I’ve tried multiple setup of my hue lights (and samsung sensors) with both the hue bridge and two CC2531. I first bought a cheap CC2531 without antenna… I think I toasted the unit while flashing because while I was able to flash it correctly, it never saw a single light. Then I got a CC2531 with antenna - I had some limited success, that one only saw other devices when I used the firmware for the mqtt stack. From the zigbee binding logs, there were alot of transmission errors, and transaction failed. Also the CC2531 + binding seemed to periodically hang (had to physically unplug/re-plug the device). Discovery really worked on the odd day. I don’t think this has anything to do with the binding, I’m more concerned about the device itself…
I decided to plug back my hue bridge and I’m quite surprised at how much more smoothly the signal seems to work. Does anyone had a successful setup with the CC2531? Is the signal too low with the CC2531 or how is the hue bridge so much better even at discovery?
A common theme with CC2531 dongle signal issues is their proximity to the host device - rPi, PC, whatever. I have had to attach mine to the rPi via a USB extender, and signal improved write a bit!
(You mentioned zigbee2mqtt - have you gone through the FAQ?)
Thank you!!! The answer seems to be there
I also just noticed that my hue bridge was using channel 25 which seems to work better…
Anyway I guess this doesn’t explain the dongle that becomes unresponsive… I’ll give it another shot once I receive some new CC2531. I also think some of the dongles with external antenna might be quite useful… might order one of these…
There can be too much interference, try connecting the coordinator USB through an USB extension cable. This problem occurs a lot when used in combination with a Raspberry Pi 4.
Are you saying that it all works as expected with zigbee2mqtt, but not with the openHAB Zigbee binding? When trying the binding, did you re-flash with the recommended firmware from the binding documentation page?
There’s quite a few threads in the forum about the CC2531 not working as expected with the openHAB binding.
No, I haven’t tried zigbee2mqtt.I suspect this has to do with the actual CC2531 because the green light sometimes goes off and I also saw other kernel errors with the dongle.
And concerning the firmware, I haven’t had any luck with the recommend firmware, discovery doesn’t see a single device. Only way I got my CC2531 to see devices is to use the ZStack 1.2 that was designed for zigbee2mqtt. Anyway I ordered two more CC2531 and will do an experiment next time with a USB extension cord because it sounds like having the dongle too close to the RPi4 can cause too much interference.
Can’t figure out the whole thing because I have my hue bridge next to my router and it works like a charm. I guess the signal from the hue bridge is stronger than a CC2531?
For now I am using the Hue binding, works really perfectly except that I cannot attach my smarthings sensors
