ZGP / greenPower messages do not seem to be forwarded by HUE routers

[floyd1111]

What happened?

Hi all, after a lot of reading and tinkering around with my zigbee network, I'm looking for some help. I hope I'm posting my problem in the right place. I'm running Zigbee2MQTT as Addon (1.35.0) in Home Assistant (2023.12.4). Home Assistant on a VM via Proxmox on a small pc. Recently I switched from a Conbee II + ZHA to a Sonoff ZBDongle-E (7.3.1.0 build 176) + Zigbee2MQTT. In general great improvement and so far my zigbee network is looking quite stable. It consists of about 100 devices. Mainly Philips Hue & IKEA Tradfri bulbs.

The problematic devices are zigbee green power Friends of Hue switches by Senic (EnOcean PTM 215z).
I was able to pair them and they work very well around the house with a LQI of about 200. But in a room quite far away from the coordinator one of the switches shows a LQI of 8. Barely usable. Several Tradfri and Hue devices in the same room have a LQI around 150 and work very well if controlled via HA app.

The switch was paired using "permit join (All)". I tried to pair it directly with a Hue bulb "permit join (Device)" in the same room with no success. If I take the switch for a walk towards the coordinator LQI increases and it works perfectly.
As I understood the green power messages from the switch should be forwarded by the Hue devices. Instead it seems like the only access point for the switches is the main coordinator.

As a workaround I decided to take a Sonoff ZBDongle-P I had lying around, flash it with the Z-Stack router firmware (CC1352P2_CC2652P_launchpad_router_20221102) and place it half way between switch and coordinator. I was able to pair the switch with the router but LQI did not improve although they a only a few meters apart.

Since a few parts of the house have not joined the network yet I would really like to have the switches running reliably. Be it via a zigbee router stick or a hue routing device.

During my research I found this issue: #10782
Sounds in general like my problem but I can't see how to solve it. Thanks in advance for your help!

What did you expect to happen?

I expect hue routing devices to pick up and relay ZGP messages.
Alternatively I would expect the zigbee router stick to improve the LQI and forward the ZGP messages.

How to reproduce it (minimal and precise)

1. Create a Zigbee network with z2m and a Sonoff ZBDongle-E coordinator on channel 11
2. Configure several ZGP switches for channel 11
3. Add Huerouters to the network
4. Position the ZGP switches far from the coordinator but in close range to HUE routers

Zigbee2MQTT version

1.35.0

Adapter firmware version

7.3.1.0 build 176

Adapter

Sonoff ZBDongle-E

Debug log

Not sure which part of which log would help here but I'll do my best to add the information you might need.

[marazmarci]

Not because wanting to pair a Zigbee Green Power device, but in the past, I tried to use the Permit join (Device) function instead of the default Permit join (all). I wanted to pair a battery-powered device through a specific mains-powered Zigbee router device, which is the closest, but seemingly it never worked 🤷‍♂️ I cannot really provide more details, because I didn't start investigating this problem, as I was able to reach my goal by putting the battery-powered device very close to the router device before entering pairing mode, and it eventually worked after some trial and error.

Maybe the problem is that Permit join (Device) is not working at all? Or maybe it only works with some specific devices? 🤔

By the way I have a Sonoff ZBDongle-P coordinator, but I don't think it matters.

[floyd1111]

Thanks for the good hint @marazmarci ! I retried pairing to a hue light with very short distance. Unfortunately without any success.

Since I read that not all hue devices can be used as green power proxy, here is a screenshot of the "cluster" tab of the specific bulb in z2m I am trying to pair the switch with. Does anybody know, whether the entries at the bottom mark this as a usable green power proxy?

[chris-1243]

Normally with Endpoint 242 - Input cluster - greenPower / Output cluster - greenPower as shown in your picture, it should work.

I use 7 of them in my network and all have been paired via the "Permit join (Device)" flawlessly.

I just had a try on a test zigbee network (no hue device at all!) and I was able to pair a ptm215 (zigbee greenPower device) with both a Sunricher module and a Nodon module. Both had the exactly same input/output cluster frame on endpoint 242. When I tried to pair the same ZGP directly to the coordinator (Sonoff Dongle-P) and without any other device, I was unable to pair it.

