ConbeeII + Z2M working just fine here. Better than deconz, in fact, as I had a few devices where deconz would periodically reset their names, breaking HA automations. The worst issue I've had with z2m is one specific Sengled light losing color, but that's a known bug, a workaround was provided, a fix will ship beginning of September, and it's my own fault for wanting to stay on the latest release.
Currently still running the Conbee 2 stick in combination with ZHA, for some reason the connection becomes really unstable when the stick points upwards.. Now it's pointing at 45 degrees and the problems are gone (tried different cables/locations, same result) , Wil be replacing it with the sonoff 3.0 i recently purchased. Still thinking about going with ZHA again or to try Zigbee2MQTT out as i need to re-pair anything anyways.
I was using conbe 2 in ZHA for a while now. But from the beginning, the lamps missed many commands - especially if I was controlling many lamps simultaneously / in groups. A few months ago I bought the (old) sonoff stick, and I'm migrating all my devices to Z2MQTT. It works faster and way more reliable. +1 on the tip: "always use groups withing your automation." (even if your group only has ONE lamp) imagine: one device breaks/you want to upgrade =new entity name. Just simply swap out the entity in your group, and ALL your automations simply will works just fine without updating the names
Thank you to share your experiences with the ConBee II stick with us. I was never using a ConBee II stick with Zigbee2mqtt but was using a ConBee II stick together with a dedicated Phoscon Gateway and Home Assistant, for some time. In that setup I had several problems with my Zigbee network. Some devices have not been recognised (watering valve) and others lost the connection over the time and a new pairing was necessary from time to time. Also the device status from the Phoscon Gateway was not reliably forwarded to Home Assistant all the time. After watching you video "ZHA vs Zigbee2MQTT vs deCONZ" I desided to replace the Conbee II / Phoscon combination with a Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB dongle plus in combination with zigbee2mqtt. In that setup I was able to reduce the complexity of my system by connecting the Sonoff Zigbee directly to my Home Assistant server and by eleminating the separated Phoscon Gateway. I have not regretted this change since then.
I was running deConz with the Conbee but then could not pair all of my Zigbee devices back then. So switched to ZHA but started to have the problem with response and lamps not turning on. So thought it could be ZHA so re paired all and moved to Zigbee2MQTT but still same issue occurred. So nice to see that it seems to be the Conbee stick. I have bought a Sonoff stick 6 months ago but have not yet wanted to make the transition and need to repair all my devices a 3rd time. But I think I will need to do it now after your video and your conclusion. Thanks!!
I had a lot of problems with ZHA and Conbee II on a raspberry pi3B Recently moved my HA instance from the PI to a small NUC with an i5 6600T, now it works without any problems at all and I am very happy with this!
I'm moving from Conbee II under Zigbee2MQTT to the Sonoff Zigbee Dongle 3.0 Plus (P instead of E). I've flashed the Sonoff dongle, but don't know what the next steps are. I was looking for your next video you mentioned above, thinking that may help. Thanks for your help.
Thank you for sharing this vid. I am having the exact same problem. My lights randomly disconnect, eventually dying all together. I suspect it is a combination of lights, and their firmware version. I'm using a combination of Osram, Sylvania Smart+ bulbs, and Sengled bulbs. Everyday, I'm resetting them, and everyday they keep dropping from the zigbee network. Just ordered a Sonoff zigbee coordinator, and anxiously awaiting it's arrival.
I also use Sigbee2mqtt with a Conbee 2 stick and have no problems at all. BUT, I remember implementing this by a friend, he had 13 zigbee lights. And it was very unreliable. For some reasons I had many problems with adding the lights. And when I finally did, I had to send the turn off/on commands 2 or 3 times before all lights reacted. Also in a HA group. So there seems to be something with that.
I also switched from Deconz to Zigbee2Mqtt thanks to your brilliant comparison and Inam so happy with Zigbee2Mqtt. It detected all of my devices ans supports them well including radiator valves that deconz did not support. I also ordered this stick as I was afraud that the combee would not work well and made thenopposite experience: This stick did not detect some of my devices. Strange. So far I am happy with the Conbee but I keep the other one and give it an other try if Inrun into problems with the Conbee.
I use the Sonoff stick running Zigbee2MQTT on a Pi 3B and my HA running as a virtual machine on a Synology NAS and everything works and responds quickly always. Prior I had a Conbee 1 running ZHA and it was awful compared to the Z2M install and dongle change. My groups are built in Zigbee2MQTT so If I want I can control things from there. One nice thing about a running Z2M on a different platform is I virtually never have to reboot it but there are many other advantages including reliability. Occasionally I'll have a light in a group respond slightly slow changing color when controlling the entire group but they catch up quickly and it is rare that it happens.
I get the feeling that it is different for everyone because of the many variants on the location. Like walls, electicity, distance, etc. I am new with HA and bought it with a Conbee II. I have some issues with lamps not responding like they should. I am going to try the Z2m this weekend and see if things get better.
I have a conbee2 stick in use with ZHA in an unraid docker. Worked fine for me as i just used sensors and mini buttons to activate scenes. Then it just stopped working. Or passes through to HA (I can select it when seeing up zha) but it just doesn't work. Thank goodness all my switches for lights are on another z-wave stick. They have been reliable for over 2 years. I was hoping you were going to shed some light on my problem, but maybe it's better to try deconz app. Or the other stick you suggested.
You are such a tease! 😆 I am about to bite the bullet and switch my ZHA & Sonoff usb3.0 over to Zigbee2MQTT ( current setup has issues with Tradfri sensors and swiches - and I want more control than the Ikea Hub gives me ). And now I have to wait until next week in case there are any traps you have found with my propective setup 🙃 ZHA was a great learning step, but now its becoming a limiter on how far I can push things, since Z2MQTT appears to extract much more data from TRADFRI than ZHA or IKEA HUB can do. Keep up the good work.
Well, actually my experience is that ZHA shows more triggers and sensor entities than Zigbee2MQTT, but still Zigbee2MQTT is my go to application at the moment.
Interesting I have a Sonoff stick E, and an conbee Ii. I was going to switch to MQTT but I saw the stick E was not recommended that you should go for the stick P instead which I have just ordered 🤔
I have a Conbee 2 stick and was using it with Deconz. After watching one of your video's I switched to Zigbee2Mqtt. This worked really well for several months. Now suddenly I get deconnect and also pairing issues (with Aqara Temperature and Humidity Sensor, which have newer firmware compared to an older version that works fine here). I saw that there is a new firmware version of the Conbee stick available. Can I safely upgrade the Conbee 2 stick (on a pc USB port), and then replug it into my Raspberry pi without loosing my configuration?
