GE 45856 Zigbee Switch won't pair

That's why I clarified.

The two sentences and the grammar in the second still suggests it. For someone who might read the first and not follow on to your clarification, you might edit your post and we can both remove our back and forth.

As well as building a better Zigbee mesh using better router devices.
To ensure your switch is working correctly you could take an old extension cord and cut the end off and attach the wires to the switch (put in a PVC plastic electrical box to be safe). Then plug it in next to the hub and pair it there first.

Unfortunatly this is not best practice currently, if you do this with a zwave device one must do a repair once the device is in place, you can't do this easily with zigbee. With both zigbee and zwave devices one is much better off in the long run by pairing them in place, that way the will select the routers they will use long term and nothing else need be done.

I can't repeate this enough, with modern devices if they won't pair in place, chances are they wont work in place.

Some older zwave locks require pairing near the hub, but there are fewer and fewer of these as well.

I only meant to do it to ensure it is working correctly.
Even brand new it could be dead out of the box.
Yes he will likely have rejoin it once in place.

He can also Reset the Smart Switch
To manually reset and remove the Smart
Switch from the ZigBee network, Tap Top of
Rocker (ON Switch) 10x quickly (short presses)

@magnells what zigbee channel are you on? try changing to 20

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While true, I've probably joined close to 1000 discrete devices over the past 5 years, and out of that?, only one dead one...
So from my own personal practical perspective?
Pair in place...

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thought the GE 45856 sounded familiar.

Mine have worked well on channels 15 and 20 and seem to be okay repeaters. My Hue dimmers and Lightify switches seem to pair through them okay as well.

Thanks for all your comments.

I am using channel 20 on my hub. I assume there is no channel swapping at repeaters.

The switch model is 45856GE made by Jabsco

I am using an Iris V1 smart plug in my hall as the repeater. It is less than 20 ft from the hub in my office and visible to the hub through a doorway. That repeater is about 15 ft from the GE switch and in direct line-of-sight. There is an Iris V1 contact sensor on a door right next to the switch and it is working fine. There is another Iris V1 smart plug in the office on the opposite side of the wall between the hub and GE switch. It is about 10 ft. from the hub and 2ft through the granite wall from the switch.

I don't know any way to determine the routes from hub to devices. If there was only a traceroute command in hub...

If there is a better device to use as a repeater, I could give that a try. I am not currently using the hall plug for any use other than a repeater. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

My house is a real problem for wireless. I have to have separate Wi-Fi routers less than 40 ft apart (connected via Ethernet) to cover most of the single story house, which is only 1800 sq ft. The house is a converted dairy and the walls are either 2 ft. thick granite or 4 in. thick concrete.

No there is no channel swapping
I am a bit biased :laughing:

@iharyadi also makes a very strong router device.

you can also trace your zigbee using Hubitat change xxx to your hub port number
https://192.168.1.xxx/hub/zigbee/getChildAndRouteInfo
not that it will help you much if you can not pair your switch but you can see your plug signal strength.

Nah, I'm good. Thanks for the suggestion though.

@NoWon, Thanks for both suggestions on monitoring.

At this time, I'm not able to do any DIY building of devices, either using Xbee or building my own sensors...maybe by next spring.

I also looked at the ChildAndRoute URL and I'm not quite sure that I understand all of it. The Child Data section is empty, so I am not sure what is supposed to be there.

The Neighbor table contains some, but not all of the devices that can act as repeaters.

The Route table is also incomplete in that it doesn't contain routes to all of my Zigbee devices and some of the device routing is rather hard to fathom. Some of the routes are from the repeater closest to the hub to contact sensors furthest away through several thick stone walls, which seems unlikely. Does the route only show first and last devices and no intermediate hops?

Is there any documentation on the generated page? Also, is there any documentation on any other diagnostic URLs that exist. It seems like there are secrets only know to the illuminati.

Here is the page, if anyone is interested in commenting on what is on it.

