I am supposed to get my new hub today and maybe start transferring devices soon. I have to decided to add 4 more repeaters (10 total) and design a new zigbee mesh for the new hub. I have plotted out what a new mesh would look like and I have one concern. The best location for a repeater in the Master Bedroom is an outlet in the back of a closet. I was just concerned that the signals wouldn't get in or out very well with all the stuff in the way. What do you think?
I'd say...give it a try and see what happens. What type of Zigbee outlets are you using as repeaters? I have about 8 Iris 3210-L outlets spread around the house and my Zigbee devices all respond instantly and have been extremely reliable.
One other piece of advice... if your old system is not using it, try using Zigbee channel 20 on the Hubitat hub. Many of us find that channels 15 and 20 work with the vast majority of devices. Some higher numbered channels will not allow some Zigbee devices to pair with the Hubitat hub successfully.
Welcome to Hubitat!
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Thats what I was thinking of doing, just give a try and see what happens. The new outlets are Sylvania 75591 and an earlier version of the same. I also have 2 ST outlets 2017 model. My ST hub is on ch15 and I am going to select ch20 on the new hub when I get it.
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I'm curious - how does one plot out what a mesh will look like? Would love to learn something new!
P.S. Kudos for moving to Hubitat systematically!
I just made a map of the house and marked where the zigbee devices were located and then marked where the repeaters would be places. Then I gave each repeater roughly a 20ft range (made a circle on the map) and placed them where they all intersect with at least one other repeater or the hub. This may not be perfect, because of building construction, but it at least gives me a place to start.
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I think it's clever. I wish I'd done something like that - my mesh was established more or less by trial and error ....
I think you are also ensuring yourself a positive experience with Hubitat.
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My first mesh ST was trial and mostly error. Now that I have a better understanding of HA, I am hoping for a better experience with HE.
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So in your sketch, R (red circle) is repeater? What are Z, W, X. Did I miss any letters?
Pretty nifty idea.
Z is a zwave device
W (that looks like a sun) is my wifi hub locations.
X is where I screwed up.
Just so you guys know, I got the hub on Saturday and right now I have all my devices added, modes setup, automations a makin’ and working on a dashboard for my ipad. I am doing very well so far.
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Thanks!
20 feet is probably a good distance to shoot for, although I wouldn’t try to overlap them as much as you do. I would design it so that each of your Zigbee devices has a single clear path to the hub (i.e. each device/repeater has only one other repeater within 15-20 feet - then next closest is 25-30 feet etc). Hope that makes sense. Less is more.
I'm sorry, I have to intervene, when it comes to a mesh like this, less is not more. You want multiple routes to be available. You can make it work your way, but it would be a rather vulnerable mesh, and not really a mesh, more like spokes on a wheel.
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Well Guys, I just setup the mesh that I described above with that map and I achieved good pairing with every device on the mesh. All is Well, but I won't get use to it.
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Z-wave is hop limited, so theoretically too many repeaters can cause an issue. However, as @markus points out, zigbee isn't hop limited, so this potential issue doesn't arise.