I have the exact opposite experience. Could only get two lights to pair using deconz, after changing to zigbee2mqtt i don't have any issues. Everything works faster, and no dropouts.
I have the exact same enviroment (HA in runnin on a Home Assistant Blue) with combee2. Work perfectly with deconz. Then I tried with z2mqtt/combee2 but had the same problems, tried zha/combee2 not as bad but still group not working well (very simple action... create a all lights group to turn all lights on/off... not working properly both with groups in HA or ZHA - always 1 or 2 lights don't respond...). got the sonoff ZBdongle-P to tried with z2mqtt but got stuck with bad gateway error when loading z2mqtt... waiting on the next video to see how you did it and what's the difference between ZBdongle-P and ZBDongle-E...
Actually, I just watch a video where the guy was saying that the new dongle (ZBDongle-E on EFR32MG21 chip) doesn't work with z2mqtt... really keen to see your experience...
maybe this helps: is wellknow that conbee2 and USB ports are not friendly at all. could have a lot of interferences which is affecting the stability and performance of the stick if the stick is plug directly to usb port. I use a usb cable extension of 2m with my conbee2 and Zigbee2mqtt in a rpi4 with not an issue at all until now
@@SmartHomeJunkie I was thinking that this could be a cause of your issues from the video anyway thanks a lot for all the videos you shared until now. They helped me a lot in my begging days as HASs user
In the video you say that you used Deconz with the add-on from the add-on store. Where you using Deconz with the Conbee stick connected to the same device you are using for Home Assistant? If so you are going to have issues. Deconz, Phoscon, and the Conbee stick don't work well in a docker enviroment. I've been using Conbee with Phoscon installed on a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ for 5 years. There has been no issues, and all my devices work. Having multiple devices also separates my zigbee devices from home assistant in case there is an issue with home assistant(I also have a mqtt broker running on a separate RPI for the same reason). The Conbee stick was designed to work with Phoscon, if you use it correctly it will work just fine. To add, if you read the Deconz documentation you can also create fairly complex automations inside the Deconz software by using get/post. I have a few lights and motion sensors that work this way. There is no lag between motion being detected and the light turning on, it also adjusts the brightness based on the sunrise sensor built in to Deconz. Why don't you do a follow up video where you do research on how to correctly use Deconz and Phoscon with the conbee 2 stick as it was intended by the people who make it? dresden-elektronik.github.io/deconz-rest-doc/ phoscon.de/en/app/doc
I never had problems with deCONZ as an add-on in Home Assistant. I ran it for two years without having issues. The issues arose when I started to use Zigbee2MQTT with the Conbee 2 stick.
What is the real-world difference between the old Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus and new Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus ZBDongle-E. I noticed some technical differences in the chip and firmware, but I have no clue what it means.
What I found really annoying also while switching was the behavior of dimming lights in Z2M compared to Deconz, deconz has smooth/fluid dimming while in Z2M this is done in steps and looks jerky as a result. You can combat this somewhat by directly linking remotes to lights / groups.
Agree. I found Z2M & ZHA required automations to handle long press dimming. I'm almost tempted to get a secondary stick (maybe a SONOFF ZigBee 3.0) to pair with Z2M for use with devices that deCONZ doesn't support.
I have a few green powered switches that I now dim with (Friends of Hue) in Deconz. Like you said, very smooth. I am tempted to go to Z2M for firmware updates and more stats, but this is indeed something holding me back...
Using Conbee 2 with Zigbee2MQTT was a nightmare for me. Some how got it to work, but most of my zigbee devices couldn't be updated, and barely any of them had battery levels available. Also, my devices were disconnecting or just not responding. It could be because I was using a lot of Aqara zigbee devices, but these worked perfectly with ZHA. I've since given up on MQTT, but moved back to ZHA with no problems (just a lot of scripting in YAML). Keep us posted with the Zigbee2MQTT journey, I'd love to eventually switch over to that system if I can avoid the headaches from before.
I tried Z2M with a Conbee 1. That was a truly horrible experience. HUE dimmers would pair and then lose connection within a few seconds. If you were fast you could reset them and pair them to a light, but not get any events. Window blinds would not report state etc. I found a ridiculous "workaround" in that if I would start up my old Deconz install with the stick plugged in, all devices would connect to the network and STAY connected. If I then switched back to Z2M everything would work until the next time the stick lost power. ... of course that also meant all bindings and groups got messed up...
My conbee stick is currently showing no firmware after trying to update to zigbee2mqtt, spoke to deconz and they want me to flash it, problem is I don’t know how too and the instructions are hard to follow for an amateur like me. Thinking of giving it all up and going back to SmartThings.
On the site of deCONZ, there's an instruction how to flash it in Windows if I'm not mistaken. Anyway, the Conbee stick works best in deCONZ and not in Zigbee2MQTT, so you might want to try to setup deCONZ instead. How To set up deCONZ in Home Assistant - TUTORIAL th-cam.com/video/03AojKTymuw/w-d-xo.html
Im using Conbee 2 and Zigbee2MQTT, and I don't have any of your issues. What firmware was your conbee stick on, it's important to keep updating stick even though you don't use Deconz
@@SmartHomeJunkie well Glad your change to Sonoff solved your problems, i might test the sonoff laying in my drawer to see if I can notice anything different at all. cheers
I'm trying to get Zigbee2MTT(using Conbee III) running besides my ZHA(Conbee II). However I keep running into the same error: Failed to connect to the adapter (Error: SRSP - SYS - ping after 6000ms)
I agree that migration was an effort. But I’ve had absolutely no performance issues with Z2M. You should know though, deconz phones home on startup and periodically. What got me to switch over completely was one occasion when they had domain issues over the course of a weekend. My deconz container would repeatedly fail and crash on startup. A weekend spent without any automations. Finally late on Sunday night I just rebuilt everything on Z2M. Happy I moved over too. No issues ever since.
Can anyone explain to me WHY the experiences with the conbee II +deCONZ and/or conbee +Z2M are so different? I'm using the conbee since 2019 with many unreliablities such Ikea or Hue devices lost connections or didn't react to my commands. I tried so many different ways like switching from deCONZ to ZHA or Z2M but nothing helped. My Osram Smart+ Plugs are a good example, they don't stay connected longer as a few hours, then I have to pair them again. My solution at this point is that I put some devices to deCONZ and the bigger rest to a Hue bridge. Thats not ideal, but it's working most of the time. But, I don't know If the conbee stick is the problem (because in my case no software works perfectly with it) and will it get better with the new Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 Stick? Should I buy it and test?
great video as usual mate , I want to apply the rainbow (breath colour changing ) effect to my lamps but I don't know how to do it , do you have any video showing that ? thanks heaps again .
