How long to wait for a device to get found again?

[dan14]

Hi there,

One of my LED Strips has fallen off my zigbee mesh again. It was working fine Tuesday morning, and by this time 48 hours ago, stopped responding. The device page shows it being in the last state it was in, and indeed, it's still in that state, having been stuck there for 2 days now, not responding to commands. It's not in my route table (looking for Backsplash):

I don't know what null is in there, though.

If I unplug and replug the device, it'll remain unresponsive. I won't be able to get it back until I reset it into pairing mode and then re-run discovery, which will re-associate the device back to the existing entry.

This happens every couple of weeks, and it's affected all of my LED strips at this point (I have 4 of them). It tends to happen most frequently after adding or removing a device from the mesh (typically about a day later) but I haven't made any changes before this one. It's really frustrating because getting these things into pairing mode is annoying.

Is there any way to make my HE go out and hunt for it again? After 48 hours it doesn't seem like the mesh is going to bring it back on its own.

[rlithgow1]

What brand/model of strip is it? Is it zigbee 1.2 or 3.0? If 1.2 you want it and any other 1.2 lights on their own mesh. They make horrible repeaters and can drop off randomly creating havoc with the rest of the mesh.

[dan14]

It's a Sylvania/Osram/Ledvance strip.

Respectfully (I really do mean it, I'm not trying to be a jerk), I'm not interested in hearing about bad repeaters or putting some types of devices on a separate hub. That's become the sfc /scannow of troubleshooting device connectivity issues on this forum. I've not had these problems with any other hub, and I've used the Lightify Hub, an Echo Plus, and even the godawful WeMo Link. It's only with HE that I have these things disconnecting themselves for no apparent reason.

[rlithgow1]

Regardless it's still a huge issue with zigbee 1.2 lights and it's a fact that none of us can get away from. They are bad repeaters and messengers. I too have the same strips and had the same problem, moved them to a hue bridge and not a problem since. This is a well known issue with 1.2 zigbee. Some other hubs have finagled things but then you run into the issue of certain things that now won't work. It's a fine line and hubitat leans more towards the certfiable compliance side of things. The exception to this is Sengled bulbs because they don't repeat. The people who work on this stuff daily such as the staff who work on the hardware will tell you the same thing.

Note: Cree is the worst

[aaiyar]

@dan14

Lightify Hub

This was designed for the Osram strips and you couldn't have had the same set of zigbee devices on either this or the Wemo Link that you have on Hubitat (just based on what they supported). Also, I didn't realize the WeMo Link supported Lightify devices.

Did you have the exact same set of zigbee devices on the Echo Plus?

Finally - if this device keeps falling off, it isn't because it is a bad repeater. It is because there is some other device that serves as a router for this device that isn't working as it is supposed to. That's why this device keeps falling off.

[dan14]

This was designed for the Osram strips and you couldn't have had the same set of zigbee devices on either this or the Wemo Link that you have on Hubitat (just based on what they supported). Also, I didn't realize the WeMo Link supported Lightify devices.

Uh, I very well know what I had. The WeMo Link supported Wemo Bulbs, Cree Bulbs (which worked fine), and the Osram Gardenspots and Osram Lightstrips. When I went to add Jasco switches, I moved over to the Lightify bridge, which did not do vendor whitelisting. After the Lightify bridge got shut off, I moved over to an Echo Plus. Then when I wanted to add Jasco's fan controllers, which are only available in Z-Wave, I moved to Hubitat.

So, yes, I've had exactly what I've said I had, connected exactly where I said I've had it, and I'll thank you to not call me a liar again.

Finally - if this device keeps falling off, it isn't because it is a bad repeater. It is because there is some other device that serves as a router for this device that isn't working as it is supposed to. That's why this device keeps falling off.

It's not just this specific lightstrip. It's all of them. And they never had any problems under my previous hubs. I'm really not trying to be hostile here, but I've watched others have similar problems here and it's always folks regurgitating information from a previous thread about bad Cree bulbs or a particular bad brand of plugs, and telling people to go connect things to Hue or swap out for a different brand of bulb. It's tiring, because at no point does there ever seem to be any willingness to consider that there might be a problem with HE.

I was reluctant to even post this thread because I knew I was going to attract the cargo cult troubleshooting of trying to find Cree bulbs (I've retired them all) or repeaters on the naughty brand list (I've replaced them all) instead of help with the actual problem I've got, which is devices that just won't stay talking to HE. I need HE to accommodate my home, not my home to accommodate HE.

I really like that HE integrates both Zwave and Zigbee, because my goal is to have a single unified system. I also really like that it's not dependent on a cloud service, because another goal is to have a system that isn't operationally dependent on an internet connection. But when it just doesn't work, I don't want to be accused of lying about my setup, or failing to build a mesh that meets a set of unpublished criteria, or told I should just move my stuff to Hue but still have HE for some reason. That's silly! If the devices work with Hue, they should work with HE too.

So can we please troubleshoot that?

[dan14]

Update: one reboot of the HE (yesterday) didn't bring it back, but the second (just now) did, and look:

Now you'll see Backsplash in the route table, happily connected and functioning via Kitchen Lights. However, close observers will note that Backsplash is identified there as 8D08. In the original screenshot of the route table I posted in my OP, where I mentioned the odd device showing up as null -- what's its ID but 8D08, directly attached to the HE.

So it wasn't a problem with a repeater, or nonsense occurring with bad brands or protocol versions, The HE is losing devices that are attached to it directly. And then it won't reconnect them. I'd love to find out why and help get it fixed.