee command issued from the z2m GUI.
Conclusions- I’m not as cocky, that’s for sure. Seems like there really is an issue with this production run. Hopefully a firmware fix is imminent…
Is it typically working for you with just occasional drops and do those ever resolve themselves if you give it time? What other types of devices do you have on the network today?
I don’t expect all the switches to route to one another, the problems is none of them will act as a router. I’ve got end devices that act as if the switches don’t exist and instead connect through other routing devices much further away.
I can post a separate thread outlining what I have done to troubleshoot, but suffice to say I’ve ruled out interference and coordinator firmware. I have some plugs being delivered today and I expect similar results to @huynh.kong - switches connecting to multiple other routers but no switches acting as routers on their own.
It’s working, for the most part. Simple lighting automation in that room (node red) triggered by either of two Sonoff SNZB-03 motion sensors fires 80%‐ish of the time. On my mesh, I also have 3 Enbrighten in-wall dimmers, 4 Innr SP 224 plugs, and 4 Ikea plugs, all providing the routing backbone for my mesh. Mostly Sonoff motion sensors, with a few Aqara contact sensors and one Aqara temperature sensor, and a Zen thermostat round things out. All perform very well and never drop, fire late, or otherwise misbehave. It’s only the new Blue that’s a problem.
That’s a fair expectation and valid. I assume these are newly added devices? I’m not experiencing the same today, but am planning on also adding some more contact sensors, plugs, etc and try to force them to pair through the switches to validate that’s functioning in my environment.
Yeah if you’re willing to start a thread and can try and go through any additional specifics, I’m definitely happy to help brainstorm it.
Got any additional to try swapping out and see if you experience the same behavior? My environment is Ikea plugs, Sengled plugs and a bulb, Zen thermostats and Blue(s) so a bit of overlap (no Sonoff gear though).
For the record as I’m sure this is going through some of your heads. The warranty/return policy is going to be extended indefinitely until we get a solution here.
I’ve let the team know, but if any of you hear differently, please reference this post. This includes ZWP orders.
I’m confident we’ll figure this out and please know that the engineers, our beta testers and our internal team have our full resources on this.
Shoot I’m wiring in outlets in the attic to have some dedicated routers before I let go of these bad boys. This is the first time my wife has actually been excited for me to mess with home automation stuff since she can change the LED color to match the decor
I haven’t been able to poke around enough in the code to see if this is a simple fix on the configuration end. The routing issue seems more or less isolated to Home Assistant so it may be as simple as correcting the error and updating the ZHA quirk.
I have 19 more, but my family won’t have any patience for me going all-in once they discover I knew/suspected there’d be issues. There’s another switch location even closer that I will try next, in lieu of swapping out the one I’ve already installed. The one that’s installed is kind of a pain, since there’s a half wall/countertop right next to the box that makes it so I have to use a screwdriver left-handed (I’m a righty)
This is what I’m so perplexed about. When I thought Z-Wave Certification was insane, Zigbee was next level. There’s no way they let these through without checking something as simple as routing issues.
Now that doesn’t rule out a hardware problem from beta to production which we’re still inspecting.
I’m suspicious of Home Assistant as 2/3 of the reported issues are using it:
Which is somewhat telling as, in the past, (I don’t know the data now w/the Blue Series) it was about 50% SmartThings users, 30% HA, 15-20% Hubitat that made up our database (self-reported).
I’m not one to finger point though as that does no good for the end user, so I’d like to continue to narrow a few things down, which is what we’re doing.
That’s also likely complicated as at least with HA (limited similarly by users sharing analytics) has seen massive growth over the last year, over doubling the total installations. And Sonoff has supported coordinators for both ZHA and Z2M, and I believe are very affordable so likely part of why it’s more highly represented too.
Less so for me, since ZHA and z2m are independently developed. Also, I run z2m outside of HA (I suspect some others do as well). Maybe both ZHA and z2m have protocol issues that are being exposed by the Blues, but I doubt it. HA has nothing to do with zigbee directly, and should be removed from the conversation, imo.
Haven’t received my switches yet but I’ve seen a lot of people using channel 25 for their blues. I know devices can be finicky with the channel being used. Anyone having issues when not using channel 25?