I use a Conbee 2 in combination with ZHA. Often I need to launch scenes multiple times before my devices respond. Might buy a Sonoff 3.0 controller and start over with Zigbee2mqtt after seeing multiple people experiencing the same issues.
I had nothing but problems when I was using one of the decon sticks. Switching to a sonof 3.0 dongle significantly increase my network reliability, and combine with zigbee2MQTT it's been amazing, although another commenter made me remember that it did remove a feature to like nice light fading. Overall I will never recommend combee for any users especially when it's more expensive than the sonof.
I have two ZigBee networks. One is ZHA with Conbee 2, the other (more recent) is Z2M with Sonoff ZigBee 3 Pro. I'm glad I didn't buy another Conbee to use with Z2M now I've seen your video. One question though: did you give the Conbee 2/Z2M network time to configure it's mesh? I've had experiences where my lights do the popcorn effect but will settle after a while.
I use ConBee 2 and ZHA and have never had any problems! Did start out with Deconz and had much problems. So I'm sticking to ZHA. All I'm missing is the update over OTA-UI to easily monitor that. But for me thats not enough to change from ZHA atm.
running zigbee2MQTT with Conbee 2 stick. Several times a day the devices are going offline in zigbee2MQTT. Didn't figure out yet what the issue is i restart the addons and then the device(s) are back online. At the moment i have only one device in zigbee2MQTT. I bought the SONOFF ZigBee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus to test if this stick is working better with zigbee2MQTT. Should i buy the new Sonoff or keep the old one?
No, I did not. Thanks! But pointing both to the same stick will lead into issues. I guess you mean using two sticks? But still, both will probably point to the same configuration.yaml of Zigbee2MQTT, so it will be hard to point to different sticks.
@@SmartHomeJunkie yes, you'd need two sticks. And no, they both would have separate configuration. MQTT root topic should be set up different, and channel/key too - that's it. :)
@@formatBCE Really? I expected that they both would create the same Zigbee2MQTT folder with the configuration.yaml in it. I do use the production and edge version next to each other and believe they share the same config.
@@SmartHomeJunkie if you change root topic in configuration before first start - it will be in different folder. Case is, that it's "different" repository for HA.
Just switched from deConz to Z2M and it works really well.. deconz never managed to create a good mesh network and my aqara sensor were getting fired a few hours after pairing
What dongle are you using? I've been using deCONZ with Conbee II for years but in the last couple of months, I've been having also sorts of issues with the power monitoring in my 6 Aqara zigbee switches so thinking about migrating to Z2MQTT with a 'P' dongle.
I had this EXACT problem migrating from deconz to mqtt via my conbee 2 stick. My conbee 2 stick worked good utilizing deconz and/or zha for my testing however when it came to mqtt it was a nightmare to say the least. I also purchased the sonoff adapter for my environment which pairs really well with mqtt. Since I've made the switch to the sonoff adapter I haven't had any problems with mqtt. This video is a relief for me in some way now knowing it wasn't just me having these problems with conbee 2 to mqtt.
It's really interesting to read that done people do not have this issue. Might as well be the combination of brands that are connected. Anyway, for me, the Conbee 2 worked way better with deCONZ.
I'm done with my Conbee stick with Z2M, should i buy the P or the E version? E is expermential with Z2M, so i guess the best way to go is the P version..?
Oooh the Zigbee.... I happen to run a Conbee2 stick. First started out using deConz/Phoscon, found it too complicated just to control simple Zigbee devices. I purged deConz + settings completely, loaded the ZHA integration and have no reason to change anything about it, works all day every day. In my case, dimming or turning ON/OFF lights works smoothly (Tradfri bulbs). I sure won't touch Zigbee2MQTT after watching this video, I'd better spend 2 weeks on the beach ! Zigaaa, Zigbee, Zigceee Thanks for the warning Ed !
Hey Ries, Do you by any chance also have a tradfri remote? The battery of this device is getting drained within 1 or 2 days if I connect it to ZHA. Not sure what the reason is. This didn't happen for me on Deconz and Zigbee2MQTT.
I use several Tradfri remotes. I really like those Tradfri volume controllers, but also use the normal push-button types. They are also paired with my Conbee2+ZHA. I don't use the Tradfri remotes to control any lights in my setup. Instead from within HA i command my Tradfri bulbs using 'call service' using via automations, and just cards in Lovelace of course. I use my Tradfri remote buttons as remote control to tell HA to run a script. In most cases scripts that tell my Broadlink RM4C-pro to send a infra-red IR or a radio frequency RF signal towards all sorts of (non-Tradfri) devices, works really well. So far I've always connected my Tradfri/Zigbee stuff straight to the Conbee2stick, WITHOUT the use of the official Ikea Tradfri Hub, I don't own such a hub, don't seem to need one. I've regularly kept an eye on my logs, Tradfri stuff works fine, those Tradfri remotes sometimes send a 'check-in' message to let HA/ZHA know that they are still awake and stand-by. I don't experience any excessive battery drainage in any of my Tradfri remotes. Not with Conbee2+deConz or Conbee2+ZHA. What i do know is that EVERY command/message/check-in can be found in the HA logs, so if your battery-draining remote is too busy on it's own, you should be able to see it in the logs. Would that battery really get drained ? Or could it be that the value of the sensor.batt is lying to you ? I also use your 'low battery level' warning template + mark-down card, works exactly as promised ! Love it !! And I just purchased that Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 coordinator/stick using your link, just to be able to run/test new Zigbee thingies on my testbed HA.
@@riesmoos I drained two batteries in two days since I connected the tradfri remote to ZHA using the new Sonoff stick. I guess I have to investigate this to see if this new stick is the culprit.
Wow! Yeah there is something wrong. Before turning over every stone in this adventure, i would first unpair the remote, push the little hidden pairing button for 10sec (reset to factory) and keep it in a a metal box/faraday cage so it is effectively not in your Zigbee network/mesh. Just to see if it is purely a problem within the Tradfri remote. If you keep it unpaired and outside your Zigbee network/mesh for let's say 3 days and battery is dead again, then there's your answer. I'm guessing the problem is within that Tradfri remote because lots of people use those and lots of people use a Sonoff Zigbee coordinator, yet nobody is reporting any problems when combining those two. To drain a CR2032 battery in a day you practically need to short-circuit the battery. If there really would be soooo much communication between the remote and the coordinator you should see HA's event bus be completely swamped, which I doubt is the case. Could it be a battery tab/spring inside the remote that was accidentally bent so that short-circuits the battery ? When you put in a new battery and let it sit for 1 hour, do you notice the remote or battery getting slightly warm ? It's my bedtime now, but would like to be kept 'in the loop' about this issue. Thanks
@@riesmoos This problem is reported by multiple people and it does not occur when I use Zigbee2MQTT or deCONZ, but I will look closer if there is a short circuit somewhere.
