Changed Zigbee Channels and... it really helped!

Lounge
1

Since Hubitat added the dreaded "Weak Zigbee channel found" I’ve been plagued by the concern that maybe running my Zigbee on Channel 20 really was a problem. Sometimes things slowed down - a lot. Some motion detectors failed to report at all. My “human detector” from Tuya sends way too many events anyway and a noisy channel isn’t helping. I fed a day or two of zigbee logs into Gemini and Grok and they both suggested that I change my 2.4Ghz wifi channel or move to Zigbee channel 25. Since I have three Eero 6e Pros and have no direct control over where Eero decides to put it’s radios, I decided I had to just bite the bullet.

One day last week when my wife would be out a few hours I printed out a list of all my Zigbee devices - yes there were 43 and made a little checkbox next to each so I could verify they got the new channel.

I changed the channel to 25, and went ahead and bumped the power level to 12 - just because @bobbyd is using that power level on his 8 Pro so why not?

I shut down the hub. Unplugged the power and set a 30 minutes timer. Of course in astronomically unlikely event, my little UPS died during this period leading to a panic that my hub wouldn’t power up. But, that’s not HE’s fault, it was incredible timing. Replaced with real UPS and hub powered up fine.

As I ran around with my device checklist, it was apparent that nearly every device found channel 25 and reassociated smoothly. Most importantly my Kwikset Zigbee based locks worked perfectly.

There were two types of problem devices. I had two Zenismart quad scene switches that took forever to setup the first time. I decided to replace them with more conventional zigbee buttons and not even bother.

The other problematic ones were the three SmartWings Zigbee honeycomb shades. They didn’t find the new channel. And I spent a couple of hours getting them moved over. Essentially having to factory reset these to get them to pair properly. Yes, setting up/down direction, limits, re-pair to physical remotes. Kind of a pain. Honestly we love these shades, but the Zigbee versions are pretty finicky.

Anyway, it’s been almost a week and now my logs come up so clean that Grok and Gemini say that I have an excellent Zigbee mesh. Automations run so much faster and I haven’t missed a motion or other type of event at all. So, channel 20 was really causing problems with being noisy, and 25 really was worth the effort. I’m sorry I waited a year to go through it.

Sharing my experience, YMMV of course.

Jay

2

Kudos to you sir. I have been wanting to do this, but have not taken the time. Because I know that it will take me 3X longer than I expect, and the WAF will drop considerably during that time. Gemini also told me that my mesh has some problems that need to be addressed. Ugh!

3

Where did you find this information?

4

Settings → Zigbee Details will give you a long grid like this:

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Then I copied it into an excel spreadsheet. Eliminated most columns and added a “Verified” column. After that all I had to do is see if the device is reporting or not. If it is, it made the switch to channel 25.

5

FWIW, I’ve been on ZigBee channel 15 for five years, 71 ZigBee devices are rock solid. Hue is on channel 20. YMMV. My 2.4 GHz WiFi APs are on 1, 6, and 11.

Posted previously by @danabw

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6

Is there some app/process that I can use to actually map what my local wifi spectrum looks like?

7

If you are Android here is some info. I have been using WiFi Analyzer for years. WiFi Analyzer and others

8

I do use Wifi Analyzer. Not sure I understand all of what it tells me. But, it only lists up to channel 14 on 2.4GHz

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9

Just keep in mind that this is a generic disclaimer that the hub puts out anytime Zigbee is set to channel 20.

The hub isn’t otherwise actively checking for a problem associated with being on that channel.

Glad to hear it seems to have helped with issues you were experiencing though.

10

In the US. Channel Basics

  • 11 channels total: Only channels 1 through 11 are allowed for use in the United States. Channels 12 through 14 are restricted.
11

Those are WiFi channels and that’s as high as they go. Look at the image @bbrannon posted.

Did you mean that you want to see a similar graph of the zigbee devices and their channels in your local environment?

12

If you have ZigBee issues, looking at your scan, the channel 25 region is empty of competing signals. BUT, make sure the problem is not insufficient powered Zigbee repeaters scattered about.

13

Zigbee channel and performance are going to be different for individual environments. The one guideline, that has been mentioned above, is to avoid overlap with 2.4Ghz WiFi channels and other Zigbee bridges/hubs like Hue.

My Zigbee channel is set to 15 with power at 16. My Hue bridge is set to 25. I have 3 UniFi access points set to 2.4Ghz channels 1, 6 and 11. I have a total of 13 Zigbee devices and have never had an issue with any of them.

14

I only have 3 eero pro 7 spaced evenly in my house….left, center, right. My main C8 Pro hub is in the middle. I have a C8 in my shop on the left to “capture” an old Schlage BE469 Lock that is linked to my main hub. I do not have any other hubs or bridges. Main C8P, 52 zigbee devices, channel 20, power 8.

15

If things are working for you as is, leave everything as is. :smiley:

16

That is why I am interested in this thread. I do occasionally get dropped commands, not often. I did the Gemini evaluation of my zigbee mesh and it suggested some glaring errors. I really was not aware of any “obvious” problems. But maybe I do have some that need to be addressed, I just did not know it.

17

What channels are your 3 Eeros running for 2.4Ghz WiFi?

If you are running 1,6, and 11, try changing your Zigbee channel to 15. That is what I run with my 3 access points set to those channels. You can try 25 if 15 doesn't work for you.

18

According to wifi analyzer, channel 1. But, checking the Wi-Fi channels on an eero 7 Max/Pro network depends on whether you have an active eero Plus subscription. I do not have the subscription.

Because eero uses Automatic Channel Selection (ACS) to continuously manage frequencies across the 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz bands, the base app hides manual channel settings.

19

Ah, OK. That makes things a bit tricky then.

My suggestion would be to move your Zigbee channel to 25. That will be completely outside of the range of any 2.4Ghz WiFi channels. You don't have a Hue bridge, so no need to worry about that being on 25.

Test for a while after an see what happens. Worst case, move back to what you were running previously or try channel 15.

20

Yes. Is that possible?