Hubitat Elevation can support up to 32 end devices (devices connected directly to the hub without the help of a repeating device). Beyond 32 battery powered or non-repeating end devices, you must add mains powered repeating devices.
I say surprising, because I have far more than 32 end devices that seem to be connecting to my hub. Is that an outdate piece of information ?
Below is my Zigbee mesh, and I count at least 35 devices connected directly to the hub (orange lines), not even counting the grey lines, and the graph is not done generating yet (52 out of 68 devices)
Every device has some limit. The hub has a limit and any device trying to connect after the limit is reached, simply use an available routing device. Zigbee's total limit is thousands while ZWave is 232.
Emphasis added to your quote. Beyond 32 directly connected end devices, zigbee repeaters are needed to route messages to/from the hub.
The zigbee mesh graphic is not actually giving you a live map of all devices actively connecting to your hub. There are several caveats and gotchas associated with the data it’s presenting.
That map is pretty, but highly unreliable to interpret in the manner that you are. It simply reflects the last reported routing path for those devices. It doesn't mean that all 35 of those routes are currently active.
I am pretty sure that the 32 device direct connection limit applies to Zigbee End Devices only. Zigbee repeater devices do not count against that 32 device limitation. In the Zigbee Graphical Map display, only the green devices, directly connected to the hub, count toward the 32 device limitation. The blue devices are all repeaters.
