Does JowiHue work with Sonoff 3.0 Dongle Plus?

[Solarfire]

I've been toying with getting some ZigBee devices into my HomeSeer setup which is only using Z-Wave and WiFi currently, but as I'm in the UK the "approved" HomeSeer ZigBee sticks are a non-starter so this plug-in looked to be solving my issue.

I've acquired a Sonoff ZigBee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus and have attempted to follow the installation instructions for deCONZ on my HS Server.
However I can't get ti to recognise the Sonoff dongle.

So my question is, does deCONZ really only support the Conbee II stick or should it also work with the Sonoff one as well?

[TC1]

So my question is, does deCONZ really only support the Conbee II stick or should it also work with the Sonoff one as well?

As noted in other threads in this forum, only works with Conbee/Raspbee or Philips Hue hub.

[racerfern]

Why not get a Pi with the raspbee zigbee board? Works perfectly with JowiHue.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Phoscon-Ras...s%2C149&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Raspberry-P...s%2C136&sr=8-2

[Michael McSharry]

It is generally a matter of need vs. value. A Pi, Raspee/Conbee, Deconz, and plugin involves many moving pieces and a relatively high cost point vs. using Sonoff Zigbee to handle basic zigbee interfaces. With HST entering the space, Hubitat, and zigbee2mqtt there are alternatives that may be a better value, depending upon the need, for doing the zigbee integration with HS.

[Solarfire]

As noted in other threads in this forum, only works with Conbee/Raspbee or Philips Hue hub.

Thanks for the clarification. I did have a look and a search but couldn't see any specific requirements. I did see that the Conbee II was mentioned a lot, but not that it was the only choice. I (naively) thought ZigBee was ZigBee....

[Solarfire]

Why not get a Pi with the raspbee zigbee board? Works perfectly with JowiHue.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Phoscon-Ras...s%2C149&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Raspberry-P...s%2C136&sr=8-2

I already run HS4 Pro on an Intel NUC with more than enough grunt. Was just hoping to add the ZigBee USB and have even more fun with loads more devices.

[racerfern]

I already run HS4 Pro on an Intel NUC with more than enough grunt. Was just hoping to add the ZigBee USB and have even more fun with loads more devices.

Then why not the conbee? Windows based, works with JowiHue

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dresden-ele...s%2C146&sr=8-2

[Solarfire]

Then why not the conbee? Windows based, works with JowiHue

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dresden-ele...s%2C146&sr=8-2

Because I had already acquired a Sonoff ZigBee stick and assumed as a generic ZigBee gateway device it would simply work. Lesson learnt and now going to see about getting a Conbee II stick. Might use the Sonoff to have a play with Home Assistant since that "just works".

[racerfern]

Solarfire Got it. FWIW, you'll like the conbee with JowiHue.

[Solarfire]

Hope so, Amazon is delivering it tomorrow #fingerscrossed so I've got an exciting evening ahead!

FWIW, I created a Home Assistant (HA) appliance in my homelab ESXi server and with the Sonoff stick passed through was up and running in about 15 minutes with it having auto-detected and configured my test ZigBee Moes light switch automatically along with some Shelly devices and some Tuya devices I already had in my HomeSeer. I've got some Aqara stuff I'm going to try out with it as well before switching them back over to HS + Jowi/Conbee

HA might not be everybody's cup of tea, and the interface is horrific compared to the loveliness of HS4 but for "just working" it's tough to argue against.

Shame I've invested so much money in HS4 Pro and a bunch of plugins really.

[TC1]

HA might not be everybody's cup of tea, and the interface is horrific compared to the loveliness of HS4 but for "just working" it's tough to argue against.

I've heard similar things. The only reason I haven't invested time in HA is because of the notoriety of updates borking people's systems. I don't have time to babysit my home automation 24x7. Once HS4 is setup and running it's pretty much set it and forget for me.

[Solarfire]

Next update for this thread although it's more of a progress report than further questions, but some might find it useful, especially the bit regarding getting the Aqara Blind motor to work towards the end.

ConBee II arrived today (gotta love Amazon Prime), stuck straight into the front of my Intel NUC and immediately seen by DeCONZ which was a good start.

Managed to add the bridge to HS4 eventually after having to faff about with Phoscon which was refusing to let me login (again!). Got past that with a password reset and hey-presto after authorisation had the bridge visible in the HS4 console.

Next pain part was adding the first ZigBee device I wanted to test with, which is an Aqara Roller Shade Driver E1. This is where things didn't go quite so well.

Having reset the device to make it discoverable, it appeared in the DeCONZ GUI with it's 0xnnnnnn name, connected itself to the ConBee stick with a lovely green line saying LQI of 249/0 and that was it.

Nothing in HS4, nothing in the JowiHue Bridge, nada. I read that you might have to leave it for 10 minutes to be fully discovered so I left it for an hour. Still nada.

So I started with the basics, delete the device, re-add, wait 10 minutes, still nothing. Rinse and repeat this for at least 5 attempts.
Next up try removing and restarting the ConBee stick, still nothing.

Finally went all in and deleted both devices (ConBee and Blind Motor) from DeConz, and started again.

Finally, the device was discovered as a "Window Covering Device" and I had a matching HS4 device created in the console.

Luckily I had also read on the Home Assistant forums that one of the default config settings for the motor was incorrect and needed changing from 0 to 100 to allow it to actually motor itself open. (Link https://community.home-assistant.io/...r-e1/390739/24).

Made the setting change using DeCONZ and bingo, it all starting working.

Got some Moes and Aqara light switches to have a play with at the weekend when I can kill the mains power off in daylight and swap out some LightwaveRF and Z-Wave light switches to test with.

Wish me luck :-)

[racerfern]

Solarfire Nowadays, after adding a device I shutdown the JowiHue PI and restart it. Sometimes it just doesn't make the connection to HS4 as it should. For all I know this may have been fixed but I still disable then re-enable the PI. Try that before deleting and re-adding.

[w.vuyk]

Solarfire

Discovery of devices in deCONZ can be a challenge now and then. The plugin will not 'see' the devices as long deCONZ is reporting the device with a 0xnnnnn name. Only when deCONZ has all the configuration information from the device, it will report the device with a logincal name like the Window Covvering device nn name you saw.
While deCONZ is scanning it will try getting all needed information, but every now and that the scanning period is too short. In that case, there is no need to delete the device from deCONZ. All you need to do is restart the scanning and reset the physical device. It is a pain, but sometimes several scans like this are needed.

Some more handy tips are in the documentation of the plugin and also in this thread.

Wim