[chris-1243]

Do you have routers with the same clusters as shown in your picture from your ZGP device and the coordinator? This ensure a smooth transmission of the zigbee commands.
Some of my ZGP devices show LQI below 30 without any issues. I paired them directly to a router able to forward ZGP messages and my network is made with a bunch of routers able to read ZGP commands all around the house (some Ikea bulbs, Hue lights, Ubisys modules...). The endpoint 242 input/output cluster is the most important part.

I hope it may help you

[HjalteHansen]

I am facing the same issue using a skyconnect adapter.

Tried to pair it directly to a hue smart plug and light without being able to. need to be close to the coordinator for it to work.

[MajorLazer2142]

Same problem here. In the past, it worked perfectly. I just found that I have only the output cluster on my routers, not the input cluster. Is there already a solution for this problem?

Skyconnect

Zigbee2MQTT-Version
[1.37.1]

Coordinator-Typ
EZSP v13

Coordinator-Version
7.4.2.0 build 0

Frontend-Version
0.6.167

Zigbee Herdsman Konverter Version
19.37.2

Zigbee Herdsman Version
0.46.6

[MajorLazer2142]

I am facing the same issue using a skyconnect adapter.

Tried to pair it directly to a hue smart plug and light without being able to. need to be close to the coordinator for it to work.

Did you already solve the problem? Because I updated to ember and the newest firmware for the Skyconnect dongle. But the ZGP Switches still just connecting with the coordinator. :(
As I mentioned before, it was working without problems in the past.

[HjalteHansen]

I am facing the same issue using a skyconnect adapter.
Tried to pair it directly to a hue smart plug and light without being able to. need to be close to the coordinator for it to work.

Did you already solve the problem? Because I updated to ember and the newest firmware for the Skyconnect dongle. But the ZGP Switches still just connecting with the coordinator. :( As I mentioned before, it was working without problems in the past.

Sadly no, i have placed the skyconnect a bit differently so the switches can connect to it. not a great solution, but works for me atm.

[chris-1243]

@Nerivec

Sadly, it seems ZGP devices are force to be paired via the coordinator only. Alreday reported by myself. I know you are busy with the new ember driver. Any idea how to solve this ?

By the way, if some of you have logs to post, it would be really helpfull to debug the problem.

One thing which seems important in my opinion and it was well tested by myself in zstack. PTM216Z are hard to pair with Hue device. Not all of them are able to translate the ZGP frames (it seems to use ZGP7). On the other hand, PTM215Z are working fine with lot of devices from different brands (ZGP2, according to zigbee herdsmann converters...). It may be something to look at.

[Nerivec]

As mentioned before, I don't have much knowledge on the GP spec, and I don't have any device to experiment with. This issue will likely require sniffing some traffic to identify where things are getting lost and possibly why...
@extreme4u When you say "it was working without problems in the past", when was that exactly, and was it with an EmberZNet adapter or another stack?

[MajorLazer2142]

@Nerivec I don't know exactly how many weeks ago (possibly 3-4 weeks), but I estimate it started with an update from 1.36.1-1 to 1.37.0-1. All my switches stopped working and it was not possible to reconnect them. At that time I was using the EZSP adapter stack. I was confused and temporarily connected the switches to deCONZ + Conbee for a few weeks. Then with version 1.37.1-1 I tried again to connect the PTM215Z and they successfully connected just to the coordinator.

[Nerivec]

@chris-1243 (or someone else 😉) could you test this again with a v8 firmware with latest dev (the "force to be paired via the coordinator only" part)?
With one of these: https://github.com/Nerivec/silabs-firmware-builder/releases/tag/v8.0.0-pre
#23224

[chris-1243]

@Nerivec Until the end of July, I won't be able to do any tests.

If someone else is able to do it faster, it would be great otherwise you may have to be patient...😉

You may have a look there #22897, @burmistrzak is really helpfull to debug those zigbeegreen device.

By the way, any advice how to use a CC2652P as a sniffer like how simple it is as to do it with a Dongle-E ?

[burmistrzak]

AFAICT, there is a bug in the firmware of some Hue fixtures that prevents these routers from forwarding ZGP as unicast. I tried reaching out to Signify, but unfortunately haven't heard back yet...

Relevant: https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/advanced/zigbee/01_zigbee_network.html#green-power-devices