So you've got your Hubitat hub and you paired all your Zigbee devices, including your bulbs. Now you are finding that devices are not responding that some are dropping off the network.
What you may not realize is it's your Zigbee bulbs trying to act as repeaters and doing a lousy job of it. Have a look at this doc if you have not seen it.
The only bulbs known not to try to repeat Zigbee signals are Sengled, so it is improtant to get any Zigbee bulb (except Sengled) on its own Zigbee network to. Some of us do this with a Hue bridge, some do it with another Hubitat hub.
If the Hue bulbs (IKEA Trådfri and Cree bulbs are also compatible with Hue bridge) are on the independent Zigbee network that the Hue Bridge creates, your other Zigbee devices cannot be affected by them. Plus the Hue Integration built in to HE is excellent. This allows the Hue bulbs to repeat for themselves, which they happily do, and it's not a problem. It's when they try to repeat for non-bulbs that you have an issue.
The Hue bridge is a nice thing to own as well because there are so many third-party apps for it and you can create a lot of cool effects. I used mine this last Halloween with an app that created a lightening and thunder effect as an example. So I urge anyone new to the platform with Hue or IKEA Trådfri bulbs to take advantage of this sale and pickup a Hue Bridge for just $40 while you can. Your Zigbee network will be a lot more stable and your experience with Hubitat will be Elevated.
As we speak, I'm giving all of the Cree bulbs I yanked out new life with a Hue Bridge. Found the starter kit (bridge+ two white Hue bulbs) marked down at Walmart to $49 US.
Right, thanks for the reminder. I forgot the Cree are also compatible with the Hue Bridge. Which is kind of dumb on my part, because I have one paired to my bridge!
My wife has me dropping in recessed lighting cans in the house and replacing some fixtures with multi-bulb fixtures. So, I am quickly approaching the Hue hub light limit. Rather than buy another Hue Hub, I decided to try going with a straight HE light solution. The Tradfris are actually working really well (aside from some odd ramp-up timings) on HE and I have Sengleds in places where I know routing is going to be an issue.
The Trådfri do try to route. Hope this is on a separate HE hub. I had almost every Zigbee device I own drop off because of a single Trådfri bulb. The Trådfri outlets were in place and they dropped off too. Removed the bulb from HE and have not had a problem since.
I have zigbee wall switches, contact sensors, motion sensors, water sensors and a button. All my lights are sengled except one Lifx and one cree. So far with smartthings hub, wink hub and hubitat hub, that cree hasn't caused any issues. But I'll be sticking with sengled for future bulbs. Thanks!
Those are Zigbee HA, Hue, Trådfri and Cree are Zigbee LL. Sorry, the Osram/Lightify are not compatible. I seemed to recall an Osram owner saying they didn't get the update needed for the bulbs to be compatible with the Hue. Some of the posts out there also get confused with Osram Europe, where they use Zigbee LL for the bulbs.
The Trådfri do try to route. Hope this is on a separate HE hub. I had almost every Zigbee device I own drop off because of a single Trådfri bulb. The Trådfri outlets were in place and they dropped off too. Removed the bulb from HE and have not had a problem since.