Great video Ed, thanks! Just to complete my quest. I still want to mirgate from deconZ since I miss several entities for some devices. What is the experience with a conbee2 running ZHA? Is this a more happy marriage?
Well, currently I do not have my Conbee 2 stick running with ZHA. I use the new Sonoff stick for that in my studio for testing, but It has difficulties with the Philips Motion sensor. That sensor gets disconnected a lot.
I haven't had any problem with the conbee2 and zigbee2mqtt. But my setup is much more simple and i use Node Red for the automation setup. Ordered a sonoff dongle on your link just to be safe 🙂
I have a Conbee stick with Zigbee2mqtt too. Noticed some problems too. I have multiple spots that sometimes don't change colors at the same time and there is a little delay. I recently bought a Ikea remote that doesn't work with Zigbee2mqtt on the spot so I am thinking about moving to ZHA. Is that a good choice considering my ConbeeII stick. I don't like the Deconz integration unfortunal so I want to stick to Zigbee2mqtt or ZHA. Or.. is it better to buy another stick? Price isn't realy important, as long as it works properly!
Conbee works best with deCONZ. You can try the Sonoff Dongle-P. I am not recommending to use the Sonoff Dongle-E yet. There are still some problems with that stick. They will probably be fixed in the near future.
@@SmartHomeJunkie thanks for the fast response. I have a lot of Xiaomi, Yeelight and ikea lamps around the house. Back then a lot of them were not supported by it. So, ZHA would be the best option for me. The sonoff you recommend would be the best option? Dankjewel! 👍🏼
Got the Dongle P in the mailbox today. I saw a video of you updating the firmware. Is that the newest firmware to flash on the dongle P or do you recommend another one?
@@brownlkt That should also work without flashing, but after flashing is supports more concurrent devices. Is your stick connected through an USB connection cable? Also check your logs.
Hmmm... Been mulling over the idea of switching from ZHA to Zigbee2MQTT... Not convinced it's worth the effort yet. More so now as I'm using a conbee2 stick!
I had a similar experience moving from deConz to Zigbee2MQTT. I had lights that were dropping off the network. I found that repositioning my Conbee II stick to a different location where there are more permanently powered light bulbs has resolved it. I've also ordered the Sonoff stick. FWIW: I have 22 lights and 8 sensors to transfer and it took me about 10 hours (along with headache tablets)
Thumbs down. looks like you had pairing issues and you are blaming stick, after you used sonoff, you had to repair it again, so it probably picked different routes to work. Also, with OTA - it does work in deconz as well, so i'm not sure why you have said it is advantage. Did you know how to set it up and use in deconz? I've done the same kind of migration a while ago, with 50+ zigbee devices and i had no issues whatsoever. Just wanted to try out zigbee2mqtt for other reasons, like testing DIY zigbee devices which is way easier to configure in z2m than deconz.
@@fryc888 I understand what you're saying. In my case I did not have issues using Deconz, but using Zigbee2MQTT issues started to arise. I switched to the Sonoff Dongle-E now, but that one is still experimental. I still got some battery draining issues with that stick. Especially with the Ikea Tradfri remotes. Pre-ordered the sky connect now. I'll leave my setup for what it is until I receive the Sky Connect. Let's see what that stick does.
How does your config look like for the conbee 2 stick? It's working perfectly fine at my place, but I had to also add the adapter:deconz line in order for it to work properly. Posted mine underneath, maybe it helps :) data_path: /config/zigbee2mqtt external_converters: [] devices: devices.yaml groups: groups.yaml homeassistant: true permit_join: false mqtt: base_topic: zigbee2mqtt user: $replace_user password: $replace_password serial: port: /dev/ttyACM0 adapter: deconz
Do you have issues with the Conbee 2 stick and Zigbee2MQTT as well, or do you have no issues at all? Let me know in the comments!
yes,yes,yes hehehe
No issues at all, it was perfectly fine here.
ConbeeII + Z2M working just fine here. Better than deconz, in fact, as I had a few devices where deconz would periodically reset their names, breaking HA automations. The worst issue I've had with z2m is one specific Sengled light losing color, but that's a known bug, a workaround was provided, a fix will ship beginning of September, and it's my own fault for wanting to stay on the latest release.
Currently still running the Conbee 2 stick in combination with ZHA, for some reason the connection becomes really unstable when the stick points upwards.. Now it's pointing at 45 degrees and the problems are gone (tried different cables/locations, same result) , Wil be replacing it with the sonoff 3.0 i recently purchased. Still thinking about going with ZHA again or to try Zigbee2MQTT out as i need to re-pair anything anyways.
Geen probleem 😀
I was using conbe 2 in ZHA for a while now. But from the beginning, the lamps missed many commands - especially if I was controlling many lamps simultaneously / in groups.
A few months ago I bought the (old) sonoff stick, and I'm migrating all my devices to Z2MQTT.
It works faster and way more reliable.
+1 on the tip: "always use groups withing your automation."
(even if your group only has ONE lamp)
imagine: one device breaks/you want to upgrade =new entity name. Just simply swap out the entity in your group, and ALL your automations simply will works just fine without updating the names
Thank you to share your experiences with the ConBee II stick with us. I was never using a ConBee II stick with Zigbee2mqtt but was using a ConBee II stick together with a dedicated Phoscon Gateway and Home Assistant, for some time. In that setup I had several problems with my Zigbee network. Some devices have not been recognised (watering valve) and others lost the connection over the time and a new pairing was necessary from time to time. Also the device status from the Phoscon Gateway was not reliably forwarded to Home Assistant all the time. After watching you video "ZHA vs Zigbee2MQTT vs deCONZ" I desided to replace the Conbee II / Phoscon combination with a Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB dongle plus in combination with zigbee2mqtt. In that setup I was able to reduce the complexity of my system by connecting the Sonoff Zigbee directly to my Home Assistant server and by eleminating the separated Phoscon Gateway. I have not regretted this change since then.
Would it be possible to have a lamp or group of lamps sync on both dongles at same time (conbee & Sonoff)? As far as I know, it's not possible.
@@iamvavacunha No, a zigbee network can only have a single coordinator.
