That could explain the issues end devices; any flakiness with them would affect their child devices as well.
If I were having issues like this (and if I suspected that flaky or incompatible routers were in the mix) I'd try finding the bare minimum config needed to extend the mesh to the farthest points in the setup, then see what if any extras are needed to get the end devices all working. Extra repeaters in the mesh may buy redundancy but they don't help performance (and with Zigbee can hurt it because of the extra link status traffic).
Playing with the repeater config may cause short term issues but none that can't be easily reversed to get back to the original configuration. And if your starting with a flaky mesh, what have you got to lose by trying...
I've been following this thread ever since I got my C8 (upgraded from a C5) hub and started having issues with one device (a KonoZ Zigbee thermostat) in particular. Let me preface everything by stating that I had zero issues with anything Zigbee with my C5 hub. I never changed any Zigbee settings on the C5 hub.
My migration to the C8 was painless and all my devices (both Z-Wave and Zigbee) appeared to be working properly. I only have a handful of Zigbee devices - a lock, some door sensors and 2 KonoZ thermostats. Initially everything was fine and then after a hub update, both t-stats had their radio icons flashing indicating they've dropped their Zigbee connections. Going into each t-stat menu (physically on each) resolved that issue until the next hub update. This went on for a bit until some Zigbee changes were made in one of the more recent firmware updates. Both t-stats appeared to be working normally at this point.
However all was still not well with my one KonoZ thermostat. It was showing that it was connected to my hub, but would not respond to dashboard commands nor device page commands. Turning the Zigbee radio on the t-stat on and off didn't work. Changing Zigbee power levels on the C8 hub did not work.
Per Hubitat support (who I've been messaging back and forth with over this issue), it was suggested that I add a mains powered device, so I installed a Zigbee dimmer switch which happens to be on the same wall as the problem t-stat. For a while, the t-stat seemed to work for a bit until once again it went unresponsive. This time, I had to remove the t-stat from the hub, factory reset it and then rejoin. Once again, everything appeared to work normally after this.
That was until this morning and trying to set the t-stat to heat mode. Once again the t-stat was unresponsive. Per Hubitat support, I bumped the Zigbee power level to 16. That didn't help. On a hunch, I decided to look into possible Wi-Fi and Zigbee radio/channel interference. I have 2 access points and a repeater set to channels 6 and 11. My C8 had its Zigbee channel set to 25. I changed my Zigbee channel to 15 and like magic the problem t-stat immediately started working. It updated the room temperature and I was immediately able to change it to heat mode. All my other Zigbee devices appear to be responding faster too.
I know this post is a bit long winded, but for those having Zigbee issues, try looking into changing your Zigbee channel to avoid any possible interference with Wi-Fi. It might be a long shot, but it is worth considering. It seems the C8 radios are more sensitive than those on previous hubs. Like I mentioned earlier, my C5 was always set to its defaults for Zigbee.
I'm beginning to think that my Ikea Zibee repeaters and my Centralite smart plugs that act as repeaters are not liking the C8's zigbee radio. The reason I think this is because I will sometimes loose an entire room full of zigbee devices when a repeater goes offline. If I power cycle the repeater, all the devices come back online.
For now, I've upped my Zigbee power level to 20 so that most of my devices directly connect to the C8. While I still do have some devices go offline on occasion, it's nothing like when all my Zigbee devices went down at power levels 4 or 8.
Interesting.. so you are seeing the number of devices in C-8's child table correlate with radio power? Does the radio power setting seem to affect the reliability of the repeaters?
The power setting seems to bypass the repeaters and directly connect to most devices, leading to better reliability. The only devices I'm still having issues with regularly are the Ikea Zigbee blinds, but even they are less prone to falling off the mesh with a higher power setting.
Is there any way someone could take a look at the Ikea repeater device driver code? I have had to switch to the Zigbee - Generic Repeater (w/ healthStatus) driver from Oh-lalalabs because it seems way more reliable then the hubitat built in version and it reports more helpful information about Ikea repeater.
Also, my Centralite 4200-C smart plugs are using the Generic Zigbee Outlet driver. Maybe someone can look at that device and see if it might need a custom driver? Those smart plugs are very popular.
2023-05-18 09:42:15.171 AM - Event interval INCORRECT, recovery mode (Slow) ACTIVE! If this is shown every hour for the same device and doesn't go away after three times, the device has probably fallen off and require a quick press of the reset button or possibly even re-pairing. It MAY also return within 24 hours, so patience MIGHT pay off.
