I have 4 Iris v2 motion sensors that I used for 2 years with SmartThings. They always performed fine. However, since moving to HE a month ago, I've had issues with 2 of them.
The 1st had a difficult time getting paired (had to try a lot of times before succeeding) and since then, has had issues. At times, it doesn't report motion (stays inactive). At other times, it stays active. I still have my ST hub so I removed it from HE earlier today and paired it back to ST and it's working fine. Is this a mesh issue? It's the furthest from the hub (probably about 30 feet away) and the only other zigbee devices I have are hue bulbs so not great repeaters. However, my ST hub is located right beside my HE hub and I've had no issues with this motion sensor on ST.
The 2nd one is much closer to the hub (about 10 ft away). It had been working fine for about 3 weeks until it got stuck in "active" mode yesterday. I haven't tried to fix it but I'm now wondering if I'm better off leaving all the motion sensors in ST and using hubconnect to pair them with HE.
If anyone has any suggestions on how to fix the Iris integration, it'd be much appreciated.
What zigbee channel is your Smartthings hub using? What zigbee channel is your Hubitat hub using? Do you have any repeaters attached to the Hubitat hub? What channel is your WIFI using?
I would turn off the Smartthings hub and see how thing respond on the Hubitat hub.
ST: 14
Hue: 20
HE: 25
2.4GHz wifi: On Auto but currently on channel 5
5GHz wifi: 149 - 161
No repeaters connected to either hub. The only zigbee devices I have are Hue and these motion sensors.
I can turn off the ST hub but I don't really understand how that'd affect the iris motion sensor that's 10 ft away. That seems to be a short distance and 2 other motion sensors are further away but still performing fine.
BTW, I originally had issues with my Hue bulbs taking a while to update in HE (whereas they update very quickly in ST) and had to change the poll rate and try various zigbee channels. My HE hub has struggled with zigbee devices.
Thx. You've had the v2? They seem to be the most recommended motion sensors on both ST forums and here. I've had them for 2 years and they've worked great so feels very much like a HE issue. I just reconnected the one that's been having issues in HE since day 1 to ST earlier today and it's been working fine. Will keep it on ST for a couple of days and see if it keeps going strong.
You may have found your problem. It would be easy to test by removing these devices from your network, assuming you have enough range for the sensor to reach from where it is. Problems with Zigbee bulbs are well documented, especially with a few particular brands, of which Hue is one. If you want to keep these, I'd recommend a Hue Bridge or a second hub, anything to keep them off your "main" Zigbee network.
Yeah, thought so. So is the consensus that the zigbee module is just weaker in HE than in ST? So far, the iris sensor I just added to ST has performed as reliably as expected (and same way it performed the last 2 years) with no repeaters in ST and with the ST and HE hubs side by side. On HE, it's been a pain from day 1.
Not sure why the motion sensor closest to the hub is still saying "active" though. Very much doubt that one is a mesh issue but it only started acting up yday. I'll add that to ST and see if it performs well.
I had only 1 repeater in smartthings. While reading the forums I stumbled upon many recommendations to building a solid mesh. I bought several repeaters and since have had great results with hubitat.
Prior to adding the repeaters I had a hard time pairing and my garage multipurpose sensors were very flaky with open/close events. After adding the repeaters it has been solid.
I have a dog that loves to run across the street to visit his friends. We take him through the garage man door to use the restroom. On a few occasions the timing was just right and the garage door was open when we took him out. To avoid this issue I set the hallway lights to the garage red when the garage door was open.
I spoke too soon about the 2nd sensor. The battery actually died on that one.
So it does appear that my issue with the 1st sensor is a mesh issue then. Sad that the zigbee chip isn't as strong here as it is in ST but I'm pleased that I now understand the problem and it's not a "bigger" HE reliability issue. Thanks all. Will leave that sensor on ST for now and use HubConnect till I decide to get a repeater.
I don't agree with your conclusion and can't unless you compare apples to apples. You need to try both hubs on the same Zigbee channel. When I migrated, my ST was on Zigbee 14 and the automagic routine in HE chose a channel in the 20's (24, 25 maybe, I don't recall). I had strange problems with some of my Zigbee sensors. Switched to channel 20 (ST was still online at the time and set to 14) and all the problems magically disappeared. So, maybe it's a weak mesh or maybe it's just a bad choice of channels.
[I found my post from a year ago and that indicates I was on Zigbee 25 when I first switched over.]
I believe there are issues with using Zighee channel 24 and higher with some Zigbee devices. I have been using channel 15 for over a year on HE without issues. I also have a lot of repeaters which of course helps, but even before adding those I did not have issues.
The Iris V2 motion sensors work well, I have about 10 of them setup though out the house. The rest are Hue motions , which also work great.
The Iris V2 plugs work great for repeaters, you may be able to find them being sold on eBay still for cheap.
Channel 24 is safe for most devices. The further to the edge of the channel band you get power output drops off due to the band-pass filtering that is necessary to prevent excessive emissions in 2nd and 3rd order harmonics..
Hue devices work fine on 25 & 26. Older SmartThings devices, especially arrival sensors do not. The Iris devices work fine on channel 24. One of my Zigbee hubs with over 96 Zigbee devices on it is currently set to that channel.
You need more repeaters.
The SmartThings hub can support 32 direct-connected Zigbee devices. The ember stack on Hubitat only supports 16. If you’re coming from SmartThings to Hubitat and do not have any powered Zigbee devices that can act as repeaters (technically routers), AND you have more than 16 devices, you are going to experience devices dropping out.
Fair enough. I'd try switching ST to channel 24 and HE to channel 14 and test it out till the weekend. That way, I can compare both on channel 14. Thanks for the update about channel 25 being problematic for you (especially since that's what mine is currently set to).