I hade the exact same experience when I moved to Zigbee2MQTT, had to switch the stick to Sleah's. Works just wonderful with no issues.
What is Sleah's?
I was running deConz with the Conbee but then could not pair all of my Zigbee devices back then. So switched to ZHA but started to have the problem with response and lamps not turning on. So thought it could be ZHA so re paired all and moved to Zigbee2MQTT but still same issue occurred. So nice to see that it seems to be the Conbee stick. I have bought a Sonoff stick 6 months ago but have not yet wanted to make the transition and need to repair all my devices a 3rd time. But I think I will need to do it now after your video and your conclusion. Thanks!!
With Conbee 2, setting Adapter Delay to 350ms in Z2M made my scenes reliable.
That's great info!
Thanks. Might try this before I purchase a Sonoff stick.
is there any possibiliy the set the delay in deconz as well? maybe via phoscon?
@@therealsprint not as far as I know, but don't take my word for it
@@SmartHomeJunkie Did you try this and did it solve it for you?
I had a lot of problems with ZHA and Conbee II on a raspberry pi3B
Recently moved my HA instance from the PI to a small NUC with an i5 6600T, now it works without any problems at all and I am very happy with this!
I'm moving from Conbee II under Zigbee2MQTT to the Sonoff Zigbee Dongle 3.0 Plus (P instead of E). I've flashed the Sonoff dongle, but don't know what the next steps are. I was looking for your next video you mentioned above, thinking that may help. Thanks for your help.
Thank you for sharing this vid. I am having the exact same problem. My lights randomly disconnect, eventually dying all together. I suspect it is a combination of lights, and their firmware version. I'm using a combination of Osram, Sylvania Smart+ bulbs, and Sengled bulbs. Everyday, I'm resetting them, and everyday they keep dropping from the zigbee network. Just ordered a Sonoff zigbee coordinator, and anxiously awaiting it's arrival.
I also use Sigbee2mqtt with a Conbee 2 stick and have no problems at all.
BUT, I remember implementing this by a friend, he had 13 zigbee lights. And it was very unreliable. For some reasons I had many problems with adding the lights. And when I finally did, I had to send the turn off/on commands 2 or 3 times before all lights reacted. Also in a HA group. So there seems to be something with that.
I also switched from Deconz to Zigbee2Mqtt thanks to your brilliant comparison and Inam so happy with Zigbee2Mqtt. It detected all of my devices ans supports them well including radiator valves that deconz did not support.
I also ordered this stick as I was afraud that the combee would not work well and made thenopposite experience: This stick did not detect some of my devices. Strange. So far I am happy with the Conbee but I keep the other one and give it an other try if Inrun into problems with the Conbee.
I use the Sonoff stick running Zigbee2MQTT on a Pi 3B and my HA running as a virtual machine on a Synology NAS and everything works and responds quickly always. Prior I had a Conbee 1 running ZHA and it was awful compared to the Z2M install and dongle change. My groups are built in Zigbee2MQTT so If I want I can control things from there. One nice thing about a running Z2M on a different platform is I virtually never have to reboot it but there are many other advantages including reliability. Occasionally I'll have a light in a group respond slightly slow changing color when controlling the entire group but they catch up quickly and it is rare that it happens.
I get the feeling that it is different for everyone because of the many variants on the location. Like walls, electicity, distance, etc. I am new with HA and bought it with a Conbee II. I have some issues with lamps not responding like they should. I am going to try the Z2m this weekend and see if things get better.
Most of the time it works. I mainly experienced problems with scenes.
I have a conbee2 stick in use with ZHA in an unraid docker. Worked fine for me as i just used sensors and mini buttons to activate scenes. Then it just stopped working. Or passes through to HA (I can select it when seeing up zha) but it just doesn't work. Thank goodness all my switches for lights are on another z-wave stick. They have been reliable for over 2 years.
I was hoping you were going to shed some light on my problem, but maybe it's better to try deconz app. Or the other stick you suggested.
This can have many reasons. I'm not sure exactly what could be wrong. Maybe the log files can shed some light. 🤷🏼
@@SmartHomeJunkie I needed an HA update. All is well. Thanks!
You are such a tease! 😆 I am about to bite the bullet and switch my ZHA & Sonoff usb3.0 over to Zigbee2MQTT ( current setup has issues with Tradfri sensors and swiches - and I want more control than the Ikea Hub gives me ).
And now I have to wait until next week in case there are any traps you have found with my propective setup 🙃
ZHA was a great learning step, but now its becoming a limiter on how far I can push things, since Z2MQTT appears to extract much more data from TRADFRI than ZHA or IKEA HUB can do.
Keep up the good work.
Well, actually my experience is that ZHA shows more triggers and sensor entities than Zigbee2MQTT, but still Zigbee2MQTT is my go to application at the moment.
Interesting I have a Sonoff stick E, and an conbee Ii. I was going to switch to MQTT but I saw the stick E was not recommended that you should go for the stick P instead which I have just ordered 🤔
I have a Conbee 2 stick and was using it with Deconz. After watching one of your video's I switched to Zigbee2Mqtt. This worked really well for several months. Now suddenly I get deconnect and also pairing issues (with Aqara Temperature and Humidity Sensor, which have newer firmware compared to an older version that works fine here). I saw that there is a new firmware version of the Conbee stick available. Can I safely upgrade the Conbee 2 stick (on a pc USB port), and then replug it into my Raspberry pi without loosing my configuration?
I have the exact opposite experience. Could only get two lights to pair using deconz, after changing to zigbee2mqtt i don't have any issues. Everything works faster, and no dropouts.
Great video, thanks! I've had the same issues myself! Now going to try another stick :)
Thank you for sharing.
I have the exact same enviroment (HA in runnin on a Home Assistant Blue) with combee2. Work perfectly with deconz. Then I tried with z2mqtt/combee2 but had the same problems, tried zha/combee2 not as bad but still group not working well (very simple action... create a all lights group to turn all lights on/off... not working properly both with groups in HA or ZHA - always 1 or 2 lights don't respond...). got the sonoff ZBdongle-P to tried with z2mqtt but got stuck with bad gateway error when loading z2mqtt... waiting on the next video to see how you did it and what's the difference between ZBdongle-P and ZBDongle-E...
Actually, I just watch a video where the guy was saying that the new dongle (ZBDongle-E on EFR32MG21 chip) doesn't work with z2mqtt... really keen to see your experience...
@@danielgozzani Today at 4PM CET I will prove him wrong... 😉
maybe this helps: is wellknow that conbee2 and USB ports are not friendly at all.
could have a lot of interferences which is affecting the stability and performance of the stick if the stick is plug directly to usb port.