Parent child parameters
EzspGetParentChildParametersResponse [childCount=0, parentEui64=0000000000000000, parentNodeId=65535]

Child Data

Neighbor Table Entry
[Front Hall Outlet_, 13F7], LQI:253, age:5, inCost:3, outCost:1
[Front Porch Light_, 5799], LQI:254, age:3, inCost:1, outCost:1
[Office Lamp_, 7AEA], LQI:253, age:4, inCost:3, outCost:1
[Living Room Outlet_, 8555], LQI:253, age:3, inCost:3, outCost:0
[Hall Outlet 2_, 923F], LQI:247, age:4, inCost:3, outCost:3

Route Table Entry
status:Unused
status:Active, age:64, routeRecordState:0, concentratorType:None, [Hall Window Front Right, C698] via [Front Porch Light_, 5799]
status:Active, age:64, routeRecordState:0, concentratorType:None, [Key Fob, A4CE] via [Office Lamp_, 7AEA]
status:Active, age:64, routeRecordState:0, concentratorType:None, [Hall Window Rear Left, 4406] via [Front Porch Light_, 5799]
status:Active, age:64, routeRecordState:0, concentratorType:None, [Bedroom Outlet_, B479] via [Office Lamp_, 7AEA]
status:Active, age:64, routeRecordState:0, concentratorType:None, [Office Motion Sensor, D305] via [Office Lamp_, 7AEA]
status:Active, age:32, routeRecordState:2, concentratorType:Low Ram, [Living Room Outlet_, 8555] via [Front Porch Light_, 5799]
status:Active, age:64, routeRecordState:0, concentratorType:None, [Office Window Right, 1888] via [Office Lamp_, 7AEA]
status:Active, age:64, routeRecordState:0, concentratorType:None, [TV Room Window, 0D54] via [Hall Outlet 2_, 923F]
status:Active, age:64, routeRecordState:0, concentratorType:None, [Back Bedroom Window Right, DD3F] via [Front Porch Light_, 5799]
status:Active, age:64, routeRecordState:0, concentratorType:None, [Kitchen Door, 2968] via [Front Hall Outlet_, 13F7]
status:Active, age:64, routeRecordState:0, concentratorType:None, [Back Bedroom Window Middle, 37A2] via [Front Porch Light_, 5799]
status:Active, age:64, routeRecordState:0, concentratorType:None, [Hall Motion Sensor, 8579] via [Front Porch Light_, 5799]
status:Active, age:64, routeRecordState:0, concentratorType:None, [Back Bedroom Window Left, 54FB] via [Front Porch Light_, 5799]
status:Active, age:64, routeRecordState:0, concentratorType:None, [Hall Window Front Left, 88A3] via [Office Lamp_, 7AEA]
status:Active, age:64, routeRecordState:0, concentratorType:None, [Living Room Window, DB2D] via [Front Porch Light_, 5799]

The getChildAndRouteInfo page isn't intended to be a complete picture of your Zigbee devices or routing information. There are times it can help troubleshooting but . . . If you do need a better picture, you can get an Xbee with software to create a map. There are links to what is needed if you search the communities for Xbee.
There isn't a comparable URL for Z-Wave. It is possible to add a Zwave stick to HE and get routing information for Z-wave devices.

If one of the outlets you are showing is from the hall with the GE switch then you should not be having problems with signal strength. "LQI: 247" is very good signal strength.
I would try changing zigbee channels and try to pairing the GE switch again.
Try chanel 15
Stay away from channel 25-26
I also had a iris outlet at one point but did not like. It eventually died.

No manual for the Hubitat zigbee tracing page that I am aware of.
Hubitat zigbee table explanation

Xbee3 do a more thorough job.

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To the OP, do you have any Sylvania/Osram zigbee lights? They can be poor repeaters.

@NoWon - At one point I was able to pair the switch, while I could only turn it on and off remotely, it never reported its status back. It appeared in the routes table with an LQI: 0

Strangely, the missing switch has recently appeared , going from an LQI:0 to LQI:254. I think it connected after I restarted the hub. All seems well now.

Zigbee routing seems a bit bizarre. According to the routing table, the switch is connected directly to the hub as a Neighbor device and the contact sensor for a window right next to the hub is connected via the switch 20 ft away. The hub is in an office with four window contact sensors and a motion sensor, but none of them is connected directly to the hub as a child device.

I won't get a chance to experiment with Xbee until next spring, but it looks like it will be a key to understanding the network.

Thanks for all your help.

@jon1 - I do not have any zigbee lights in my system, but it will be something to keep in mind for the future.

Thanks for the comment.

Yes that sounds correct. The switch is a router device the contact sensor is an end device but end devices sometimes grab the first router device they see.

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