My Hubitat adventure is starting off fairly well, however I've ran into multiple troubles that I'm hoping I could get advice on.
The biggest one is that I am struggling with Zigbee devices constantly dropping from my network. This morning, I've had two motion sensors that were working great last night decide not to work. One motion sensor is in a room with four other Zigbee devices, which are working great, including a Zigbee repeating plugin. And while this motion sensor stopped working this morning, it could be another device that breaks the next. Here are some details on what I've done:
I've followed the "How to Build a Solid Zigbee Mesh" guide. I setup four ThirdReality Zigbee repeating outlets that I've spread around of my 1,300 square foot house, and paired all Zigbee devices at their final location with no issues. It's been 72+ hours since I've last done this process.
My 2.4 GHz Wifi is on channel 6 while my Zigbee network is on channel 20. There should be no overlap from these channels, correct?
I have 14 Zigbee devices currently. These consist of Sonoff sensors and ThirdReality plugs.
My Hubitat is wired into my mesh WiFi parent node, which is wired into the modem. I haven't experienced any internet issues.
Other issues that I've ran into:
My Hubitat changes its internal clock 3-4 times a day. I constantly have to go into Hub Details to update the current Hub time. My Hubitat also believes sunrise is at 1:29pm and sunset at 1:33am, which is odd because I've updated coordinates multiple times in Hubitat.
My rules won't always complete their actions. The one that happens the most is my motion sensor + lighting rule. Multiple times my log will say, "Waiting to stay 0:01:00 for Wait for Event (which will turn off the lights after a minute)", however the minute doesn't finish and the light won't turn off. I think there is something funky going on with the internal clock in my Hubitat.
I can not get the Android app to work for me. Login is 50/50 whether I'll actually connect to Hubitat. Once in, the Lights/Switches tab doesn't work well. I'll press a button for a light to turn on, the light may turn on but the button won't, or vica versa. The Dashboard never loads either (not sure if I need to set this up).
When my Hubitat works, it's great. However, the constant dropping and fixing I'm doing is greatly reducing the spouse approval rating. Really hoping someone can help me with these issues so I can keep using Hubitat.
Sonoff SNZB-03 (motion sensors) are the most common drops. I've had a Sonoff SNZB-01 (Wireless Switch) drop as well.
Postal code and GMT are correct. I've confirmed my actual longitude & latitude matches Hubitat as well.
Appreciate the help!
EDIT: I think I had a newbie moment. I think the reason why my motion sensor drops is I turn off the Zigbee repeating smart plugs off at night. If I do this, the Zigbee repeating portion of the plug won't actually work, correct? It would screw up my Zigbee mesh I believe. Would make sense why the drops only happen at night...
FWIW, sensors (end-devices) drop when mesh networks are weak. I have no experience with Third Reality plugs as repeaters. But how many plugs do you have? And how many end-devices?
Correct. You want the repeaters on the mesh....Removing them at night will screw things off. Now if they are powered on but the outlets are turned off, that's fine
To confirm, my Zigbee plugs stay in the outlet at night. I switch them off at night. I then switch them on in the morning so my mechanical devices turn on.
What's the distance between the plugs and the end-devices?
Your situation may arise because one or more of the plugs is not staying connected to the hub. And when that plug goes offline, all the end-devices that use it as a router/repeater also go offline.
I personally prefer using dedicated repeaters. The two that I have found work best are:
For the two end devices that drop most frequently:
Hubitat to Repeater #1 = 20 ft. Repeater #1 to end device = 12 ft.
Hubitat to Repeater #1 = 20 ft. Repeater #1 to Repeater #2 = 25 ft. Repeater #2 to end device = 3ft.
It's very odd that only one end device will drop in a room of four end devices. If it was the same device that would drop, I'd think it's the device itself. It varies on which motion sensor drops in that room however.
These distances are far. I would try to have the first repeater no more than 10-12 feet away from the hub. And the second repeater no more than 10-12 feet from the first. Count every wall with 1" of dry-wall as 5 feet. A brick wall should be counted as 10-15 feet.
Rearranged my Zigbee plugs yesterday morning to be as close together as possible. Woke up this morning to three motion sensors and a wireless switch off the network. They were all working great last night. Hubitat's had ~18 hours to setup it's Zigbee route, which isn't quite enough time so I'll keep being patient.
I am going to purchase a single Thirdreality motion sensor and see if it fairs any better. Hopefully the problem are the Sonoff products themselves, as I'm at a loss on what the problems could be otherwise.