2023-05-18 09:42:15.169 AM - One or several EXPECTED checkin events have been missed! Something MIGHT be wrong with the mesh for this device. Minutes since last checkin: 1462 (maximum expected 90)
Drivers have no bearing on the function of a repeater, nor does anything that they may or may not report have any function on the repeaters function.
In other words the router/repeater function of a device is not controlled by Hubitat or any driver that may be installed.
Understood. Maybe I just need to remove all my Ikea Zigbee repeaters and see what happens. They keep falling offline even though they are closer to the hub than other zigbee devices that always stay online.
The repeater function on my 4200s seem to work fine now, but they will not report back on or off status unless I physically hit the "refresh" button on the hubitat page. They will actually turn on and off when told to, but they don't report back their status. Is really frustrating because my automations think one of the 4200c's is On, but in reality it's off, and vice versa.
I had two ZigBee light switches that started doing that. Just hitting "Configure" on the device page (even though they've been joined for over a year) fixed the reporting issue.
But are you actually seeing these devices in the C-8's child table getChildandRouteInfo page?
Intuitively it would make sense (that the C-8 would attract more end devices if its signal improved with radio power) but that would then make those devices more subject to any differences in the C-8's end device handling (due to changes in the newer Zigbee stack)... not a given that they would be more reliable because of that . You wouldn't expect to see older tried and true routers like the Centralite have issues dropping connections to their end devices; they always just worked well and have had no firmware changes to affect them.
Weird that there is still no consensus on what's causing the instability in various setups.
I too had that happen with my 4200C's in the past, but I forgot what I did to fix it.
It wasn't much though.
I think one time I switched the devices on and off with the button on the switch.
Not sure.
Thanks for the tip. That seemed to correct all but 2 of my 4200s. I might need to physically unplug them and let them rejoin, then hit configure to see if that does the trick.
Not sure why, but this is what my Zigbee Child and Route Info page looks like today. It used to have all the child info in there, but it's all garbled today.
It looks pretty well populated all right. Funny how its formatted differently than mine (which shows proper device ID's and type) I thought that got fixed recently but it seems to be for some folks and not for others...
Relocation #1 ("bad position") c8, first red marking,
Relocation #2 ("good position") c8, second red marking,
Almost 48h without problems with new "good position". So maybe it's worth to consider testing movement of hub to other places, or switching orientation from normal (horizontal), to alternative (vertical).
For me and my configuration, all my C-8 ZigBee problems (Offline events and devices dropping) went away when I dropped power to 4 (at suggestion of Support) - and everything stayed working after eventually moving it back to 8. Might seem counterintuitive, or maybe just coincidental. However, I was having trouble, and the only change at the time was dropping power to 4. I stayed on the current firmware at the time because I didn't want to introduce other variables. All problems magically went away. I have since loaded all the latest Hub firmware builds and have bumped back up to 8 (just out of curiosity), but I have not had any Offline Events since, and nothing has dropped since. I have experienced difficult pairing issues here and there still on the C-8. Just adding my experience here ..
Previously most of the problems I'd had w/devices dropping were at one end of the house (nearest the hub, but also somewhat obstructed by a water heater).
The problems this time were at both ends of the house, but I discovered a larger issue this AM, that the majority of my zigbee plug/repeaters were offline. Some were still in the Neighbor table but they were not responding or reporting. That seemed weird - or is it just that the Neighbor table is not getting cleaned up as devices go away I know we've had discussions about stale Zigbee data.
So I changed power setting to 4. Yes 4! I figured it was the only power level I hadn't tried yet, so why not. I rebooted the hub, and then for good measure rebooted the radio again after rebooting the hub. Then I went around to all the plugs/repeaters and reset-rejoined them starting closest to the hub and going outward...after a while I was finding the farthest away devices had already re-joined on their own and were responsive to on/off commands w/out needing to be re-joined.
I also had to re-join three Sengled bulbs and one Iris v3 motion. The Iris would not join in place (outside, directly in front of the room the hub is in, on the side wall of my garage. Replaced it w/another Iris sensor that was already paired and brought it inside, and later this morning I got it to join the C8 and it's sitting on a table next to me while I watch to see how it behaves.
The Sengled are having issues (similar to issues I had starting having w/them on one of my C7's months ago) where they drop off and re-pair, and then drop off again. I will probably replace them w/some Hue bulbs, just don't want another issue to deal w/right now.
So back into monitoring mode. I've had some radio reboots but so far haven't noticed anything falling off (yet).
Take that back...an Inner plug that had started working again on it's own (didn't reset/re-join it this morning when I was reconnecting everything) stopped responding this afternoon. I reset/re-joined it and it seems OK now.
