Iris 3210-L Zigbee Zwave repeater?

I'm just starting out and I see a few of these on ebay? Do they really work as dual repeaters or? Any other devices that provide this function?

TL/DR: don't bother buying them to use as a Z-wave repeater

I have about 10 of these in use (some since 2016). But these days, I only use the Zigbee plug side. They work great for that.

When I first started, I joined the Z-wave side to use as repeaters. Like others, I found they seem to not work very well. See this post:

There is other background on the Z-wave side of them in this thread, and in the thread linked on the SmartThings community.

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Hi, and welcome to the community.

I myself would avoid these simply because they are very old devices.

Almost all mains-powered devices act as repeaters (exceptions are some brands of zigbee bulbs), so well-placed mains-powered devices are often good enough to ensure a healthy mesh.

(Dedicated) repeater devices can be useful for dead spots or places where you don't have any other mains-powered devices.

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Thanks, I was reading somewhere online that if they had the proper firmware that the Zwave repeater side was rock solid. I will have to grab a few and test it. Any other devices that work as dual repeaters? My wife is going to kill me with all these plugs around. She thinks there ugly LOL

As mentioned above, mains-powered (hard wired or plugged in) Z-wave devices all repeat. If you have those, you don't need standalone repeaters. I stopped using repeaters after I installed a 10-pack of Inovelli Red Dimmers (Z-wave).

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Good info, thank you.

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This.

But since Iris is long gone, there's no firmware files available to flash if you (likely, cause who's going to sell the good ones) get the crap versions.

Plus they're a real PITA to get into the various pairing, exclusion, inclusion modes.
A real time suck for a Z-Wave 500(?) series repeater.

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Yikes, in my editing earlier I had lost the word "not".

Just adding my experience, which has been excellent. This is over ~3 years and maybe related to my updating firmware, when Iris was still around :frowning_face: :frowning_face: :frowning_face:

Device Id 1
Device Type 1
In Clusters 0x5E,0x72,0x86,0x5A,0x73,0x85,0x59
Manufacturer null
MSR 0246-0001-0001
Zw Node Info D3 1C 00 04 0F 01 5E 72 86 5A 73 85 5C 59 68 23

I'm going to ask the seller. the general opinion is if they have firmware 20115010, they will work well as zwave repeaters. For me, I cant have a zwave and a zigbee plug to build my mesh, the wifey wont be happy. She doesn't even want one of those plugs. I can have a zwave and a zigbee mesh with half the plugs. I know about mains powered devices and yes I will eventually get there but for now this is workable and quick.

Be careful. These Iris v2 plugs will work well as a repeater for ZHA 1.2 end-devices. They fail as repeaters for many (although not all) zigbee 3.0 end-devices.

Personally, I would be loathe to recommend a 10+ year-old device as a repeater for current z-wave or zigbee devices.

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I'm currently happy with my multiple Iris 3210-L plugs, all of which seem to be happily fowarding Zigbee and Zwave traffic since about 2018...but I don't have any Zugbee 3.0 devices.

Do you know if the plugs "fail soft" (ie, simply don't accept the 3.0 devices, which then associate with a different repeater or directly to the hub), or "fail hard" (ie., keeping the connection to the ZB 3.0 device, telling that device that it is forwarding traffic, but not actually repeating...causing the Zigbee 3.0 device to be inaccessible)?

I'm trying to understand what I might see when I start to add newer devices, and if I need to factor in replacing the Iris 3210-L plugs.

In my experience zigbee 3.0 end-devices fall off. And must be reset/re-paired to rejoin to the network.

And I am emphasizing end-devices because I don't know how they behave with zigbee 3.0 devices that can also work as routers/repeaters.

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Thank you all for the helpful information. Is the Zigbee 3.0 problem only with Hubitat? I'm getting very good feedback from the SmartThings community, everyone is saying these are rock solid devices and excellent repeaters.

No. With any zigbee 3.0 coordinator and zigbee 3.0 end-devices.

ok, got it.

Keep in mind the ST hubs don’t support Zigbee 3.0.

I have 6 or so of these plugs still in use for Zigbee only. I don’t have many Z3.0 devices so they work well with my Zigbee mesh. At one point I had the Zwave repeater paired but ran into issues.

As others have said it is best to replace switches or receptacles with smart Zwave or Zigbee switches vs uses these as they are also repeaters.

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I think they are mediocre Z-wave repeaters at best, but very out of date and very picky about pairing. I would really look elsewhere.

It looks like it is about $35-40 for two of these Iris devices on Ebay. For literally the same price, you can have a Zooz smart switch or dimmer. (Zen 71/72) Zooz - The Smartest House You would be much further ahead just going right to smart switches like this, even if it were initially a few dollars more.

There are much more modern Zigbee repeating devices as well, depending upon what device types you are looking for, at a similar price point to the Iris.

She really won't be happy about how large these are and tacky these would look compared to a smart switch or other unobtrusive device.

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Or, for that matter, when automations don't work as anticipated because new devices have fallen off the mesh.

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And if you're just starting out, will you even need a Z-Wave mesh? :thinking:

In simple terms, ZWLR allows for direct hub-to-device connection at longer distances, bypassing the standard Z-Wave mesh network of repeating devices.

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