Do you have it plugged in via a USB extension cable, or directly into the Pi? I had some flakiness with mainly my battery powered stuff until I plugged the stick into an extension cable.
this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2023
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Likely to do with signal strength and the power of the antennas.
I had similar issues but I solved it by adding a couple repeaters (outlets) near the devices that were giving me a hard time
The thing that really helped me was using my philips hue bulbs with my zigbee device directly instead of through the hue hub. That made the mesh network extend to the entire house instantly, because the lights have constant power and act as repeaters automatically.
I'm using an Electrolama zzh with an extension cord and it works perfectly, because there's essentially 1-4 repeaters in every room.
Same but with Ikea Trådfri bulbs
How are the Trådfri bulbs? I haven't tried them out yet. It'd be good to have a cheaper option.
I'm curious too how the ikea tradfri bulbs work. Can I just pair them via zigbee2mqtt?
I totally missed this but basically you have to just put the bulbs in pairing mode--6 on and off (note that it has to be with 1 second pauses between each on/off cycle--that threw me off).
But after that it will show up as a zigbee device same as any--no IKEA hub required
It's directly connected to the pi.
I don't think it's the signal though since one of the devices that disconnects is in the same room. No more than a meter apart, and another device is just on the other side of a wall.
Is there some other kind of magic happening when you use an extension?
What are the devices dropping? Certain brands don't always follow the full ZigBee spec as they should and often have issues when not paired with their proprietary hubs. Aqara is the classic example: their hub works brilliantly with their devices, but pair them to a standard ZigBee stick and you're at the mercy of the ZigBee gods.
Nice!
Do you have a USB3 device nearby? The interference from USB3 devices is not to be underestimated. Also check out your WiFi and zigbee channels do not overlap.
I went and bought some cheap USB extension cables to move both my zigbee and zwave sticks away from any other devices and out of the Pi ports directly. Definitely helped with something as I haven't had quite so many zigbee issues since doing it.