Passthrough of ConBee II Zigbee USB Gateway to Home Assistant Virtual Machine


danioj

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Posting this here in the hope that it assists someone in the future.

 

I host my instance of HomeAssistant in a VM on unRAID. I have recently purchased a ConBee II USB-Gateway so I can add Zigbee devices.

 

I added the USB using the unRAID VM GUI, like I imagine most would, by just checking the tick box next to the device. This didn't work. While Home Assistant found the device, the integration would not add (there were communication errors).

 

The trick was to add the device as a serial-usb device. AFAIK you cannot do this via the GUI. So I added the following code to my VM config:

 

    <serial type='dev'>
      <source path='/dev/serial/by-id/<yourusbid>'/>
      <target type='usb-serial' port='1'>
        <model name='usb-serial'/>
      </target>
      <alias name='serial1'/>
      <address type='usb' bus='0' port='4'/>
    </serial>

 

I was then able to add the integration easily. Interestingly, it didn't auto discover, but that's just an aside.

 

Note, <yourusbid> can be found via the command line - it contains the device serial so its not to be posted.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Hey @danioj thanks for posting the above config, definitely did the trick for getting it pass through to the vm, but it's still not as reliable, as soon as the Hass server is restarted via the Web API, it will stop passing it through, I usually need to stop the VM instance and run it again to make it work. 

 

I was wondering if there's something else I can do to make the pass-through persist between server restarts?

 

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Hey everyone,

i bought a conbee II a few days ago and the passthrough to the VM in Unraid is only pain.

i started with adding the stick via the gui like @danioj. it got recognized from unraid, i set up the integration (Zigbee Home Automation) but i can't find a single zigbee device. I tried the Hue motion sensor and the multipurpose sensor from Aoetec. Nothing, just silence and devices blinking to oblivion... i began browsing the web and found several things i tried but they didn't work. and i found this posting. i passed the stick through, set up the integration but again...nothing. Yesterday i set up a raspi with home assistant to confirm that the stick is working because that stupid deconz thingy wouldn't work and find devices via windows... and it worked...he found both sensors within seconds...

So the problem is the passthrough of the stick, it's getting recognized but it's functionality isn't working...

 

i passed usb devices through in the past with other vms but i never noticed that some of their functions weren't working properly

 

i'm out of ideas what to do next, i don't see errors or something i can grab on and fix it

maybe some of you have

 

thanks in advance

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Curious to know what version of UNRAID you are all using? Just read a thread that discussed the Conbee pass through breaking specifically when upgrading from 6.9.2 to 6.10.X. 
 

are you guys all running 6.10.X, or did any of you have troubles passing the Conbee through to the VM while running 6.9.2?

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 1/11/2022 at 11:35 AM, ju_media said:

Curious to know what version of UNRAID you are all using? Just read a thread that discussed the Conbee pass through breaking specifically when upgrading from 6.9.2 to 6.10.X. 
 

are you guys all running 6.10.X, or did any of you have troubles passing the Conbee through to the VM while running 6.9.2?

 

Brand new Unraid user here, moved my HA install to a Unraid 6.10.X VM and have the same issue with my ConBee ll. Not tested on 6.9.2.

It is discovered but fails when trying to add. 

 

Real bummer this.

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Same happened here (v6.9.2). Tried many things and in the end got it working by: installing HA as a VM instead of docker, installing the Deconz add-on (not the integration, but the HA add-on). This add-on makes it possible to use Phoscon from within the HA interface. I can add devices from there and then they show up in the Deconz integration.

 

I'm glad I got it working and am now able to tinker with home automation, but I'm still wondering:

- Can it not work without the Deconz add-on, just using ZHA integration?

- I can not use ZHA integration now, because the USB is "taken" by the Deconz add-on. So what am i missing out of? Is ZHA a lot better?

- Why do some people use Zigbee2MQTT? What is the benefit of that?

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 1/11/2022 at 4:35 AM, ju_media said:

Curious to know what version of UNRAID you are all using? Just read a thread that discussed the Conbee pass through breaking specifically when upgrading from 6.9.2 to 6.10.X. 
 

are you guys all running 6.10.X, or did any of you have troubles passing the Conbee through to the VM while running 6.9.2?

Everything here works fine on 6.9.2 with a Home Assistant VM.  Upgrading Unraid to 6.10R2 breaks the USB passthrough for the Conbee II coordinator.  I tried to manually edit the XML for the VM but still could not get it to work properly, I think my USB Manager plugin was still trying to connect the device to the vm.  I just rolled back to 6.9.2 instead of fighting it.  Hopefully UnRaid will make some changes to RC3 or the dev of the Zigbee integration for HA will make changes to allow this to work without any special procedures.

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  • 1 month later...

Has anyone had any luck with a permanent fix recently? I'm on 6.9.2 and running HA in a VM and my conbee II stick disconnects via USB passthrough sometimes when updating or restarting HA. Right now the only fix is to shutdown the VM and then bring it back up. However, for the first time last Friday, it took me 2 attempts at shutting down the VM and bringing it back up. Wanted to check in before I tried the above.

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25 minutes ago, Pixelpaule said:

Hey, thank's for your reply. This command returns me a lot of Infos. But i don't know which line i've to put in the Codesnipped from the first Post. I tried iSerial but it doesn't work. I am desperately trying to get my Conbee2 running in my Home Assistant VM.

run lsusb and for your conbee use the bus and model and then run 

 

lsusb -vs 001:002 | grep iSerial

 

but replace 001 and 002 with the number that match.

