I recently discovered the "/hub/zigbee/getChildAndRouteInfo" command and see many of my devices route through my zigbee bulbs. I have a mixture of the GE LInk and Cree bulbs and wonder if they are causing problems in my setup. I have had these bulbs for years, first on SmartThings and now on Hubitat. For the most part they work well but I have seen some discussions that advise repeating bulbs aren't a good thing. Its also stated that some bulbs fail to repeat causing commands to get lost. I have about 40 or so zigbee and 20 z-wave devices. I have noticed for years there are occasions where commands to turn these zigbee bulbs on/off just somehow get lost. Or a contact sensor fails to register a contact change one moment but works normally the next time. I don't know if its the bulb missing the command itself, or the motion sensors, or contact sensors connected through the bulb.
So that's my question. Repeating bulbs, or non-repeating bulbs.
As a blanket statement they are bad. However there are some makes and models that repeat properly. It is very manufacturer and model specific, though... It is also very traffic and throughput dependent, as even some of the bad ones can route correctly if there is only low levels of zigbee traffic that need to be routed.
@mike.maxwell has commented on this topic a number of times. You might be able to find more info with a quick search.
I just this week replaced 22 bulbs with Sengled Bulbs. I had mostly Osram Lightify and a few Cree. I have already seen a huge difference. Those weird little quirks are gone, knock on wood. Before my Zigbee route info showed no consistency and always showed lights as repeaters. The report is way different now with only my real repeaters showing, I had similar issues while on ST for a couple years I just never thought much of it until I came to HE and started reading about the issues the bulbs could cause. As a side note, I have these bulbs for sale (cheap) if anyone is interested,,,,,,,
