Setup HUSBZB-1 (EMBER EM35x Coordinator) Help Please

[5iver (Scott Rushworth)]

In Karaf…

list |grep -i zig

It’s possible your wifi could be interfering, especially if the controller is sitting near to your AP. Setting the channel to 25 may help, especially if your AP is on channel 1.

[FunMiles (Michel Lesoinne)]

Here are what I presume are the relevant entries:

208 │ Active   │  80 │ 1.0.11                 │ com.zsmartsystems.zigbee.dongle.ember
211 │ Active   │  80 │ 2.3.0                  │ ZigBee Binding
213 │ Active   │  80 │ 2.3.0                  │ ZigBee Ember Binding

The usb stick is right next to the WiFi. I’ll try the channel suggestion as soon as I have some time to do a bit more testing.

[5iver (Scott Rushworth)]

 15 │ Active   │  80 │ 1.0.12                 │ com.zsmartsystems.zigbee
 16 │ Active   │  80 │ 1.0.12                 │ com.zsmartsystems.zigbee.dongle.ember
 18 │ Active   │  80 │ 2.4.0.201806152142     │ ZigBee Ember Binding
 19 │ Active   │  80 │ 2.4.0.201806152142     │ ZigBee Binding

I’m not on the very latest, but recent. These can be installed manually, but it is much easier to just upgrade to the OH snapshot. Every now and then I still need to rediscover a bulb. GE Links are notorious for this.

[FunMiles (Michel Lesoinne)]

After moving the bulb much closer, 30h have passed and it’s working still. So it seems to be indeed a radio link issue.

[FunMiles (Michel Lesoinne)]

@5iver, how do you re-discover? I had a power outage and I tried everything I could think of. Remove the things and then re-discover them, but my two bulbs are still not responding. If I turn them off, even after 8h, they still show as online while I don’t think they would keep communicating. Do lightbulb have internal batteries?

[5iver (Scott Rushworth)]

I have GE Link bulbs. When they fall off the network, I first power cycle them. If that doesn’t work, I turn them off, start a discovery, and then turn them on. If they have been on for a long time, they sometimes need to sit powered off for a while… maybe overheated? If that doesn’t work, I reset them (5s off, 5s on, … repeat 5x), then start discovery.

Hooking up Alexa to do the discovery is really nice for this!

Start the discovery for Zwave or Zigbee through Alexa

Running inclusion for the Zwave and Zigbee Bindings to add a device can be a logistics challenge. Discovery needs to be started in Habmin or PaperUI, and then you need to run to the device to put it into inclusion mode. This is what I setup so that I can just ask Alexa to turn on discovery. I use the HueEmulation Binding, but this should work with the skill too. This could easily be expanded for exclusion too. Switch Zwave_Discovery "Z-Wave Discovery" ["Switchable"] {autoupdate="fal…

[FunMiles (Michel Lesoinne)]

@5iver, I’ve tried all this without success. i.e. the (re)discovery seems to work, but nothing can be controlled anymore.

Going back to the binding versions, I’m not sure I want to use the OH snapshot as it is supposedly unstable. But don’t mind the binding snapshots, since it’s unstable anyways for me! How do I do that?

[5iver (Scott Rushworth)]

@FunMiles

the (re)discovery seems to work, but nothing can be controlled anymore.

On older versions of the binding, I recall having unrespnsive nodes and an OH restart cleared them up… at least for a while.

@FunMiles

Going back to the binding versions, I’m not sure I want to use the OH snapshot as it is supposedly unstable.

IMO, it’s more stable than release. When you hit a bad build (like today, I found 1310 badly broke JSR223), just delete it and restore your backup. Very easy to to with a manual install, because it is just one directory.

@FunMiles

But don’t mind the binding snapshots, since it’s unstable anyways for me! How do I do that?

I think this post has the details you need. But you probably don’t want to go too bleeding edge with the zsmartsystems stuff (I’m still on 1.0.13).

HUSBZB Zigbee setup

There are some Samba shares that openHABian sets up. You can also ssh in and access whatever you’d like. The openHABian docs go over this. That’s the thing… you have the latest that is in the distro, but there is a more recent version, and it definitely works better for me. Don’t know if it will resolve your issue though. You’d need to uninstall Zigbee, restart OH, and then drop the files into the addons directory. You can download the OH files (org.openhab.binding.zigbee.jar and org.openhab.b…

[FunMiles (Michel Lesoinne)]

Some more questions:

• Does the Coordinator need to have hardware or software flow control? Initially I had not paid attention and left hardware flow control. It did work that way when things were working. Now I put it into software after reading some where that the ember coordinator needs software flow control.
• I tried to change the channel to 25, but it keeps coming back to 20. What could I be missing?