I use a usb cable extension of 2m with my conbee2 and Zigbee2mqtt in a rpi4 with not an issue at all until now
Yeah, me too. I actually created a video about using a USB extension cable two years ago. ☺️
@@SmartHomeJunkie I was thinking that this could be a cause of your issues from the video
anyway thanks a lot for all the videos you shared until now. They helped me a lot in my begging days as HASs user
In the video you say that you used Deconz with the add-on from the add-on store. Where you using Deconz with the Conbee stick connected to the same device you are using for Home Assistant? If so you are going to have issues. Deconz, Phoscon, and the Conbee stick don't work well in a docker enviroment.
I've been using Conbee with Phoscon installed on a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ for 5 years. There has been no issues, and all my devices work. Having multiple devices also separates my zigbee devices from home assistant in case there is an issue with home assistant(I also have a mqtt broker running on a separate RPI for the same reason). The Conbee stick was designed to work with Phoscon, if you use it correctly it will work just fine.
To add, if you read the Deconz documentation you can also create fairly complex automations inside the Deconz software by using get/post. I have a few lights and motion sensors that work this way. There is no lag between motion being detected and the light turning on, it also adjusts the brightness based on the sunrise sensor built in to Deconz. Why don't you do a follow up video where you do research on how to correctly use Deconz and Phoscon with the conbee 2 stick as it was intended by the people who make it?
dresden-elektronik.github.io/deconz-rest-doc/
phoscon.de/en/app/doc
I never had problems with deCONZ as an add-on in Home Assistant. I ran it for two years without having issues. The issues arose when I started to use Zigbee2MQTT with the Conbee 2 stick.
What is the real-world difference between the old Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus and new Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus ZBDongle-E.
I noticed some technical differences in the chip and firmware, but I have no clue what it means.
I will try to answer this question in next week's video.
Oh dear... I just got the 3.0 plus... Do i need to upgrade again? :'(
@@ManiakNL I don't think so.
@@ManiakNL No, you don't. It works perfectly fine!
@@SmartHomeJunkie Thanks for the answer, looking forward to your comparison video next week.
What I found really annoying also while switching was the behavior of dimming lights in Z2M compared to Deconz, deconz has smooth/fluid dimming while in Z2M this is done in steps and looks jerky as a result. You can combat this somewhat by directly linking remotes to lights / groups.
Agree. I found Z2M & ZHA required automations to handle long press dimming. I'm almost tempted to get a secondary stick (maybe a SONOFF ZigBee 3.0) to pair with Z2M for use with devices that deCONZ doesn't support.
I have a few green powered switches that I now dim with (Friends of Hue) in Deconz. Like you said, very smooth. I am tempted to go to Z2M for firmware updates and more stats, but this is indeed something holding me back...
Using Conbee 2 with Zigbee2MQTT was a nightmare for me. Some how got it to work, but most of my zigbee devices couldn't be updated, and barely any of them had battery levels available. Also, my devices were disconnecting or just not responding. It could be because I was using a lot of Aqara zigbee devices, but these worked perfectly with ZHA. I've since given up on MQTT, but moved back to ZHA with no problems (just a lot of scripting in YAML).
Keep us posted with the Zigbee2MQTT journey, I'd love to eventually switch over to that system if I can avoid the headaches from before.
I tried Z2M with a Conbee 1. That was a truly horrible experience. HUE dimmers would pair and then lose connection within a few seconds. If you were fast you could reset them and pair them to a light, but not get any events. Window blinds would not report state etc.
I found a ridiculous "workaround" in that if I would start up my old Deconz install with the stick plugged in, all devices would connect to the network and STAY connected. If I then switched back to Z2M everything would work until the next time the stick lost power.
... of course that also meant all bindings and groups got messed up...
My conbee stick is currently showing no firmware after trying to update to zigbee2mqtt,
spoke to deconz and they want me to flash it, problem is I don’t know how too and the instructions are hard to follow for an amateur like me.
Thinking of giving it all up and going back to SmartThings.
On the site of deCONZ, there's an instruction how to flash it in Windows if I'm not mistaken. Anyway, the Conbee stick works best in deCONZ and not in Zigbee2MQTT, so you might want to try to setup deCONZ instead.
How To set up deCONZ in Home Assistant - TUTORIAL
th-cam.com/video/03AojKTymuw/w-d-xo.html
@SmartHomeJunkie Do I have to repair all devices when switching from conbee2 on Z2MQTT to Sonoff on Z2MQTT?
I'm afraid so.
@@SmartHomeJunkie I have 60+ devices. Then I have something to do this weekend :D
Im using Conbee 2 and Zigbee2MQTT, and I don't have any of your issues. What firmware was your conbee stick on, it's important to keep updating stick even though you don't use Deconz
It has the latest firmware. 🤷🏼
@@SmartHomeJunkie well Glad your change to Sonoff solved your problems, i might test the sonoff laying in my drawer to see if I can notice anything different at all. cheers
I'm trying to get Zigbee2MTT(using Conbee III) running besides my ZHA(Conbee II). However I keep running into the same error: Failed to connect to the adapter (Error: SRSP - SYS - ping after 6000ms)
I agree that migration was an effort. But I’ve had absolutely no performance issues with Z2M. You should know though, deconz phones home on startup and periodically. What got me to switch over completely was one occasion when they had domain issues over the course of a weekend. My deconz container would repeatedly fail and crash on startup. A weekend spent without any automations. Finally late on Sunday night I just rebuilt everything on Z2M. Happy I moved over too. No issues ever since.
Can anyone explain to me WHY the experiences with the conbee II +deCONZ and/or conbee +Z2M are so different? I'm using the conbee since 2019 with many unreliablities such Ikea or Hue devices lost connections or didn't react to my commands. I tried so many different ways like switching from deCONZ to ZHA or Z2M but nothing helped. My Osram Smart+ Plugs are a good example, they don't stay connected longer as a few hours, then I have to pair them again. My solution at this point is that I put some devices to deCONZ and the bigger rest to a Hue bridge. Thats not ideal, but it's working most of the time. But, I don't know If the conbee stick is the problem (because in my case no software works perfectly with it) and will it get better with the new Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 Stick? Should I buy it and test?
If you choose the Sonoff stick, try the Dongle-P first.
@@SmartHomeJunkie thx I will give it a try
@@SmartHomeJunkie What is the main difference between Dongle-E and Dongle-P ?
@@GradeFX It's a different chipset and the E is developed because of chips shortages. The P is more stable.
This video is specially for me :)
An usb 2.0 port and an usb extension cable 1 - 2 m did solve this problem for me.
