All Z Wave devices talk directly after migrating to C8

[eric22]

Now all my devices connect directly to the hub. Is this bad and do I still need my repeaters?

[rlithgow1]

Connecting directly to the hub is best and the most desirable Post your z-wave details page (not the z-wave tool one above)

Also if you look at your zigbee routing table, I'll bet most of your in/out costs are 1

[eric22]

Edited to show the details. So do you think I still should run the repeaters?

[rlithgow1]

Nope that looks beautiful

[csteele]

Look at your ZWave Topology map to understand how much connectivity is possible with your mesh.

This might look a lot like yours with row and column 1 showing a blue box for every device (except 1)

It's what Direct looks like. BUT there's all those other Blues that indicate any device can get back by hopping from blue to blue towards 1. You'll want to see rows or columns with at least 2 blue. 1 or 2 blue would be your device with the least paths back. My #71 and #6D would be my devices with the least and 2nd least paths.

[eric22]

Thanks

[bcopeland]

Sorry .. I had to fix that scary looking topic title

[rlithgow1]

First time I've seen someone scared of a healthy mesh, lol

[bcopeland]

Yea.. @rlithgow1 the original title made me believe that nothing migrated.. Z Wave "mesh" is gone after migrating to C8

But glad everything is working for you @eric22

[jtp10181]

@eric22

Is this bad and do I still need my repeaters?

Probably not, especially if there are other main powered nodes nearby the devices could use as hops. If you have some isolated devices though having some sort of repeating node in line is a good backup in case some sort of interference causes the devices to have issues going direct to the hub.

Looking at the Neighbors numbers is a good way to tell how many options a device has for hops. A lot of your sensors are still only showing 1, but give them a couple of days and they will discover all the neighbors again.

[eric22]

Not scared just happy. Motion lighting is noticeably snappier now. I was just going for the dramatic click bait in the thread. OH NO CLICK ME THE END IS NEAR!!!!! I also wondered if my repeater are just adding noise to a perfect situation.

[eric22]

I will watch it for a week or so and probably pull them. Thanks

[Rxich]

While ideally you don't need them, the repeaters are the basis of mesh networking. So let's say you remove the repeaters, now your device has 1 less path back to the hub, and for whatever reason the message from the hub can't make it to the device, and now doesn't have an alternate path. Maybe it's the sun's rays or your wife moved a large metal pot to a new location. I know all unlikely, but that's the whole idea behind mesh networking is multiple paths, and the more paths the more resilient.

Additionally there are different types of repeaters, and not all are created equal, which could possibly create issues with certain devices. The dedicated repeaters tend to support more advanced features.

[rlithgow1]

As long as it has a good amount of neighbors the repeaters wouldn't be necessary unless they're far away. I mean 2 out of my 3 schlage locks go straight to the hub. (3rd routes through a switch). RTT is low on everything. What's even more amazing is that my Ring v2 outdoor contact sensor no longer struggles. It is about 100 feet from the hub with no direct line of site going through 2 walls and 2 courses of brick and it goes right to the hub...

[scottgu3]

Repeaters are an interesting topic to me. So far, for me, they've been an utterly time wasting, microamp sucking waste of money.

None of my devices have EVER used one, even when the only other choice was 3 hops and 40kbps.

But others rave about them. Go figure.

All mine are coming out, now that i have the C8s!

S.

[rlithgow1]

I'll likely remove my aeotec 6's but I will leave my ring v2 extender in place or no other reason than power outages (it has a backup battery and can be used as a trigger during a power outage)