Conbee2 stick cannot be replaced with another one

I have 2 Conbee2 sticks and I tried to move my Zigbee network to the other PC/stick and attempted this multiple times, but the network never came up successfully. I am running 2.12.06 in Docker (x86_64) with firmware 26680700 (both sticks).

I tried the following steps (attempt 1):

  • Stop DeCONZ on node1 with stick1
  • Copy the “deconz” directory to the node2
  • Start DeCONZ on node2 with stick2
  • Network does not come online

When the network does not come online, I see the following:

  • A lot “drop request to zombie (rx = 0)”, when I try to switch things on/off
  • The VNC shows only 20-30% of the connections between the devices
  • No value updates in the DeCONZ API
  • I waited 10+ minutes, no change

I tried the following steps (attempt 2):

  • Make backup in GUI
  • Stop DeCONZ on node1 with stick1
  • Start DeCONZ on node2 with stick2
  • Restore back in GUI
  • Restart DeCONZ
  • Network does not come online

I tried the following steps (attempt 3):

  • Make backup in GUI
  • Stop DeCONZ on node1 with stick1
  • Start DeCONZ on node2 with stick2
  • Restore back in GUI
  • Go to the hidden configuration and load correct network config
  • Restart DeCONZ
  • Network does not come online

I tried the following steps (attempt 4):

  • Make backup in GUI
  • Stop DeCONZ on node1 with stick1
  • Copy the “deconz” directory to the node2
  • Start DeCONZ on node2 with stick1 <— same stick
  • Works directly with stick1! but this is not what I want

I also followed the link:

Anybody has an idea why I cannot replace my Conbee2 stick? Did I miss a step?

Asked @manup to reply :slight_smile:

To move the configuration from one ConBee to another I’d recommend to update the firmware first to the latest stable version 0x26720700. This is required so that the NWK security counter is transferred correctly, otherwise devices in the network likely reject commands from the new ConBee since they think a replay attack takes place.

With the latest firmware let the first ConBee run for a while, like 30 minutes.
Then in the Phoscon App create the backup, this should now contain the full configuration including the NWK security counter.

Now unplug the old ConBee and attach the new one and load the backup file.

Important don’t let both ConBees powered on at the same time since they would fight over the same network (two identical coordinators).

Hope this helps.

Ok, i will upgrade my first Conbee2 stick to the latest firmware and re-attempt swapping the stick with another one.

I have successfully upgraded 0x26720700 and now letting the network settle before I attempt anything else.

Did the backup restore work for the new ConBee?

Hi Manup, yes. Now the backup and restore works on the second Conbee2 stick. The network came up within 1-2 minutes. Now I am happy it can be done, in the future if my stick fails, I can recover my network without repairing.

2 Likes

what do you mean by “powered on” exactly?
e.g. in my case I have a fallback-System with deactivated software (no deConz, no Phoscon, even no lxc running) - but the (identically configured) stick is inserted in the usb-slot. → is that still a problem?

  • If yes, why? is there still a Zigbee-net without a driving software even? Is there a sw possibility for deactivation that would be sufficient?

If you already have it running like this, and you do not have issues, that basically means software is required to make a Zigbee network function (i didn’t try it myself).