For a few weeks now, I have 3 ‘Philips Hue Motion Sensors Outdoor’ (SML004) controlled by the Zigbee Binding (so no Hue bridge/binding). Every now and then, a motion sensors suddenly goes offline and the only way to get them working again is to remove the device, reset the motion sensor and discover it again. Also have a few IKEA TRÅDFRI bulbs who work perfectly though.
When I try to reinitialize the sensors, the following errors appear in the log:
Error 0xffff setting server binding
Batteryalarm failed to initialise device
[ERROR] [verter.ZigBeeConverterBatteryPercent] - xxx: Error 0xffff setting server binding
Hi, I have almost the exact same set up for system same dongle same version Openhab same motion sensors I also saw same errors you mentioned in my logs. The errors although annoying were not the cause when I had issues with ZigBee devices I solutioned it by taking 2 actions first I added a smart plug to act as a Zigbee router closer to where my sensors are placed to boost signal and secondly, I checked/changed what channel my ZigBee was set on and insured it was not being interfered with by Wi-Fi channel. I moved them as far from each other frequency wise as possible. There are many google articles on the internet that explain the frequency range for Zigbee and Wi-Fi. It may be worth doing a search and verifying you are not having a secondary lob inference issue as most battery operated Zigbee devices signals are not as powerful as A/C powered devices and if they miss heartbeat enough times they will get dropped by your coordinator.
This article explains it pretty well without getting too far out in the weeds. ZigBee and Wi-Fi Coexistence | MetaGeek
My ZigBee coordinator dongle sits less than 1m from my main wifi access point and it’s working fine.
I have 3 wifi access points in the house. I just set them all to automatically select the channels and not try to manually set them, because I can’t control the neighbours’ wifi channels.
What I recently found out was that whenever I have an issue with my ZigBee devices not communicating properly, it was because my ZigBee coordinator dongle had fallen into a pit or gap, so its signal was blocked by walls or nearby metal (computers body). My dongle is connected to the computer with a USB extension cable.
Once I’ve repositioned the dongle and its antenna properly, everything self healed. I didn’t even have to delete and rejoin my ZigBee devices.
In short, it was always a signal strength issue, not a software error.
PS I use zigbee2mqtt but this should apply to the ZigBee binding too.
Exactly , By adding a Smart plug or other A/C powered device that supports routing you close those black holes and dead spots. I mentioned the WI-FI interference as a second item to check in case the OP had recently made changes to either Zigbee config or New WI-FI access point like a new install since it was stated OP is using Ras Pi 5 and that is fairly newly released hardware and may have changed location of the server or perhaps reconfigured the dongle and opted for a different channel. But for me what I think really solutioned my issues was expanding my MESH network by adding a smart plug with router functionality.
Thank you both for your response.
The first thing I thought, was lack of signal strength since the motion sensor closest to the Zigbee coordinator has never lost its connection. However, another sensor that frequently goes offline, is located right next to an IKEA TRÅDFRI bulb that also never went offline and acts as an router/repeater (correct me if I’m wrong). So therefore I think the signal strength should be sufficient.
Also the WIFI frequency was not in the range of the Zigbee frequency. But to be sure, I’ve now set them as far as possible from each other and there is almost no local interference from neighbors or so.
Some other website mentioned to use the Zigbee dongle only on an USB-2 port since USB-3 can have a lot of conducted disturbance that can mess up the connection. The dongle is now on an USB-2 port and I’ve also relocated the antenna a bit to see if this will help.
In regards to the ‘missing’ channels, are these available with the ‘Zigbee2mqtt binding’?
I can not say if that bulb acts as a router or not some do some do not. Best way to tell is go to the bulb thing properties and see if it is showing as a router. You should see something like this.
zigbee_logicaltype ROUTER
As for the missing channels z2mqtt does add more features and insight to the zigbee network so if you are willing to run that configuration you may get those features depending on the devices support in the list for z2mqtt.
I have also read some ikea devices do not use a true “Zigbee” standard and they overlay custom code on top of the protocol for their own hub solution and it has been reported on the internet in many blogs that it can cause issues.
The ‘Thing properties’ does state the Ikea bulb as a router. But indeed there is a lot to read about Ikea changing the protocol with different codes. I’ll give it a few days with the changes I made and otherwise I will get an ‘AEOTEC Zigbee Range Extender’.
The Zigbee2mqtt binding requires a lot more configuration so I’ll keep the Zigbee binding for now, hoping that the binding will be updated with the missing channels.
