Fixed issue with Home Assistant SkyConnect
I wanted to move our IKEA devices away from the DIRIGERA. From time to time all the devices have gone offline. I wanted to move them to Home Assistant. I ordered a SkyConnect module from The Pi Hut.
The SkyConnect was easy to install as well as setting up Zigbee Home Automation. As ever, Smart Home Junkie has this great video explaining how to do it.
I thought that from here it was going to be easy to add a bulb. I bought some new bulbs from IKEA to replace some Phillips Hue. I put the bulbs in pairing mode. ZHA would not see them at all. Pressing, show logs, also showed nothing. This was very frustrating. I could pair them to the DIRIGERA via the IKEA app without issue.
I turned to Mastodon to ask for help. @balloob@fosstodon.org sent me this video showing how sensitive USB interference can be.
Unfortunately I didn’t take a picture before I swapped out the original SkyConnect extension cable. That cable also crossed the SSD USB cable as in the picture. The cable in the picture below is a very old Apple USB extension cable. I believe it came with the original iMac as an keyboard extension cable. It seems very well shielded.
USB cable crossing the USB SSD cable
I was still not happy with them crossing despite the cable looking to be more shielded. I shutdown Home Assistant and swapped them round. They now look like this.
USB cables no longer crossing
Now to reset the IKEA bulb ready for testing. I removed the bulb from HomeKit via the IKEA app. Once that was done I followed this video to put the bulb in pairing mode. Please note, I found it better if the bulb was off when I started. Once the bulb starts to pulse you know it is in pairing mode.
This time ZHA picked up the bulb instantly. The next bulb was equally successful. The next test was to pair two bulbs we have about 15 metres away in the summerhouse. These also paired instantly. After all that, it seems the issue was caused by interference.
The really nice thing about using ZHA is you can see the network. To do this go to Settings > Integrations, devices, entities and helpers. Click on the Devices tab at the top. Choose the Zigbee Coordinator.
Zigbee Coordinator
Click on the three dots and choose, View network
View network option
Once you have done that. It will look something like this. This is my four bulb network.
Zigbee four bulb network
