I have an iris plug in wall outlet with a lamp plugged in, I have a simple lighting rule set to turn on and off at certain times. It will work flawlessly for 1-3 weeks then stop firing/working. I can then go into device page and press configure button and then on button and light will turn on and off and then work for another 1-3 weeks before again failing to work.
1 I have had this problem before and, I believe, support told me that I had a dead battery somewhere in the mesh that the system was looking for and using all the bandwidth to try to locate dead device.
2 I have a device monitor app installed and it does not detect any dead batteries at this time.
3 I looked at the logs and dont notice anything unusual or error codes except that it didn't log that the device was signalled to turn on
4 does anyone have any advice on how to trouble shoot this issue
When it has stoped working, if you go to that Device Info page, don't click Config but try the on/off... do they work? In other words, is it the Config push that does the trick?
The Device Driver is as close as we can get to the physical device. If things don't work at the driver level (Device Info) then rules, dashboards or other automation won't either. Apps cause driver(s) to push the needed commands into Hubitat's radio queue and then out onto the mesh.
Hmm ok. I had problems like this early on and what I discovered was I had a bunch of smart bulbs paired directly with HE and those were causing issues. They were trying to act as repeaters and did a number on my mesh. Wonder if you have any of those? (Not all are bad... Sengled in particular don't route)
it works flawlessly for several weeks and then stops that's what is so confusing. So i assume that the device driver is working properly. I want to say that the radio queue would be where my problem is. something is jamming signal from activating device As i stated earlier, when i had the problems a couple of years ago, support pointed me to a dead battery that the system was constantly trying to locate. once I replaced battery, it worked. I see no dead batteries in my system.
You might also take a look at possible interference from wifi... is your HE right next to your wifi router, for instance? Do the channels overlap? And do you have other zigbee devices with the same issue? If not, maybe it's just a bad plug.
The radio queue is, like all modern communications channels, self metering. It's not unlike a 4 way stop for cars. First car to the front is next to go. If there's a tie, the car on the right goes. For Zigbee, the radios listen to see if the RF space is open, then it sends out a preamble to be that very signal others will hear while they do the listen part. If two jump on at the same time, the preamble gets corrupted and BOTH senders back off and start the "is it my turn" cycle again. Therefore, either you have something else (Wifi, cordless phones, etc.) on the 2.4ghz Zigbee frequency or another Zigbee mesh on the same channel (Hue, etc.) OR.. your own mesh is so poor, the retries are just killing the mesh.
If the Config button is needed, (and works) then that would say that the device is not falling from the mesh, it is not needing a re-pair but that it's losing it's memory of an important parameter.
Do you see where I'm going in my debugging method? Is the mesh the place to look because you have some competition for the RF space OR is it the actual device is "in the ICU" and may not survive?
Thanks for reaching out in the community. A device with a dead battery wouldn't affect your Zigbee mesh. What we mentioned in our email was that we have seen similar incidents in networks that lack repeaters. Repeaters are generally mains powered devices (not battery operated), with a few exceptions.
gotcha i will look into frequency issues/ wifi channel issues and look into mesh building. it could be the device but had same issue with another plug last night at the same time. I have forgotten that i will randomly test my water sensors and they wont fire either, if they are sitting for weeks. after i get one to notify hub, then it will work for a while. just weird
Sounding more and more like a mesh issue, either interference from something else, not enough line-powered repeating devices, or something. Feel free to post a screen shot of your routes and neighbors... it takes a bit to interpret the results.
i am confused on repeaters. can any ac device act as a repeater? if not how do i know if a device will act like a repeater or is there devices specifically made for repeating?