[FunMiles (Michel Lesoinne)]

@5iver

I think this post has the details you need. But you probably don’t want to go too bleeding edge with the zsmartsystems stuff (I’m still on 1.0.13).

Did you forget to put a link?

[5iver (Scott Rushworth)]

@FunMiles

hardware or software flow control?

Software

@FunMiles

I tried to change the channel to 25, but it keeps coming back to 20. What could I be missing?

I remember having trouble with this too. It may have been the version of the binding, or it may have been needing to set Reset Controller to True. There may have been a power cycle of the stick involved too. Sorry, I don’t recall. You could also delete the Thing and create a new one with exactly the same settings, but using channel 25.

[5iver (Scott Rushworth)]

@FunMiles

Did you forget to put a link?

Oops… it’s in there now!

[FunMiles (Michel Lesoinne)]

I now have:

216 │ Active   │  80 │ 1.0.13                 │ com.zsmartsystems.zigbee
217 │ Active   │  80 │ 1.0.13                 │ com.zsmartsystems.zigbee.dongle.ember
218 │ Active   │  80 │ 2.4.0.201807081945     │ ZigBee Binding
219 │ Active   │  80 │ 2.4.0.201807081945     │ ZigBee Ember Binding

Is that what you have as well?

[5iver (Scott Rushworth)]

280 │ Active │ 80 │ 1.0.13 │ com.zsmartsystems.zigbee
281 │ Active │ 80 │ 1.0.13 │ com.zsmartsystems.zigbee.dongle.ember
284 │ Active │ 80 │ 2.4.0.201807081945 │ org.openhab.binding.zigbee.ember
285 │ Active │ 80 │ 2.4.0.201807081945 │ org.openhab.binding.zigbee

Twins!

[FunMiles (Michel Lesoinne)]

Finally, after removing, resetting the bulbs themselves and then re-discovering, they now work again. I hope it will all work better now.
Thanks once again, @5iver for your help.

[5iver (Scott Rushworth)]

This version of the binding definitely works better for Ember coordinators than the release version, but I still have bulbs dropping occasionally. They are pretty crumby bulbs, but GE sent me replacements under warranty, so I have lots of spare crumby bulbs.

[sam2b (Sam B.)]

@FunMiles

The usb stick is right next to the WiFi.

I recommend a 6’ USB extension cable to keep the usb device further away. I’m using the Raspberry Pi and doing this, and is all working very well.

@FunMiles

I tried everything I could think of. Remove the things and then re-discover them, but my two bulbs are still not responding.

Remove the thing, then perform a reset as per the manufacturer’s manual instructions for that device.

@FunMiles

Does the Coordinator need to have hardware or software flow control?

CdJackson told me it (Zigbee binding) should be Hardware Control, and set the baud rate to 57600. It has been working perfectly for me. You’ll find when setting to “software control” your zigbee devices will not work.

@FunMiles

resetting the bulbs themselves

Yes, that too worked for me. Once reset and paired with this coordinator, it should “remember” going forward.

[5iver (Scott Rushworth)]

@sam2b

CdJackson told me it (Zigbee binding) should be Hardware Control , and set the baud rate to 57600. It has been working perfectly for me. You’ll find when setting to “software control” your zigbee devices will not work

You are probably using different hardware. For this device, HUSBZB-1, flow control should be set to software. Myself and others with the HUSBZB-1 are using it this way, and it is definitely working. It’s also specified in the documentation…

ZigBee - Bindings

[sam2b (Sam B.)]

@5iver

You are probably using different hardware.

I’m using the HUSBZB-1, too.

[5iver (Scott Rushworth)]

@sam2b

I’m using the HUSBZB-1, too.

Based on the documentation and other posts, I’m guessing @chris misstated the flow control setting in this post…

Linear HUSBZB-1

One of them is the Ember though right? The HUSBZB is an Ember chip so this is the one you need. The speed is 57600 and you should use RTS/CTS Flow Control. Many people are using the device even if there seem to be some issues with some people.