Conbee 2 and Raspberry Pi 4 - nothing really works

deCONZ General Support
21

We can see deconz was in permit join

17:05:48:424 send permit join, duration: 65
17:07:50:423 send permit join, duration: 57

But no devices announce on log.

22

So, my conclusion right now is - totally no luck with deCONZ and Phoscon app - don‘t know why. I then installed Home Assistant and the Zigbee integration (ZHA), which also works with Conbee. Via Home Assistant I managed to pair 1 out of 12 devices. Many of my lights are as close as 5 meters from the Conbee. It seems I need to try a different Zigbee gateway hardware. Even my small Zigbee remote control with two AA batteries manages better in my environment than the Conbee.

23

You need to make sure to not have interference due to usb 3.0.

24

I tried now even the Raspberry Pi without the SSD and put a normal microSD in. So, no use of USB 3 anymore. The Conbee was connected to USB 2 port via 2m extension cable. The result is the same, I just could connect 1 Zigbee light, but the other 11 were not reachable. There are 5 lights as close as 6m, the others are a bit farer away.

25

Can you share logs while pairingwhen on the SD card?

26

Hi, it’s some time ago and I now managed so that everything works and I’d like to share, because maybe someone with similar problems might find this helpful.
Again my situation was the following:

  • Conbee II installed via extension USB cable on Pi4 - important to note that the Pi4 had internal M.2 SSD installed.
  • 13 Paulmann Zigbee lights in the garden, that were supposed to be controlled by deConz and Conbee II.
  • Problem was, that deConz only found 2-3 devices and in the beginning none. The Conbee II was within 10 meters of all Zigbee lights.

Now, this is what helped me in the end.

  • Bought an new Pi4 operated just with microSD and PoE hat (not really necessary but helpful for me). The Conbee II connected via USB 2.0 port via extension cable. This Pi4 will exclusively be used as a Zigbee gateway.
  • I also bought two outdoor Zigbee plugs from Ledvance brand. These ones provided a much better mesh experience in the end.
  • In order to pair the Paulmann Zigbee lights I really had to get very close to them. Here my PoE power source helped, because I used a 20m ethernet cable to walk with the Pi4 around in the garden. Yes, it sounds odd, but that helped.
  • deConz found all devices and the mesh since then is really strong. I believe the outdoor plugs helped here a lot. Now the Pi4 sits comfortably within the house hidden in a cupboard.

Hope this might help others, if they have similar challenges, especially if devices are really outside and farer away.

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