Platform information:
- Hardware: Raspberry Pi 4
- OS: Raspbian - Buster
- Java Runtime Environment: Zulu 8.46
- openHAB version: 2.5.5 Release version
Topic:
My first Zigbee addition is a Fyrtur blind via Tradfri Signal Repeater
Configuration
- HUSBZB-1 Ember EM35x Coordinator - Working well according to the logs
- Tradfri Signal Repeater (Router) - communicates well to the Coordinator and each device
- One End_Device is a ‘steering’ switch - which does indeed control the blind
- One End_Device - the Blind - which works via the switch and required Signal Repeater/router
My background
I’m an EE, professional software developer, OpenHab user, starting to write a binding for the Bond gateway. However, I have zero experience with zigbee. I’m well versed in logs reading, though not specifically for this binding.
In order to get this to work, I’ve tried everything that I’ve read. The clearest description simply says (paraphrased):
[After the controller Thing goes green]
Go to Inbox
select +
Select Zigbee
do whatever the device needs, each is different
If done right, it shows up in the inbox
select it to create a Thing
Then make an Item and continue as you will (basically)
If it doesn’t work, turn on debug via the Karaf console.
I have the starter Fyrtur blind (zigbee end_device) the Tradfri Signal Repeater (zigbee_router) and the ‘steering’/switch (end_device).
They all work together fine. I’ve reset and repaired them multiple times
The Coordinator is healthy and communicates to the Tradfri/router
The coordinator installed find and is green.
- I click plus (+)
- Select Zigbee
- Put my end_device(s) into pairing mode and wait
- Nothing shows up in the inbox
- Logs show nothing from the blind
- The switch shows a familiar series of EzspMacFilterMatchMessageHandler messages
In order to try trouble shoot, I’ve tried many combinations and sequences. This is the result of my experiments:
Connecting the switch to the controller:
I cannot get the switch to connect to the coordinator when it is fully functioning to the router/blind.
However, if I factory reset the switch, I can connect (sorta). Most times I get that it’s offline and didn’t finish. I did, once, get it fully configured with a channel for the shade % Open. Yes!
Unfortunately, the switch was not paired with the signal repeater or the blind itself. So it didn’t do anything and the use of the new item → channel threw errors.
After many tries, I left the Item in OH, reset the switch and paired it up to the router and subsequently blind and it worked as expected without OH.
The Item failed from OH of course, looking like it was going to different address than the devices ended up being. It threw null exception errors (I believe).
In short - no connection to the coordinator unless I reset the switch to factory. I cannot then pair the switch to the router and blind making it non-functional. If I have a functional switch/router/blind, nothing is discovered by the coordinator.
Connecting the blind to the coordinator
Early on, after many tries, I finally got the blind connected to the coordinator, it appeared as an end device, but the Thing failed as there were essentially no clusters available (if I recall right). Basically it’s a dumb end_device that needs to be connected to the router. No channels there. So that didn’t do me any good.
I’ve tried to connect the blind itself to the coordinator after the system is fully functioning within itself, but had no luck. It didn’t appear to even try pair (according to the logs).
If anyone has successfully connected a Fryter blind, the Tradfri Signal Repeater, and a steering device/switch, I’d sure love to hear how and in what sequence!!
I have searched all over and I’ve found instructions like above, which is great, when it works. But I’ve not found help other than to turn on debugging. When I search for Tradfri, I nearly entirely get results for the Gateway (Ikea didn’t help me by using the same name for two rather different devices/purposes).
I also couldn’t find any tool that would allow me (or ask the binding) to query and report on the network, nodes and their states. This is available on other zigbee packages, but I couldn’t find one for this.
I’ve been collecting logs for the last 4 hours. I’ve filtered to only contain ‘zig’ (grep zig). But it’s too broad with too many things done in there.
At first blush, I’m less interested in specifically trying to trouble shoot my specifics until/unless I know exactly what a successful/repeatable sequence is supposed to be! Otherwise we may be searching logs for an incorrect attempt.
If someone has a successful sequence for these devices, please let me know and I’ll try it while collecting logs.
If it’s beneficial to upload logs of any/all of the above attempts, I’m happy to do that too. Hopefully we can narrow it down to specific steps to help focus the search.
I’d be happy to write up supplemental documentation once/if I’m up and running and understand the whys and whynots.
Thanks for any feedback and direction!
MikeJ