And serial:
adapter: deconz
I do use an extension cable. I have another video that is already two years old about using that.
I also have a video about adapter: deconz. Without this, the Conbee 2 stick won't even work at all.
great video as usual mate , I want to apply the rainbow (breath colour changing ) effect to my lamps but I don't know how to do it , do you have any video showing that ?
thanks heaps again .
Thanks. I do not have a video about that (yet).
I use a Conbee 2 in combination with ZHA. Often I need to launch scenes multiple times before my devices respond. Might buy a Sonoff 3.0 controller and start over with Zigbee2mqtt after seeing multiple people experiencing the same issues.
so your conclusion is that the conbee is the problem?
Those look like Paul Reed Smith Guitars in the background? If so great choice.
That is correct 😉
I had nothing but problems when I was using one of the decon sticks. Switching to a sonof 3.0 dongle significantly increase my network reliability, and combine with zigbee2MQTT it's been amazing, although another commenter made me remember that it did remove a feature to like nice light fading. Overall I will never recommend combee for any users especially when it's more expensive than the sonof.
I have two ZigBee networks. One is ZHA with Conbee 2, the other (more recent) is Z2M with Sonoff ZigBee 3 Pro. I'm glad I didn't buy another Conbee to use with Z2M now I've seen your video. One question though: did you give the Conbee 2/Z2M network time to configure it's mesh? I've had experiences where my lights do the popcorn effect but will settle after a while.
Yes, I used this setup for a month or two.
That should be able time for stabilization.
Hi Geoff how is your experience with ZHA on conbee2?
I like the Electrolama zig-a-zig-ah! (zzh!). As they give back to the zigbee2mqtt project
I use ConBee 2 and ZHA and have never had any problems! Did start out with Deconz and had much problems. So I'm sticking to ZHA. All I'm missing is the update over OTA-UI to easily monitor that. But for me thats not enough to change from ZHA atm.
running zigbee2MQTT with Conbee 2 stick. Several times a day the devices are going offline in zigbee2MQTT. Didn't figure out yet what the issue is i restart the addons and then the device(s) are back online.
At the moment i have only one device in zigbee2MQTT.
I bought the SONOFF ZigBee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus to test if this stick is working better with zigbee2MQTT.
Should i buy the new Sonoff or keep the old one?
You can keep the old one.
Do you know that you can have two instances of Zigbee2MQTT running on same server? It's easy to do by adding repository once more with instead of
No, I did not. Thanks! But pointing both to the same stick will lead into issues. I guess you mean using two sticks?
But still, both will probably point to the same configuration.yaml of Zigbee2MQTT, so it will be hard to point to different sticks.
@@SmartHomeJunkie yes, you'd need two sticks.
And no, they both would have separate configuration. MQTT root topic should be set up different, and channel/key too - that's it. :)
@@formatBCE Really? I expected that they both would create the same Zigbee2MQTT folder with the configuration.yaml in it. I do use the production and edge version next to each other and believe they share the same config.
@@SmartHomeJunkie if you change root topic in configuration before first start - it will be in different folder. Case is, that it's "different" repository for HA.
Just switched from deConz to Z2M and it works really well.. deconz never managed to create a good mesh network and my aqara sensor were getting fired a few hours after pairing
What dongle are you using? I've been using deCONZ with Conbee II for years but in the last couple of months, I've been having also sorts of issues with the power monitoring in my 6 Aqara zigbee switches so thinking about migrating to Z2MQTT with a 'P' dongle.
I had this EXACT problem migrating from deconz to mqtt via my conbee 2 stick. My conbee 2 stick worked good utilizing deconz and/or zha for my testing however when it came to mqtt it was a nightmare to say the least. I also purchased the sonoff adapter for my environment which pairs really well with mqtt. Since I've made the switch to the sonoff adapter I haven't had any problems with mqtt. This video is a relief for me in some way now knowing it wasn't just me having these problems with conbee 2 to mqtt.
It's really interesting to read that done people do not have this issue. Might as well be the combination of brands that are connected. Anyway, for me, the Conbee 2 worked way better with deCONZ.
I'm done with my Conbee stick with Z2M, should i buy the P or the E version? E is expermential with Z2M, so i guess the best way to go is the P version..?
Almost all issues are fixed for the E. Today I spent whole day in pairing my house to the Dongle-E. My next video will be about that.
@@SmartHomeJunkie mm, guess i have to wait for your video then! The 'almost' scares me, i nee/want a reliable system.
Oooh the Zigbee.... I happen to run a Conbee2 stick. First started out using deConz/Phoscon, found it too complicated just to control simple Zigbee devices.
I purged deConz + settings completely, loaded the ZHA integration and have no reason to change anything about it, works all day every day.
In my case, dimming or turning ON/OFF lights works smoothly (Tradfri bulbs).
I sure won't touch Zigbee2MQTT after watching this video, I'd better spend 2 weeks on the beach ! Zigaaa, Zigbee, Zigceee
Thanks for the warning Ed !
Hey Ries,
Do you by any chance also have a tradfri remote? The battery of this device is getting drained within 1 or 2 days if I connect it to ZHA. Not sure what the reason is. This didn't happen for me on Deconz and Zigbee2MQTT.
I use several Tradfri remotes. I really like those Tradfri volume controllers, but also use the normal push-button types.
They are also paired with my Conbee2+ZHA. I don't use the Tradfri remotes to control any lights in my setup.
Instead from within HA i command my Tradfri bulbs using 'call service' using via automations, and just cards in Lovelace of course.
I use my Tradfri remote buttons as remote control to tell HA to run a script. In most cases scripts that tell my Broadlink RM4C-pro to send a infra-red IR or a radio frequency RF signal towards all sorts of (non-Tradfri) devices, works really well.
So far I've always connected my Tradfri/Zigbee stuff straight to the Conbee2stick, WITHOUT the use of the official Ikea Tradfri Hub, I don't own such a hub, don't seem to need one.
I've regularly kept an eye on my logs, Tradfri stuff works fine, those Tradfri remotes sometimes send a 'check-in' message to let HA/ZHA know that they are still awake and stand-by.
I don't experience any excessive battery drainage in any of my Tradfri remotes. Not with Conbee2+deConz or Conbee2+ZHA.
What i do know is that EVERY command/message/check-in can be found in the HA logs, so if your battery-draining remote is too busy on it's own, you should be able to see it in the logs.
Would that battery really get drained ? Or could it be that the value of the sensor.batt is lying to you ?
I also use your 'low battery level' warning template + mark-down card, works exactly as promised ! Love it !!
