ZCL 3 version of Elko dimmer disconnects

Hi,

In my house I have about 25 Zigbee HA dimmers from Elko (owned by Schneider). The name of the dimmer is “Elko 316 GLED RF”. Since I first invested in these dimmers back in 2018, Elko has released new versions of the product under the same name, but which have other characteristics. The most important difference is that they are now Zigbee 3.0 certified. Most of my dimmers are of the first version, but 8 of them are of a later version, supporting Zigbee 3.0.

There is a device request for the general product here, now stale and closed: Device support request - Elko 316 GLED RF dimmer · Issue #2497 · dresden-elektronik/deconz-rest-plugin · GitHub

The ZCL version 1 dimmers are operating quite well in deConz. They are rarely dropping out of the mesh, and are actively participating in the mesh as routers.

The ZCL version 3 dimmers however are constantly dropping out of the mesh. Since the dimmers act as routers, them dropping out cause instability also for other devices, as these other devices will have to repair their path to the root. After I have repaired all the nodes in the mesh, it will take between 30 minutes to 3 days before the ZCL-3 dimmers to begin leaving the mesh again.

I have migrated from Homey where I had the opposite problem, where only the ZCL-3 dimmers were stable, the older ones acting out all the time.

The rest of the mesh consist of Elko Thermostats, Philips Hue lamps/bulbs/Motion Sensors/Remotes, IKEA Trådfri Motion Sensors/Remotes and Frient Open-Close/Temperature Sensors. In total there are about 100 devices in the mesh.

I have already removed all Aqara devices, as an attempt to improve the mesh. I have also tried to physically move the deConz-gateway, minimizing the WIFI-interference and moving from channel 15 to 25. But since the it’s mostly these newer ZCL-3 dimmers that leave the network I have concluded that there must be something wrong with their configuration, somehow.

I understand that mixing zigbee 1 and 3 is not optimal, but in my case it’s not an option to upgrade all my older Elko-devices as it is way too expensive. (And most of the Elko Thermostats are also ZCL-1)

I would really appreciate any suggestions on how I should deal with these dimmers. Should I register a new device request? Or are there any steps I should do to investigate the issues further? For instance, would the device report an error when leaving the network and how to most easily read the log?

@de_employees Any guesses :)?

Hi!
We have very good contact with Schneider directly. I will inquire them about this. The problem is not comprehensible for me so far. If necessary, we will bring the product to the company to test it.
Can you tell me on which deCONZ version your installation runs and which gateway with which firmware you use?

Hi and thank you for reaching out.

Current version is 2.19.01 / 19.9.2022
ConBee II

Qt: 5.11.3
GCC: 8.3.0 (C++ 201402)
Commit: db41dc
Firmware: 0x26780700

Schneider acquired ELKO in 1999 and moved the production to Germany/Sweden in 2021. The brand “ELKO” still remains, but a lot of the technology seems to be driven by and aligned with other solutions within Schneider. The past year a lot of new zigbee devices have been released under ELKO and it looks like they are hoping to make an impact on the Scandinavian smart-home market.

Hopefully Schneider will be able to assist. :slight_smile: Thanks again for your effort.