Fellow Canadians - Need some device procurement help

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21

+1 on the Sengled.
Just added a few more to rid myself of zigbee mains powered repeaters. Ihave too may Xiaomi that crap the bed when they see GE repeaters.

22

But keep in mind that because Sengled don’t repeat, you may have inconsistent issues with bulbs that are far from the hub, or you may exceed the number of slots available for devices to join the hub directly (only 32 available without repeaters).

23

They don't repeat, but they are able to use repeaters and don't "need" to be connected directly to the hub. So a few good repeaters will have to be added especially if you don't have any powered Zigbee devices on your mesh.

24

Yes. That’s my point. If you don’t have repeaters they will be directly connected to the hub. And if you have Xiaomi in the mix, you cannot guarantee they won’t also be directly connected to the hub unless you can monitor that. Xiaomi also won’t switch routers on their own like most devices will.

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25

I don't think I will get anywhere close to 32 bulbs. Probably around 20 max, 10 at the min. All my other devices are z-wave.

26

I would get at least 1 repeater in that mix somewhere around halfway between the farthest bulb and the hub just to make sure you have a strong signal.

27

I use two types of bulbs in my home - Philips Wiz, and Sengled.
Not happy with the Sengled peformance, often requires a reset of the bulb.
Wiz have been great! inexpensive at Home Depot, and have not failed as of yet in performance.
There are drivers out there that allow for setting up and easily using the prebuilt color schemes (Sea, Jungle, Christmas. etc.)

28

I've got a secondary PC controller setup, so I can try that, but again, assumes I can ever find a bulb to buy.

Since the range of these devices is so short, I would expect it would not need to be a very efficient antenna. You can make a pretty small dummy load. :joy:

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29

The count goes against any end device that happens to join the hub directly. Other than adding a repeater, you have little control over how Zigbee devices decide to route. They’ll change routes when they decide to and very frequently. Xiaomi are the exceptions, the don’t change routes until you join them again.

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30

I read a post from @mike.maxwell awhile ago and I believe he stated that 32 devices off the hub is a the theoretical limit but around 20 is what the hub can handle.

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31

Good to know

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32

I have replaced the mains powered Zigbee devices with Tradefi repeaters that are known to work wit Xiaomi so I'm covered.

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33

i have 39 zigbee devices currently

34

But I assume you have a few repeating devices in there somewhere.

35

Or that the sensor/relay/etc, costs more money in Canada than it is worth to automate the thing!

36

Raw deals are a way of life with most electronics here, but there’s a bit of moaning that is just not needed sometimes.

I’ve frequently bought items in Canadian dollars that were the same amount in US dollars (eg, I shut up and click buy now because I’m getting a good deal). :wink:

I look for sales, warehouse deals and sometimes I can even import from Amazon US for less after exchange (including shipping and import fees) than the Canadian price.

Xiaomi devices are great when they’re paired to a Xiaomi hub. If you can achieve stability with them it can save you quite a lot of cash. There’s a new community project in its early stages, but it’s showing very promising results. It is very easy to setup, and doesn’t require anything more than a spare computer, or RPi and a $20 Mijia Multitimode Gateway with HomeKit compatibility.

You don’t need to be an iOS or Mac user, and you won’t need to configure anything after the initial setup. You just add sensors to the Xiaomi bridge and they’ll show up in HE upon first active state.

37

Is this max when no repeaters are present, repeaters don't count against the 32 slot limit.

38

Yeah I should have put more context around it.

The discussion was how many non-repeating (sengled) bulbs can you run off the hub w/o any repeating devices. I thought I read a post where you said 20 is the more realistic limit.

39

close 27 are battery ie non repeaters

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but i try to put a couple repeaters on each floor strategically placed

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40

i imagine since the ge switch repeaters or other are cheap and 15-20 bucks why would you try to run without any repeaters.

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