And I just purchased that Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 coordinator/stick using your link, just to be able to run/test new Zigbee thingies on my testbed HA.
@@riesmoos I drained two batteries in two days since I connected the tradfri remote to ZHA using the new Sonoff stick. I guess I have to investigate this to see if this new stick is the culprit.
Wow! Yeah there is something wrong. Before turning over every stone in this adventure, i would first unpair the remote, push the little hidden pairing button for 10sec (reset to factory) and keep it in a a metal box/faraday cage so it is effectively not in your Zigbee network/mesh. Just to see if it is purely a problem within the Tradfri remote.
If you keep it unpaired and outside your Zigbee network/mesh for let's say 3 days and battery is dead again, then there's your answer.
I'm guessing the problem is within that Tradfri remote because lots of people use those and lots of people use a Sonoff Zigbee coordinator, yet nobody is reporting any problems when combining those two.
To drain a CR2032 battery in a day you practically need to short-circuit the battery.
If there really would be soooo much communication between the remote and the coordinator you should see HA's event bus be completely swamped, which I doubt is the case.
Could it be a battery tab/spring inside the remote that was accidentally bent so that short-circuits the battery ?
When you put in a new battery and let it sit for 1 hour, do you notice the remote or battery getting slightly warm ?
It's my bedtime now, but would like to be kept 'in the loop' about this issue.
Thanks
@@riesmoos This problem is reported by multiple people and it does not occur when I use Zigbee2MQTT or deCONZ, but I will look closer if there is a short circuit somewhere.
Great video Ed, thanks!
Just to complete my quest. I still want to mirgate from deconZ since I miss several entities for some devices.
What is the experience with a conbee2 running ZHA? Is this a more happy marriage?
Well, currently I do not have my Conbee 2 stick running with ZHA. I use the new Sonoff stick for that in my studio for testing, but It has difficulties with the Philips Motion sensor. That sensor gets disconnected a lot.
@@SmartHomeJunkie Most of my Zigbee devices are Philips Hue, so I will stay with the combination ZHA - Conbee II 😀
For me Conbee2+ZHA works better than Conbee2+deConz.
i just made the jump to conbee 2 (i bought last year).....was using the xiaomi gateway3 before
lets buy the new SKYCONNECT!!!!
I haven't had any problem with the conbee2 and zigbee2mqtt. But my setup is much more simple and i use Node Red for the automation setup. Ordered a sonoff dongle on your link just to be safe 🙂
I have a Conbee stick with Zigbee2mqtt too. Noticed some problems too. I have multiple spots that sometimes don't change colors at the same time and there is a little delay. I recently bought a Ikea remote that doesn't work with Zigbee2mqtt on the spot so I am thinking about moving to ZHA. Is that a good choice considering my ConbeeII stick. I don't like the Deconz integration unfortunal so I want to stick to Zigbee2mqtt or ZHA. Or.. is it better to buy another stick? Price isn't realy important, as long as it works properly!
Conbee works best with deCONZ. You can try the Sonoff Dongle-P. I am not recommending to use the Sonoff Dongle-E yet. There are still some problems with that stick. They will probably be fixed in the near future.
@@SmartHomeJunkie thanks for the fast response. I have a lot of Xiaomi, Yeelight and ikea lamps around the house. Back then a lot of them were not supported by it. So, ZHA would be the best option for me. The sonoff you recommend would be the best option?
Dankjewel! 👍🏼
@@RubbervdHeide I think so yes.
Make sure that you buy the Dongle-P. At the moment the Dongle-E has some strange behavior with specific devices.
Got the Dongle P in the mailbox today. I saw a video of you updating the firmware. Is that the newest firmware to flash on the dongle P or do you recommend another one?
I have exactly the same problems! And without a Windows box, I can't update the deCONZ firmware...
I used the latest firmware and still got issues.
Hello!
Has Anyone experience with a Conbee III Stick?
No problems at all here with this combination.
I have the sonoff stick but my zigbee devices are not pairing. Did you flash the dongle prior to using?
Depends which Sonoff Dongle you have. The Dongle-E cannot be flashed yet.
@@SmartHomeJunkie I have the older one.
@@brownlkt That should also work without flashing, but after flashing is supports more concurrent devices. Is your stick connected through an USB connection cable? Also check your logs.
Hmmm... Been mulling over the idea of switching from ZHA to Zigbee2MQTT... Not convinced it's worth the effort yet. More so now as I'm using a conbee2 stick!
Obrigado...
All i ever see is people moaning about z2m after every update, I've always used zha and never had an issue, what's the advantages of z2m ?
See my comparison video for that.
You should stick with Z2M/ZHA groups
That's what one of my tips at the end of the video is. 🤷🏼
I had a similar experience moving from deConz to Zigbee2MQTT. I had lights that were dropping off the network. I found that repositioning my Conbee II stick to a different location where there are more permanently powered light bulbs has resolved it. I've also ordered the Sonoff stick.
FWIW: I have 22 lights and 8 sensors to transfer and it took me about 10 hours (along with headache tablets)
Thumbs down.
looks like you had pairing issues and you are blaming stick, after you used sonoff, you had to repair it again, so it probably picked different routes to work.
Also, with OTA - it does work in deconz as well, so i'm not sure why you have said it is advantage. Did you know how to set it up and use in deconz?
I've done the same kind of migration a while ago, with 50+ zigbee devices and i had no issues whatsoever. Just wanted to try out zigbee2mqtt for other reasons, like testing DIY zigbee devices which is way easier to configure in z2m than deconz.
This was definately not the case.
@@SmartHomeJunkie With delayed reactions, skipped messages, etc. it's usually routing problem, not so much stick related.
@@fryc888 I understand what you're saying. In my case I did not have issues using Deconz, but using Zigbee2MQTT issues started to arise. I switched to the Sonoff Dongle-E now, but that one is still experimental. I still got some battery draining issues with that stick. Especially with the Ikea Tradfri remotes. Pre-ordered the sky connect now. I'll leave my setup for what it is until I receive the Sky Connect. Let's see what that stick does.
How does your config look like for the conbee 2 stick? It's working perfectly fine at my place, but I had to also add the adapter:deconz line in order for it to work properly.
Posted mine underneath, maybe it helps :)
data_path: /config/zigbee2mqtt
external_converters: []
devices: devices.yaml
groups: groups.yaml
homeassistant: true
permit_join: false
mqtt:
base_topic: zigbee2mqtt
user: $replace_user
password: $replace_password
serial:
port: /dev/ttyACM0
adapter: deconz
Thanks. Mine is exactly the same. In fact, I created a video about it a couple of weeks ago. ☺️