 

root@computenode:/etc/libvirt/hooks# lsusb
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 054c:05bf Sony Corp. Hard Drive
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 2109:0817 VIA Labs, Inc. USB3.0 Hub             
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 1c4f:0016 SiGma Micro USB Keyboard
Bus 001 Device 012: ID 0781:5567 SanDisk Corp. Cruzer Blade
Bus 001 Device 011: ID 0781:5567 SanDisk Corp. Cruzer Blade
Bus 001 Device 007: ID 2109:2817 VIA Labs, Inc. USB2.0 Hub             
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0781:5567 SanDisk Corp. Cruzer Blade
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 05e3:0608 Genesys Logic, Inc. Hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 1462:7d25 Micro Star International MYSTIC LIGHT 
Bus 001 Device 010: ID 0781:5567 SanDisk Corp. Cruzer Blade
Bus 001 Device 009: ID 0781:5567 SanDisk Corp. Cruzer Blade
Bus 001 Device 008: ID 05e3:0608 Genesys Logic, Inc. Hub
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 0781:5567 SanDisk Corp. Cruzer Blade
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
root@computenode:/etc/libvirt/hooks# lsusb -vs 001:002 | grep iSerial
  iSerial                 3 A02021081203
root@computenode:/etc/libvirt/hooks# 

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On 4/4/2022 at 11:28 AM, jgosnell said:

After reverting back to 6.9.2 and using the "USB Manager" plugin, mine has been really stable even through HASS VM reboots.  Make sure the VM config itself is not set to auto mount the USB though and let the plugin handle it.

 

Is this still working for you? I just followed this tonight and after a restart of home assistant, the Conbee II disconnected. The hotplug feature makes it a lot easier to reattach it to the VM without restarting, but I'm uncertain about how to get it to persist after a HA or VM restart. Is that what "Enable HUB Processing" or "Enable USBIP" does by chance?

 

image.png.b268d0de7b7a1e9a02f7b230ab1cf835.png

image.png

Edited by ThatTallGuy21
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8 hours ago, ThatTallGuy21 said:

 

Is this still working for you? I just followed this tonight and after a restart of home assistant, the Conbee II disconnected. The hotplug feature makes it a lot easier to reattach it to the VM without restarting, but I'm uncertain about how to get it to persist after a HA or VM restart. Is that what "Enable HUB Processing" or "Enable USBIP" does by chance?

 

image.png.b268d0de7b7a1e9a02f7b230ab1cf835.png

image.png

I have replied to you post on my plugin page you dont need those two options. Ignore question about which hotplug.

 

you should see USB on menu bar.

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1 hour ago, SimonF said:

I have replied to you post on my plugin page you dont need those two options. Ignore question about which hotplug.

 

you should see USB on menu bar.

 

Wow thanks for responding to me here as well. I didn't even realize there was a USB tab added to the nav bar, nor did I know libvirt had a hotplug feature to begin with. (facepalm.. lol) Thanks for pointing this out here and in the response on how to configure it on the USB Manager plugin page. Thanks for all your efforts with this plugin and help here! 

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So I'm having the same issue.

 

I have a Sonoff 3.0 Zigbee USB Dongle. Works 100% if I have it attached to a usb extension cable, but if I remove it from the cable and plug into the exact same port on the mobo, broken. No zigbee devices are read or able to connect.

 

Also, it won't pass zigbee data through to the VM if I have it selected in the xml or if i hot plug the device during boot. If I let the VM come up, then hotplug, reload the integration, everything works. Thats the only way it will.

 

Anyone got any idea what to do to fix this?

Edited by Brandonb1987
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  • 4 weeks later...

Same here.. I did the 6.10rc's and am now on the final.  I didn't put it together that it was the cause but I am also thinking it must be.  Same as others, Home Assistant VM with ConbeeII.  I also tried to update the firmware on mine with a Windows machine and while it did update to the latest successfully, it has made no difference.

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On 4/21/2022 at 5:14 AM, Brandonb1987 said:

Works 100% if I have it attached to a usb extension cable, but if I remove it from the cable and plug into the exact same port on the mobo, broken.

From the description it seems that you are using a 3.x port on your mobo and a 2.0 cable, so your devices works in 2.0 mode; when attached directly to the port it's 3.x (?).

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On 5/20/2022 at 3:02 PM, KentBrockman said:

I updated to 6.10 today and discovered I am having this issue now.

Upgrading my conbee II to the latest firmware did not help.

 

I also tried adding it as a serial usd device as described in the first post which also did not work.

 

Is there a solution for this problem?

I finally got it working using danlogs method.  I'm not sure why it didnt work the first few times I tried.

 

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I am about to purchase a Zigbee / zware use device for my Home Assistant VM machine. but reading the posts I have concerns.

 

I just updated my unraid to 6.10 and I am up today with my Home Assistant. 

 

so before I go and purchase a USB device. "Conbee II or Aqara Smart Hub E1" I would like your views on them, as I my planning is to add Zigbee 3.0 Smart Radiator Valves to it,

and then allow Home Assistant to control the Temperature in each of my rooms.

 

I understand that at the moment there might be a problem with getting Home Assistant see the zigbee devices through the USB, but hopefully @danioj has found the solution.

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